The White had no horizon, yet Lucien felt it before he saw it—
a tremor. A ripple. Something foreign that didn't belong to the endless cycle of battle and silence.
He stood still, clutching the broken amulet of his mother, his aura faintly pulsing like a heartbeat around him. The mist shifted, curling away from a jagged line in the void.
A crack.
Hairline, almost invisible, but bleeding with something The White had never shown before: color.
Gold light seeped through the fracture, and for the first time, Lucien realized just how empty the White truly was. His chest tightened. The world beyond the crack was alive.
The monsters stirred in the distance, shrieking in unison as if the void itself feared him discovering the exit. From the fog surged a swarm, dozens upon dozens of warped beasts, their combined aura heavy enough to crush mountains.
Lucien's lips curved into a smile.
"…So that's how it is. You want to keep me here." He let the amulet dangle in his fist, aura erupting violently, weaving into a crown of invisible flame. "Then you should've killed me long ago."
The tide of beasts rushed him.
Lucien moved like a phantom, aura detonations bending the White beneath his steps. His fragile frame twisted elegantly between claws and fangs, every strike precise, merciless. His aura compressed into blades, spears, and bursts of invisible pressure that shattered monsters into nothingness.
And yet, more came.
The crack began to close.
Lucien's eyes sharpened. He clenched his fist, drawing every fragment of aura from his veins, his bones, even his soul. His body burned, blood dripping from his lips, but he didn't care.
If this is my chance, then I'll tear it open with everything I am.
He thrust both hands forward, and a roar ripped from his throat. His aura condensed into a single line—razor-thin, merciless. It struck the fracture like a blade.
The void screamed.
The crack split wider, spilling golden light like a flood. The monsters shrieked, their bodies unraveling in the radiance. Lucien staggered forward, every muscle trembling, but his gaze locked on that light as though it were salvation itself.
With one final push, he stepped through.
—And the world changed.
The suffocating silence shattered, replaced by the distant murmur of voices. The whiteness dissolved into night skies, stars glittering above towering walls of stone. He stumbled onto cobbled streets, his breath ragged, his body drenched in blood.
Before him loomed a city—vast, alive, teeming with people and lights.
Lucien Dreamveil, survivor of the endless void, had returned to the world.
And as the city guards cried out in alarm, their weapons raised at the pale figure cloaked in faintly burning aura, Lucien whispered to himself:
"…This world doesn't know it yet… but The Sole Exception has arrived."