----Prologue----
Darkness.
That was all there was.
No ground. No sky. No sound. Only a swirling abyss that pressed in from every side.
Am I… dead?
Fragments of memory slipped past me like shattered glass. Yumiko's smile. Kenji's laughter. The sting of betrayal. The pain of cold steel. Then, silence.
I should have been gone.
And yet… something held me here.
A faint flicker pulsed in the void. My soul. A fragile ember refusing to go out.
That was when the voice came.
Deep. Resonant. Timeless. It carried weight, as if the entire void bowed before it.
"So… this is the soul that fate cast aside."
The sound was not heard. It reverberated inside me. Like a whisper buried beneath thought.
Who…?
The ember of my soul trembled, as if answering.
"Pitiful. Broken. Betrayed. And yet… still clinging to life. How amusing."
I tried to move. To scream. But I had no body. No voice. Only thought.
"You were not chosen by gods or destiny. No. You were abandoned. Forgotten. A mistake."
The words pierced deeper than the knife that ended me.
Then why… why am I still here?
The voice chuckled. Dry. Rustling. Like leaves crumbling to ash.
"Because I willed it. You should have dissolved into nothing, but I tore you back from the brink."
Why me?
"Because I see use in you."
The void shuddered. Chains of light and shadow erupted, wrapping around the ember of my soul. I could feel it. Binding. Suffocating. Yet pulling me together.
"A vessel. That is what you are. Empty enough to be filled. Fragile enough to be broken. Strong enough… to be reshaped."
Reshaped?
"I am Zeberu. God of Deception. Weaver of Lies. I was cast down, forgotten by the pantheon, but not destroyed. My power needs form. My will needs voice. And so… you will be mine."
A rush of terror and defiance surged through me. No. I don't want this. I didn't ask—!
"Choice?" The voice echoed, mocking. "There is no choice. I plucked you from the precipice. I bound your fading spark. You exist now because I permit it."
The ember of my soul shook violently, sparks scattering into the void. But the chains tightened, pulling everything back in, molding me.
Damn you…
Zeberu's laughter cut through the emptiness, low and poisonous.
"Resist if you wish. It changes nothing. When you open your eyes again, you will walk in a world not your own. And every step. Every breath. Every lie… will serve me."
The flickering light of my soul convulsed, and suddenly the void cracked.
Brilliant blue light spilled through the fractures. Wind roared. The sensation of falling consumed me.
"Awaken, vessel. Your suffering has only begun."
And then—
I plummeted.