A heavy darkness wrapped around Ivan.
He could no longer feel his body, nor the ground beneath his feet. Yet he was conscious — suspended between two realities, aware of existing without breathing.
A strange sound echoed through the emptiness — like wings beating in the void. Then, a pale light flickered to life, revealing a sea of shifting stars. Each glimmer whispered words in a forgotten tongue.
Ivan tried to speak, but no sound came out.
His heart pounded — could he even still have one?
A silhouette slowly appeared before him. Clad in a cloak woven from silence, it seemed made of stardust. Its eyes — hollow, infinite — fixed on him with an almost human intensity.
"You are not dead," the voice said.
It resonated directly within his mind, ancient and calm.
Ivan wanted to step back, but his legs wouldn't obey.
"Where… where am I?"
"Between the end and the beginning."
The figure raised a hand, and the void around them began to tremble. Fragments of memory drifted away — the shop, the blood, the glowing stone.
"That light…" Ivan murmured.
"The Ether Beacon," the voice replied. "It recognized you. You are the last heir of Silence."
A chill ran through him. The words made no sense, yet their weight shook him to the core.
"I don't understand. I'm just a shopkeeper, not a hero… not a god."
The figure's gaze darkened.
"Every world needs a witness, Ivan. Silence chose you because you have nothing to lose… and everything to learn."
Suddenly, a searing pain tore through his body. Golden symbols etched themselves onto his skin, burning like molten iron.
He screamed, unable to bear it.
"The Successor's Seal awakens," whispered the voice. "Do not resist. Accept it."
Ivan fell to his knees. His vision blurred, the void cracked around him, and the figure vanished in a burst of light.
With his last ounce of strength, he lifted his head — beyond the fracture of the void, he saw an immense world: floating continents, rivers of light, cities suspended in the sky.
An unknown world awaited him.
Then everything collapsed.
---
When he opened his eyes again, Ivan was gasping for air.
The ground beneath him was cold and rough. The air pulsed with a strange, living energy. He tried to stand, but his body felt heavier — different.
Looking down, he saw he was dressed in a silver linen tunic, and glowing runes covered his arms and chest.
His reflection in a puddle wasn't his own.
A different face. A different body.
He touched his cheek, trembling.
"What… have I become?"
The wind rose, carrying a faint, distant voice:
"Remember, heir… Silence never dies."
Ivan looked up at the sky for the first time.
A golden sun bathed the horizon in otherworldly hues, streaked with bursts of energy. Winged creatures soared among the clouds.
And far away, atop a mountain of crystalline shards, stood a colossal temple — waiting for him.
He understood then: he was no longer on Earth.
This world — Naaris — had just become his new fate.
From a rock high above the valley, a shadow watched Ivan in silence.
Its crimson eyes glowed with a chilling light.
"The Successor has finally arrived…"