The air around Ivan shimmered faintly, as if the world itself were still stabilizing after his arrival. The ground beneath him vibrated with a rhythm that matched his heartbeat — deep, ancient, and alive. He rose unsteadily, his legs trembling, his breath uneven. Every nerve in his body screamed that something was wrong.
This body wasn't his.
The proportions were off, the weight unfamiliar. His vision was sharper, colors unnaturally vivid — even the faint glow of the runes carved into his arms felt alive, pulsing like veins filled with light instead of blood.
"Where… am I?" he whispered. His voice echoed softly in the wind, swallowed by the vast silence of this alien world.
Naaris. The name resonated in his mind, though no one had spoken it. He felt it — the same way one feels the gravity of truth before it's spoken aloud.
In the distance, the colossal temple he had seen before rose into the sky, surrounded by floating fragments of crystal that shimmered like frozen lightning. Between him and that mountain stretched a forest of silver trees whose leaves sang faintly when the wind passed through. The melody was beautiful… and haunting.
He took a step forward, but the moment his foot touched the strange soil, pain seared through his arm. The runes flared violently, emitting a sound that wasn't quite a scream — more like a resonance from within his bones.
"Why… does it hurt?"
A voice answered — faint, weary, yet vast.
"Because your vessel is not ready."
Ivan froze.
The air before him rippled, bending light into form. A figure emerged — immense, cloaked in white and shadow, its body dissolving into particles of light with each breath. Its presence was suffocating yet sorrowful, like an ocean mourning its own depth.
He knew instantly who it was.
The being from the void. The one who had chosen him.
The God of Silence.
Ivan fell to his knees, not out of worship, but sheer instinct. The weight of divinity pressed against his chest like gravity itself.
"You… you were in the void," Ivan managed to say. "You said I was chosen."
The god's form flickered, dimming further. "Chosen, yes… but too soon. My essence fades. I cannot contain this world any longer."
"What are you talking about?" Ivan asked, his tone desperate. "You brought me here — why me?"
The god's hollow eyes met his. Within them burned galaxies collapsing into darkness. "Because even gods must die, Ivan. Silence cannot end without a successor."
A sudden gust of energy swept across the clearing. The ground split open, revealing veins of light surging upward. Ivan shielded his face as the divine pressure intensified, nearly crushing him.
The god extended what remained of his hand. A single spark of white energy floated toward Ivan — fragile, trembling.
"This is my Seal," the god whispered. "It holds what remains of my power. Take it… and remember… true silence is not absence — it is choice."
The spark entered Ivan's chest before he could resist.
His body convulsed. The runes on his arms flared into blinding light, searing through fabric and flesh alike. He screamed, clutching his chest as memories that were not his flooded his mind — battles among the stars, the creation of Naaris, the betrayal of gods.
When it was over, he collapsed. Smoke rose from his skin. The god before him was fading rapidly now, reduced to fragments of light drifting into the wind.
"Wait!" Ivan shouted. "Don't leave me like this! What am I supposed to do?"
The god's voice echoed one last time, fading with the wind.
"Find the Beacons… before they consume everything."
Then, silence — true and absolute — fell upon the world.
Ivan knelt there, panting, his hands trembling. The mark of the Seal now glowed at the center of his chest, pulsing with quiet rhythm. He looked toward the temple in the distance — its summit now shrouded in a dark storm that hadn't been there before.
He clenched his fists.
"I don't know what you want from me," he said under his breath, "but I'll find out."
Behind him, unseen, the same shadow from before stood among the silver trees, its crimson eyes unblinking.
"The heir has accepted the Seal," it murmured. "The countdown begins."
Cliffhanger:
The dying god's essence now burns within Ivan, binding his fate to Naaris — and awakening forces that were meant to remain asleep.