___
A cold wind brushed across Kael's face.
He gasped, his senses bursting awake all at once — the scent of wet grass, the distant roar of waterfalls, and the hum of something alive beneath the surface of the world.
He was lying on his back, surrounded by towering crystal trees that shimmered like glass under twin suns. Above him stretched a sky of swirling violet and silver — as if someone had painted the heavens with liquid starlight.
> "This isn't Earth," he whispered.
He sat up, his reflection flickering faintly in a floating shard of crystal nearby. The man staring back at him was… different.
No longer pale and frail. His body radiated vitality — tall, lean, his eyes deep obsidian, faintly rimmed with violet. A faint mark pulsed on his chest, shaped like a spiral fractal.
> [System Integration Complete.]
[Welcome, Kael Ardyn.]
[Initialization of Dimensional Core: 100%]
[Primary Affinity: VOID]
[Secondary Affinity: SPACE]
[Current Rank: Ether Initiate – Stage 0]
"Void and Space," Kael murmured. "The perfect irony — everything and nothing."
He stood, feeling Ether flow through his veins — weightless, fluid, endless. He raised his hand experimentally. A ripple formed, bending the air like distorted glass. The very space before him folded inward.
> [Skill Unlocked: Spatial Manipulation (Basic)]
[Skill Unlocked: Void Absorption (Dormant)]
"Unbelievable…" Kael muttered, a grin forming. "So this is what it feels like to hold creation by the throat."
But before he could test further, the ground beneath him shuddered. The forest pulsed as if reacting to his power — and then, from the distance, a roar split the air.
Something enormous moved.
A creature emerged between the crystal trees — a hulking, obsidian beast covered in glowing veins of blue Ether. Its six eyes burned like dying stars.
> "Aetherborn…" Kael muttered, his instincts whispering knowledge that shouldn't exist. "A creature formed from condensed Ether energy."
The beast growled, lowering its head.
Kael exhaled slowly. No weapons. No experience. No backup.
Then again, he had already died once.
"Let's see what this new body can do."
The beast charged. Kael reacted instinctively — focusing his mind, he twisted the space in front of him. The creature's path distorted mid-lunge, its body pulled sideways as reality itself warped.
He snapped his hand shut.
The space collapsed.
A pulse of darkness exploded outward, and the beast vanished — erased completely. Only a faint echo of Ether remained, swirling into Kael's palm.
> [Void Absorption Activated.]
[Energy assimilated: +120 Ether Units.]
Kael's breath trembled — not from fear, but exhilaration.
> "Ether that obeys me… this is beyond any equation I ever wrote."
As the last traces of the beast faded, a faint shimmer appeared in the air before him — a projection of glowing blue glyphs forming a hexagonal sigil.
> [Detected anomaly.]
[Tracking coordinates initiated.]
[Dispatching Aetherion Academy scouting unit.]
Kael frowned. "Academy…?"
Moments later, the air cracked open. A small ship descended from the sky — sleek, silver, with rotating Ether cores glowing beneath its wings. From its open hatch, three figures stepped out — cloaked in dark blue uniforms lined with glowing runes.
The tallest, a young woman with silver hair and eyes like crystallized light, looked directly at him.
"Unregistered Ether fluctuation detected," she said sharply, scanning him. "Identify yourself."
Kael blinked, still adjusting to the sudden attention. "Kael Ardyn. I… think I'm new here."
Her eyes narrowed. "New? There are no portals active in this quadrant. Who sent you?"
Kael looked around the alien forest, then back at her.
"Let's just say," he replied with a faint smile, "I arrived through a… scientific accident."
The woman studied him for a long moment, then her gaze softened slightly.
"Your Ether signature…" she whispered. "It's unstable — like it's bending reality around you."
Before Kael could respond, her device beeped urgently.
> [Warning: High-density Void resonance detected.]
She looked up sharply, eyes wide. "You're—"
But before she could finish, the sky rippled above them.
A rift — deep, black, and pulsing with Void energy — tore open in the clouds.
Kael felt it too. The same presence that spoke to him when he died — watching. Waiting.
He clenched his fists. Not yet. I just got here.
"Get to cover!" the woman shouted, drawing a blade of pure Ether. "Everyone, move!"
Kael stood his ground, eyes glowing faintly violet.
> "You wanted a second chance," he muttered to himself. "Then earn it."
The rift trembled — and the real story of Aetherion began.