The rain fell as though the sky were being ripped apart, each drop a shard of broken memory. Aether stood in the middle of the abandoned street, soaked to the bone, staring at his trembling hands.
He didn't know his name.
He didn't know how he arrived here.
He didn't even know if this body was his.
But above him, faint golden letters hovered like dying stars:
[Editorial Note: The protagonist awakens.]
Aether blinked.
The letters dissolved.
Hallucination…? No—too real.
The sigil burned on his forearm, glowing faintly beneath the rain-soaked sleeve: a broken hourglass, with sand spilling upward instead of down.
He shivered.
A whisper, soft as a forgotten breath, curled into his ear.
"You shouldn't exist."
Aether spun.
A figure stood at the edge of the street—tall, draped in shadows that bent unnaturally. No face. No shape. Only a silhouette carved out of absence.
Aether's breath caught.
Another string of golden letters appeared.
[Warning: Do not make eye contact.]
He obeyed instinctively, looking downward.
The figure's voice seeped into him like cold ink invading warm water.
"You are a remnant, Aether Caelum Noctis."
The name slammed into him like an axe.
His knees buckled.
Aether.
Caelum.
Noctis.
My name… that's my name…
The figure leaned closer, its outline distorting.
"Return what you stole."
Aether staggered backward.
"What—what did I steal?"
Silence.
Then, impossibly, the shadow stepped forward — and the world fractured.
The buildings split like paper.
The sky cracked into mirrored shards.
Time slowed, reversed, twisted.
Golden text spiraled violently in front of Aether's eyes:
[Loop Instability Detected]
[Timeline Integrity: 2%]
[Reinitializing…]
Aether screamed as the world collapsed into blinding white.
Then—
He stood again in the rain, at the same street, in the same position.
And the golden words appeared:
[Editorial Note: The protagonist awakens.]
Aether's voice cracked into a whisper.
"…I've already been here."
The loop had begun.
And the shadow, sensing the restart, whispered from behind him—
"Round two, remnant."