Darkness.
Not the gentle kind that comes before sleep—but the crushing, suffocating kind that feels alive.It pressed against Kairo's ribs, slow and deliberate, like invisible hands testing his shape… and his limits.
He tried to breathe.
Nothing.
He tried to remember.
Nothing.
Only broken fragments drifting in the void.
A scream.A flash of blinding white.Hands reaching for him.Bones cracking—his or someone else's.His brother—Noah?—shouting his name.A tearing sound like the world being ripped in half.
And then—
Silence.
The void shifted.
A whisper slid through it, metallic and cold, sliding across the edges of his consciousness.
<…Human detected. Incompatible lifeform.>
Kairo's eyes snapped open.
He was lying on stone.
Cold, wet, uneven stone.The air tasted like iron and burned ozone, stinging his throat with every breath.
Above him stretched a sky he didn't recognize—a shattered dome of purple storms and drifting stone monoliths, each carved with symbols that pulsed like dying stars.
This wasn't Earth.
This wasn't anywhere he knew.
His body trembled as he pushed himself upright. His hoodie was slashed, scorched, dried blood gluing it to his ribs. His right arm shook violently, like it belonged to a stranger.
"What… happened to me?"
His voice cracked.
The world didn't answer.
But something else did.
A spike of pain stabbed through his skull—not like a headache, but like something carving new circuits into bone.
A voice rang out:
The ground quivered beneath him.
Dust fell from jagged stones.
Black lightning exploded from his spine—
Not outward.
Inward.
His veins felt like they were burning. His bones pulsed. His heart stuttered violently.
He collapsed to one knee, fingers digging into stone until his nails cracked.
"S-STOP—!"
More lightning hit him.His scream tore across the empty wasteland.
Images flashed through his vision—not memories. Prophecies.
A colossal white beast swallowing a city whole.A golden-eyed god burning a mountain to ash with a gesture.Black shadows raining from a crimson sky.A throne built from twisted bones.A lone boy standing in the center of a battlefield—him—drenched in blood that wasn't his.
Kairo collapsed again, face hitting stone.
His fingers twitched.His breath trembled.
What… am I?
He lifted a shaking hand.
His skin was pale, veins glowing faintly blue beneath it.
A cold realization hit him like a blade:
He wasn't just reborn somewhere else.He was something this world didn't want.
Something this world feared.
The ground shifted.
A sound rolled across the barren plains—metallic footsteps, dozens of them, marching in perfect unison.
Kairo turned weakly.
Shapes emerged from beyond the horizon.
Tall. Too tall.Human-shaped but unnaturally thin.Porcelain masks hid their faces.Blue symbols ran across their armor like flickering circuitry.
Hunters.
Predators.
Not human.
All of them froze as their masks turned toward him.
Then, in perfect synchronization:
"UNIDENTIFIED PRIME SIGNATURE DETECTED.""HOSTILE CLASSIFICATION: ABSOLUTE.""ELIMINATE."
Kairo's blood turned to ice.
He couldn't fight.He could barely breathe.His vision flickered to black around the edges.
"I… I don't even know where I am…"
He tried to stand—and fell immediately as his leg gave out.
Dozens of hunters raised their spears.
The sky hummed with gathering energy.
Kairo shut his eyes.
"Not again… I don't want to die again…"
Something answered.
A deep, cosmic vibration hummed in his skull.
Kairo whispered:
"…yes."
The world ruptured.
Black lightning spiraled out from him in a perfect ring.
The ground shattered.The sky flickered like a broken screen.The hunters didn't even get to scream.
Their masks split like glass.Their bodies evaporated into drifting ash.
Kairo didn't attack.
He didn't move.
They died simply from standing too close to him.
The lightning faded.
His vision dissolved into darkness.
As he collapsed, the System whispered:
Kairo hit the ground, unconscious.
Above him, the storm spiraled—watching.Waiting.Awake.