Aiden woke to the sensation of falling.
Not fast—
not violently—
but as if drifting through layers of mist, suspended in a dream where the ground kept slipping further away.
Only the sky didn't stay still.
It tore.
Not like fabric, not like glass—
but like memory, splitting into living fragments that flickered with impossible colors. He reached out instinctively as one shard drifted near his face. It shimmered with an image of a world: mountains floating like broken teeth; seas upside down; a city collapsing into itself as if swallowed by light.
Aiden jerked his hand away.
The fragment dissolved.
Another took its place.
Then another.
Then hundreds.
A cascade of worlds streaming past him, each breaking apart into motes of bluish-white dust.
> "Why am I seeing this…?"
His own voice echoed strangely, stretching and folding back on itself like it had nowhere to go.
A whisper followed, brushing against the back of his mind like cold fingers.
—Memory Logged. Access Denied.
Aiden froze.
The whisper wasn't human.
It wasn't mechanical either.
It was… something between.
Before he could respond, gravity snapped back.
The fall ended.
And he hit something soft—grass?—before tumbling down a sloping hill and crashing into a small, glowing tree at the bottom.
Pain flared through his shoulder.
"Ow—! Damn it—"
The tree pulsed gently, as if apologizing. Pearlescent leaves fluttered, shedding tiny motes of light. Each one drifted around him like fireflies, sinking into the soil and vanishing.
Aiden forced himself upright.
That was when he realized he wasn't alone.
A girl stood before him.
Silver hair flowing to her waist, eyes deep like pools of nebula light, a staff of moonlit crystal in her hand. Her white robe seemed woven from strands of dawn—soft, shifting, and faintly luminous.
She looked at him with an expression he couldn't decipher—
fear?
wonder?
recognition?
Or all three.
"You're… early," she whispered.
Aiden blinked. "I'm what?"
The girl took a step closer. "I was told you wouldn't arrive until the third convergence. But the timelines are fracturing faster than we anticipated. Much faster."
He stared. "Okay, hold on. Who are you? Where am I? And what do you mean, 'timelines'?"
Her lips parted.
Her gaze fluttered across his face, studying him as if searching for someone else beneath his skin.
"My name is Yunaria," she finally said. "And this place is the first world still intact… for now."
Aiden looked around.
The sky was too bright.
Too vast.
As if painted with colors that didn't exist on Earth.
Floating islands drifted lazily overhead. A river of luminous water flowed through the air like a silver ribbon. Strange birds with crystal feathers glided past him, their wings chiming like bells.
None of it felt real.
Except the pain in his shoulder.
"You're not dreaming," Yunaria said quietly, reading the panic on his face.
"...Right." Aiden breathed. "So… I'm dead?"
"No."
"…In a coma?"
"No."
He swallowed. "Then what happened?"
Yunaria hesitated.
Then she pointed her staff at his chest.
Not in a threatening way.
Almost tenderly.
Aiden glanced down.
Three faint symbols glowed beneath his shirt, burning gently like fresh scars.
He touched them—
and reality trembled.
His senses blurred—
A battlefield of shattered temples.
A dark void swallowing a mountain.
A shrine overgrown with crystal vines.
A chained dragon crying out in pain.
A pair of silver eyes—hers—filled with tears.
Aiden staggered backward, gasping.
"What… what was that?"
"Your soul," Yunaria whispered. "Or rather… one third of it."
He stared at her.
She continued.
"You carry three lives inside you. Three fates. Three worlds claimed you at the same moment. So your soul split… and yet did not split."
She exhaled shakily.
"That has never happened before."
Aiden rubbed his forehead, trying to process.
"Three worlds? But I only lived in one!"
"You did." Her voice was soft. "But you died in three."
His blood ran cold.
"I WHAT—?!"
Yunaria reached out instinctively, placing a hand on his arm. Her touch was cool, anchoring him.
"Listen carefully, Aiden. I know this is overwhelming. But you weren't simply transported here. You were… pulled."
"By what?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Not what. Who."
The wind shifted.
The leaves of the glowing tree rustled as if warning them.
Yunaria's eyes hardened.
"They're coming."
Aiden tensed. "What is?"
She didn't answer with words.
A sound rose from beyond the hills—
the hush of tearing fabric.
The groan of splitting stone.
The clicking of armored limbs against earth.
Three figures emerged from the mist.
Their bodies were shaped like humans—
but hollow.
Their faces were masks of swirling darkness.
Their movements were unnaturally smooth, like puppets dragged by invisible hands.
Aiden felt the breath caught in his throat.
"What… what are those?"
Yunaria stepped in front of him.
"Oblivion Hunters," she said. "Servants of the void between worlds. They erase what should not exist."
She raised her staff. Light gathered at the tip.
"And right now… that means you."
Aiden blanched. "Why ME?!"
"Because you survived three deaths," Yunaria said. "And because your heart holds something that belongs to them."
The Hunters tilted their heads simultaneously, sensing him.
Purple-red cracks lit up across their bodies.
A sound escaped Aiden's throat—not quite a scream, not quite a curse.
"What do I do?!"
"Stay behind me," Yunaria muttered.
Aiden watched in disbelief as a circle of light bloomed around her feet. A hundred glowing runes rose into the air, orbiting her like petals caught in a cosmic wind.
She chanted—
the language old, melodic, resonant.
The ground shook.
Aiden shielded his face as a shockwave burst outward.
A wall of silver energy formed around them.
The Hunters slammed into it.
The world flashed white.
Aiden stumbled back, blinded.
When the light cleared, the Hunters were thrown back—temporarily—
But their bodies were already knitting themselves back together.
"They regenerate?!" Aiden yelled.
"From anything short of annihilation," Yunaria said grimly. "These three are low-tier. Higher ones… consume entire worlds."
Aiden's breath hitched.
"And they want to erase me?"
"No," Yunaria said, tightening her grip on her staff.
"They want to erase everything connected to you."
Aiden's pulse hammered in his ears.
The Hunters screeched.
Cracks tore open in the sky.
Reality bled.
Yunaria raised her staff again—
But she was trembling.
"You're hurt," Aiden realized.
She didn't respond.
Instead, she whispered:
"Stay alive. Whatever happens… I'll hold them back."
He stared at her.
She looked fragile.
Beautiful.
Terrified.
But determined.
Aiden clenched his fists.
He couldn't fight monsters like that.
He couldn't cast magic.
He couldn't even understand what was happening.
But he knew one thing:
He wasn't going to let someone risk their life for him again—not when he had just arrived in this insane world.
His voice cracked.
"Tell me how to help."
Yunaria blinked in surprise.
Aiden took a step forward.
"I said—tell me what to do!"
Her silver eyes widened—
softened—
glimmered with something like hope, or maybe sadness.
She lifted her hand slowly and touched the center of his chest, where the three glowing symbols pulsed faintly.
"You help by surviving what comes next."
The symbols flared.
Aiden gasped—
as warmth spread through his chest—
then ignited into flame.
His vision blurred—
The world spun—
And something inside him
unlocked.