The world was already ending.
Fragments of shattered cities drifted through the sky like broken stars. Gravity fields flickered and failed, sending entire districts falling into the endless void below.
At the center of that collapsing sky stood one figure.
Arin.
Golden light burned around him, spreading outward like a rising sun. Fire coiled along one arm. Wind spiraled around the other. Fragments of stone hovered behind him, suspended in silent orbit.
Across from him,
something stepped out of the dark.
Its form refused to stay still. Like a shadow trying to become real. Black energy leaked from it, warping the air around its body. Wherever it moved, the world cracked.
Arin felt it immediately.
Every instinct in his body screamed at him to run.
He didn't.
"Why…?"
His voice felt distant. Unfamiliar.
"Why are you doing this?"
The thing across from him didn't answer.
It didn't need to.
Something brushed against his mind—
vast… cold… incomplete.
"Because this is my—"
The thought broke.
Cut off before it could fully exist.
Arin's eyes narrowed.
For a moment—
he felt something he couldn't understand.
Not fear.
Something deeper.
The sky cracked.
And everything fell apart.
Arin woke with a sharp breath.
For a second, he didn't move. The faint hum of old circuitry filled the room, steady and familiar.
Then
a cough.
He turned his head.
His mother lay on the narrow cot beside the wall, her breathing uneven. A small medical unit glowed beside her, quietly monitoring her condition. The numbers flickered in soft blue light.
They hadn't improved.
Not in three years.
In the corner, his little sister Lina slept on a couch, half-covered by a worn blanket. One of her hands rested on a stack of study papers.
She is Sixteen.
Still chasing a future that felt too far away.
Arin looked at them for a long moment.
Then pushed himself up.
His wrist display flickered to life.
06:14
He froze.
"…Shit."
He grabbed his jacket—old, reinforced in places, worn thin in others—and pulled it on quickly.
Before leaving, he glanced back once.
Then stepped out.
The lower city was already alive.
Narrow streets stretched between stacked structures of metal and patched panels. Pipes ran along the walls, cables hung overhead, and faint vibrations pulsed through everything like a living machine.
Steam hissed from food carts. Workers moved in steady lines toward factories, their faces tired, their steps automatic.
Above
through the haze and smog,
fragments of cities floated in silence.
Untouchable.
A massive hologram flickered to life nearby.
A man in radiant armor appeared, lightning crackling around him.
"Another successful subjugation," he said calmly. "An A-Rank Mana Beast eliminated with minimal civilian risk."
The display shifted—showing flashes of battle, destruction, victory.
Perfect.
Controlled.
Distant.
Arin didn't slow.
He'd seen it all before.
People like that lived above.
People like him didn't.
GOLIATH SALVAGE loomed ahead, built beneath one of the massive support pillars that held up the upper world.
The closer he got
the heavier the air felt.
Inside, noise slammed into him.
Metal grinding. Machines roaring. Voices shouting over each other. The smell of blood and chemicals thick in the air.
Arin stepped up to a terminal and entered his code.
The screen flickered.
ID: ARIN
SHIFT START: 06:00
DELAY: 16 MINUTES
PENALTY: 5 CREDITS
He exhaled quietly.
Five credits.
Gone.
"Bay 9."
The supervisor didn't look up.
"No mistakes."
Arin nodded and moved.
Bay 9 felt wrong the moment he entered.
The air was sharper.
Charged.
At the center, suspended by heavy chains, hung the body of a massive creature. Even in death, blue electricity crawled across it in violent arcs.
Storm-Razor.
A-Rank.
Something that could wipe out entire districts in minutes.
"Core's already extracted."
A woman in a hazard suit walked past without stopping.
"You're on cleanup. Lightning sac near the wing."
She paused slightly.
"Don't fry yourself."
Arin grabbed his harness and climbed.
The higher he went, the stronger the energy became.
The air buzzed faintly against his skin.
At the top, he reached the sac.
Football-sized. Pulsing faintly.
He activated the cutter.
The blade hummed.
Careful.
Precise.
The first cut
Ping.
Arin froze.
That didn't belong.
He leaned closer, pulling the tissue aside.
And saw it.
A fragment.
Small.
Perfect.
Glowing
purple.
"…What is that?"
The light pulsed.
Once.
Then again.
Faster.
The air vibrated.
The chains rattled.
Below—
workers continued cutting.
Unaware.
Arin's instincts screamed at him.
Run.
Move.
Get out.
But they didn't see it.
They didn't know.
The hum rose higher. Sharper.
The light grew brighter.
There wasn't time.
Arin didn't think.
He moved.
And threw himself against the core.
The world went white.
For a single frozen moment—
he saw his mother's tired smile.
Lina asleep, her books still open.
I can't die like this.
Then—
nothing.
A sky.
Purple.
Endless.
Arin stood on a platform of crystal that hummed beneath his feet. Towers of light stretched upward, impossibly tall, their surfaces shifting like liquid glass.
Figures moved through the city.
Not human.
Four arms. Calm. Silent.
A presence touched his mind.
Not cold.
Not cruel.
Just… tired.
"It must hold."
The words were slow.
Heavy.
"For those who come after."
A pause.
"For the strangers beyond the sky."
The city dimmed.
The figures stopped.
And something far below—
moved.
The sky cracked.
Pain tore through his chest.
Darkness.
Arin woke on cold metal.
Smoke drifted through the shattered bay.
Half the structure was gone.
The Storm-Razor had been torn apart.
The workers below—
weren't moving.
Arin's breath caught.
For a second—
he couldn't look away.
Then the pain hit.
Deep.
Heavy.
Like something burning inside him.
He forced himself to look down.
And froze.
Crystals.
Purple and gold.
Jutting from his chest.
They shimmered.
Then—
slowly—
began to sink.
Not melting.
Returning.
Sliding into his flesh.
Into his blood.
Into something deeper.
The wounds closed behind them.
Leaving nothing.
A low hum rose inside him.
Warm.
Steady.
Alive.
Boots thundered.
Voices shouted.
"Vitals stable!"
"No internal damage!"
"The blast was contained—"
Arin let out a weak breath.
Contained.
It didn't feel contained.
They lifted him onto a stretcher,
And fell unconscious
After few hours we woke up,
and saw that he was sleeping on a bed in a ward of hospital.
A nurse was standing beside his bed.
She saw that he woke up and asked him,
"So you woke up, how are feeling now."
For a moment he didn't spoke then he said.
"I'm feeling better now."
Nurse said "good, after some time you can leave from here."
He didn't said anything.
After an hour, he left the hospital,
And walked towards home.
The city looked the same.
But it didn't feel the same.
Energy pulsed faintly through everything.
The ground.
The air.
Even people.
Like a song,
he was only now hearing.
At home, everything was quiet.
His mother slept.
Lina's door was closed.
Arin stood there for a long moment.
Saying nothing.
Then lay down.
Staring at the ceiling.
Morning came too fast.
He sat up.
And knew.
His body felt heavier.
Denser.
He stood.
The floor creaked.
That had never happened before.
He raised his hand.
For a moment—
a faint golden shimmer flickered beneath his skin.
Then vanished.
Arin pressed his palm against his chest.
The hum answered.
Alive.
Waiting.
"What… am I now?"
No answer came.
But something inside him
was awake.
Far above the lower city
inside the crystal towers of the upper world—
a monitoring system suddenly flashed red.
UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED
A pause.
A recalculation.
SOURCE: UNREGISTERED
For the first time in years—
the system failed to understand what it was seeing.