The meteor had already struck.
Only moments earlier, Earth had been drowning in chaos—screams echoing through the streets, panicked footsteps pounding across shattered roads, phones ringing endlessly as people desperately called loved ones they would never reach.
Now…
Silence.
An eerie, suffocating silence swallowed the world whole.
The planet that had once been alive with light and motion had become a graveyard of fire and ruin.
Buildings lay broken like corpses.
Roads had split apart into jagged wounds across the land.
The air was thick with smoke, ash, and the stench of burning earth.
Above it all, the sky glowed in an unnatural crimson-black, as though the heavens themselves had been set ablaze.
Earth was no longer a world.
It was a corpse.
---
Far beyond the dying planet, deep within the endless void of space, several figures clad in black robes hovered in silence.
They stared toward the remains of Earth.
Or rather—
Toward the place where Earth used to be.
All that remained now were drifting fragments of rock, molten debris, and fading traces of spiritual energy.
One of the black-robed figures stepped forward, panic trembling in his voice.
"Leader… what do we do now?"
"We were ordered to annihilate humanity and retrieve the Heavenly Book!"
At the center of the group stood a man named Kumbh.
He did not move.
Did not react.
His expression remained unreadable, but his eyes held an emptiness so profound that it felt as though he had long since grown numb to the rise and fall of worlds.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
"The Human Emperor has used his life force as his final power."
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
"He sent them away."
The others froze.
One of them asked in disbelief,
"You mean… some of them survived?"
Kumbh nodded faintly.
"Yes."
His gaze remained fixed on the empty void before him.
"If the Heavenly Book still exists…"
"Then it is with one of them."
The group exchanged tense glances.
Another asked carefully,
"What are your orders?"
Kumbh's eyes turned cold.
"Continue the search."
The instant his words fell—
The black-robed figures dissolved into smoke and vanished.
Only Kumbh remained behind.
He stood alone in the silence of space, staring at the ruins of a dead world.
Then, almost too softly to hear, he whispered,
"Farewell… old friend."
For the first time, emotion flickered in his eyes.
A trace of memory.
A hint of regret.
Then he too vanished.
---
Countless light-years away…
There existed another world.
A planet known as Riyan.
Larger than Earth.
Richer in energy.
Far more advanced.
Here, strength was not legend.
It was reality.
Power was woven into daily life.
And among all the great institutions on this planet, none was more famous than—
Glory Academy.
The sacred ground where the most gifted and powerful young talents of Riyan gathered.
A place where monsters in human skin were nurtured into legends.
---
Inside the academy's highest tower, in a chamber filled with absolute stillness, a woman sat in meditation.
Her long black hair cascaded down her back like flowing ink.
Her face was flawless and serene.
Yet despite her beauty, no one who looked at her would dare think of her as fragile.
Because the pressure radiating from her mere existence was overwhelming.
Even the air itself seemed afraid to disturb her.
She was Shivani—
Principal of Glory Academy.
A woman spoken of with reverence and fear alike.
Suddenly—
Her eyes opened.
They shone like twin stars in the darkness.
Her gaze pierced through walls, through the sky, through space itself.
Then she murmured softly,
"So…"
"The Human Emperor has fallen."
There was no sadness in her voice.
No joy.
Only certainty.
But then—
Her expression changed.
A flicker of surprise appeared in her usually calm eyes.
"No…"
She narrowed her gaze.
"Something remains."
And then she felt it.
A faint ripple.
A presence so distant that no ordinary person could have noticed it.
It was weak.
Broken.
Yet undeniably alive.
Shivani's eyes sharpened.
"Interesting."
---
At that exact moment—
Far away from the main city of Riyan, beyond the academy grounds, beyond the reach of ordinary senses, a white pillar of light appeared high above a lonely mountain range.
Not above the academy.
Not in the plaza.
Not where the students or teachers could see it.
It appeared over a remote mountain peak shrouded in clouds and thin mist.
For a brief moment, the sky split open.
White radiance poured downward.
Then a single figure fell from the light.
Only one.
No crowd.
No survivors.
No witnesses.
Just one boy descending from the heavens like a falling star.
BOOM!
He crashed onto the rocky mountain ground.
Stone shattered.
Dust exploded into the air.
A long crack spread through the surface beneath him.
When the smoke cleared—
There he was.
A young man lying in the broken rock.
Torn clothes.
Bruised body.
Pale face.
Eyes filled with exhaustion and disbelief.
It was obvious he had escaped from something unimaginable.
The wind howled around the mountain peak.
Clouds drifted slowly past.
The sky above remained peaceful, almost indifferent to the fact that a stranger from another world had just arrived there.
The boy groaned and slowly opened his eyes.
His mind felt hazy.
His body hurt.
But even more than pain, confusion filled him.
Where was he?
What was this place?
And why did it feel so different from Earth?
He tried to sit up.
The moment he moved, pain shot through his body again.
His chest tightened.
His arms trembled.
But he forced himself upright.
Then he looked around.
All he saw were steep cliffs, jagged stone, distant forests, and a vast mountain range stretching endlessly into the horizon.
No people.
No buildings.
No signs of civilization.
Only mountains.
Only silence.
He had landed somewhere completely isolated.
Unknown to him, the white light that brought him here had already vanished completely.
Its traces were hidden by the mountain mist.
Its energy was compressed and scattered in a way that no one below could notice.
No one at the academy sensed anything unusual.
No teacher.
No guard.
No student.
No master.
No expert.
No one.
The mountain stood quiet.
The sky remained calm.
The world carried on as if nothing had happened.
But not everyone was blind to it.
Far inside Glory Academy, within the highest tower, Shivani's eyes suddenly flashed open again.
Her calm expression tightened ever so slightly.
Her head turned in the direction of the mountain range.
Not the academy grounds.
Not the sky above the school.
That mountain.
Only that mountain.
Her gaze sharpened.
"So there you are…"
She stood still for a long moment.
Then her lips parted slightly.
"No one else noticed."
A faint glimmer moved through her eyes.
"Good."
---
The boy on the mountain slowly rose to his feet.
He stumbled once, then steadied himself.
His breathing was rough.
His body still felt hollow from whatever force had dragged him here.
He pressed one hand to his chest.
There was nothing obvious there.
No wound.
No mark.
But deep inside, he could feel something shifting.
A faint pulse.
A hidden presence.
Like a seed waiting to sprout.
He frowned.
What was that feeling?
Was something inside him alive?
Or was his body simply too tired to think clearly?
He looked toward the distant horizon.
Far below the mountain, hidden beyond layers of terrain and cloud, stood a great fortified city.
And at the edge of that city, like a giant blade of stone and energy rising into the heavens, stood Glory Academy.
The boy could not see it clearly yet.
But the mountain air carried a strange pressure from that direction.
A pressure far stronger than anything he had ever felt on Earth.
His instincts told him one thing—
This was not a normal world.
And somewhere in that world, he was being watched.
---
In the academy tower, Shivani's eyes remained fixed on the mountain.
No one else had noticed.
No one else could.
But she had.
The same hidden ripple she sensed earlier had become clearer now.
That ripple was weak, yet extremely pure.
Not from this world.
Not from any ordinary existence.
And yet…
It was not hostile.
It was not fully formed either.
It was as though something ancient had just been awakened, but had not yet learned to speak.
Shivani closed her eyes for a moment.
Then opened them again.
"The Heavenly Book really chose someone."
Her tone remained calm.
But beneath that calm, a quiet seriousness had formed.
A being of unknown origin had arrived in Riyan.
And though the rest of the world remained unaware…
She knew.
That boy was important.
Very important.
---
The boy looked up at the sky.
Then down at his own hands.
Then at the stone beneath his feet.
Everything felt real.
He was no longer on Earth.
No longer in his old life.
No longer tied to the world that had burned.
A new reality had begun.
And deep in the silence of the mountain peak, he took his first breath in this strange new world.
At that moment, a faint voice stirred in the deepest corner of his consciousness.
Not fully formed.
Not fully awake.
But undeniably there.
He could not understand it.
He could only feel it.
As if something within him had opened its eyes.
The boy clenched his fists.
A strange feeling rose in his chest.
Fear.
Confusion.
Curiosity.
And beneath it all… determination.
He did not know where he was.
He did not know why he had been brought here.
He did not know what the Heavenly Book was truly meant to become.
But he knew one thing.
His life had changed forever.
And somewhere far below, in a place hidden from all other eyes, one woman was already watching his every movement.
---
That night—
The boy lay awake on the mountain slope, wrapped in silence and cold air.
The wind moved gently across the rocks.
Clouds drifted over the moon.
The world below remained hidden.
He could see nothing but darkness and distance.
Yet his mind refused to rest.
Earth's destruction.
The Human Emperor.
The black-robed figures.
The white light.
And the strange place he had arrived in.
Everything had happened too fast.
Too unreal.
Too impossible.
Then—
He felt it again.
That presence.
Inside him.
Watching.
Waiting.
The boy slowly sat up.
His heartbeat thundered.
His throat went dry.
He whispered into the darkness,
"Are you… inside me?"
Silence.
Then—
Deep within his soul—
Something responded.
Not with words.
Not with sound.
But with presence.
Ancient.
Immense.
Alive.
The boy's breath caught.
His entire body trembled.
Then—
A slow grin spread across his face.
He clenched his fists tightly.
And whispered,
"My life…"
"Is about to begin."
---
Far above the mountain peak, beyond clouds and stars—
A ripple of mysterious power spread across the heavens.
As if the universe itself had sensed an awakening.
And in the endless darkness beyond mortal sight—
Ancient beings opened their eyes.
Watching.
Waiting.
For the bearer of the Heavenly Book…
To rise.
---
End of Chapter 2