It was a dark chilly night.
The moon hung behind a veil of dark clouds, its pale light struggling to illuminate the desolate landscape. Countless stars flickered in the gaps between the clouds, distant and indifferent to the commotion unfolding beneath them.
Footsteps thundered through the darkness.
A young man in a tattered black robe staggered along the side of the road, one hand pressed against his abdomen. Blood seeped between his fingers, dripping onto the cracked pavement with every hurried step.
Behind him, several figures pursued without any intention of letting him escape.
Drops of blood could be seen dripping on the ground as he struggled to adapt to the pain of having several cuts on his body.
The wind wailed, enveloping the desolate area with the scent of his blood.
'How the hell did they find me?' The thought flashed through his mind as he forced his aching legs to move.
"Damn it! Someone must have leaked the information." He muttered silently as he continued making his escape from his pursuers.
His breath came in ragged bursts. Each inhalation scraped against his burning lungs, and every movement sent fresh waves of pain through his battered body. He was fatigued, but he endured the pain coming from his entire body as he could not afford to stop until he reached that place.
"There he is, Stop him!"
"Boy, keep running I tell ya!"
'sh*t!'
Behind him, one of the pursuers raised his hand. Energy gathered in his palm, distorting the surrounding air with a faint ripple.
The man casually swung his arm forward.
A compressed shock wave tore through the darkness.
BOOM!..
He spat blood on the ground as he was thrown off to the side when the shock wave reached him. Nonetheless, he got up and continued running despite the accumulating injuries.
He had experienced attacks like this before. Not from ordinary people, but from Ascenders—individuals whose bodies and abilities had surpassed the limits of normal humanity.
Knowing what they could do didn't make being struck by one any less terrifying.
Raven staggered back onto his feet and resumed running.
He had to reach the city.
Just a little farther.
After several agonizing minutes, faint points of light appeared beyond the darkness. The distant glow of buildings illuminated the horizon, offering a glimpse of safety.
Prime City.
He was almost there.
'damn it! Just a little bit closer, endure it, endure it.' He gritted his teeth as he resolved to make it back alive. When suddenly －
'huh?'A sharp, searing pain erupted across his back.
Kyakk!
Splat… gahh!
Blood sprayed from his mouth as the impact lifted him off his feet. He crashed onto the road, his body skidding across the rough pavement.
For several seconds, he could do nothing but lie there.
His fingers twitched.
His lungs struggled to draw breath.
The distant city lights blurred into indistinct patches of color.
Footsteps approached.
One figure appeared before him, followed by another, then another. Their shadows stretched across the road, swallowing what little moonlight remained.
"Annoying little shit." A burly figure swore as he kicked him, throwing him off.
The young man screamed.
"Enough," another man said impatiently. "We've wasted too much time on this kid. The items take priority."
The burly man clicked his tongue but stepped aside.
A pale-haired man approached Raven and crouched beside him. His expression was composed, almost bored, as though the bloodied teenager before him were nothing more than an inconvenient obstacle.
"Listen carefully, boy. Tell us where you hid the items, and we'll let you live."
"Item? What bullsh*t item are you talking about?" The night sky cleared as moonlight shone revealing the young man's deep golden amber eyes he glared and replied in a menacing manner.
"feigning ignorance eh?" The pale-haired man landed a punch on his chest as another burst of blood spilled out of his mouth.
Ahh!.. splat.. gah…
Though it was only once, he felt as though he was hit by a car, but knowing the fact that the man in front of him is someone who has been awakened, it couldn't be far from the truth.
'Bullsh*t! are they even human?!'
His thoughts were growing sluggish. The pain was becoming distant, replaced by a heavy numbness spreading through his body.
'I don't even f*cking have what their looking for!' He screamed inwardly.
"West…cough…cough… of.. prime wall" He lowered his head and gritted his teeth as he endured the pain and gave a weak response.
It was total nonsense.
He only said so to trick them into bringing him into the city as he expects them to not let him go, they would likely bring him along to confirm what he said.
Raven possessed no treasure, no precious artifact, and certainly none of the mysterious items these people seemed so desperate to obtain.
He had only gone to the ruins because he believed they might contain something valuable.
Now he was paying for that decision with his life.
'Damn it! What damned luck I have!'
'What damned fate this is! That damn f*cker, If I get to return, I'll find him, beat him up, and report him to the authorities.' He swore inwardly.
The pale-haired man spoke again, but Raven could barely hear him.
His dimmed vision started darkening even further as he slowly lost consciousness due to the amount of injury and pain he was experiencing.
His final conscious thought was not about the men surrounding him.
It was about the map.
That overpriced, incomplete piece of information he had bought from a stranger who had smiled far too easily.
I should've known…
A flash of light appeared before his fading eyes.
Then everything went black.
***
Earth.
Three days earlier.
"Order for Mr. Raven!"
A young woman behind the counter called out, holding a cup of coffee.
At seventeen, he was hardly an imposing figure. His black hair was slightly disheveled, and his golden amber eyes carried the alertness of someone who preferred observing a room before becoming part of it.
He approached the counter and glanced at the cup.
"Excuse me, miss. What is this? Didn't I ordered a latte?" Raven furrowed his eyebrows as he asked the girl that served him the coffee.
"Eh?" Flustered, she took another look at the receipt, then the coffee.
"Oh! I'm terribly sorry, sir. It looks like we made a mistake."
"Yeah. You sure did."
Raven watched her replace the drink before returning to his seat.
He wasn't particularly upset. Mistakes happened.
Still, he made a mental note to check his order before leaving next time.
A holographic display suddenly flickered to life above the café's central counter, drawing the attention of several customers.
A news headline appeared across the translucent screen.
[LIVE: A New Beast Species Has Been Recovered by the Aurora Exploratory Team in Northern Europe.]
The café immediately filled with conversation.
"Another species? Already?"
"I heard the northern territories are becoming more dangerous."
"It's all thanks to Haksen Feronia, isn't it?"
Raven glanced at the screen while taking a sip of his iced latte.
"The Aurora Exploratory Team, huh?"
The organization belonged to Europe's Aurora Guild, a fairly influential force among the groups exploring the world beyond Earth's dimensional gates.
Its members included several Sequence 8 and Sequence 7 Ascenders, commonly known as Keepers and Guardians. The team was led by two Sequence 6 Seekers.
For an ordinary exploratory group, that was a formidable lineup.
"It looks like it's all thanks to that guy, what was his name again? Was it hansel? Hassen?"
"It's Haksen Feronia sir. Here's the iced latte sir, I apologize for the trouble." the counter girl replied with a smile.
"Oh, sure thanks." Raven replied nonchalantly as he took his iced coffee and headed back to his seat.
Ding…
A skinny man with white hair wearing a long-sleeved shirt with black pants entered and started looking for someone. Dark circles can be seen under his nonchalant eyes and smiled as if he found the person he was looking for as he started walking towards him
Raven noticed him as he sat in front of him while drinking his iced latte. Despite how he looks, he was an awakened person.
"Nice to meet you, are you the informant?"
"The name's Adrienne."
"Just call me Raven." Raven replied with a calm gaze after observing him.
"So about the contents of that, are you sure that it's authentic?" Raven asked him while looking into his eyes.
As he believed that those who aren't able to maintain eye contact were only uttering bullsh*t and not the entire truth. This was his way of maintaining vigilance and exercising caution. After all, keeping information and using it to their advantage is common in the 21st century.
"Going straight into business eh? Of course, I guarantee it with my status as a keeper that the information is true." Adrienne spoke confidently showing his status card and smiled as he did not avoid making eye contact with him.
'With this, there's no doubt he'll believe my information, heh. Looks like this one's another easy prey, don't think you can fool me kid. I can see you're a total newbie.' Adrienne muttered inwardly with a smile.
Though he showed his status card, it was a fabricated one. When in fact, he was only a sequence 9 apprentice and not a real sequence 8 keeper. Unfortunately, Raven doesn't know this.
"How much is it?" Raven asked.
"It's not much… for about 12,000 arcs." Adrienne replied with a smile.
Raven furrowed his eyebrows when he heard the amount. 'Not much?! what the f*ck why is this so expensive? Why don't you just go and rob a bank?!' he screamed internally.
He thought for a moment.
"That seems a bit too much, don't you think? For a mere piece with…incomplete information." Raven said. Though it was true, the information may be authentic but it was only partial information and not a complete one as it might turn out to be useless.
"I'll make it a thousand less then, how about it?" Adrienne grinned.
"less a thousand? Forget it, looks like we're done here." Raven muttered as though he was disappointed and stood up to leave.
"10,000 arcs, I'll do you a discount as this is our first-time deal." Adrienne said but raven has already turned his back to leave, ignoring what he said.
"9,000 arcs! Trust me, you wouldn't be able to get this anywhere cheaper than me since this is the only one." When Adrienne said this, Raven took a stop before turning his back.
'only one huh, that's 3,000 arcs less.' he acted as though he was reconsidering it deeply even though Raven was already planning on taking it.
"hmm… Alright, I'll buy it." Raven said after thinking about it for a while.
"Thank you please come again." The counter girl replied with a smile as he left. He completed the deal and left the coffee shop as he started preparing to go to the other side.
He spent a total of 9,000 arcs buying it. He couldn't help but curl his lips upward and began giggling once he was outside. He was able to shove down the price by 3,000 arcs, that was already good enough.
Unfortunately, he wasn't aware that the one who got the most of it was Adrienne. 'Hehehe, I harvested plenty this time, who knew the information I bought for 2,500 arcs was sold for 3 times more than the initial price same with the other guys.' he muttered with a sneer.
Raven started preparing the next day before coming to the other side.
46 years ago.
A sudden crack appeared in the various parts of the world. Many were flabbergasted at this strange global phenomenon that made scientists hypothesize that it may be a result of an astronomical event, distorting space thereby creating visible cracks. But what occurred after completely shattered their common sense.
Earthquake erupted, the world trembled and different species of beasts and horrendous monsters which can only be seen in comics and stories came out of it, causing thousands of thousands of casualties.
It was also then a certain power came to play as game like windows manifested on people who began to awaken.
These people were called [Ascenders].
As the name suggests, Ascenders are people who experienced some sort of rebirth at the energy exposure of the other world, going beyond the normality known to humanity. Those who were exposed at the beginning were the first to experience its wonders.
The world gained the means to fight back against the beasts and reclaim their lost territories. Beasts and monsters were driven back inside the dimensional crack. After a several years, humanity began exploring the unknown world.
Their discovery of this other world completely flipped their understanding of the universe as they began to integrate the newly acquired knowledge into their current technological system.
As the world enters a new era of evolution, a force was needed to keep balance on the world. Various superpowers and influential figures created the World Union to maintain order and facilitate numerous countries' development.
New structures and systems were built as governments were supported by the World Union. Numerous organizations were also built with the sole objective of exploring the new world.
They built multiple strongholds and bases around the dimensional crack to study this phenomenon as well as prevent the first catastrophe that occurred. They named it dimensional gates, allowing them to enter and exit between the two worlds.
The existence of the so-called gates and status windows remained a mystery as to how it came to manifest in reality, including why it only came to those who were awakened.
With this in mind, after strongholds were built as safe zones, they allowed entry to those unawakened people affiliated with organizations who wished to come to the other side, as they hope to unravel the truth.
...
After an entire day of struggling, Raven finally found the ruins based on the information he bought. He thought he would be able to find it easily since it was located on the outskirts of Prime City.
Though he encountered a few beast along, there wasn't any real danger as the dangerous once on the place was already swept by others.
"Looks like this is it." Raven muttered as he looked at the surrounding place. He took out his spear that he brought as he scouted the area. 'I need to stay vigilant, some monsters could be hiding waiting to ambush me.'
Half a day has passed but it seemed to be devoid of monsters, not even a hair of a beast could be seen. 'What the hell?' Raven was greatly puzzled by this but it was a good thing, on the other hand, there could be something in here.
He continued searching around but found nothing. Not even a speck of artifacts or treasure could be seen, which contradicts the information he bought. Thinking about it made his eyebrows furrowed tightly. 'Have I been scammed? But I've researched that guy's identity well before meeting him.' He shook his head in denial.
After exploring the remains of the ruins for hours, he finally reached what seemed to be a great hall and at the end of the hall, a large tablet made of unidentified material could be seen, exuding an ancient aura.
'Finally! This must be lady luck smiling at me hehehe.'
He walked calmly, but cautiously towards the large tablet. As he arrived, he saw characters he had not seen or heard before.
'What language is this?'
As though the tablet heard his thoughts, it began translating the unknown language. Every word echoed in his mind, resonating an ancient and unknown divine might that could shook one's soul.
[The tears of heaven, the sorrow of earth.]
[A hail of myriad fates, flowing endlessly like rivers and lakes.]
[Where shall the wind blows, death follows.]
"Is that it?"
"What ominous words, who the hell wrote and left this sh*t?!"
"Where's my supposed opportunity?!"
"This is crazy."