The rapid-fire clatter of the mechanical keyboard was the only sound in the dark room.
Only the glow of the monitor illuminated the focused face of Édgar, though everyone knew him as DdD, the God of Destruction. In Eterna, the world's most renowned MMORPG, he was nothing short of a living legend.
Clans trembled at the mere sight of his name on the battlefield. The forums buzzed with fear and speculation about him. Streamers discussed his plays in hushed, reverent tones.
And he knew it.
"Just one more...!" he muttered, eyes locked on the screen.
His character, cloaked in shadow, moved with inhuman precision. He dodged, he countered, and his enemies fell before him, one after another. Digital blood stained the virtual ground crimson.
This was it—the final raid boss, the siege of an entire city. He was on the cusp of etching his name into the server's history forever.
One single blow.
Just one more.
And then, a real sound, jarring and violent, ripped him away from the game.
A brutal crash.
Metal shrieked.
Glass shattered.
He never even saw where it came from.
He only felt the impact.
Pain.
A sickening sensation of falling.
Then, silence.
His body crumpled, and the darkness swallowed his consciousness whole.
Consciousness returned slowly, gradually.
He opened his eyes, fully expecting the sterile brightness of hospital lights.
But that wasn't what met his gaze.
The sky above was an inky, absolute black.
The stars... they seemed to move, like countless eyes watching him from the void.
The air felt thick, charged with an unfamiliar energy.
And the ground beneath him... it was burning. Ancient ruins lay scattered around, a desolate and impossible landscape.
He knew this place.
Eterna.
But not the Eterna of pixels and graphics. This was real. Horrifyingly real.
He looked down at his hands. They were his, yes... but larger, stronger, imbued with a palpable power. A dark aura seemed to emanate from his fingers.
His armor felt heavy, solid. His very presence felt... imposing.
It was DdD.
His avatar.
He wasn't playing him anymore. He was him.
And in front of him, seated on a throne forged of fire and stone, someone was waiting.
An imposing figure. A god. Its gaze burned with an ancient, powerful light.
"Welcome, Destruction," the figure intoned, its voice deep and resonant, echoing in the vast emptiness. "You have crossed the threshold."
Édgar, or DdD as he now was, instinctively stepped back. He tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat.
"You died in your world," the god continued, rising from its throne, a gigantic silhouette that momentarily eclipsed the black sky. "But here, you were born."
"Not as a player. Not as a human," the deity declared. "But as what you were always meant to be in this world: the God of Destruction."
"This world stands on the brink of collapse. Your very existence here will tip the scales."
DdD frowned, struggling to grasp the magnitude of the words.
"But be warned..." the god's voice took on a chilling gravity. "Your power is incomplete. Your body does not yet fully belong to this plane."
"You must strengthen yourself, adapt. Only then will the true power that slumbers within you fully awaken."
The god's words wrapped around him, hot and heavy as flames.
Édgar had died.
DdD had been born.
The world of Eterna was no longer a game.
It was his new home.
And his destiny was to change it.
To destroy it... or to save it.