"Death should have been the end. Instead, it was only the beginning."
The first thing I felt was cold.
Not the clean chill of winter air, but the damp, stone-born cold of earth untouched by sunlight. My eyelids fluttered open, revealing nothing but darkness so deep it pressed against my skin like a second grave.
My name… what was my name?
Memories slipped through my mind like water through cupped hands.
A street. Headlights. Screeching tires. Then — silence.
I tried to move. My limbs felt heavy, sluggish, as though they belonged to someone else. Beneath my palms, the ground was rough and wet, carved stone slick with moss. Somewhere far above, I thought I heard water drip — slow and patient, as if counting the centuries.
A sudden warmth pulsed at my chest. I looked down, and though the dark should have blinded me, I saw it: a faint, silver glow spreading across my skin in twisting lines, coiling into a mark over my heart.
A single word whispered in my mind, ancient and echoing:
"Reborn."
Pain flared in my skull — a kaleidoscope of images not my own:
Armies clad in iron and flame.
A city swallowed by shadows.
A boy standing atop ruins, a sword of pale light in hand.
Then, as quickly as it came, the vision shattered, leaving only the echo of a single name: Eldoria.
I staggered to my feet. Around me, the darkness pulsed — alive. Walls of hewn stone stretched beyond sight, carved with runes that faintly glimmered before fading into nothing.
Somewhere deeper in the labyrinth, something breathed.
The air stirred, carrying the scent of earth and ancient ashes.
"Hello? Is someone there?" My voice, raspy and raw, disappeared into the silence.
A low growl answered. Stone shifted, and from the shadows emerged two glinting eyes — yellow, feral, and far too close.
My heart thundered. I stumbled back, tripping over rubble and falling hard. The beast slinked forward into the pale light of a cracked rune stone: wolf-like in shape, but wrong — twisted by the labyrinth's magic, with patches of bone showing through rotted fur.
It bared its teeth.
And I, barely reborn, could only raise my shaking hands, the mark on my chest burning brighter.
Suddenly, a shape darted from the shadows beside me — smaller, quicker.
A girl, not much older than me, her hair white as moonlight, wolf-like ears flicking back as she slashed at the creature with a dagger of dull iron.
"Move!" she hissed. Her amber eyes flashed with fierce resolve.
The beast lunged. She met it head-on, her blade scraping bone. I scrambled up, grabbing a fallen stone and hurling it. Useless — but enough to distract the monster for a heartbeat.
Together, we forced it back until it slunk into the dark, melting away between shifting walls.
For a breathless moment, we stood in silence, chest heaving.
She turned to me. Dirt smudged her cheek; sweat matted strands of silver hair against her skin. "You're new," she said, voice cautious but not unkind. "Mark on your chest — you've got it too."
I swallowed. "What… what is this place?"
She wiped her blade on a scrap of cloth. "The Shattered Labyrinth," she answered quietly. "And unless you want to die — again — you'd better learn quickly."
"Again…?" My heart stumbled. "Then… I really did…"
"Die?" she finished for me. "Yeah. Me too. Everyone here did — once."
She studied me, then offered her hand. "Name's Sophia."
I took it. "I… think my name is Eren."
"Well, Eren," she said, her wolf ears tilting back slightly. "Welcome to the Abyss. Pray it doesn't remember you."
In the distance, the labyrinth shifted with a groan like an ancient beast stirring in its sleep. And though the darkness still pressed close, for the first time since waking, I felt something spark in my chest — not hope, exactly, but the stubborn ember of will:
If I had been given a second life, I would not let it slip away.
To be continued…