[Year 2042]
"Do you know what they call the Eclipse Trial?" the old man asked from across the train aisle. His voice was low, rough like gravel sliding in a bucket.
Aren kept his eyes on the window. He didn't answer.
"They call it the last door you'll ever walk through," the man went on. "Step in… and you either come out a Hunter, or you don't come out at all."
Aren kept his eyes on the glass but his fingers tightened around the strap of his bag.
The train whispered along the silver rail as the city blurred past the windows. Neon signs glowed against the grey morning sky.
Floating billboards drifted above the streets, their glassy surfaces flashing recruitment ads for the Hunters.
[Face the Eclipse Trial, become a Hunter and stand between humanity and its end.]
Aren sat at the back of the train, his hood pulled low. His clothes were plain and worn, the kind that had been patched too many times.
The jacket's fabric was dull from years of use and the soles of his boots were cracked. A thin satchel rested against his knees, barely hiding the chipped metal ID card hanging from his neck.
His name lit up faintly on its surface in dull blue letters. Aren Kael. Seventeen. Eclipse Trial Candidate.
He kept his gaze fixed on the window. His reflection stared back at him, pale and sharp-eyed.
His hair was black but uneven as if cut with a kitchen blade. Dark shadows clung under his eyes, not from lack of sleep but from years of carrying something heavier.
The train curved around a broken district. From the glass, Aren could see the skyline split by a jagged scar where a building had once stood. It wasn't the ruins themselves that drew the eye but the massive claw marks carved through the concrete, reaching ten stories high.
People on the platform below walked past them like they were nothing. No one stopped to stare anymore. Not after three years.
From across the carriage, two young men in new jackets talked quietly.
"You heard? The first group yesterday–"
"–nine dead. One came back. Eclipse Trial is getting worse."
"Yeah, but if you pass you're set for life. Hunters get rations, weapons, a place inside the safe Walls… and obviously supernatural abilities."
"Yeah but if you fail, you vanish"
They said it as if it were normal now. People had already gotten used to the idea. Some went in and never came back. Others walked out with abilities that didn't belong in this world.
Aren didn't look at them but the words sank into him. He already knew the risk. Everyone did.
The train pulled into the Hunter Association Building. A ring-shaped tower of steel and glass, layered with glowing runes that pulsed faintly in the morning haze. Drones drifted through the air above the plaza, scanning IDs as streams of people moved toward the gates.
The Trial was held inside.
Aren stepped onto the platform. The air was cold here sharper than in his small home district.
His city Incheon had been quiet and broken down after the raids. Streets half-empty, buildings scarred from monster attacks, the kind of place where people locked their doors before sunset and prayed the walls would hold.
But Seoul… Seoul was alive with noise and motion. Huge holo-Screens wrapped around the tall towers, glowing with the massive guild leaderboard.
Nine guild emblems shimmered across it–the Great Guilds. At the very top burned a crown of fire: Ember Crown,rank #1.
Then the screen shifted to live footage. Hunters from Ember Crown locked in battle with the monsters people now called Ravagers. One raised his hand and flame rolled down the street like a living serpent. Another shattered the ground into jagged stone spears.
The crowd paused to stare. Some whispered in awe others just looked up in silence.
Aren slowed too, his eyes catching on the burning crest of Ember Crown. "So that's the peak, huh…" he muttered under his breath.
He adjusted his bag and walked with the line toward the checkpoint.
"ID," the guard said.
Aren held out his chipped card. A handheld scanner swept over it and a holographic screen bloomed in the air.
> Aren Kael
> Age: 17
> Status: Civilian – Trial Candidate
> Clearance: Temporary
The guard studied them for a moment before waving him through without a word.
Beyond the gates the waiting area was filled with candidates. Some wore expensive combat suits, sharp designer coats or jackets lined with faint protective runes, shoes that looked brand new and expensive. Others like Aren just wore whatever they had, clothes patched too many times and boots that had nearly given out.
From the far side of the hall a voice called out. "This way, candidates. Group nine, assemble."
Aren moved with the others, keeping to the edge of the line.
He had never wanted to be a Hunter.
His mind drifted to his little sister. Lina. Eleven years old, too small for her age, her laugh turning into a cough that never stopped. Lately it had grown worse, the kind of cough that carried blood at the edges.
The medicine she needed was rare. Too rare for someone like him to ever afford. Hunters though... Hunters had access to things civilians didn't. Things that could save her.
So, here he was.
The Eclipse Trial had taken thousands of lives. Few ever passed and once you did, there was no way back.
Aren feared death more than anyone else in that hall. But it wasn't the death itself that haunted him, it was what came after.
If he died, Lina would be left behind. Alone in that broken city. There would be no one to find her medicine, no one to keep her safe from the gangs, no one to sit by her side when she woke up in the middle of the night crying from the pain.
That thought cut deeper than anything waiting inside the Eclipse Trial.
Up ahead, a massive circular door waited, its surface engraved with the symbol of a black sun. The metal pulsed faintly, as if alive.
The Eclipse.
Aren's fingers curled into fists.
One step through that door and there was no turning back.