As the darkness consumed Kaios, he found himself in a space filled with nothing but shadow. Looking around, he muttered to himself,
"Where am I? What am I doing here?"
He glanced down and saw only his own body, glowing with a white neon light amid the dark void, like the northern star guiding travelers.
Noticing this, at first he couldn't make any sense out of it.
Then suddenly he thought the novel fictions he consumed.
As it dawned upon him, he whispered, "Is this my spiritual body? And if it is, how did I end up in such a strange place?"
He scanned the surroundings in search of answers, when he noticed a faint flicker of light in the distance.
Driven by hope, he moved toward it, seeking an answers for the questions of —What is this place? How did I get here? How do I leave?
With those questions in mind, he pressed on. Yet time seemed to stretch endlessly as he advanced. He walked, then ran, then sprinted with all his might, but still could not reach the light.
It fleet to him, like trying to catch the smoke with bare hands—always close, but slipping away. Still, he persisted, desperate to escape the void and find answers.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally reached the source. He no longer remembered how much time had passed or how far he had run, only that he had arrived.
Taking a hesitant step forward, he saw it at last— the aim of his, for which he ran so desparately.
It is a colossal gem, flickering with ethereal white light. Its glow soothed the soul and calmed the mind of anyone who basked in it.
And for its size, it was so massive that it could have easily dwarfed his planet, Vaeltris.
Kaios took another step hesitantly but still filled with hope, stretched out his palm, and touched the gem.
As his spiritual reflection shimmered across its surface, realization struck—the gem was not separate. It was embedded in something far greater…
A crown.
The instant he understood, a vast ocean of information surged into his mind as though a dam had burst.
A thousand needles seemed to pierce his brain all at once.
Clutching his head, he groaned in agony, overwhelmed by the flood of knowledge.
Then came silence, utter silence.
After an unknown span of time, the pain faded. From that eruption of information, he had gained something vast. The informations so vast it couldn't even continued in the largest library of his planet.
He steadied himself, gathering his thoughts, and processed what he had just learned.
The void he was in now, was called the Garden of End.
And all this time, he had been standing atop something terrifying—
The corpse of a humanoid celestial being.
Its body stretched across infinity, as though made of galaxies and nebulae, like a night sky crammed with stars beyond counting.
Yet the most important truth was that his spirit was now bound to this place.
That led to the second revelation, one even heavier to bear: the reason he was here in the Garden of End was his affinity with a mysterious energy—Lumina.
There were countless power systems in the universe, stemming from the different energy sources and unique for each races. These drew from different sources of energy, that were inate to the races or sometime similar, as did many others.
For the NMT, or known by human as Path of Divergence, the energy used was a quantum force called Psion. Resonants (Those used Psion) accessed it through Nano Cores after completing NMT, then attuned it to their chosen Class—Physical, Mechanic, or Energy.
For the Mage Path, the energy was Mana. They channeled it through their natural cores or mediums by projecting their will, later specializing into branches like the Elemental Path or Celestial Path.
So it was with many others. But the energy Kaios touched was different.
Lumina.
The source of them all.
Every energy system was a derivative of Lumina. And so he realized—he was not connected to a single path. He was bound to the origin of every path.
As he processed this revelation, the gem suddenly erupted with blinding white light. The brilliance swallowed everything, including him.
Kaios instinctively shielded his eyes, but it did nothing. A sudden force seized him, dragging him into the gem's core. The world collapsed around him, and he slipped into unconsciousness once again.
In the Awakening lab.. Inside the metal tube filled with blue liquid, Kaios's body trembled. His fingers twitched, his eyelids flickered. Then, with a sudden jolt, he awoke, as if tearing free from a nightmare. His blurry vision cleared, and the first thing he saw was his mother's worried face.
As his senses adjusted and the overload faded, voices reached him.
"Karl, is he alright?" His mother's voice filled with worry. "He wasn't responding even after waking."
To an outsider, the sight would have been baffling. Lyra—the composed figure of authority and grace—looked unsettled and distressed.
But here, she was only a mother, protective and fearful for her son.
Karl, hearing her concern, answered, "Everything's fine, Lyra." He checked the holo-screen in his hand. "It's just minor sensory overload."
"He'll be alrigh—" His words cut off as he noticed Kaios staring back at them. "See? He's fine. You're overreacting." Karl chuckled softly.
"Maybe…" Lyra admitted, eyes still fixed on her son. "But seeing him like this made me worry."
"Kai, are you alright, my son?" she asked, voice tender.
Kai gave her a faint smile. "Yeah, Mom. Just a little lightheaded, that's all."
Lyra let out a long, relieved sigh, though the concern never left her eyes.
As the two spoke, Karl cleared his throat, holo-screen in hand.
"Alright, family moment aside," he said with a small smirk. "Kaios, I need to run some checks on your NMT to make sure it's performing properly."
His eyes flicked over the display. "The compatibility results should be in within ten minutes."
Moments later, the screen beeped. The test had finished. Karl's gaze sharpened as he scanned the data. His brow furrowed slightly—something was off.
"Kaios," he said at last, voice low, "your compatibility results just came in."
Kaios and Lyra both straightened. Kaios steadied his heartbeat and asked, "What's the result, Dr. Karl?"
Karl's lips pressed together. "The NMT is successful. The Nano Core is stable. But…"
He said with a hint of something grave.