The city lay silent under the night sky, yet Staryo felt a strange vibration in his chest, a pulse that seemed to echo beyond his own heartbeat. Stars above shimmered unnaturally, whispering secrets he could not yet comprehend.
"What… is this?" he murmured, gripping his chest.
The faint energy he had always felt inside him now surged, demanding attention. His knees buckled as the streetlights warped into streaks of gold and white. Reality itself seemed to bend around him.
A sudden force lifted him off the ground, weightless. The city blurred beneath him, colors twisting into streams of light. His aura flared uncontrollably, sparks dancing around his body.
Then the void opened. Stars and galaxies swirled infinitely, stretching in all directions. Staryo floated suspended in cosmic light, utterly overwhelmed.
"Where… am I?"
A small ripple of chaotic energy approached him, a test of the universe itself. Instinctively, Staryo's aura flared, arcs of energy scattering the disturbance. Pain shot through him — sharp, intense, and exhilarating.
For a brief moment, he felt as if he had dissolved completely — then instantly reformed, stronger. Hair shimmered silver-prismatic, aura blazing.
"Wh-what… just happened?!" he gasped.
Though he did not know it, the Cosmic Annihilation Rebirth Technique (CART) — a self-destructive and reconstructive power — had partially activated. The universe itself had noticed his awakening.
"This… is only the beginning.