The day my world ended was… strangely quiet.
You'd expect thunder, screaming, maybe the ground splitting apart, right?
Instead, I was just sitting in the backseat of my parents' car, staring out the window at the hills rolling by.
I was sixteen. Just a normal kid.
Well… mostly normal.
Then it happened.
The screech of tires.
The sound of metal twisting.
The sharp, cruel laughter of people outside, recording the accident on their phones instead of helping.
I still hear it.
"Look at that kid!" one voice shouted.
"Upload it, upload it now!" another said.
My father's hand slipped from the steering wheel. My mother's scream tore into my ears.
And then
A stranger burst through the crowd. A man with calloused hands and fire in his eyes. He shoved people aside, yelling at them for their cruelty. He reached for me, pulling open the shattered door.
But fate doesn't care about heroes.
His foot slipped on the wet grass of the hillside. His last words, hoarse and desperate, carved into me like fire:
"Run!!"
And then he fell.
I never saw him again.
The next night, the sky bled.
A crimson eclipse hung above the forest. And from it, something 'fell'. A burning meteor, glowing with mana I couldn't comprehend, crashed into the earth.
I should have run. Instead, I was frozen.
The light consumed me. My blood roared. My bones felt like they were being rewritten. And then
Silence.
When I woke, everything felt… wrong. Or maybe too right. My senses sharpened, every sound in the forest clear. My heartbeat echoed like a drum. And in my mind,words. Ancient, whispering words.
"Welcome, child of the eclipse…"
Days later, I wandered. My body moved on its own, pulled by an invisible force.
A mountain by the ocean. A cave that shouldn't exist.
Inside,rows upon rows of ancient books. Dusty tomes, scrolls, crystals humming with forgotten magic. And right in the center… one book that "called" to me.
ECLIPSEBORN.
I opened it. My hands shook. The words etched themselves into my mind, burning like brands,yet I understood them instantly.
A thousand years ago, meteors like mine had fallen before. Each time, a chosen one was reborn in power. But each time, the world nearly collapsed.
And now… it was my turn.
I laughed. Not the kind of laugh you'd want to hear from a hero.
It echoed through the cave, sharp, bitter, a little too close to madness.
"So be it…"
I didn't smile. I never smile. Not anymore.
That was the day "Adrian Blackwood" stopped being a normal boy.
And the day the world gained its newest curse.