The sky tore open. White-hot light spilled across the heavens, burning everything in its path. Feathers that had once been pure and radiant turned to ash and drifted away on invisible winds. He fell through the void, the roar of battle echoing in his ears. Angels shouted, demons screamed, and a thousand blades clashed around him.
He reached out, desperate to grab something, anything, but there was nothing. Nothing but the weight of inevitability pressing down on him. He was meant to die here, to vanish from creation entirely. Yet somehow, he survived the strike meant to destroy him. The sensation of falling endless and absolute consumed him. Then the blinding light swallowed him whole.
He woke up with a start.
"Alex! Wake up, you're going to be late again!"
Morning sunlight streamed through the half-open blinds of his small New York apartment. Alex Mercer shoved the blankets off and sat up, heart hammering. The dream lingered in his mind. Burning wings, crashing light, voices calling his name. He shook his head, trying to push it away.
"Just a nightmare," he muttered, fumbling for his phone. Notifications flashed across the screen. Bills, late rent, school assignments. The kind of things that made him feel small and ordinary. Nothing here mattered beyond surviving today.
Alex caught his reflection in the mirror and froze for a moment. His dark hair was messy, eyes shadowed with sleepless nights. For a heartbeat, he thought he saw something else. A faint shimmer in the shape of wings behind his pupils. He blinked and it was gone.
He shrugged and grabbed his jacket. New York roared outside, a jungle of honking cars, shouting pedestrians, and flashing billboards. Crossing the street, he kept his head down, avoiding attention. It was safer that way. Cowardly, maybe, but safe.
He didn't notice the subtle ripple that passed through the city, a faint disturbance in the air, as if the world itself was holding its breath.
Somewhere else in the city, in a penthouse overlooking the skyline, Adrian Vale stirred. His hands gripped the railing as a strange energy coursed through him. The metal beneath his fingers felt alive, humming with invisible power. Lights flickered, casting sharp shadows on walls adorned with trophies of wealth and influence. Adrian felt more awake than ever before, as if a hidden part of him had finally come to life.
Memories that were not memories pierced his mind. A blade slicing through the clouds, a figure falling, wings ablaze. And then an intoxicating surge of authority that made him stand taller, prouder.
"Yes," he whispered, his voice steady and commanding. "I am the one."
Though he did not yet understand the full truth, the awakening had begun. Somewhere, deep in New York, others would follow. But for now, Adrian Vale, Pride incarnate, flexed his fingers and smiled.
The game had started.
Back on the streets, Alex Mercer walked, unaware of the tides shifting around him. The city carried on, oblivious to the celestial drama unfolding in its shadow.
Soon, everything he thought he knew about himself,and the world ~ would shatter.
For now, though, he was just Alex. Cowardly, ordinary, and blissfully unaware.