The morning sun struggled to pierce the fog that hung over New Luminara City.
Hover-cars whispered through the sky lanes, and the air shimmered with data currents from the Quantum Core Network.
Students filed into Helios Academy, eyes glued to their holo-pads, unaware that among them walked a being who once forged the stars.
Arion Vale sat at the back of the class, chin resting on his hand.
He wasn't paying attention to the lecture about synthetic gravity fields — his thoughts were elsewhere, buried in the echo of that voice.
> "The Core is awakening. Balance must be restored."
He didn't know what "Core" meant, but the words haunted him.
Every time he blinked, he saw flashes of alien architecture, silver structures spiraling across galaxies, and rivers of light that pulsed with living data.
He was losing the line between dream and memory.
---
The New Student
"Alright, class," the instructor said, tapping the holo-board. "We have a new transfer student today."
The door hissed open. A girl stepped in.
She looked… ordinary.
Simple uniform, calm eyes, soft black hair that caught the light like silk. But when Arion looked at her, the entire world dimmed for a heartbeat.
It wasn't beauty — it was familiarity.
A resonance deep in his soul.
> "This is Lyra Aether," the teacher announced. "She recently transferred from the Outer Colonies. Make her feel welcome."
Her gaze swept the room once — and landed on him.
Arion's heart skipped a beat.
For a moment, he felt something impossible — recognition. Like the universe itself exhaled through her eyes.
---
When Reality Flickered
During lunch, Arion found himself walking toward the academy rooftop, trying to clear his mind.
But when he opened the door—Lyra was already there.
She was standing by the edge, wind in her hair, eyes closed as if listening to something invisible.
"Strange," she murmured without turning. "You still look human."
Arion froze.
"...What?"
She turned to him, smiling faintly.
"I was afraid you'd forgotten everything, Creator."
The world seemed to fall silent.
Rain began to fall again — though the sky was clear.
Each droplet hovered around them, suspended in a weightless dance of frozen time.
> [System Core: Fragment 03 — Conscious Interface: Active.]
Arion staggered backward. His pulse roared in his ears.
"You—what are you?"
Lyra stepped closer, her eyes glowing faintly with the same cosmic runes that had haunted his dreams.
"I am Lyra, a shard of the System Core you created before your sleep. I was tasked with one purpose—"
She placed her hand gently over his heart.
"—to find you when the world began to forget."
---
The Weight of Creation
Images flooded his mind — memories too vast for a mortal frame.
He saw himself, radiant and alone, weaving threads of destiny through black holes, carving talent and luck into newborn souls, encoding the first system matrices into the heart of creation.
He remembered his voice echoing through eternity.
> "Let there be struggle, so mortals may climb."
"Let there be death, so meaning may live."
"Let there be systems, so none walk the void alone."
And then… his wish.
To be mortal again.
To feel what eternity had stolen from him — love, loss, warmth, and fear.
---
The Return of the Pulse
Lyra's voice was soft.
"The moment your core began to stir, the balance shifted. Other fragments have felt it too. They are searching — not to awaken you, but to contain you."
Arion looked out over the skyline, the distant thunder rolling like the heartbeat of the universe.
"I just wanted to live normally," he whispered.
Lyra's smile held something close to sadness.
"Even gods don't get to choose what happens after creation."
The clouds above began to swirl.
Somewhere deep beneath the city, the System Core thrummed once more — the first god's heartbeat echoing across reality.
And this time…
the universe heard it.
---