The world was quiet.
Too quiet.
Ash drifted in the air like slow-falling snow, glowing faintly in the aftermath of the cataclysm. The once-grand battlefield — where the heavens themselves had cracked and the devouring star had been born — now lay in eerie stillness. Ruined pillars jutted from the earth, half-sunk into the molten crust like the broken bones of ancient gods.
From that silence came a single heartbeat.
Thump…
A faint pulse rippled through the scorched land. Beneath the layers of dust and shattered aether, a hand broke through — pale, trembling, but burning with a dark luminescence that refused to fade.
Hayate gasped as he rose, his entire body steaming. His robes were in tatters, his veins glowing faintly with traces of devouring energy still coursing within. The crimson mark on his chest — the Devouring Sigil — flickered erratically, as though it had been pushed beyond its limit.
He coughed, a line of blood trailing down his chin, and looked around.
"Everyone's gone…" he muttered.
No wind. No echo. Not even the whispers of the spirits that once filled the battlefield.
For the first time in years, Hayate felt… alone.
He stared down at his trembling hands. They had destroyed, consumed, and shattered countless things — yet now, they were empty. Even the power of the Devouring Star had receded into dormancy, whispering faintly in his soul.
[System Fragment: Dormant]
Energy reserves critically depleted. Awakening sequence required: Divine Ruins resonance.
"Divine Ruins…" he murmured. His memory flashed — the words of the goddess before the collapse. "When the star devours the sky, seek the ruins beneath the hollow heavens. There, rebirth and death are one."
He clenched his jaw. "Then that's where I'll go."
But as he stepped forward, the world rippled — the ground twisting like liquid glass.
A voice echoed.
Low. Ethereal. Feminine.
"You shouldn't have survived."
Hayate froze. The sound didn't come from around him — it came within.
The air shimmered, and from the fragments of light before him, a figure began to form — the faint silhouette of a woman cloaked in lunar radiance. Her eyes glowed with sorrow and awe as they met his.
"You… You're the goddess," he said softly.
She smiled faintly. "A remnant of her. A whisper left behind in the ruin you created."
Her words hit like a blade. Hayate lowered his gaze, guilt threading through his chest. "Then this ruin… it's because of me."
The goddess' voice grew softer. "No. It's because of destiny. The star must fall before it can rise again."
She extended her hand toward him, her form flickering like an illusion on the brink of collapse. "Go east, beyond the Hollow Sky. The Divine Ruins await — and within them, the truth of your birth."
Hayate hesitated. "My birth?"
She nodded. "You were never meant to be mortal. You are the fragment of a forgotten star — one that once defied heaven itself."
The air trembled. The ashstorm around them flared into a spiraling vortex, swallowing the last remnants of light.
Hayate stepped forward, reaching for her hand — but just as he did, her figure shattered into countless motes.
"Find me… in the heart of the ruins…"
And she was gone.
Silence reclaimed the battlefield once more.
Hayate exhaled slowly, his gaze burning toward the distant horizon.
"Then that's where it begins again," he whispered.
Behind him, the Devouring Sigil pulsed once — faint but alive — before fading into stillness.
The Rebirth had begun.
(Part II)
The wind had returned — cold, thin, and whispering through the empty wasteland.
Hayate walked across the ashlands in silence, the cracked earth crunching beneath his boots. Every step sent faint trails of light spiraling outward from his feet — traces of dormant power flickering like dying embers.
Far ahead, the horizon shimmered with a faint azure glow — the Hollow Sky. A rift in the heavens where the clouds hung upside-down and lightning flowed upward. The path to the Divine Ruins.
But the closer he walked, the heavier the air became.
The Devouring Sigil beneath his chest pulsed in slow, uneven beats.
Each beat carried whispers — fragments of forgotten voices.
"The star defied… the goddess wept…"
"Devour… or be devoured…"
"Do you remember your first death, Child of the Void?"
Hayate clenched his fists. The whispers clawed at the edge of his sanity, dragging half-remembered images of battlefields drenched in divine blood.
"Shut up," he muttered, pressing a palm over the mark. "Not yet. I don't even know what I was before."
A faint laugh answered. Low. Mechanical.
[System Fragment: Reactivation – 3% Functional]
Detecting anomalous energy ahead. Probability of combat encounter: 94%.
He sighed. "Figures."
The ash ahead shifted. Something massive moved beneath it — a slithering presence that sent tremors through the ground.
From beneath the gray dunes, a colossal skeletal beast erupted — a dragon's skull wreathed in ghostfire, its ribs stretching like a cage of bones. The faint remnants of divine sigils still glowed across its skull — this had once been a guardian of the heavens.
Now it was just a husk.
[Analyzing Entity: Fallen Guardian – Ashbone Leviathan]
Status: Corrupted. Objective: Prevent entry into the Hollow Sky.
"So they left watchdogs behind," Hayate said, his lips curving into a thin smirk. "Good. I needed a warm-up."
The Leviathan's roar split the air, sending shockwaves across the plain. Ash spiraled into the sky like a storm.
Hayate's hand flicked, summoning his blade — the Celestial Devourer. The sword sang in his grasp, faintly trembling as if it remembered the taste of divinity.
When the Leviathan lunged, he moved.
A single step, a blur — then a crack of air as his blade met bone. Sparks erupted as the devouring energy clashed with ancient divine marrow. The impact sent Hayate skidding backward across the ground.
The Leviathan swung its tail, smashing through stone pillars, and lunged again — its maw filled with blazing blue fire.
Hayate raised his sword, muttering,
"Let's see how much of you the star left behind."
He thrust the blade into the earth. Dark ripples spread outward. From the ground, shadowy chains erupted, latching onto the beast's limbs and dragging it down.
[Devouring Sequence Initiated – Partial Sync: 11%]
The air howled as energy swirled. The chains pulsed and fed power into Hayate's body, his eyes glowing faintly with twin streaks of crimson light.
The Leviathan shrieked, its bones cracking under the pressure — but even dying gods didn't yield easily.
It tore through the chains and lunged again, snapping its jaws inches from Hayate's face. He ducked beneath the strike, pivoted, and sliced upward — cleaving through one of its horns.
The horn shattered into ash and lightning.
Hayate grinned through gritted teeth. "That's one."
But the Leviathan's inner fire reignited — a blue inferno bursting from its chest. The beast's final roar shook the world as it prepared to explode.
[Warning: High-density divine core instability detected!]
"Then I'll devour it before it devours me!"
He thrust his hand forward, the sigil on his chest blazing like a miniature sun. The devouring energy spiraled outward — a black vortex swallowing the blue light in midair. The explosion reversed upon itself, collapsing into Hayate's palm.
A heartbeat of silence. Then — boom.
The entire plain went white.
When the light faded, only Hayate remained standing amid the crater. The skeletal remains of the Leviathan had turned to dust, leaving behind a single shard floating in the air — a fragment of divine essence.
He reached out and grasped it. The shard melted into his hand, its energy seeping into his soul.
[System Update: Functionality Restored – 29% Operational]
Skill unlocked: Devour of the Divine Husk.
Hayate exhaled, a smirk forming. "You really do wake up after a good meal, don't you?"
[System: Affirmative. Welcome back, Host.]
The familiar cold voice filled his mind again.
And for the first time since the collapse, he didn't feel completely alone.
He looked toward the horizon — where the Hollow Sky glowed brighter now, like an inverted storm hanging above a vast chasm.
"Let's go, then," he said quietly. "To the Divine Ruins — and the truth behind what I really am."
As he walked forward, the ashes swirled behind him, forming faint patterns — like constellations in the dust. And somewhere deep in the heavens, a whisper answered:
"The star awakens once more"