In the darkness of the night, there was a young boy who walked alone down the street, bathed in the pale glow of the moonlight.
Tap, tap, tap.
The rhythm of his footsteps echoed softly through the busy veins of the city. Despite it being a weekday, the streets were still alive, cars rolled by lazily, neon lights buzzing above cafés and convenience stores, and a swarm of people flowed along the sidewalks like a restless current. Among them, there was that lone boy in a school uniform, his presence oddly out of place in the midnight crowd.
Every few steps, people turned to look at him curious, confused, whispering to one another.
Why would a student be walking alone at this hour?
Shouldn't he be home studying, asleep, or preparing for school tomorrow?
The glowing digits of a nearby digital billboard read 22:35 PM, a time when the world expected children to be safe behind closed doors, not wandering through the city like a ghost.
Some people frowned, thinking he must be a delinquent one of those kids who roamed the streets at night looking for fun, trouble, or someone to blame their boredom on. But that thought vanished the moment their eyes met his face.
There was only one word that came to mind.
"Beautiful."
They froze when they saw the child's appearance
His skin was pale, polished like porcelain, glowing faintly beneath the city's artificial lights. His wide red eyes resembled that of a crescent moon. His black hair smooth, fine, and almost silken flowed down to his waist, swaying gently with each step. His features were delicate, refined beyond what seemed humanly possible. Many mistook him for a girl at first glance, maybe because of his small stature, standing barely one hundred and fifty centimeters tall, or the quiet, graceful way he moved like a drifting shadow untouched by the noise of the world.
People's eyes lingered, entranced by a beauty they couldn't explain, a beauty that didn't comfort but unsettled, because beneath it was something they couldn't name.
And then they saw it the faint trace of sorrow in his expression. The way his eyes, though calm, carried a weight that no child should bear. There was a shadow behind them, a quiet exhaustion carved into his face.
A face too beautiful, and yet too empty.
He walked on, unbothered by the gazes that followed him. When he reached the intersection, the red light for pedestrians glowed bright, but he didn't stop.
Tap… tap… tap.
The boy stepped onto the crossing, as headlights flared in his vision. A car's tires screeched.
"Hey! Watch where you're going! The light's red!"
An old man shouted from the driver's seat, his voice sharp and trembling with irritation and fear.
But the boy didn't flinch. He didn't even glance at the car. He just kept walking.
There was something in his face, something almost disappointed, as though he wished the car hadn't stopped in time.
He exhaled softly, eyes half-lidded, and thought to himself
How lucky I am…
The thought was bitter, laced with quiet
self-mockery. And from the corner of his mind, another memory began to surface faint at first, then sharper, clearer, like an old wound reopening.
"How dare you lie to us."
"After all we've done for you this is how you repay us?"
Those words came from none other than his own parents. His mother, and his father.
"We don't want to see you again. Get out of our house."
The sharpness of his father's voice had cut deeper than any blade could. But it wasn't the words that broke him it was the expression on his mother's face. The look that no child should ever see from their parents, disgust, cold, unfeeling.
It was an expression that shattered something inside him forever.
"You're not our child anymore."
That second blow struck harder than the first. It didn't echo it carved itself into his mind, permanent, raw, and echoing in every breath he took afterward.
He had tried to speak back then, but no words would come. Not because he was afraid, but because somewhere deep inside, he knew they were right. He had no excuse. It was his own fault. His lies, his choices. He deserved it.
And so he left.
Now, here he was walking aimlessly under the cold gaze of a city that never cared, his feet carrying him further and further away from the warmth of home.
He didn't stop. He didn't look back.
The car's honk faded behind him, replaced by the steady rhythm of his footsteps on the pavement. He didn't know where he was going, he simply walked as though movement itself was the only thing keeping him alive.
Before he realized it, the glowing lights of the city had begun to fade. The tall buildings gave way to silent factories, the hum of engines replaced by the whisper of night winds brushing against distant fields. The air smelled different here, damp earth and the faint sweetness of grass.
He stopped for the first time and looked around. The endless stretch of rice fields shimmered faintly beneath the moonlight, and the sky above was vast and hollow.
He let out a quiet breath.
"I've been walking for quite a while," he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Before I knew it, I'd reached the edge of town."
He tried to smile, but it didn't reach his eyes.
"What should I do now?"
Maybe… call a friend, he thought.
The friend he meant was his deskmate, the one who always sat beside him, the one who laughed at his jokes, shared his lunch, and told him stories to kill the boredom of long classes.
For a brief moment, that thought felt like warmth. A faint light.
But then, a dull pain burned across his right cheek.
He touched it instinctively. The mark of a punch.
The memory returned like a flash. His friend's face twisted in anger and disbelief.
In front of him stood his friend, his fist trembling in the air. Then, without a word, the knuckles met the right side of his cheek, quiet yet heavy enough to leave a sting that went deeper than pain.
The boy fell to the ground, the world around him fading into a blur of sound and light.
He looked up at his friend in disbelief, eyes trembling, searching for any hint of warmth left in them.
His friend's lips quivered before the words escaped, cold and bitter.
"I can't believe I was manipulated by someone like you."
He took a step back, his voice cracking as he continued,
"You're disgusting. I trusted you… but you lied to me."
Each word sank deep, heavier than the punch itself. The boy sat there in silence, the sting on his cheek fading beneath a deeper ache in his chest.
He wanted to speak, to explain, to reach out but no sound came.
The next thing he saw was his friend's back, walking away without a glance. The distance between them grew with every step, until all that was left was the faint echo of footsteps and the hollow weight of being left alone.
Those sharp words lingered in his ears, followed by the sting of that strike. The pain was long gone, yet the memory remained bitter, vivid, and heavy as ever.
Friend, huh…
He scoffed quietly, shaking his head. I bet he never even saw someone like me as a friend.
"What kind of friend lies, what kind of friend uses someone, then makes them do something like that"
A bitter smile curved his lips half amusement, half self-mockery.
At that moment, the scenery around him began to change.
The night deepened. The air grew colder. The faint breeze that had brushed through the rice stalks died away, and the world fell utterly still.
The city lights in the far distance blinked out one by one, swallowed by the darkness. The sky above, once painted with the soft glow of stars, grew dim until it became a curtain of endless black.
Silence pressed down on him. Even the whisper of wind had vanished.
He stopped walking and looked up. The sky had turned completely black.
"Even the moon refuses to shine for me," he murmured softly, his breath visible in the cold air.
"I guess even it knows I carry a dark heart."
He took another step forward and froze.
The path was gone.
The road that had stretched before his feet only moments ago had vanished, replaced by an endless void. The fields around him twisted and blurred, the factory silhouettes bending unnaturally, as if the world itself was melting into shadow.
His heartbeat quickened. His breathing grew shallow. He blinked hard, thinking maybe exhaustion had blurred his vision after all, he had walked from the city to here without rest.
But then…
The sky shattered.
A crack tore through the darkness, sharp and shrill.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
It was the sound of glass breaking but louder, heavier, as though the heavens themselves were fracturing apart. The boy looked up, eyes wide, heart pounding.
Pieces of the night splintered, falling in slow motion like shards of obsidian glass. Through the cracks, something immense stirred, something ancient and wrong.
From within that broken sky emerged a towering figure.
A giant skeleton, its height nearly five meters, wrapped in a translucent veil that fluttered like torn fabric in a wind that did not exist. Behind its back, six skeletal arms stretched outward, each one twice the length of its body, curling and unfolding like the limbs of some forgotten god.
The boy's legs trembled. He could only stare frozen, breath caught in his throat, mind unable to comprehend what he was seeing.
As the last fragments of the shattered sky rained down, the world around him fell silent once again.
Only his heartbeat echoed.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
And before him, under the ruined night, the skeletal figure began to move.
As the sky shatter, the boys gaze fixed forward, he was lost at word at what he sees, a sky breaking like a tattered window glass, the surrounding sceneries become black like just lost in space, at first he think it just an illusion from a fatigue, he just from the city to the edge of it of course he tired from it, but that thinking disappear as soon as a he hear a voice
"What a pellicular life from"
Those word come from a giant figure right in front of him.
A giant skeleton towering at 5 meters tall, it speaks while looking at the boy like how humans see an animal, inspecting him like a child inspecting a toy.
The boy was confused, scared, and at loss at word
"It can speak" the boy thought
While the boy was still confused, the giant skeleton figure came down from the shattered sky, and came right in front of the boy.
The boy looking up at the giant figure still frightened and with an instinct like looking at a predator he stepped back, the moment the stepped back something weird happened, he didn't move from that spot at all, he still standing at the exact spot where he was, the boy confused "what I just stepped back right?"
He tried to do it again but the exact same thing happened, and then he tried to run, he twisted his body backward and ran with all his might but a strange thing happened again, he was standing again in front of the skeletal figure.
At that moment he realizes something, it was pointless to run, it was too late, the moment he sees this thing his fate was decided.
While seeing the giant skeletal figure and still thinking how to escape this situation, the skeletal figure asks him a question.
"Are you a human?"
The boy who still tried to escape from his spot, stopped for a moment, and tried to answer the question, he tried to spit out a word from his mouth while terrified.
"I'm a human", the boy answered.
"I see so you're a human"
The boy is confused by what just happened in front of him, a giant skeletal figure comes from the sky, asking him a question "are you human", and now he knows something or he realizes something, the world has become unstable.
The moment this giant skeletal figure descends, his surroundings become distorted, black veil of night is no longer, it changes to a static scenery, even the star in the sky starts to look like static that appears in the television or laptop monitor.
The skeletal figure looked satisfied with the boy's answer, and then the next thing it said was "I see, so I have succeeded breaching the fifth realm.
"The fifth realm, what does that mean?" the boy thought to himself as he heard what the skeletal figure murmured to itself, and then the boy opened his mouth asking question.
"Who are you?"
The boy asked a question, what is the creature or being right in front of him right now and who are they.
The skeletal stopped for a moment, and pondered the boy's question, the skeletal figure showed a visible confusion on its face. Even though it didn't have a skin to show expression but for a moment it seemed like it wavering, the boy didn't understand how a skeletal figure like him could show that kind expression, and then it answered the boy's question.
"A mere insect dare to ask a question"
The moment it said that word, the boy felt an immense pressure crushing him, it felt like his body was being crushed.
At those words, the ground beneath him cracked. An invisible weight crushed him down. His bones screamed in agony as he collapsed to his knees.
The voice was cold and arrogant.
The boy gasped for air as the unseen pressure tightened around him. Pain seared through his body like fire beneath his skin.
"I'm the one who do the questioning here"
"I feel like my body is being crushed by a giant boulder and immense pain rushes into every part of my body" the boy thought to himself while crushed to the ground.
While the boy is in excruciating pain, the giant skeletal figure scoffed at him and said "you're asking me what am i?"
The pressure stops and the boy now can move his body, while still in agony, he tries to stand up and looks at the giant skeleton in front of him.
"I'm the abnormality of world, ■■■■■■"
The boy couldn't comprehend what it just said, and then something thing happen, his vision become red, he's coughing blood, from inside his eardrum blood bursting out, his entire body excruciating pain, it's looked like the boy just exploded, no it's not it's like exploding, it more correct to say the moment he's hear it speaks it name the boy body could comprehend it or shouldn't hear it or known it.
The boy fell into the ground, drenched in his own pool of blood he tries to speak, but the only thing that comes out is blood, his throat is full of blood,
he can't speak, his vision is blurry drenched in blood, and he becomes deaf his eardrum gushing out blood.
"What a weak creature, I just answer his question, and he's dying already"
The creature said something but the boy can't hear anything anymore.
Still laying in the ground the boy thought goes somewhere else, he thought of today happening, he just got kicked out from his home, his mother and father doesn't recognize him as their child anymore, he betrayed his only family and now he about to die from an unknown creature that come out from the sky.
In his last effort he tries to speak something, "mother father I'm sorry", I'm sorry I lied"
What came out from his mouth was an apology to his parents.
"Is this a punishment for me, because I did a bad thing, because I lied to everyone?" The boy thought in his mind.
"If I knew this would happen, I wish I could apologize directly to mother and father."
Tears fell down from his red eyes, a regret still lingering in his heart, and the memories of today's event flowed to his mind.
It was the boy's last word before his vision became blurry, and his heart stopped beating, and then the light in the boy's eyes faded.
While watching the boy die in agony, the skeletal figure thought to himself.
"What a fragile creature" it muttered
"It be a wasted to leave his body unused"
While looking at him, and pondering what to do, the skeletal figure comes to a conclusion.
It smile, an eerie smile surfaces in his non-existent skin on its face.
"Be happy human, for your have a grand purpose"
The skeletal giant hand levitate the boy body with an unknown force, and bring it to the front of it face, and declare "be happy human, for you have a grand purpose, it is to become my vessel, the vessel of overlord".