Darkness crept inward at the edges of Kaiser's vision, his consciousness fragmenting under pressure.
And in that space between awareness and oblivion, memory surfaced with terrible clarity.
****
[Nearly Two Centuries Ago – Year 2353]
A small house sat at the edge of a village, its paint peeling and its roof sagging with age.
Stone steps led to the door, worn smooth by decades of footsteps.
And sitting on those steps, small frame hunched forward, hands buried in his face...
A white-haired child.
His shoulders shook with sobs he was trying to suppress, his breathing coming in gasps that tore at his throat.
Whispers still rang through his mind, echoing over and over without mercy.
"He's too dumb to awaken! Can't even read properly and he thinks he'll become an awakener!"
"What a moron! His brain doesn't work right!"
"The greatest fool! That's what we should call him!"
