The forest was quiet. Too quiet.
Kael Arclight pressed his hands to the ground, feeling the pulse of the earth beneath him. Every blade of grass, every gnarled root hummed faintly with mana—but it was unlike anything he had felt before. Cold, raw, and impatient.
He couldn't remember. Not fully.
Images flashed in his mind—bright lights, screaming numbers, a girl with gold and crimson eyes—but they slipped away before he could grasp them. A gnawing emptiness filled his chest, and yet... something deeper, a current in his veins, throbbed with power he could not name.
It's here...
A rustle behind him drew his attention. Shadows danced between the trees. Kael tensed, instinct overriding confusion. He reached for the hilt of a weapon that didn't exist—his body already remembering the motions.
From the shadows, a creature emerged: a wolf unlike any Kael had ever seen. Its fur shimmered between silver and black, eyes like molten gold, and claws that seemed to slice the air itself.
"Kael Arclight," it growled, in a voice that resonated in his mind more than his ears. "You are not ready... and yet, you are here."
Kael swallowed, feeling the air thicken with mana. "Who... what are you?" he asked.
The wolf's eyes flickered, almost amused. "I am the first test," it said. "You are weak... but the current within you, the System you carry... it hungers."
Kael's chest ached, not from fear, but from recognition. Something inside him pulsed, whispering fragments of truths he could not yet recall. His mind swirled with broken numbers, faint images of a blade, a mecha form, eyes that could pierce lies... a golden-crimson light.
"I... I don't remember anything," he said, voice trembling. "Why... why do I feel this?"
The wolf tilted its head, ears twitching. "Memory is a cage. You do not yet need it. Your body, your soul, your systems... they know. They will teach you. Survive. Adapt. Evolve."
Kael's eyes burned—one gold, one crimson—though he did not know why. The forest seemed to warp around him: shadows stretching unnaturally, mana pulsing in waves he could sense but not yet control.
The wolf crouched, claws digging into the earth. "Strike me if you dare... or flee. Either choice will shape your first step."
Kael clenched his fists. Every instinct screamed both caution and hunger. The dormant energy within him twitched, begging to be unleashed. He could feel the faint hum of multiple systems awakening inside—Magic, Fusion, Evolution, and something deeper he could not yet name.
A gust of wind carried whispers—echoes of his forgotten past, Lyra's voice somewhere distant, and the faintest outline of a world waiting for him to rise.
Kael inhaled, letting the pulse of his body sync with the forest. Slowly, deliberately, he whispered:
"I don't know who I am... yet. But I will."
The wolf's eyes gleamed. "Good. Then let the current judge you."
And with that, the air cracked. Mana surged. Shadows lunged. And Kael Arclight took his first real step into a world that would never forget him.