The sky did not merely crack.
It shattered.
A裂 a wound in reality itself tore across the horizon, stretching like a jagged scar that split the heavens into jagged fragments of gray, black, and crimson. For a heartbeat, the world held its breath. The streets of New Eden City, the once-proud pinnacle of human engineering, stood silent, as if every citizen sensed the collapse of something far older, far crueler than they could comprehend.
Then it screamed.
The sound did not originate from any living thing. It was not the wail of a human, the roar of machinery, nor the grating shriek of failing energy shields. It was the cry of reality itself deep, resonant, stretching across dimensions, shaking the soul in ways the body could not survive.
The ground trembled beneath Kael Arden's boots. Concrete fractured underfoot. Glass shivered and fell in jagged shards around him. The city's defensive shields flickered erratically, their once-steady blue aura cracking like thin ice over a storm swollen river. Emergency sirens screamed across the skyline, their pitch warping as if the very air had been torn in half.
And Kael ran.
He ran not because he believed he could survive. He ran because he had no choice.
In his arms lay the small, fragile form of his sister, Liora. Her body was frail, her skin almost translucent beneath the flickering light of emergency sirens and burning buildings. Dark veins pulsed beneath her pale flesh, crawling like living shadows across her arms and neck a cruel testament to the corruption that had taken root in her soul. Her lips were tinged blue, trembling slightly with each shallow, painful breath.
"Hold on," Kael whispered, his voice cracking under the weight of terror. "Just hold on a little longer…"
She didn't respond.
The corruption had advanced too far. Stage four. By now, it had burrowed into her heart, her lungs, and her mind. Every second she drew breath was a miracle. But miracles were fleeting.
THE WORLD AFTER THE FALL
One hundred and twenty years ago, humanity had seen the sky open for the first time.
From that wound descended the Void Lords creatures whose very existence defied physics, whose presence bent gravity and consumed energy. Entire cities had fallen in moments, nations erased without a trace. Humanity survived only through ingenuity, desperation, and the construction of Sanctuary Cities: floating metropolises of steel and plasma, shielded from the ravages of a world that had grown hostile and alien.
New Eden was the greatest of them all. Towering skyscrapers, layered energy shields, and floating districts suspended over a poisoned wasteland it was humanity's final bastion. And yet, in this moment, it felt impossibly fragile, like a glass orb in the grip of a storm.
The裂 in the sky poured forth shapes darker than nightmares. Shadows coalesced into forms that twisted the mind and defied comprehension. Each silhouette moved with purpose, deliberate and cruel, as though reality itself had sent its predators to cull the remaining humans.
Void Lords.
Their name alone was enough to inspire despair.
Explosions erupted across the city. Defense cannons fired arcs of plasma, streaking the red sky, but the creatures were unfazed. Shield generators overloaded, producing blinding flashes, yet the monsters advanced with terrifying inevitability.
Kael didn't look back. He ran.
Behind him, buried beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings, lay the only person who mattered in his life: Liora. His little sister. The last piece of hope in a world gone mad.
THE LAST HOSPITAL
The emergency medical tower loomed ahead, partially crumbled. Its upper floors burned, black smoke pouring into the sky, mingling with the裂 above.
Kael burst through shattered glass doors. Inside, chaos reigned.
Doctors shouted frantic instructions. Nurses dragged injured civilians across the blood-soaked floors. Automated med-drones hovered, scanning, analyzing, dispensing emergency treatment. Everywhere, fear and desperation clung to the air like a suffocating fog.
"Out of the way!" Kael shouted, shoving past fleeing survivors.
A medic ran toward him, her eyes widening as they fell on Liora. Her small body was shaking, barely able to breathe. The black veins crawling beneath her skin made her appear both fragile and otherworldly.
"No…" the medic whispered. "Stage four corruption…"
Kael's heart sank.
"Do something! Anything!" he screamed. "You have to save her!"
The medic's face paled. "We don't have the resources. All advanced healers" Her voice faltered. "All were deployed to the front lines. Even if they were here…"
Kael knew the sentence before she spoke it.
"She's dying," he whispered.
"I'm sorry," the medic said, turning away.
Kael slid to the ground, clutching his sister against him. Memories of their parents flashed in his mind. Their death. His endless nights of hunger. The loneliness. The whispered promises to keep Liora safe.
"I promised…" he muttered, pressing his forehead to hers. "I promised I'd protect you…"
Her eyelids fluttered faintly. A weak breath escaped her lips. "Kael…"
His heart jumped. "I'm here. I'm right here."
Her small hand twitched, brushing against his sleeve.
"I… don't want you to cry," she whispered.
"I'm not…" he said, but the tears streamed freely anyway.
THE COLLAPSE
The explosion came without warning.
A massive section of the ceiling fractured, collapsing in a shower of concrete and steel. Dust choked the air. Fire licked at the walls. Screams filled the tower.
Kael twisted instinctively, covering Liora with his body as debris rained down. Pain exploded through his back. Darkness rushed in.
Then there was nothing.
No sound. No sensation. No weight.
BEYOND EXISTENCE
Then, he felt it.
A presence. Vast. Ancient. Infinite. Watching him from outside the boundaries of reality.
[SOUL SIGNATURE DETECTED.]
A voice echoed, resonant, layered, and mechanical in tone.
[ANALYZING...]
Memories surged through him every loss, every scream, every failure. Pain became knowledge, despair became clarity.
[MENTAL RESILIENCE: EXTREME.]
[EMOTIONAL ANCHOR: PRESENT.]
[SUITABILITY: MAXIMUM.]
Kael tried to move. He could not.
[ACTIVATING ECLIPSE PROTOCOL.]
Agony unlike anything physical tore through his very soul. His memories were rewritten, reshaped, reforged into the blueprint of something greater. Black runes burned themselves into his consciousness. His identity fractured.
[WELCOME, FINAL AWAKENER.]
THE CONTRACT
A massive, shadow-forged interface unfolded before him, pulsing with crimson energy like a heartbeat.
ECLIPSE PROTOCOL
> Objective: Create a being capable of rewriting fate.
Cost: Humanity.
Failure: Absolute erasure.
PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: Protect the bound soul LIORA ARDEN.
Kael's voice trembled. "You can save her?"
[POSSIBILITY: 0.0000009%]
His chest tightened. This tiny number, so infinitesimal, was now the only thing tethering him to hope.
"Then raise it," he whispered.
Visions erupted in his mind: cities burned, stars collapsed, gods screaming, entire civilizations erased. And through it all, a single thread remained Liora's fragile form, her faint breathing.
"I accept," he said.
[CONTRACT CONFIRMED.]
REBIRTH
He gasped violently, inhaling air thick with smoke and ash. His body ached in ways he could scarcely recognize as real.
The hospital was in ruins, yet beneath him Liora.
Her chest rose and fell faintly. She was alive.
The system interface glowed before his eyes:
[ECLIPSE PROTOCOL — ONLINE]
HOST: KAEL ARDEN
LEVEL: 1
[NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: VOID SENSE (F)]
Detect hostile entities within 500 meters.
Then a chill ran down his spine.
[VOID LORD SIGNATURES DETECTED: 3]
[THREAT LEVEL: CATASTROPHIC]
Kael's gaze swept the city. Shadows moved, enormous and relentless.
A colossal figure rose in the distance. Its horns pierced the smoke. Its eyes glowed with molten hatred.
The world was broken.
But he held Liora tightly.
And for the first time, he did not run.
The path ahead was clear.
Survive. Protect. Ascend.
Kael Arden's legend had begun.