A young man sat at his desk, flipping through the pages of a fantasy novel.
The room was quiet, lit only by a faint lamp.
"…Let's see how this ends."
He turned the page.
-----------------------------------------
Inside the novel—
A young man named Kaelen knelt on the ground.
Around him lay nine monstrous corpses.
Eight of them were SSS-Rank.
And one—
An existence beyond that.
EX-Rank.
Even in death, their presence filled the battlefield with pressure.
Kaelen's body was trembling. Blood dripped from his wounds, staining the ground beneath him.
He had fought with everything he had.
And yet—
It wasn't enough.
Crack—
Space itself split open.
A dark portal appeared.
From within it, a humanoid figure stepped out.
Its presence alone distorted the air.
It glanced at the fallen monsters… then at Kaelen
"…Pathetic."
Its voice was cold.
"All of them failed?"
Kaelen tried to raise his head, but his strength was gone.
The figure sighed.
"I suppose I have to finish this myself."
Before Kaelen could react—
The figure casually raised its hand.
A simple motion.
Nothing more.
Then—
Slash.
Kaelen's head fell.
Clean.
Instant.
His body collapsed onto the ground.
Lifeless.
The battlefield went silent.
The figure stared for a moment… then turned away.
Without another word, it stepped back into the portal.
And disappeared.
-------------------------------------
The story ended.
-------------------------------------
"…That's it?"
The young man frowned.
"What kind of ending is this?"
No victory.
No hope.
Just death.
He sighed in frustration and flipped to the next page.
"…Epilogue?"
But something was strange.
The page was almost empty.
There were no paragraphs.
No explanation.
No conclusion.
Only a single name written in the center—
Aether Valencrest.
"…Who?"
The young man leaned closer.
"That name wasn't even important in the story…"
As he stared at it—
A sudden warmth spread through his chest.
"…What—?"
A faint glow appeared beneath his shirt.
Then—
Runes.
Ancient, unfamiliar runes began to form across his chest, glowing softly at first.
Slowly…
They spread.
Crawling across his skin like living light, moving through his veins, carving themselves into his body.
"W-What is happening to me?!"
The glow intensified.
His heartbeat grew louder.
Faster.
Stronger.
The room around him began to distort.
The air trembled.
The pages of the novel fluttered wildly, as if caught in an invisible storm.
The name on the page—
Aether Valencrest
—burned with blinding light.
"Is this… because of that name…?!"
The runes spread further, covering his arms, his neck—his entire body now shining with an otherworldly glow.
He tried to move—
But his body wouldn't respond.
Then—
The light consumed him.
Completely.
And in the next moment—
He vanished.
As if he had never existed.