Arios was just finishing tucking in his little brother, Kei, smoothing the blankets with a rare moment of peace, when a sudden, unnatural cold swept through the room. Out of the absolute void of the corner, a dark shadow lunged forth, manifesting like a stain on reality itself.
"That child… belongs to me," the shadow hissed. Its voice wasn't human; it was a sinister, distorted echo that seemed to vibrate through the very stones of the chamber walls, chilling Arios to the bone.
Before Arios could even process the threat or reach for his power, the entity unleashed a violent blast of invisible kinetic energy. The force slammed him backward, his body crashing against the stone wall with a sickening thud. The impact was brutal. Arios coughed up blood, gasping as he slumped to the floor, his limbs trembling from the sheer shock of the blow.
Yet, he refused to stay down. Driven by a surge of pure, raw adrenaline and the desperate need to protect his brother, he scrambled to his feet, lunging toward the dark specter in a final attempt to intervene.
But his efforts were futile. The shadow extended a hand swathed in swirling mists of darkness, and an invisible force field locked Arios in place. He tried to reach deep into his mind, seeking a glitch in the shadow's structure, but it was useless. "It's as if this entity is the Administrator over this space… I can't execute any action; I'm locked out of the system," he thought in total desperation. His muscles strained to the breaking point, but he couldn't move a single finger. It was as if invisible chains had been hard-coded into his very skeleton, rendering him a mere spectator to the tragedy.
Kei, awakened by the violent crash and the suffocating pressure in the room, looked up from his bed. His small face was a mask of confusion and growing terror. His tiny voice cracked and trembled as he stuttered:
"B-Big brother… w-what's happening?"
Arios tried to force his voice to remain calm, to be the anchor his brother needed despite the cold dread rising in his own chest. "It's okay, Kei. Everything is going to be fine."
The little boy began to float, his small body dragged toward the shadow by an unseen tether. His blue eyes were wide with panic, searching Arios's face for the safety that was rapidly slipping away into the dark. Then, Kei screamed—a raw, heart-wrenching sound that tore through the freezing air:
"Help me, brother!"
His tiny hands reached out into the void as the shadow wrapped around him like an impenetrable shroud of ink. Tears tracked through the dust on his pale cheeks, and his frantic breaths turned into small puffs of mist in the sudden, unnatural chill of the room.
"No! Kei!" Arios roared, fighting the invisible pressure with every fiber of his soul. But the shadow was done playing. Before vanishing into the void, it left behind a final, cruel command that resonated in the silence:
"If you wish to see him again, come to Kanasfort. But hurry… or there won't be anything left of him."
With a hollow, malevolent laugh that seemed to mock his very existence, the shadow spiraled into a vortex of darkness, taking Kei with it. The echo of the boy's final, desperate scream burned into Arios's mind, searing him with a brand of guilt he knew would never fade.
When the silence finally returned to the room, Arios collapsed to his knees, his energy spent. His body gave out under the weight of the superhuman effort he had made to resist. The last images of Kei being torn from his reach played on a loop in his mind. Who was that entity? And what was Kanasfort? The questions swirled in his head like corrupted data before the world spun into a dizzying blackness and he lost consciousness.
When he finally came to, the room was no longer cold and silent. He was surrounded by royal guards and his father, Balniac. The King was pacing frantically from one end of the room to the other, his movements sharp and erratic—the clear sign of a man pushed to his absolute breaking point.
"Where is your brother? What happened here?!" Balniac demanded the moment Arios's eyes fluttered open.
With a broken, halting voice, Arios managed to speak. "It took him… a shadow, a specter… I couldn't do anything to stop it."
The weight of the failure was a physical crushing force. He had failed to protect the one person who looked up to him with pure love. He balled his fists so tight his knuckles turned bone-white, fighting back the sob rising in his throat. Balniac, consumed by his own terror and helplessness, lashed out in the only way he knew how:
"How did you let this happen?! It was your responsibility to watch him! You're the eldest!"
The words cut deeper than any physical blow. Arios gritted his teeth and stared at the floor, refusing to let his emotions spill over in front of the guards. He knew arguing wouldn't bring Kei back, but the accusation left a scar on his heart.
Queen Eleonor arrived moments later, her presence acting like a cooling breeze in the suffocating heat of the room. Arios whispered another apology, his voice barely a breath. Balniac, seeing the genuine, raw agony in his son's eyes, finally let his anger crumble. He stepped forward and pulled Arios into a tight, crushing embrace.
"It's not your fault, son. Forgive me for my reaction," the King murmured, his voice thick with regret. The embrace was brief, a silent pact of grief between them. "Arios, did it say anything else? Any clue at all?"
"Kanasfort," Arios replied, the name feeling like ash in his mouth.
"Kanasfort!" Balniac's face went deathly pale. His entire body tensed as if the word itself were a lethal poison.
General Andros stepped forward, his grave voice cutting through the tension like a blade. "The Demon Fortress," he declared. "A cursed place where no human has ever survived for long."
Arios felt the helplessness of his past life as Yuomo resurfacing, threatening to drown him in the same despair he thought he'd left behind. But he wiped the tears away with a hard motion and stood up, his gaze hardening into something cold and resolute.
"I'll go. I have to find him," he said. "I'm supposed to become an adventurer anyway. This starts now."
"It's impossible!" Balniac countered, his fear for his eldest son now matching his fear for the youngest. "Even as a top-rank adventurer, I would fear to tread in that place. It is a suicide mission!"
"It might be a trap," Andros added, crossing his arms. "The way that entity gave you the location feels calculated to lure you to your doom."
"Trap or not, I'm saving my brother," Arios snapped, facing his father directly. "Father, you can't leave the kingdom. If you do, our enemies will see the instability and strike Bardios while it's weak. I am the one responsible for Kei. I have to be the one to save him."
Balniac fell silent, caught in a brutal conflict between his duty as a King and his instinct as a father. Finally, he looked to Eleonor. The Queen, though her heart was clearly breaking, saw the unbreakable fire in Arios's eyes.
"He's right, Balniac," she said softly. "By our laws, he is an adult now. Besides, remember the chronicles: the destiny of a Double S-Rank warrior is not forged in the comfort of a palace, but in the tragedy and fire of the world outside. Perhaps this is the 'event' that destiny has programmed for him."
She turned to Arios, her violet eyes swimming with unshed tears. "Please, son… be careful. Both of you are our entire world. Promise me you will do everything in your power to come back alive."
Arios nodded firmly. Balniac let out a long, ragged sigh of resignation. "Fine. Go. But swear to me, Arios… swear you will bring Kei back. Whatever it takes."
"I swear it, Father."
In the far corner of the room, Claris watched the entire exchange in a heavy silence. She saw her parents' total, absolute focus on Arios and the missing Kei. "Maybe I don't matter as much as they do," she thought, a sharp, bitter pang of jealousy blooming in her chest.
She didn't say a word to comfort them. She simply turned and slipped out of the room, her boots making almost no sound on the heavy carpets. Once she was deep in the shadows of the hallway, a subtle, dark smile played on her lips.
"Perhaps this is an opportunity," she mused, her lilac hair shimmering in the dim torchlight. "If Arios and Kei don't return… I'll have all the attention I've ever wanted. I'll be the sole heir—and perhaps the future sovereign of this kingdom and another, through marriage." She shook the thought away, but the seed of ambition had already taken root in the fertile soil of her resentment.
Arios prepared for his journey with mechanical, cold efficiency. He donned a specialized blue combat suit woven with ancient magical protections, the fabric shimmering faintly under the light. He mounted his horse, equipped with every provision and tool he might need for the long trek south.
"I'll bring him back," he promised one last time before spurring his horse into a sudden gallop, leaving the gates of Bardios behind.
As he rode through the deepening twilight, his mind raced as fast as his steed. Why Kei? His brother had no powers, no hidden potential, no blessing from Ravada. It made no sense. Back at the castle, Balniac was asking the same question into the empty air. "What are those demons planning?"
In another plane of existence, the Goddess Ravada was visibly distressed, her divine composure fractured. Her servant, Kao, approached with a cautious bow. "My Lady, why the sudden tension?"
"The demons took Kei… but he has nothing special about him. Why him?" she wondered aloud, her eyes glowing with an intense light. "Unless… it's a lure for Arios. A way to pull him into a game he isn't ready for."
"Something is wrong, My Lady," Kao noted, his voice low. "Since we brought Yuomo here, everything has been off. And why is his killer also in this world? The variables are overlapping in ways we didn't foresee."
Ravada remained silent, her mind traversing the threads of fate. "This was not the plan. Someone is pulling the strings of destiny from the shadows. Kao, investigate this. Meanwhile… I must contact Arios. He needs to know exactly what he's facing before he reaches the gates of hell."
Arios was deep in the dark woods now, the moon barely piercing the twisted, ancient canopy. The air was thick with humidity and the smell of rot. Suddenly, something struck his horse with brutal, calculated force. It wasn't a stone or a fallen branch, but a wire of dark energy stretched between two trunks—a perfectly executed trap. The animal screamed as its legs were swept out, throwing Arios several meters through the air. He rolled, slamming into a jagged rock with a force that knocked the wind from his lungs.
His vision filled with red "glitches"—a critical damage warning flashing from his internal system. He could barely move, his breath coming in ragged gasps, as heavy footsteps approached slowly from the depths of the shadows.
Dark, hungry voices hissed through the trees, mocking his vulnerability:
"Dinner has arrived…"