Run!
Believe me—this warning's more accurate than any weather forecast. The glass raining down could slice your face open before you even blink.
Feet struck a half-broken pillar—solid—then kicked off. Skyler twisted midair, cutting through gravity's pull, spinning past a storm of shattered concrete. A steel beam slashed through his blue hair by less than a millimeter.
Sparks burst behind him, lighting a horizon where two worlds collided: a jungle of choking vines crashing into a futuristic metropolis. Skyscrapers folded—paper yielding to fire. Screams—human, beast, both—ripped through the chaos until sound itself became unrecognizable.
And there—
Skyler stood among the ruins of what used to be his home. His pupils widened, locking onto the silhouette of doom before him.
"You—!"
A weak groan snapped his attention sideways. For a heartbeat, the world stopped turning.
Two familiar figures lay motionless on the fractured ground. Blood—bright, searing red—soaked through torn fabric, spreading over the cracked earth.
"Zoe! Roxy!"
The shout tore from his throat, raw, unrecognizable as his own voice.
He dropped to his knees, cradling the small, trembling body in his arms. Hands shaking, aimless. "Don't sleep—hey! Zoe, can you hear me!?"
She smiled faintly, pain twisting her mouth into something fragile. "Sky... I'm here... don't leave me." Her eyelids fluttered, muscles giving way one by one.
Roxy's trembling arm reached toward him, barely moving. "You... promised... to protect..." The last breath broke—then her hand fell.
"No! No, please!" His scream fissured, as if the word itself could drag them back from the void.
Then—
The ground split open.
Everything dropped. The rupture devoured streets, rubble, and bodies alike. Dust swallowed him whole, dragging Skyler and the two girls into a bottomless dark.
The world spun—weightless, endless—until only a fading whisper remained.
"...Help..."
The sound of ragged breathing slammed against the walls. Skyler jolted upright, ripped from the nightmare. His violet eyes flickered, trembling—caught between dream and death.
"Just… a dream," he muttered hoarsely.
Sweat drenched his palms—worse, ashes clung to his fingertips. He flinched, shaking them off, but the chill in his chest refused to fade.
Throat parched, he forced himself up and staggered toward the kitchen. Halfway there, he froze. The lab door was open. It shouldn't be.
A strange hum vibrated through the hall. The blue-haired teen gripped his glass tighter and stepped down the stairs.
In the dim light stood a metallic silhouette—his assistant robot—its frame reflecting the holographic circuits that streamed above the main console. Luminous teal lines pulsed, veining the metallic floor and walls.
"Tim!?" Skyler barked.
The robot jerked.
"You're playing games in my workspace again, aren't you?"
Tim's synthetic reply wavered. "N-no, sir! I was… testing the new reactive computation system!"
"Yeah, sure. Robots lie better than humans now, huh?" Skyler sighed, rubbing his temples. "Out. If you mess up my leaderboard score again, I swear I'll wipe your existence from the system."
He snatched the console from Tim and dropped himself into the seat. Within five minutes—defeat. Total, humiliating defeat.
"Ugh, fantastic," he groaned, killing the game with one slap on the screen. He exhaled sharply and flicked the interface open again. Data flooded by—thousands of lines scrolling faster than thought.
"Tim, any progress on the coordinates?"
"After extensive analysis, the signal pattern does not match any existing database entries," Tim reported with unnecessary vintage distortion.
Skyler slumped forward.
Then—the screen rippled.
A string of alien symbols infiltrated the display, twisting code into unreadable, self-rewriting chaos.
Blue pixels stutter-flashed across Tim's face, warning the air itself. "Anomaly detected… this data is not—" Static swallowed the rest.
Skyler glanced up, unimpressed. "Don't pull that trick again. If you're trying to—"
The robot spasmed violently, wires snapping taut. Black smoke unfolded from its joints; the stench of burning metal filled the air.
"Okay, that's not good!" Skyler's fingers flew across the keys. Enter—
Tim froze. Letters became digital butterflies, tearing out of the code in flares of light.
⊗ Ϟ ᛃ 𐎢 ⦿ ✠ ᚱ ⭑ 𐍉 ᛝ Ϟ ⟁ ᛃ ⦿ ᛟ 𐎀 ᚦ 𐍈 ᛣ 𖤐 𐌎 𐍆 ⊗ Ϟ ᛃ 𐎢 ⦿ ✠ ᚱ 𐍉 ᛝ Ϟ ⟁ ᛃ ⦿ ᛟ 𐎀 ᚦ 𐍈 ᛣ 𖤐 𐌎 𐍆 𐍉 ᛗ ϟ ᛃ 𐍆 ⦿ 𐎢 𐍆 ᛟ 𖤐 Ϟ ⏀ ⟁ 𐎀ᛃ ᛣ ᛗ ᚦ ᛝ ⦿ ᚦ ✠ ᚱ 𐍈
And suddenly—
A flash.
Eden.
The floating island. The towering castle rising through clouds, bathed in morning glow. At its heart—an enormous throne, etched with runes of impossible power.
A man in a crimson cloak sat upon it—two shards of amber burning in the dark. Skin pale as carved stone. Trinity—the Supreme Ruler of Eden.
Skyler knew that shadow.
Too well. The memory stabbed so deep he could almost feel it scrape his teeth.
That day—when he faced the man himself—he had to burn every neuron he had, hacking through the dimensional code of the universe just to survive the onslaught of that impossible magic.
He'd tried explaining it later in terms that sounded smart: quantum physics, interdimensional anomalies, whatever helped him pretend it wasn't what it was.
Magic.
Yeah. That word.
Honestly, he'd rather believe that the terrible vending-machine coffee downstairs was modern art than admit that.
"Good thing he's still on our side," Skyler muttered.
He rubbed his arm absently, checking if his bones were intact. The image of the Dark Gate flashed through his mind—the same radiant runes that now blinked across his screen.
Why was it here?
Why now?
The little wooden house perched high among the sprawling branches of Gaia, the world tree. Sunlight filtered through the dense leaves, scattering ripples of gold across the walls. Its colossal roots spread beneath the forest floor, forming the very foundation of this realm.
Wooden bridges linked the branches together, creaking softly as the breeze brushed past. Leaves whispered in a rhythm older than memory—peace woven into sound.
Inside, Zoe sat before her vanity.
The room was an explosion of pink—dangerously so. Piles of plush hearts, sheer curtains, perfume bottles, makeup kits, crystal trinkets—an aesthetic so sweet it could kill anyone allergic to 'cute.' This was her kingdom of sugar and glitter, private and perfect.
Her sky-blue eyes met her reflection as she brushed her sherbet-pink hair, the strands shimmering softly. Normally, this was her sacred time—skin-care, moisturizing, admiring her own beauty.
But not just that.
Zoe often turned her hairbrush into a mic, striking idol poses only she could pull off—if there were a talent show, she'd win before finishing the first syllable.
"~ When the morning hits and you're feelin' lonely, right? ~" She twirled, bright and flawless in rhythm—
—and then her legs buckled.
Not from a missed step. From something unseen striking her down.
A chill surged through her veins; the air thickened, temperature plummeting fast enough to freeze ice cream mid-spoon.
"What the—? Nine!" Zoe gasped, reaching out with her mind.
Nine—the spirit fox bound to her soul.
'Zoe... I... am being...'
The echo trailed off, leaving a chill hum that pressed against the skin—then nothing.
Zoe's pulse spiked. She could feel Nine somewhere—alive, but being dragged into something vast, incomprehensible.
"Nine! Wake up! C'mon, wake up!" Her scream shattered the stillness—
—but only silence answered.
And then—
the universe went dark.
High above the clouds, the floating island of Eden gleamed beneath the sun. Golden warmth spilled across smooth marble, where luminous flora swayed gently—each leaf a secret, shimmering under the wind's breath.
CRASH!
Steel clashed in the Sigma Four Training Hall. Sparks burst midair—brief stars dying as fast as they were born. The stone floor shimmered with faintly glowing runic circuits—intricate magi-tech arrays adjusting the gravity field for optimal combat flow.
Weapons lined the walls: plasma swords, flame-reflecting shields, extendable mech-spears, enchanted rifles—enough to arm an entire black market.
The arena teemed with practice bots—steam-powered soldiers, AI-driven magic constructs, even a holographic battlefield that could shift terrain at will.
"Faster! Move faster!"
The command cracked the air open.
Roxy Starcrest, Commander of Sigma Four, stood in the center—red eyes sharp, posture impeccable. Her black combat suit clung to her toned frame with military precision; beautiful, dangerous, impossible to ignore.
Anyone foolish enough to stare too long risked getting skewered by the spear in her hand—without warning, without mercy.
The hulking man lunged forward, sweat breaking in streams down his jaw and chest, desperate to earn back a shred of dignity.
Roxy spun her weapon, pivoted, and swept his legs out in one elegant motion.
THUD.
He hit the floor before his pride did.
Around the arena, recruits swallowed hard. None dared meet her gaze.
Roxy smirked. "Anyone else feel lucky?"
Silence.
She shrugged, planting her spear into the floor. "Then come at me—all of you."
That did it.
The tension snapped, replaced by a wave of excited chaos—like a cafeteria riot over the last instant noodle cup.
Roxy didn't flinch. Her finger traced the length of the spear as though savoring the calm before the storm.
But the storm came early.
BANG!
The main doors burst open.
A young woman rushed in—her lilac hair a tide in motion, golden eyes flashing with alarm.
Tyra, Roxy's second-in-command. The one person in Sigma Four she trusted without hesitation.
"Commander! You need to see this—now!" Her voice could slice granite. Sweat glistened beneath her light armor, the red-and-black mechanical sigil on her cloak catching the sun as she held out a data pad.
Roxy's brow twitched. "This better be worth interrupting my fun."
"If it wasn't, I wouldn't be running across Eden's entire damn surface under the sun," Tyra shot back without missing a beat.
Roxy arched an eyebrow. "Was that… sass?"
Tyra dipped her head slightly. "Apologies, ma'am."
The commander took the device. Two seconds. Red glare burned beneath her lashes.
Onscreen, the Tree of Life—Gaia—was shaking violently. Its vast roots flickered, something unseen was clawing at its essence.
"What in the world—?"
Before an answer came, the ground trembled.
For the first time in recorded history, the floating island—Eden, the pride of stability—shook.
A grinding sound roared through the air.
Roxy looked up.
The horizon was a serpent, twisting and tightening around the world's edge.
This wasn't a glitch in the system.
This was a warning.
Something catastrophic was coming.
At the heart of Cosmic City, neon hues shimmered across steel towers that pierced the clouds. Hovercrafts drifted above magnetic streets, their engines thrummed in uneven rhythm, metal breathing through metal.
Everything ran as usual—until it didn't.
KRNNNNK!
A fracture ripped through the city. Holographic billboards flickered in a seizure of color—then died. The ground swelled upward as if something beneath the world was pushing to break free.
Glowing green runes spiraled around the roots of a massive tree clawing through the concrete. A shockwave erupted—air folded in on itself, hurling people upward, limbs flailing through the debris.
—
Same moment, in Eden.
The serene heavens convulsed. The floating island shuddered violently, sending tremors through every inch of its sanctified soil.
Roxy and Tyra sprinted through the trembling streets, breath sharp against the rising quake. The luminous flora that once bloomed in peace now quivered in terror, bending toward the earth as though praying.
"Zoe! Where are you!?" Roxy shouted, leaping over a collapsing wooden bridge.
—
In the lab.
The holographic display lit up the room in sickly hues. A live feed showed a monstrous root tearing through Cosmic City's core—the skyline a sheet ripped by unseen hands.
"Tim," Skyler whispered, cold and disbelieving, "tell me I'm hallucinating."
The robot's metal fingers tapped the console, graphs spiking across its screen. "Regretfully, sir... that's Gaia's root. One hundred percent confirmed."
"Analyze it—now!"
Tim's buzzed with static. "Energy signature matches the dimensional anomaly we detected. The glyphs correspond with ancient data logs. Origin point... identical."
Skyler's jaw tightened, muscles twitching. The feed flickered under the weight of his stare. "If it's happening here… then Eden's next."
The robot froze—no script prepared for that kind of certainty.
Skyler clenched his fists.
Zoe... Roxy... I'm coming for you.
Elsewhere—another dimension.
Dim silver radiance washed over an enormous chamber. A man in an ivory cloak sat motionless—statue-still—as he watched the chaos unfold through a hovering magic circle.
Within the ring shimmered the image of Gaia's roots bursting through Cosmic City, veining outward across the ruin.
Even from across dimensions, the roar reached him—the tremor was felt.
"It's begun…"
Under the hood, silver eyes glowed. His hand rose to touch a floating crystal; the image quivered.
Then another figure appeared within the projection—his presence alone bending the air around him. Trinity.
Their gazes met through the distortion.
"You're watching this too, aren't you... Silvernight."
A faint smile curved the cloaked man's lips. He pushed the hood back, revealing silver hair that caught the dim light.
"Of course. I knew it would happen—just didn't expect it this soon."
His fingers swept across the air; the hologram bloomed—fractal threads raced outward, devouring the grid.
"It won't stop at Cosmic City," Silvernight murmured.
Trinity nodded once. "Then how long do we have?"
No answer—just a weight heavy enough to crush air itself.
They faced each other—understanding sparked, quick and blinding, gone before either could breathe.
The calm before the storm had ended.