"...Who was that!?"
My voice echoed faintly into the void, the endless darkness swallowing it whole. The silence that followed felt heavier than before, like something unseen was listening… waiting.
Suddenly.
A sound.
Footsteps.
The sound echoed across the void like something walking through shallow water, each step sending faint ripples through the darkness itself. My body tensed as it grew closer, every step deliberate and controlled.
Then I saw it.
The source of the steps.
At first, it was only a silhouette, a figure emerging from the void as if reality itself were forming around it. Its body shimmered, its form unidentifiable, neither solid nor pure liquid, but something far deeper. Streams of light, fragments of concepts, and shifting currents of energy flowed beneath its surface like a living cosmos given form.
Its shape was seemingly Terrian; two legs, two arms, and one head.
But it was not Terrian.
This was no kin.
Its eyes met mine, swirling with deep endless chaos. Like galaxies collapsing and reforming within them.
Yet even in that quiet moment, as primal fear surged through me, sharp and immediate, it became clear that this was not a being meant to be stood before. The presence it carried felt like that of an apex predator, something capable of erasing my existence in an instant, and a dread unlike anything I had ever known filled me.
My body refused to move, yet I still forced the words out that plagued my mind.
"Who… are you?"
The figure stopped. For a moment, it simply watched me. Then it spoke.
"I am the beginning."
Yet the voice did not come from its mouth, but from everywhere around me. It was neither loud nor quiet, yet powerful enough to make the void itself tremble.
My brows furrowed, confusion cutting through the fear.
"The beginning?" I muttered. "I don't understand… What is this place?"
The figure tilted its head slightly, as if observing something beyond my words.
"You stand at the point to which all return… and yet you cannot see."
My jaw tightened.
"What does that even mean?" I snapped, irritation rising. "Stop speaking in riddles and tell me what the hell you're talking about."
"You are not as you should be," the figure interrupted.
The words struck deep, deeper than I had expected. My expression hardened as confusion spread through me.
"What?"
I took a step forward, frustration bleeding through my body, overlapping the primal fear that had rooted me in place moments ago.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
The void shifted.
No… it was being swallowed.
Darkness folded inward, drawn toward the figure as if it were the center of everything. The endless black compressed, reshaping itself into something new. Light replaced it as the once indistinct mass of energy began to refine itself, constructing a more defined form that resembled a woman.
Her body glowed softly, the color of moonlight reflecting across calm waters. Strange markings, like flowing tides and ancient currents, stretched across her form, shifting and moving as if alive. Her jet-black hair draped over her shoulders, falling to her waist.
Her eyes were a blend of emerald green and white, their irises shaped like the sun and a crescent moon.
She was beautiful.
Not in a way that felt Terrian, but in a way that felt… fundamental.
Before I could react, she was in front of me.
My breath caught. I hadn't seen her move.
Her hands rose slowly, gently, before resting against my face. Warm. Soft. Like the touch of something that had existed long before I ever had.
My body locked in place. The fear was still there, that overwhelming, suffocating sense of standing before something far beyond me.
But beneath it, something else stirred. Something familiar, yet distant. A strange, quiet recognition washed over my heart as a faint image flickered in my mind.
A face.
Blurry.
Distant.
But warm.
My knees buckled, and I dropped, not out of force or pressure, but because something inside me gave way.
"…Why did you continue?"
Her voice softer now, closer.
Not echoing.
But warm and present.
For a moment, I couldn't answer. My mind drifted back to the battlefield, back to the death of my comrades, back… to him.
"Be… because…" My voice cracked slightly.
"Because if I stopped… then everything that happened… would be meaningless."
Silence filled the space as her hands lingered for a moment longer before slowly pulling away. I lowered my gaze, breathing uneven. Seconds passed, or maybe longer. I couldn't tell.
Then a faint smile touched her lips.
"Many have walked the path you now stand before," she said quietly. "And all have fallen."
A brief pause followed, and something in the air shifted.
"But…"
Her gaze deepened.
"I believe I will enjoy your story the most."
I frowned slightly, lifting my head.
"What does that-"
Something appeared in her hand. A pitch black cube, darker than the void that once surrounded us.
Two glowing rings orbited it, spinning slowly in opposite directions. Symbols etched into their surface pulsed faintly, shifting and rearranging like a language I couldn't comprehend.
Immediately I felt it.
A tug, deeper than the one I felt from the stairs earlier. Like something inside me was reaching for it.
"Take it," she said.
My hand lifted unconsciously… then stopped.
I hesitated.
"…What is it?"
Her eyes held mind, the faint smile on her face still present.
"The Abyssal Heart."
My eyes clung to it, something inside me growing restless.
Before I could react, it moved. The cube shot forward, crossing the distance between us in an instant and piercing my chest faster than any weapon could.
A searing heat exploded within me.
My body arched as something ignited deep inside my core, spreading outward in violent waves. Light and darkness collided beneath my skin, energy surging through every part of me at once, threatening to burn me whole.
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think.
Everything blurred as my hands flew to my head, gripping tightly while the searing heat intensified, swelling until it felt like a thousand suns collapsing within me.
Pain was not enough to describe what I felt, yet it was the only word my collapsing consciousness could grasp.
Then suddenly, there was nothing.
The pain vanished. The woman was gone.
Darkness swallowed my vision.
And then… light.
My eyes snapped open to an endless sky of plain white.
"…What the hell…"
A close face appeared in my vision.
Smiling.
A girl.
A bright yellow eye stared down at me, filled with amusement. The other eye covered by a black metal-like eyepatch. Her blonde hair was braided loosely, strands falling around her face. Freckles dotted her light skin, and a small butterfly-shaped marking rested at the center of her forehead.
"A Velmoran." I said to myself, recognizing the marking on her forehead.
The Velmora, a strong race of people known for their assassin techniques and graceful appearance.
She grinned.
"What the fuck are you doing laying down still?"
I blinked.
Once, then twice.
"...what?"
How could such a sweet looking girl have such a foul mouth I wondered, pushing myself up, still disoriented.
She stepped back, giving me space as I rose to my feet.
The ground beneath me was solid, but everything else stretched into a vast expanse of white. Endless. Empty. Or at least, it should have been.
It wasn't.
People.
My eyes widened slightly as I took it in. Thousands… no, far more than that, their figures stretching across the horizon and filling the space in every direction. I stood among creatures I couldn't name, beings shaped by forms and features that defied anything I had ever seen or been taught to understand. Some looked almost normal at a glance, close enough to pass without notice.
Others didn't.
My gaze shifted, drawn instinctively to my right.
A man stood there, tall and composed, as if the chaos around us had no place near him. Long red hair fell past his shoulders, a striking contrast against his brown skin. His attire was refined yet built for battle, each piece fitted with purpose, the quality unmistakable even at a glance.
There was no wasted movement in him, no uncertainty. His posture alone carried a quiet authority, the kind forged through discipline rather than display.
His eyes met mine briefly. Sky blue, with a hint of gold.
We studied each other, words unneeded, our gazes saying enough in that single moment.
"Hmph."
He turned away.
I frowned slightly. Not out of anger, but disappointment.
A noble lineage, I thought.
Even here… that arrogance remained unchanged.
My hands clenched into fists as memories surfaced. Young nobles appointed by their families into high positions, barking orders without care for whether they were sending us to our deaths. To them, war was a game, a means of proving themselves so they could climb higher within the hierarchy.
"Where are we?" I asked, turning back to the girl.
She didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she raised a hand and pointed ahead.
I followed her gaze.
A door.
Massive.
Towering far above anything around it.
Ancient carvings covered its surface, intricate and layered, telling a story I couldn't fully understand. Figures, battles, symbols, and a strange carving of a key centered in the middle of everything. This was something old, something dangerous that I was sure I had no business knowing.
Above it, sat glowing red letters.
KINGS GAME
Beneath that, was a countdown.
20…19…18…
Heads raised, murmurs spread through the crowd.
The tension was heavy, yet the emotions among the people varied.
Fear.
Confusion.
While some wore expressions of excitement.
"...No way," the girl muttered, eyes lighting up. "Who would've known King's Game was actually real?"
I stared at the door.
"…Right."
Beyond that door laid the opportunity to save our people. The world of… Kings game. The place that was said to be where mortals could become gods, a place that before today, I had assumed was just one of the many ramblings of the fanatic believers of the so-called gods.
"Don't get in my way."
The voice came from the side.
The red-haired man.
He hadn't turned around.
"If you can't keep up, die early," he continued flatly. "I have no interest in being slowed down by the weak."
I narrowed my eyes slightly, remaining quiet as I took note of him mentally.
The girl snorted.
"God, nobles are all the same," she said, rolling her eyes. "Pride shoved so far up their ass they can't even think straight."
The man's shoulders shifted.
He turned slightly, brows lowering.
But before he could speak, a sound of heavy metal clashing cut through everything.
For a second I thought I was in the forges again, the faces of Mike and the other blacksmiths plastered with sweat, slamming their hammers onto high-carboned steel that would later become the armor and weapons we would die alongside.
A deep mechanical rumble echoed through the space as the countdown dropped.
5… 4… 3…
The door began to open.
Light poured through the cracks, blinding and overwhelming.
2… 1…
0
The doors burst open fully.
White light consumed everything. I raised my arm to shield my eyes, and then the world dropped away.
Weightlessness.
My stomach lurched as the wind roared past my ears. I was falling.
My eyes snapped open to the sky. A real sky.
Branches tore past me as I crashed through them, leaves and splinters cutting against my body. The trees were unlike anything I had ever seen, their trunks a pale eggplant hue, almost glowing beneath the light, while their leaves shimmered in shifting colors that bled into one another like living prisms.
Then came the impact.
The ground slammed into me, knocking the air from my lungs as pain rippled through my body. I lay there for a moment, breath ragged, staring upward through the canopy above.
The multicolored leaves swayed gently, filtering the light into fragments of color that danced across my vision.
Slowly, I pushed myself up.
"…So this is it."
The forest stretched endlessly around me, vast and unfamiliar. The grass beneath my feet glowed a soft azure blue, casting a faint light that pulsed gently against the strange world around me.
It was beautiful.
King's Game had begun.