Darkness.

  Not the gentle darkness of night, nor the quiet shadow cast by distant stars.

  This was something deeper. Something absolute.

  A void where light had never existed and where silence was not merely the absence of sound, but a suffocating presence that pressed against the edges of awareness itself.

  And yet… I was conscious.

  The realization came slowly, like a ripple disturbing an endless ocean of nothingness. Thought formed where thought should not have been possible. Awareness flickered in a place where existence itself had no meaning.

  There was no body.

  No breath.

  No heartbeat.

  Only a drifting point of perception in an infinite sea of void.

  Logically, this should not have been possible.

  Consciousness requires structure—neurons, signals, a brain to contain the fragile spark of identity. Without those things, there should have been nothing. No thoughts. No sense of time. No "I."

  Yet the impossible persisted.

  I existed.

  The realization echoed through the emptiness like a paradox trying to tear itself apart.

  How?

  The question formed instinctively, though there was no voice to speak it.

  Where am I?

  No answer came.

  There was no direction in the void. No up or down. No sense of movement. Even time felt uncertain, as if moments stretched endlessly before collapsing into each other.

  Thoughts drifted slowly through the darkness.

  Fragments of logic.

  Concepts without memory.

  I knew language. I knew the meaning of questions. I understood the idea of existence.

  But when I tried to remember anything about myself—anything at all—there was only emptiness.

  No name.

  No face.

  No past.

  It was as if the universe had left behind the shell of a mind but erased everything that once defined it.

  I was a consciousness without a history.

  A thought that had forgotten the thinker.

  For a long while—minutes, hours, perhaps centuries—nothing changed.

  Then something moved.

  Far away within the endless darkness, a faint blue light appeared.

  At first it was so small it could have been mistaken for an illusion, a fragile spark trembling in a sea of absolute black. But it remained there, steady and quiet, like a distant star struggling to exist.

  Then it pulsed.

  Once.

  The void rippled faintly, as though the fabric of nothingness itself had shuddered.

  Twice.

  The rhythm felt strangely familiar.

  Like a heartbeat echoing through an empty cathedral.

  My awareness drifted toward it without conscious decision. Perhaps curiosity guided me. Perhaps instinct. Or perhaps the light itself was pulling me closer.

  What is that?

  The thought formed naturally.

  But before I could move further, something changed.

  The stillness shattered.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  An invisible force suddenly seized me.

  It was not a physical grip—there was no body to grab—but the sensation was unmistakable. Something enormous had locked onto my existence itself.

  And it was pulling.

  My awareness stretched violently as if invisible hands were dragging me apart from every direction at once.

  Pain erupted.

  Not physical pain, but something far worse—a tearing sensation that clawed at the core of my identity.

  I was being erased.

  My existence, whatever fragile form it had taken in the void, was unraveling piece by piece.

  Fragments of awareness broke away like ashes caught in a storm.

  No…!

  Panic surged through me.

  For the first time since awakening in the void, something resembling fear ignited within my mind.

  I didn't know who I was.

  I didn't know what I had been.

  But some primal instinct buried deep within the center of my being screamed a single command with desperate clarity.

  Survive.

  The force pulling at me grew stronger.

  The void itself seemed to reject my presence, as though consciousness was an infection the universe was trying to remove.

  My thoughts flickered.

  My awareness dimmed.

  I could feel myself dissolving.

  No… not yet.

  Somewhere within the collapsing remnants of my mind, a spark of defiance ignited.

  I resisted.

  I didn't know how.

  I didn't know what resisting even meant in a place without form or matter.

  But I refused to disappear.

  The moment that decision crystallized, the universe itself seemed to hesitate.

  Then the pulling force vanished.

  Just like that.

  The crushing pressure disappeared as if it had never existed, leaving behind only the suffocating silence of the void once more.

  I remained.

  Barely.

  My awareness flickered weakly, fragile as a dying flame.

  And that was when I saw it.

  Floating in the center of the darkness was something impossible.

  A perfect square of pale blue light.

  It hovered in the void like a doorway carved into nothingness itself. Its edges were sharp and geometric, radiating a soft glow that pushed back the surrounding darkness.

  It should not have existed.

  Nothing should exist in the void.

  Yet there it was.

  Waiting.

  A faint instinct whispered from somewhere deep inside me.

  If I stayed here, the erasing force would return.

  And next time… it would finish the job.

  The square pulsed softly, its glow steady and calm, like an invitation.

  Or perhaps a test.

  I moved toward it.

  There was no walking, no physical motion—only the sensation of drifting forward through the empty abyss.

  The closer I came, the brighter the frame became.

  Energy rippled through the surrounding darkness like a tide reacting to my approach.

  Then I crossed the threshold.

  The moment my awareness touched the blue frame, reality shattered.

  The void vanished.

  In its place came chaos.

  Light exploded around me as countless glowing symbols burst into existence. They floated in the air like embers from an unseen fire—strange characters, ancient patterns, fragments of a language that did not belong to any human world.

  They swirled slowly through the air, forming shifting constellations of meaning.

  And somehow…

  I understood them.

  Mana.

  Vessel.

  Ley Lines.

  Rank.

  The words flowed directly into my mind, settling into my thoughts with terrifying clarity.

  They were concepts I had never learned.

  Yet they felt as natural as breathing.

  Something inside me reacted to them.

  As if I had been waiting for this moment.

  Then the pain began.

  It arrived without warning.

  A violent shock tore through my consciousness, ripping apart the fragile stability I had barely regained.

  "Aaah—!"

  The scream echoed inside my mind.

  My form—whatever shape it had taken in this strange space—began to unravel again. Fragments of shadow and blue light tore away from my existence like pieces of a shattered mirror.

  I was breaking.

  My awareness stretched thin, my identity fraying at the edges.

  Then I saw it.

  A figure floated ahead, motionless in the center of the glowing symbols.

  At first glance it looked like a corpse.

  Its body was wrapped in ancient bindings, brittle and worn as if centuries had passed since they were first placed there. The form beneath them was thin and hollow, like the preserved remains of something long dead.

  But what froze my thoughts was not the body itself.

  It was the shape.

  It looked like me.

  Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that it looked like the body that should belong to me.

  At the center of its chest rested a necklace.

  A strange object made of dark material that seemed to swallow the surrounding light. At its core pulsed a faint crimson glow, beating slowly like a distant heart.

  The moment I noticed it, something within me stirred.

  A pull.

  A magnetism that felt deeper than instinct.

  Without thinking, I reached toward the body.

  The instant my presence touched it, everything collapsed.

  A violent force seized me, dragging my entire existence forward.

  "What's happening?!"

  My awareness compressed violently, pulled toward the body like a hurricane being forced into a single point.

  Pressure crushed in from every direction.

  I felt myself being forced into something solid.

  Something real.

  "Get out—!"

  But there was no escape.

  The darkness swallowed everything.

  Then—

  Impact.

  Reality returned all at once.

  Weight slammed into my senses.

  Pressure crushed against my skin.

  Heat burned through my lungs.

  Air rushed violently into my chest as I gasped for breath.

  My eyes snapped open.

  Blinding light flooded my vision.

  Above me stretched a vast sky painted in deep twilight blue, scattered with unfamiliar stars.

  The void was gone.

  I lay on rough sand, my body trembling violently as sensation returned piece by piece.

  Every nerve screamed.

  Every muscle felt like it had been reborn through fire.

  "What… the hell…"

  My voice emerged as a hoarse rasp.

  Slowly, I raised my hands.

  They were solid.

  Real.

  But their appearance sent a cold chill through my chest.

  My skin was dark—an unnatural charcoal black that seemed to absorb the surrounding light.

  Across my arms ran thin crimson lines that glowed faintly beneath the surface, pulsing rhythmically like veins filled with embers.

  My heart pounded.

  This… is my body?

  Fear and disbelief twisted together inside me.

  Before I could process the situation further, a sharp instinct rose from deep within my mind.

  Leave.

  Now.

  The warning felt primal.

  Danger.

  Without questioning it, I forced myself to stand.

  My legs trembled beneath me, unsteady and heavy as if I had only just learned how to use them.

  The ground shifted beneath my feet.

  Sand.

  The word surfaced naturally in my thoughts.

  A desert.

  Wind swept across the dunes, carrying the dry scent of dust and stone.

  I staggered behind a cluster of jagged rocks, forcing myself to breathe slowly.

  I needed time to think.

  If anyone saw me like this…

  The dark skin.

  The glowing veins.

  They wouldn't see a human.

  They would see a monster.

  Then voices echoed across the dunes.

  "Quick! Move!"

  "Don't let it get close!"

  Human voices.

  My head turned toward the sound before I could stop myself.

  Instinct pushed me forward.

  I climbed the nearest dune and looked down into the basin below.

  Four humans stood there, weapons drawn.

  Their armor was light and dusty, clearly designed for desert travel.

  But it was the creature in front of them that held my attention.

  It was tall.

  Twisted.

  Wrong.

  Its pale body bent in unnatural ways, its claws digging into the sand as it circled its prey.

  The moment my eyes locked onto it, something inside me reacted.

  Danger. High threat level.

  The creature turned.

  Its hollow eyes locked onto me.

  Then it charged.

  Sand exploded beneath its claws as it lunged forward with terrifying speed.

  I didn't move.

  Not out of courage.

  Not out of bravery.

  Something deep within the void inside me had already decided something simple.

  This creature did not belong in my presence.

  The monster closed the distance in seconds.

  Then it stopped.

  Mid-step.

  Its body froze as if the air around it had solidified.

  The color drained from its skin.

  Its eyes went empty.

  And it collapsed.

  Dead before it touched the ground.

  Silence spread across the desert.

  The four humans stared at me in stunned disbelief.

  One of them whispered with a shaking voice.

  "You… how did you do that?"

  Another muttered quietly.

  "Look at him… that aura…"

  A third man stepped forward cautiously.

  He was older, his eyes sharp with experience.

  "Hello," he said carefully. "You saved us. May we know the name of our benefactor?"

  My throat tightened.

  Name…

  A strange sensation stirred within my mind.

  "I… have no name."

  They stepped back instinctively.

  Then the word surfaced from somewhere deep inside my thoughts.

  Not a memory.

  A recovery.

  "My name is Nico."

  The name settled into place like a missing piece returning to its rightful position.

  Nico Sigmund.

  But I kept the second name to myself.

  The desert wind moved quietly across the dunes.

  And somewhere deep within my mind…

  The Void was still watching.

  [End of Chapter 1]