Silence.
Not peaceful.Not calm.
A silence that arrives after something terrifying happens—heavy, suffocating, aware.
It lingered long after the creature's ashes drifted to the fleshy ground.
Kairo stood in the middle of it, chest rising unevenly, black cracks still fading beneath his skin. The dungeon walls pulsed softly as if reacting to what he had unleashed—fear, hunger, reverence… he couldn't tell.
He didn't care.
He took a step forward.
The warm, organic floor twitched under his bare feet.Every footprint left behind a faint scorch, like the darkness itself burned where he walked.
His voice broke the quiet.
"Where do I go…?"
Nothing answered.
So he walked anyway.
The Deep Shifts
The deeper he moved through the tunnels, the stranger the world became.
Whispers drifted around him.
At first, soft—like cold breeze in a sealed cavern.
Then clearer.
"…not human…""…broken one…""…prime-blood…"
His jaw tightened.
He kept moving.
He entered a massive chamber drowned in pale fog. Spined silhouettes—creatures of bone and shadow—clung to the ceiling, their many eyes glowing.
The moment Kairo met their gaze—
They froze.
Then scattered like insects fleeing flame.
He had no weapon.No shoes.Barely any blood left in his body.His limbs trembled from exhaustion.
And still…
Creatures fled from him.
A thought crept through his mind, cold and honest:
What am I becoming?
The Corpse Pit
Eventually, he reached a ledge.
Below it lay a pit filled with twisted skeletons—human, beast, things he didn't recognize—all dumped in heaps and left to rot.
A chill slid down his spine.
Was this where he was supposed to end?Discarded beneath monsters and failed experiments?
A memory flickered—villagers locking him in a shed,calling him cursed,firelight leaking through the cracks—"Keep him in there. Don't let him out."
He grabbed his head, breath shaking.
"Not now… not again…"
He forced the memory away.
Forced his legs to move.
Forced himself forward.
He wasn't dying in a hole.
Not after the hunters walked away.Not after the chains.Not after the lies.Not after the creature mocked his existence.
He would walk out.Crawl out.Drag himself out.
Whatever it took.
The First Light
Time lost meaning.Minutes or hours—he didn't know.
But then he saw it.
A faint glow.
Not fire.Not divine light.Not warm or comforting.
A cold, silver-white shimmer.
Moonlight.
Kairo's breath trembled.
"An exit…"
He limped toward it, body screaming in pain.The tunnel climbed upward, carved by claws and decay.His knees buckled once—he caught himself against the wall, leaving a smear of blood on the stone.
"Just… a little more…"
He dragged himself onward.
A cold breeze touched his face.
Relief stung his eyes.
He stepped out of Ashen Deep—
And froze.
Into Hell
The world outside wasn't a forest.
It wasn't a village.
It wasn't anywhere meant for life.
A massive crater stretched before him—burned trees, cracked ground, drifting ash.The sky churned with purple storm clouds spiraling around a scar in reality.
A rift wound.
The moon above was bloodred.
This wasn't an exit.
It was a disposal site.
A forbidden zone where high-ranked Rift Beasts roamed.Where experiments were abandoned.Where society threw away what it didn't want.
Kairo felt something collapse in his chest.
He wasn't imprisoned.
He was thrown away.
Like the corpses.Like the monsters.Like trash.
His heartbeat slowed—but his eyes ignited.
The Beasts
A growl rolled behind him.
Kairo turned.
Three Rift Wolves crawled down the crater wall—exposed ribcages glowing like dying embers,bone jaws clicking.
They circled him silently.
His legs shook.His vision swayed.He could barely stand.
He had nothing—no weapon, no strength, no breath left.
The largest wolf lunged—
jaws wide, aiming for his throat—
And then—
The world cracked.
A pulse of black energy erupted from Kairo—silent, invisible, devastating.
The wolves froze midair.
Their bones vibrated.Their eyes shattered like crystal.
Then—
BOOM.
All three exploded into dust.
Ash rained down around him.
Kairo stared at his hands—black lines glowing faintly beneath his skin.
He whispered, shaken:
"…I didn't even move."
The power wasn't just awakening.
It was protecting him.Acting without his command.Choosing for him.
He steadied his breath and lifted his head.
The wind blew through his silver hair.The crimson moon cast him in a cold, haunting glow.
He no longer looked like a prisoner.Or a victim.Or a trembling child abandoned in a dungeon.
He looked like something else entirely.
Something the world tried to burybut failed to kill.
Kairo stood tall, eyes cold, dried blood on his skin.
The night trembled around him.The monsters kept their distance.
He whispered into the wind:
"I'm walking out of here…whether this world wants me to or not."
The world responded.
A ripple tore through the rift-scarred sky.
Far away, in the holy city of Eidrus—a divine sensor cracked.Sacred alarms flared.Priests stumbled in panic.
On the sacred screen burned one message:
WORLD-THREAT ANOMALY:RESURGENCE DETECTED.
Kairo didn't stop.
He didn't look back.
He walked out of the abyss—
like the monster they forced him to become.