When I woke again, the world wasn't quiet — it was too quiet.
Machines hummed softly beside me. The medical wing lights flickered in a sterile rhythm, and the faint scent of ozone hung in the air like a warning.
For a few seconds, I just stared at the ceiling, letting my eyes adjust. My whole body felt like someone had replaced my bones with electricity and regret.
Then the door hissed open.
> "You're up. Again."
Mira's voice. Dry as ever. She walked in carrying a tablet and a steaming cup of coffee that smelled like it could dissolve a tank.
> "How long was I out this time?" I asked.
> "Seventeen hours."
> "That's... oddly specific."
> "I was timing it," she said flatly. "Rina had a bet that you'd wake up in sixteen. I just won twenty credits."
I groaned. "Glad to know my near-death experiences are a financial opportunity."
> "You're good luck that way."
She set the cup down and glanced at the monitors. Her eyes narrowed slightly.
> "Still pulsing," she muttered. "You're leaking Aether again."
I looked down — and sure enough, faint strands of blue light pulsed under my skin like veins of fire. It wasn't painful, but it felt... alive.
> "It started right after the Resonance event," she continued. "You're basically a walking reactor now."
> "Awesome. I've always wanted to glow like a radioactive nightlight."
> "I'm not joking, Haruto," she said sharply. "If that energy spikes again, you could fry everyone in a 20-meter radius. Including yourself."
I hesitated. "Has that... happened before?"
Mira's lips tightened. "Not to you. But we've seen something like it — twenty years ago. The last time Lunaris's influence manifested."
My throat went dry. "And what happened to them?"
> "They didn't survive."
---
By the time Celia came in, I was sitting up. She looked exhausted — bandages around her arm, bruises along her neck, but still standing tall. That woman could take a meteor to the face and still lecture me about strategy afterward.
> "You shouldn't be awake yet," she said softly.
> "You shouldn't be walking around," I countered.
> "Someone has to make sure the squad doesn't set the base on fire," she said, shooting a look toward the hallway. "Rina found the cafeteria's emergency flamethrower."
> "Why does the cafeteria have a flamethrower?"
> "I stopped asking questions about this place a long time ago."
We both laughed — just enough to make the air feel human again. But the silence that followed wasn't comfortable.
She sat down next to my bed, eyes steady on mine.
> "You saw her again, didn't you?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Lunaris."
> "What did she want?"
> "Same thing she always wants — control."
I paused, then added quietly: "And maybe... understanding."
Celia's brows furrowed. "You almost sound sorry for her."
> "I don't know if 'sorry' is the word. It's like... she thinks she's saving everyone, but she's forgotten what saving actually means."
Celia sighed, leaning back in her chair. "People like that always believe they're right. Gods are just worse at admitting when they're not."
> "You sound like you've met a few."
> "Only one. You."
> "Ouch."
She smiled faintly. "You've changed, Haruto. You used to be the quiet, cynical one who just wanted to finish his deployment and go home. Now you're glowing, talking about cosmic redemption, and somehow still making sarcastic jokes about it."
> "Some things don't change."
> "That's what scares me," she said softly.
---
Later that day, the base was in chaos again. Not from battle this time — from paperwork, arguments, and the kind of bureaucratic panic that only the military could perfect.
Rina and Eira were arguing over a diagnostics terminal, their voices echoing through the hangar.
> "I'm telling you, his vitals don't make sense!" Eira snapped.
> "Yeah, well, maybe he's just built different," Rina shot back.
> "You can't science your way out of this, Rina!"
> "Watch me!"
Mira pinched the bridge of her nose. "If one of you breaks another data core, I'm throwing you both out of the airlock."
> "You'd miss me too much," Rina said with a grin.
> "Not enough to face the paperwork."
I walked in mid-argument, and all three froze like I'd just walked in covered in divine light.
...Which, technically, I was.
> "Okay," Rina said finally. "Not to be dramatic, but you look like a Final Boss who forgot his own backstory."
> "Thanks," I said. "Exactly the confidence boost I needed."
> "She's right, though," Mira said, crossing her arms. "That glow around you is getting brighter. Whatever's inside you, it's not stabilizing."
Eira looked nervous. "It's like the energy is alive. It's adapting."
> "To what?" Celia asked.
> "To him," Eira said. "It's synchronizing with his emotions."
Everyone stared at me.
> "Oh, great," I said. "So if I get nervous, I might explode. Perfect."
Rina grinned. "Then I'll just keep you calm. Maybe tell you some jokes. Or remind you that I'm way cuter than any cosmic goddess trying to murder us."
> "Noted," I said dryly. "That should keep the apocalypse at bay."
---
By nightfall, the base was eerily still. The air outside shimmered with residual energy — remnants of the earlier attack, still hanging like ghosts.
I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her. Lunaris. The way she looked when she said you'll come back to me.
It wasn't a threat. It was a promise.
And worse, a part of me believed her.
I left the infirmary quietly, heading up to the observation deck. The night sky stretched endlessly — stars faint behind the haze of Aether. Somewhere in that white void, she was watching.
> "You couldn't sleep either?"
Celia's voice. She was leaning on the railing, looking out over the barren plains beyond the base.
> "You too, huh?" I said.
> "Habit," she said. "Old soldiers like me don't rest easy after battles. Especially ones that end with the sky cracking open."
> "Fair."
We stood there in silence for a while. The hum of the power generators was the only sound.
> "What happens now?" I asked.
> "Command wants to run tests. Figure out what you are. Maybe weaponize it. You know how they are."
> "Great. Just what I always wanted — to be a lab rat with a glowing personality."
Celia's expression darkened. "They're scared, Haruto. Everyone is. You... you did something none of them understand. You connected with her. You came back alive."
> "Barely."
> "Still counts."
She turned toward me. "If they try to use you — I'll stop them."
> "You can't fight the entire command structure, Celia."
> "I don't have to," she said. "Just whoever gives the order."
That stubborn fire in her eyes — the same one that had terrified half the academy years ago — was still there.
> "You're impossible," I said softly.
> "So are you," she said.
And for a moment, the silence felt almost peaceful.
---
The peace didn't last.
The alarms blared at 03:00.
I was halfway out of bed when Mira burst into the room, her face pale.
> "We have a problem."
> "Define 'problem,'" I said, pulling on my jacket.
> "Aether surge. Massive one. It's coming from you."
I looked down — the glow beneath my skin had turned from faint blue to brilliant white, pulsing like a heartbeat gone wild.
> "That's... new," I said.
> "It's not just new," Mira said. "It's impossible."
The entire room shook. Lights flickered. And then — outside the window — the sky began to ripple.
Celia and Rina ran in.
> "What the hell's going on?!" Rina shouted.
> "Haruto," Mira said, gripping the railing, "your energy signature — it's not matching Lunaris's anymore."
> "Then what is it?"
She looked up slowly.
> "It's stronger."
The walls vibrated violently as the air turned blindingly white. I felt it — not pain, but a flood of warmth, of pressure, of something ancient awakening inside me.
Voices echoed — not just Lunaris's this time. Dozens. Hundreds. All whispering in unison.
"The light returns…"
The ground split open, revealing streams of blue energy weaving through the metal like veins. Everyone backed away as I fell to my knees, clutching my chest.
> "Haruto!" Celia shouted, reaching for me.
> "Don't—!" Mira yelled, pulling her back. "It'll consume you too!"
I could barely breathe. The light poured out of me, rising into the air, forming a sphere above us. Inside it, I saw fragments — cities, people, the stars themselves — all collapsing, rewinding, and rebuilding.
A voice cut through it all.
> "You shouldn't exist."
It wasn't Lunaris.
It was something else.
Colder. Older.
> "Who— who are you?" I gasped.
> "The first light," the voice said. "The one she tried to erase. And now, through you, I return."
The sphere cracked — and the entire base shook.
Rina screamed. Celia grabbed my arm. Mira shouted orders into the comms.
But I barely heard them.
Because in that light, I saw her — not Lunaris, but another presence. A shadow within brilliance.
And it was smiling.
---
Then everything went dark.
To be continued in Chapter 12: "When the Stars Remember Our Names."