Kael's breath caught in his throat, the air thick and heavy with strange, shimmering particles. The scene before him was something that should only exist in the wildest science fiction. Half of the commercial district, just moments ago bustling with the flow of people, now looked as if it had been forcibly torn from reality, replaced by a smoldering crater that emitted a terrifying, pulsating indigo light. The debris of buildings floated erratically in the air, seemingly defying gravity. However, it wasn't the large-scale destruction that held Kael's gaze, but the figure standing calmly at the center of the anomaly—a girl, shrouded in a veil of pale moonlight, her long silver hair dancing gently in a spectral wind that Kael couldn't feel. In her slender hands, she grasped a colossal scythe, its blade elegantly curved and emitting a dark sheen like a distant galaxy, as if forged from the core of a dead star, spreading a cold, menacing, and silent aura, yet filled with the potential for unimaginable destruction.
"Ah—" A soft sigh escaped Kael's lips, swallowed by the faint rumble from the crater. The girl's presence was so overwhelming that it suppressed all other objects in his vision. Her dress, as if woven from starlight threads and night silk, glittered with particles of cosmic dust, casting a soft glow that contrasted with the terrifying scythe in her hands. Yet, the girl's own beauty, with her sapphire-blue eyes that held the depth of the universe and an immeasurable sorrow, surpassed even all of that.
His gaze, his attention, even his heartbeat—all were stolen in that moment. It was so... overwhelming; so abnormal; so intense; beautiful.
"Wh-Who..." Confused, Kael finally spoke, his words hoarse. Even if his throat were to be torn apart for such a presumptuous question, he had to know.
The girl slowly shifted her gaze downward, her cold sapphire eyes meeting Kael's.
"...is your name?" His voice, carrying the question from the depths of his heart, trembled in the air.
However.
"—I have no name," the girl replied, with a heart-wrenching, sorrowful gaze.
"..."
In that moment.
Their eyes met—the story of Kaelen Vance had begun.