The world ended not with silence, but with screams drowned in fire.
It was supposed to be a normal day.
Lucien stood alone in the underground train station, earbuds in, the voice of a forgotten indie singer murmuring melancholic verses into his skull. The lights above him flickered—barely noticeable—until one by one, they began to die. A shiver crept down his spine, instinct louder than reason. He pulled out his earbuds.
That's when he heard it.
The hum. Deep. Wrong. Like the earth itself was growling in its sleep.
Then came the explosion.
A roar ripped through the station, louder than thunder, brighter than day. The ceiling collapsed in molten debris. Screams. Heat. Metal. Flesh. His vision went white. Then black.
And then—nothing.
When Lucien opened his eyes, the silence was unbearable.
No sirens. No cries. No music. No pain.
Only... wind.
He lay sprawled across cracked marble, beneath a sky he did not recognize. Purple and gold clouds drifted over a shattered moon, fractured like glass. Around him, the ruins of a once-magnificent city stretched into the horizon—golden spires blackened by fire, colossal statues fallen and broken, and strange symbols carved into every surface, glowing faintly like dying embers.
He blinked.
A translucent window appeared before him.
[SYSTEM INITIATED]Welcome, Lucien Vaelthorn.Designation: Hollow Core DetectedStatus: Unknown Entity / Exile ClassLoading Realm Access...
Current Location: VALAS EN – The Forbidden Graveworld
Lucien sat up, throat dry. "Vaelthorn...? That's not my name."
But somewhere, deep in his chest, the name didn't feel foreign. It felt like a forgotten truth returning home.
He staggered to his feet. A sudden gust of wind carried ash through the air, and in it, he saw them—shadows.
Dozens of them.
Not men. Not beasts. Their forms were smoke and limbs and hollow mouths that did not breathe. One stepped forward. Its voice wasn't spoken but imprinted directly into his mind.
"You wear the name of the First Sinner."
Lucien's heart thundered.
"You are the heir of Vaelthorn. You have returned."
He took a step back. "I don't know what you're talking about."
But he did. Somewhere deep inside him—beneath the fear, beneath the confusion—there was a memory not his own.
A throne of bones.
A blade that devoured light.
A promise made in blood.
The shadow reached toward him.
Lucien's hand moved on its own, outstretched. Light exploded from his palm—cold, black light that swallowed color and heat alike. The shadows hissed and recoiled.
[Hollow Core Stabilized]Ability: NULL DOMAIN activated.
—All known laws of magic and matter are now suppressed within a 10-meter radius.
Everything stopped.
Even the wind.
Lucien stood alone in the epicenter of void—a place where the world itself dared not breathe.
And in that moment, for the first time since the explosion, he didn't feel like a victim.
He felt like a weapon.
A cursed one.
A powerful one.
And perhaps… a necessary one.
In the distance, a bell tolled from a broken tower.And with it, the world of Valas En began to awaken.
Lucien clenched his fists.
If this was death, it was more alive than the life he'd left behind.
To be continued in Chapter 1: Requiem of the End…