✦ Jian Yi (The Fallen Saint) – POV
The first breath was the hardest.
Jian Yi's eyes snapped open to a sky that wasn't his. The air stung his lungs—not with smoke or blood, but with sweetness. There was no qi, no wind, no weight. Just a surreal quiet and the sense that nothing made sense anymore.
He sat up sharply and nearly collapsed again. His limbs were light, foreign. His vision blurred.
His body—this wasn't his body.
He clenched a fist. Slender, smooth, unscarred. The sword calluses he'd earned were gone. So was the ache of old wounds.
> [System Integration: 42%. Synchronization in progress…]
[Warning: Residual soul memory interfering with vessel alignment.]
"What—?" His voice caught. "Who's speaking?"
No answer. Only the faint mechanical chime in his head and the bizarre clarity of everything around him.
He was in a strange courtyard, floating above what looked like clouds and cracked stars. The air shimmered faintly, humming with some kind of magic he didn't recognize.
Another man stirred nearby, muttering something absurd about "graphics settings."
And there—resting atop a glowing altar—was someone.
A figure.
Beautiful. Ethereal. Unreadable.
But Jian Yi didn't know who—or what—he was.
All he knew was that the moment their eyes met, something inside him pulled. He looked away quickly, heart thudding for no reason he could name.
"Where… are we?" he murmured, mostly to himself.
---
✦ Ren (The Cyber Trickster)
Everything was too real.
Ren opened his eyes to brightness and immediately flinched. The sky was incredible—like an open-world fantasy RPG modded to hell—but this wasn't a game. He could feel. His hands. His heartbeat. His tongue. Even his hair felt different.
"Am I high?" he asked the sky.
> [Vessel identified: Illusion Engineer.]
[Adaptation: Incomplete. System stabilization at 59%. Emotional feedback looping.]
A HUD flickered in his vision, glitchy and translucent.
"What… is this? VR? No, wait, I didn't log in—did I die?"
He sat up and nearly screamed when he saw his reflection in a nearby water ripple. He was… gorgeous.
Pale eyes, silver-streaked hair, facial structure sculpted by some divine CG artist. It wasn't his face, and that was the problem.
Near him was a quiet, sharp-eyed guy who looked like he wanted to murder everything. Nearby, a third man knelt as if in prayer.
And then there was him.
The lounging figure atop a glowing stone. Long hair, luminous skin, robes like flowing starlight. Watching them.
Observing.
Ren frowned. "Okay. Either he's the final boss, or I'm in a cult dream."
---
✦ Caelus (The Oathbreaker)
When Caelus awoke, he did not scream.
He breathed—deep and full, the kind of breath that shouldn't be possible anymore. His body was whole again. But not familiar.
His armor was alien. His hands too smooth.
But worse was the emptiness where his knight's vow used to be.
He stood shakily, instinctively placing a hand to his chest—and then, slowly, looked up.
That was when he saw him.
Perched above like some disinterested spirit of starlight. His eyes were unreadable, lips curled faintly, watching as if they were the anomaly.
Caelus's knees buckled. He dropped—not from faith, not quite. From instinct. The weight of presence hit him like a command.
But he didn't know why.
---
✦ Xinglan (The Star Reborn)
He said nothing at first.
Let them struggle.
Let them guess.
Xinglan sat atop the altar of drifting runes, fingers twined through his long hair as it trailed down his shoulder like liquid silver. His gaze was calm. Amused. Detached.
They weren't ready to meet a god. So he didn't tell them he was one.
Not yet.
> [Players: Summoned.]
[Emotional Stability: Low.]
[System Recommendation: Delay formal revelation. Let them come to you.]
"Good advice," he murmured.
Out loud, all he said was, "You three. Welcome."
They turned to him.
"I won't explain everything," he continued, stretching like a cat. "But you'll get answers—if you last long enough to deserve them."
He stood. The wind shifted.
"Explore. Adjust. Don't die too fast."
And with a flick of his fingers, the shrine's outer gates creaked open into starlit forest.
--
✦ Chapter End