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Chapter 2: The City of Hollow Light
When Kai regained consciousness, he wasn't surrounded by fire or void this time.
He woke to light — pale, cold, and flickering like candle flames trapped in glass.
The city stretched before him like something out of a fever dream. Buildings of crystal and rust spiraled toward the clouds, their windows glowing faintly from within. The air smelled of ozone and dust, humming with strange energy that made the back of his neck prickle.
Above, enormous rings of light rotated slowly in the sky, each one etched with moving symbols he didn't understand. People — or what looked like people — moved through the streets below, each trailing a faint aura that shimmered in different colors. Blue, gold, red, violet… all blending like rivers of emotion.
Kai stumbled to his feet, pressing a hand to his temple. "Okay. So either I'm dead, dreaming, or beta testing the world's weirdest RPG."
> [System Update Complete.]
[Spirit Energy: Stable.]
[Access Level: Novice — 1% synchronization achieved.]
The translucent screen faded again, leaving him alone amid the humming air. He noticed he was standing on what seemed like a bridge made of transparent stone, high above the fog below. From this height, he could see an endless expanse of shimmering towers, lights blinking like dying stars.
And then—
A sharp voice sliced through the quiet.
"Get down, rookie!"
Something heavy slammed into him from behind, throwing him to the floor. A moment later, a spear of dark energy hissed through the space where his chest had been. It struck the bridge, exploding into a burst of violet shards.
Kai gasped, spinning around. The person who'd tackled him stood in one smooth motion, pulling him up by his collar.
She was tall, lean, and dressed in a black battle suit that looked both futuristic and medieval. Her eyes were silver, glowing faintly beneath her dark hair. A scar curved across her left cheek, not ugly — more like proof she'd survived something that should have killed her.
"You trying to get yourself erased already?" she said, her tone half-irritated, half-relieved. "First-day wanderers always forget that bridges here attract Wraithborn."
Kai blinked. "Wraithborn? You mean those shadow things?"
She frowned, scanning the fog below with a hand on the weapon slung across her back — a halberd made of light that flickered with unstable energy. "You've seen one already?"
"I… kind of punched one to death?"
That made her pause. She turned toward him slowly, studying him like he'd just claimed to have swallowed a god. "You what?"
Before he could answer, movement rippled in the mist. Dozens of shadowy figures began crawling up the bridge's underside, their hands clawing at the transparent stone. Their bodies twisted as if made of liquid ink, their eyes glowing faint red.
The woman gritted her teeth. "Too many. We can't fight them here."
She grabbed Kai's wrist. "Hold on to me. Don't let go."
He barely had time to protest before the bridge shattered beneath them.
They fell—
Or rather, plunged through the layers of light and mist, wind whipping against Kai's face as the world blurred into streaks of color.
Just when he thought they were about to crash, the woman slammed her halberd into the air itself. Light erupted, slowing their descent like gravity had decided to take a coffee break. They landed atop a platform made of floating glyphs, suspended above the city's lower tiers.
Kai's knees buckled. "You do that often?"
"Only when the rookies forget how gravity works," she said dryly. "Name's Lira. Spirit Warrior, rank A."
Her aura flared — a silver fire that rippled across the air around her, pure and steady.
"Kai," he managed. "I… think I died yesterday."
"That's one way to end up here." Lira sheathed her weapon and looked him over with the sharp eye of a veteran. "But you're no ghost. You've got a Code signature."
"A what?"
"The Dimensional Code. I can see it — glowing under your skin. Means you're not just another lost soul. You're… something else."
Before Kai could ask more, another figure approached through the mist. This one was older, his body half-machine, half-human. His mechanical arm emitted faint blue light as he bowed slightly to Lira.
"New recruit?" he rasped.
"More like a glitch," she said. "He materialized without registration data."
The old man frowned. "That's impossible. Everyone enters through the Gate of Descent. Unless…"
His gaze shifted to Kai, scanning him from head to toe. "Unless the Code itself called him here."
Lira's eyes narrowed. "You mean—"
"Yes," the man interrupted. "A true Reinitializer."
Kai blinked between them. "Can someone please explain what that means before I panic?"
Neither answered immediately. Lira exchanged a look with the old man, then exhaled. "You're in the city of Hollow Light — the first stronghold of humanity in this realm. The world you knew is gone. The things outside are Wraithborn — fragments of corrupted emotion. And we… we hunt them before they consume what's left of this world."
Kai looked over the edge of the platform. Below, he saw people — hundreds of them — battling shadow creatures in glowing streets, each using strange weapons powered by light or emotion.
His heart pounded. "You're saying… this is humanity's afterlife?"
Lira shook her head. "Not afterlife. After collapse. The boundary between worlds shattered long ago. You're standing in the result."
The old man placed a metallic hand on Kai's shoulder. "And you, boy, might just be the key to stitching it back together."
The sky rumbled — a distant echo of thunder, or something worse.
Kai looked up and saw the floating rings beginning to shift faster, the runes glowing crimson.
> [Warning: Anomaly detected. Wraith Storm approaching.]
Lira cursed under her breath and pulled her halberd free. "Rookie, welcome to Hollow Light. Hope you learn fast."
The mist screamed as the storm began to form.
And Kai realized the tutorial hadn't truly ended at all.
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