Ciel blinked. The ocean of glass was gone.
He was standing on solid ground now, dark stone under his feet — cold and faintly vibrating. Overhead, the sky still looked wrong, the sun black, its orange rings spinning slow and effortless. But the space felt smaller now, more… compact, like a cage built of what was left of the Nexus.
"...so this is it," he muttered. "I'm gonna die trapped inside a video game."
A chime suddenly started echoing:
[System Rebooting…]
[Orientation protocol: Online.]
The air suddenly grew thicker and a cluster of light started assembling, weaving itself into a humanoid silhouette. Slowly, the silhouette became clear — white hair flowing in soft waves, her eyes like liquid silver threaded with a ring of light. She looked like... an angel.
"Welcome, Ciel Vacante. Your connection has been confirmed."
Ciel blinked. "Are you real?"
"I am Lyra," she said. "An orientation construct created to guide new users through the Nexus."
She turned, and the ground around them began to change, fragments of light rippled outward — circles within circles — until a wide platform materialized beneath their feet. Beyond it stretched an infinite sea of light, while above them the black sun kept humming.
"This is the Nexus," Lyra said. "Where consciousness stabilizes before entering Eclypse. Think of it as a… waiting room of sorts."
Ciel tried shoving his hands into his pockets, only to find out he didn't have any. He was completely naked. Despite that, what he found weird wasn't the fact that he had no clothes on, but that his body looked exactly the same as in the real world — sickly pale, scrawny, and hollow in all the wrong places. Even THAT… was the same.
"Wow," he muttered. "Could've given me abs."
Lyra turned toward him, her expression perfectly neutral. "Physical forms are not chosen. They get transferred as-is. Eclypse does not alter reality."
"So I look like I actually look."
"Yes."
She checked him up and down for a while — long enough to make him uncomfortable.
"You're different," she said finally. "The Nexus couldn't assign you a Resonance."
"Yeah, I noticed."
"It shouldn't be possible," she murmured, almost to herself. "Every living consciousness produces emotional energy. It is the foundation of entry. Without it, the interface should treat you as a virus and reject you."
"Lucky me," I murmured.
She suddenly looked up, as though listening to something he couldn't hear. "Yet it didn't reject you. Instead, the system forced connection manually."
Ciel frowned. "Meaning what?"
"Meaning," she said quietly, "something wants you here."
Lyra raised her hand, and lines of light spread outward. Dozens of colored orbs rose into the air — red, blue, pink, green, violet — each beating like a pulse, constant and hardly changing tempo. Weirdly enough, Ciel felt an uncomfortable sense of familiarity whenever they got close to him.
The colors twisted and separated, each one finding its own orbit.
"These are the Resonances," she said. "The foundation of Eclypse. Every emotion carries energy, and every energy takes form."
The red one flared brighter, spreading fire across the platform.
"Rage," she said. "The second oldest force — fire, strength. When humans first fought the dark, this was their most prized weapon."
The orb's flame twisted into a silhouette of a man roaring at the sky before vanishing.
"Often, those who awaken it burn too brightly," she added. "They forget that fire consumes without exceptions."
Then a blue one swirled upward, smooth and fluid. Its movements were hypnotic, always shifting, and never breaking form.
"Serenity," Lyra continued. "Water, cognition. It observes before it attacks — the ones who awaken it often claim to see… fragments of what's coming. Not exactly the future, more like a forecast of the next few moments."
"So some sort of precognition?" Ciel asked.
Her eyes flickered toward him — an unspoken 'yes'.
However, before she could continue, the world trembled once — then again. Lyra froze, her head snapping upwards, frightfully scanning the sky. Her composure cracked for the first time.
"No… that's not possible," she murmured. "The Nexus can't be destabilized."
Ciel realized something was extremely wrong. "What's happening?"
"Your presence — it's unbalancing the world. The Nexus wasn't designed to hold a Null."
The ground shuddered, fissures of light crawling through the platform, compelling Ciel to take a step back.
"You're saying I broke the world?"
Lyra ignored the comment, her tone suddenly frightened and urgent. "There's no time. I have to transfer you out manually."
"To where?"
"The First Strata," she said quickly. "The Scorching Plains. It's a transitional layer, made for beginners. You'll find other Resonants there—"
The air cracked like glass. Lyra staggered, static tearing through her voice.
"No… not yet! The coordinates aren't—"
[Error. Transfer Protocol Interrupted.]
[Fallback Route Engaged.]
She reached toward him, her fingers dissolving into white light.
"Ciel! Listen to me — you are the first Null to ever enter Eclypse. You can only log out at gateways, if you die, I don't know what—"
Lyra vanished in a burst of light and the platform split apart below him. He was falling through layers of shattered light, tumbling endlessly as fragments of color sped past him: red, blue, black, gold. When he finally reached the ground, the only thing that he could perceive was dust — thick, choking, suffocating dust reeking of death. Ciel groaned, rolling to his side.
He blinked. Yeah, this probably wasn't The First Strata.
[Warning: Location Error.]
Ciel pushed himself up, his arms trembling. All around him, the world was covered in dense dust that made it impossible to look into the distance. The wind howled low through the dirt, carrying a faint metallic echo — like chains dragging across glass.
Yet somehow, Ciel realized, he was now fully clothed — on his torso there was a long-sleeved, hooded grey cape that kept him oddly warm, while under his waist stood a pair of heavily padded, military-style black pants. The outfit was completed by a set of cushioned, trekking leather boots.
Before Ciel could continue inspecting himself, he heard heavy, deliberate footsteps approaching from his rear. He turned, squinting through the dust — and froze. A man seemed to be moving towards him. The figure stood tall and broad, seemingly wearing some kind of heavy armor that looked wrong in a way Ciel couldn't quite describe — as if the light didn't yet want to reveal what the obscure silhouette was hiding.
The figure stopped a few meters before him. Ciel could feel it — this man was dangerous.