The sky broke exactly at 4:12 p.m.
Kairo Vale remembered the time because the sound didn't just echo—it carved itself into him.A deep, monstrous crack, like the heavens were being torn apart from the inside.
Students screamed.Teachers scattered.Glass exploded as the entire world seemed to tilt off its axis.
And Kairo…stood there.
The boy with long, messy silver hair and half-lidded blue eyes simply stared upward as the first glowing line ripped across the sky like a wound that refused to close.
A fracture of light.A bleeding scar.
"W-What is that!?""They said there weren't supposed to be any portals today!""Run! RUN!"
The schoolyard dissolved into pure chaos.
Kairo didn't budge.
It wasn't bravery.It wasn't shock.It wasn't even curiosity.
It was simpler.
He felt nothing.
No fear.No confusion.Just the same cold emptiness that had been living in him far longer than his sixteen years.
He watched silently as the fracture widened, vomiting out streaks of crimson lightning. Each bolt slammed into the Earth like a divine spear, shaking the ground under his feet.
A voice broke through the panic—cracked, desperate.
"K-Kairo! What are you doing!? MOVE!"
Evan Hale—his childhood friend, his only friend—grabbed his arm.His voice trembled.His eyes were wide with terror.
"Kairo, let's go! We need to get underground!"
Kairo blinked slowly, as if waking from a dull dream."…What's happening?"
"I—I don't know!" Evan stuttered. "The news said it's a Tier-Zero event! Something impossible—something that's not supposed to exist!"
A spear of red lightning slammed into a classroom wall nearby, shredding it into dust.
The shockwave hurled both of them backward.
Kairo hit the ground hard.Sound vanished.Vision blurred.
When it returned—
Evan was already scrambling to his feet.
Not helping Kairo.Not checking him.Not even looking at him.
He was searching for an escape with wild, animal panic.
"Kairo… I'm sorry… I'm sorry—I can't— I can't die here!"
Kairo's eyes narrowed."…Evan?"
But Evan didn't look at him.
He ran.
He didn't hesitate.He didn't glance back.He just sprinted toward the emergency shelter, leaving Kairo alone beneath the bleeding sky.
Kairo stayed there on the dirt, crimson light raining around him like dying embers, as a quiet truth settled in his chest.
Even him…Even the one person he trusted…
Gone.
Not even a second of doubt.Not a moment of loyalty.Just fear.Just selfish instinct.Just betrayal.
Something cold spread through Kairo's limbs.
It felt like something inside him cracked—small, soft, almost insignificant—but real.
A Scar.
Above, the sky screamed open completely.
The fracture widened into a hole.The hole twisted into a gate.And from that gate… something descended.
A creature wrapped in shadow and bone-like armor, its glowing eyes sweeping the schoolyard like a predator tasting the air.
It landed with a thunderous impact.
Students ran.Some collapsed.Some sobbed.
Kairo didn't move.
The monster's gaze locked onto him.
His lungs tightened.His fingers trembled.
But not with fear.
With realization.
The world wasn't ending.It was revealing its true face.
The bleeding sky.The monsters.Evan's betrayal.
Everything clicked together like pieces of a puzzle he didn't know he'd been solving.
Something ancient drifted through the air, brushing his mind like a whisper.
You have been marked.Your first Scar has awakened.Instinct Vision—unlocked.
Cold clarity ignited behind his eyes.
The monster charged.
Kairo exhaled—a slow, frosted breath.Empty.Detached.Free.
His life had never belonged to him.
Not until this moment.
He rose to his feet as the creature's claws tore through the air—
And for the first time in his life,Kairo Vale moved.