Pain.
Not the kind that burns through flesh or shatters bone.
Something far worse.
My existence was being torn apart.
I had no body, no skin, no nerves—yet the sensation was unmistakable. An invisible force was pulling at something deeper than matter, stretching my awareness in every direction.
I was being erased.
Fragments of perception scattered like dust in a storm.
No…!
Panic surged through the only thing that remained of me—my mind.
Or whatever passed for a mind in this place.
Darkness surrounded everything.
Not the gentle darkness of night, nor the quiet shadow cast by distant stars.
This was absolute.
A void where light had never existed.
And yet… I was conscious.
The realization formed slowly within the endless emptiness.
There was no body.
No breath.
No heartbeat.
Only awareness drifting in a sea of nothingness.
Logically, this should not exist.
Consciousness required structure. A brain. Neurons. Signals.
Without them, there should have been nothing.
No thoughts.
No identity.
No "I".
Yet the impossible persisted.
I existed.
The paradox echoed through the void.
How?
The question formed instinctively.
Where am I?
No answer came.
There was no direction here. No sense of movement. No up or down.
Even time felt distorted, stretching and folding like a broken thread.
Thoughts drifted slowly through the darkness.
Fragments of logic.
Concepts without memory.
I knew language.
I understood questions.
But when I searched for anything about myself—
There was nothing.
No name.
No face.
No past.
It felt as though the universe had erased everything that once defined me, leaving behind only the shell of a mind.
I was a consciousness without history.
A thought that had forgotten the thinker.
For a long time—minutes, hours, perhaps centuries—nothing changed.
Then something appeared.
Far away within the endless darkness, a faint blue light emerged.
At first it was barely visible.
A fragile spark trembling in an ocean of black.
But it remained.
Steady.
Quiet.
Then it pulsed.
Once.
The void rippled faintly, as if reality itself had shuddered.
Twice.
The rhythm felt strangely familiar.
Like a heartbeat echoing through an empty cathedral.
Without deciding to, my awareness drifted toward it.
Perhaps curiosity guided me.
Perhaps instinct.
Or perhaps the light itself was pulling me closer.
What is that?
The thought formed naturally.
But before I could approach further—
The stillness shattered.
An invisible force seized me.
There was no body to grab, yet the sensation was undeniable.
Something enormous had locked onto my existence.
And it was pulling.
My awareness stretched violently, as if unseen hands were tearing me apart.
Pain erupted again.
Not physical pain.
Something deeper.
Something that clawed at the core of my identity.
I was unraveling.
Fragments of awareness scattered into the darkness.
No…!
Fear ignited within me.
For the first time since awakening in the void, something primal surfaced.
I didn't know who I was.
I didn't know what I had been.
But one instinct burned with desperate clarity.
Survive.
The pulling force intensified.
The void itself seemed to reject my presence, as if consciousness was an infection the universe was trying to purge.
My thoughts flickered.
My awareness dimmed.
I was dissolving.
Not yet.
Somewhere within the collapsing fragments of my mind, defiance ignited.
I resisted.
I didn't know how.
I didn't understand what resisting even meant in a place without form or matter.
But I refused to disappear.
And the moment that decision solidified—
The universe hesitated.
The crushing force vanished.
Just like that.
Silence returned.
I remained.
Barely.
My awareness flickered like a dying flame.
And then I saw it.
Floating in the darkness was something impossible.
A perfect square of pale blue light.
Its edges were sharp and geometric, glowing softly as it pushed back the surrounding void.
Nothing should exist here.
Yet there it was.
Waiting.
A faint instinct whispered within me.
If I stayed here, the erasing force would return.
And next time…
It would finish the job.
The square pulsed gently.
An invitation.
Or perhaps a test.
I moved toward it.
There was no walking—only the sensation of drifting forward.
The closer I came, the brighter the light became.
Energy rippled through the surrounding darkness.
Then I crossed the threshold.
The moment my awareness touched the blue frame—
Reality shattered.
The void vanished.
Chaos replaced it.
Blinding light exploded around me as countless glowing symbols burst into existence. They floated like embers in the air—ancient characters forming shifting constellations.
Fragments of a language that did not belong to any human world.
And somehow…
I understood them.
Mana.
Vessel.
Ley Lines.
Rank.
The meanings flowed directly into my mind.
Concepts I had never learned.
Yet they felt natural.
As if something deep within me had always known them.
Then the pain returned.
Violent.
Overwhelming.
"Aaah—!"
The scream echoed within my consciousness.
My form—whatever shape it had taken here—began breaking apart again.
Fragments of shadow and blue light scattered like shattered glass.
I was collapsing.
My awareness stretched thin.
My identity frayed.
And then I saw it.
A figure floating ahead.
Motionless.
At first glance it looked like a corpse.
Its body was wrapped in ancient bindings, brittle with age. Beneath them lay a hollow frame, like the preserved remains of something long dead.
But what froze my thoughts was its shape.
It looked like me.
Or rather—
It looked like the body that should belong to me.
At the center of its chest hung a necklace.
A strange object made of dark material that swallowed surrounding light.
At its core pulsed a faint crimson glow.
A slow, steady beat.
Like a distant heart.
The moment I saw it, something inside me reacted.
A pull.
Stronger than instinct.
Without thinking, I reached toward the body.
The instant my presence touched it—
Everything collapsed.
A violent force dragged my existence forward.
"What is happening?!"
My awareness compressed violently.
Pulled toward the body like a storm collapsing into a single point.
Pressure crushed in from every direction.
I was being forced into something solid.
Something real.
"Get out—!"
But there was no escape.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then—
Impact.
Reality returned all at once.
Weight.
Pressure.
Heat.
Air rushed violently into my lungs as I gasped.
My eyes snapped open.
Above me stretched a vast sky of twilight blue filled with unfamiliar stars.
The void was gone.
I lay on rough sand, my body trembling as sensation returned piece by piece.
Every nerve screamed.
Every muscle burned.
"What… the hell…"
My voice came out as a hoarse rasp.
Slowly, I raised my hands.
They were real.
Solid.
But their appearance sent a chill through me.
My skin was charcoal black, absorbing the surrounding light.
Thin crimson lines ran beneath the surface like veins filled with embers.
My heart pounded.
This… is my body?
Before I could process the thought, instinct screamed within my mind.
Leave.
Now.
Danger.
Without questioning it, I forced myself to stand.
My legs trembled beneath me.
The ground shifted.
Sand.
A desert.
Wind swept across endless dunes.
I staggered behind jagged rocks, forcing myself to breathe slowly.
If anyone saw me like this—
They wouldn't see a human.
They would see a monster.
Then voices echoed across the dunes.
"Quick! Move!"
"Don't let it get close!"
Human voices.
I climbed a nearby dune and looked down.
Four humans stood below with weapons drawn.
But the creature facing them held my attention.
Tall.
Twisted.
Wrong.
Its pale body bent unnaturally as claws tore through the sand.
The moment my eyes met it—
Something inside me reacted.
Danger.
High threat.
The creature turned.
Its hollow eyes locked onto me.
Then it charged.
Sand exploded beneath its claws.
I didn't move.
Not from courage.
Not from bravery.
Something deep within the void inside me had already made a decision.
This creature did not belong in my presence.
The monster closed the distance.
Then—
It stopped.
Mid-step.
Its body froze.
The color drained from its skin.
Its eyes went empty.
And it collapsed.
Dead.
Silence spread across the desert.
The four humans stared at me in shock.
One whispered,
"You… how did you do that?"
Another muttered,
"Look at him… that aura…"
An older man stepped forward cautiously.
"You saved us," he said carefully. "May we know the name of our benefactor?"
My throat tightened.
Name…
Something stirred within my mind.
"I… have no name."
They stepped back instinctively.
Then the word surfaced.
Not a memory.
A recovery.
"My name is Nico."
The name settled naturally in my thoughts.
Nico Sigmund.
But I kept the second name to myself.
The desert wind moved quietly across the dunes.
And somewhere deep within my mind…
The Void was still watching.
[End of Chapter 1]