The world came to me in fragments.
Stone. Cold beneath my palms. The scent of incense, old and faded, clinging to the air like a memory that refused to die. My eyes opened slowly, reluctantly, as though waking itself was an act of rebellion against something fundamental. Above me stretched a ceiling of weathered wood and crumbling plaster, patterns of age spreading across it like veins beneath pale skin. I lay there, breathing, existing, and understanding nothing.
I pushed myself up. My arms trembled with the effort, muscles protesting as though they had not been used in a very long time. The room spun briefly before settling into focus. I was in a temple, that much became clear as my vision sharpened. Statues lined the walls, their faces worn smooth by centuries of wind and rain seeping through cracks in the stone. They watched me with empty eyes, and I could not tell if their expressions held peace or sorrow. Perhaps both. Perhaps neither.
'Who am I?'
The thought came unbidden, and with it, a hollow sensation in my chest that had nothing to do with hunger. I searched my mind for anything, any fragment of identity or memory that might anchor me to a past, to a name, to a purpose. There was nothing. The space where my history should have been was blank, a void so complete that I could not even grasp the shape of what was missing.
I looked down at myself. Simple robes, gray and worn, covered my body. My hands were young, unlined, but I could not say if they were familiar. Were these my hands? Had they always been mine? The questions multiplied with each passing second, breeding in the silence like insects in the dark.
Standing took more effort than it should have. My legs wobbled, unsteady, and I had to brace myself against one of the stone pillars until the weakness passed. The temple around me showed signs of long abandonment. Dust lay thick on every surface, undisturbed except where my body had rested. Offerings that had once sat before the statues had rotted away to nothing, leaving only stains and the ghosts of devotion.
I needed answers. I needed to understand where I was, why I was here, what had happened to me. The questions burned in my mind with an urgency that bordered on panic, but panic would solve nothing. I forced myself to breathe slowly, to think clearly. One step at a time. Survey the surroundings. Find someone who could explain.
The temple had a single exit, a massive doorway whose doors had long since fallen from their hinges. Beyond it, I could see light, bright and almost painful after the gloom of the interior. I moved toward it, each step echoing in the emptiness, the sound swallowed almost immediately by the vast space.
As I approached the threshold, the light resolved into daylight, harsh and unfiltered. I squinted against it, raising one hand to shield my eyes. The view that greeted me, once my vision adjusted, stopped me in my tracks.
Mountains stretched in every direction, their peaks disappearing into clouds that seemed close enough to touch. The temple sat on a plateau, a flat expanse of cracked earth and wild grass that extended perhaps a hundred meters before dropping away into nothing. Beyond the edge, I could see valleys so deep that mist obscured their bottoms, and forests that looked like dark green oceans frozen in time. The sky above was a blue so intense it seemed artificial, unmarred by anything except the distant shapes of birds circling on thermals.
It was beautiful. It was terrifying. And it told me absolutely nothing about who I was or how I had come to be here.
I stepped out of the temple, and the moment my feet touched the earth outside, I heard it.
Crack.
The sound came from my left, sharp and sudden, like a branch breaking under weight. I spun toward it, my heart suddenly hammering in my chest with a fear that felt both immediate and primal. At first, I saw nothing. The plateau was empty, just stone and grass and the wind moving through it all. Then the grass shifted.
Something was moving through it. Something large.
'Run.'
The thought was instinct, pure and unthinking. I did not wait to see what was approaching. I turned and bolted back toward the temple, my legs finding strength I had not known they possessed. Behind me, the sound grew louder. Not just movement now, but breathing, heavy and wet, and beneath that, a low rumble that might have been a growl.
I risked a glance over my shoulder and immediately wished I had not.
The creature that burst from the grass was nightmare made flesh. It stood easily three meters tall at the shoulder, its body covered in scales that gleamed like polished obsidian in the sunlight. Four legs, each ending in claws that gouged the earth with every step, propelled it forward with terrifying speed. Its head was reptilian, elongated, with a mouth that opened to reveal rows of teeth like curved daggers. Eyes, yellow and slitted, locked onto me with an intelligence that was somehow worse than simple animal hunger.
'Demon.'
The word appeared in my mind fully formed, carrying with it a certainty I could not explain. I knew what this thing was, even if I knew nothing else. A demon. A beast. Death given physical form.
My lungs burned. The temple was ahead, its dark doorway promising shelter, but even as I ran, I knew I would not make it. The demon was faster. Much faster. I could hear it closing the distance, each bound bringing it nearer, the sound of its breathing growing louder until it filled my ears.
Ten meters from the temple entrance.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Five meters.
THUD. THUD.
Three meters, and I could feel its presence behind me like a wall of heat and malice. My mind raced, calculating distances and speeds with a clarity born of pure terror. I was not going to make it. I was not going to survive this. Whatever fate had placed me here, it had not been mercy.
The demon's shadow fell over me.
I tried to put on one last burst of speed, but my legs had nothing left to give. Behind me, I heard the creature's breath catch, that telltale inhale before a predator strikes. Time seemed to slow. I could hear everything with perfect clarity. The wind moving through the grass. The distant cry of a bird. The wet sound of the demon's jaws opening wide.
Then the world exploded into motion.
The demon pounced. I felt more than saw it, a shift in the air pressure, a displacement of space. Without thinking, acting on instinct alone, I spun and threw my arm out. It was not a punch, not really. It was desperation given form, a wild, uncoordinated flailing that had no technique behind it, no power that should have mattered.
My fist moved through the air in what felt like slow motion. The demon's open mouth rushed toward me, close enough that I could smell the rot on its breath, see the pale membrane at the back of its throat. This was it. This was the end.
And then everything changed.
DING.
The sound rang through my head like a bell struck in a cathedral, clear and impossible to ignore. My fist was still moving, still traveling the last few centimeters toward the demon's snout, but something had shifted. Reality itself felt different, as though the world had taken a breath and held it.
A voice spoke. It was neither male nor female, neither young nor old. It simply was, existing in my mind with the same certainty as my own thoughts, but distinctly separate from them.
[Congratulations, Host. You have awakened your innate ability: The Eternal Body.]
'What—'
I had no time to finish the thought. Before my eyes, a translucent screen materialized in the air, hovering just at the edge of my vision. It was like looking at something through water, visible but not quite solid, its edges shimmering with light that had no apparent source. Text scrolled across it, glowing characters that I could read despite never having seen this language before.
[Innate Ability: The Eternal Body has been confirmed.]
[Ultimate Skill: Invincible Domain is now activating.]
[Duration: 0.03 seconds.]
[Effect: Within the designated domain, Host is invincible. All attacks become absolute. Defense becomes impenetrable. Laws of reality bend to Host's will.]
I did not understand. The words made sense individually, but together they formed a concept so absurd that my mind rejected it even as my fist continued its trajectory toward the demon. Invincible? Domain? What did any of that mean?
My knuckles touched scales.
The impact was silent for a fraction of a second, a moment of perfect stillness where nothing happened and everything happened simultaneously. Then reality remembered how to move.
BOOM.
The sound was not just heard. It was felt. It traveled through my bones and into the earth itself, a percussion so deep and fundamental that it seemed to shake the very air. My fist, which should have glanced off the demon's armored hide or at best bruised my hand, instead connected with the force of a meteor strike.
The demon's head did not just snap back. It ceased to exist.
One moment it was there, massive and terrible, and the next there was only a spreading cloud of red mist where its skull had been. But the destruction did not stop there. The force of the impact traveled through the creature's body like a wave moving through water, and everywhere it touched, flesh and bone and scale simply disintegrated.
Splat. Splat. Splat.
The sound of the demon coming apart was wet and final. Blood erupted outward in a perfect sphere, a crimson dome expanding from the point of contact. I stood at its center, my fist still extended, watching in horrified fascination as the creature that had been about to devour me was reduced to its component parts in less than a heartbeat.
The shockwave followed a split second later.
WHOOOOOSH.
Wind exploded outward from where I stood, carrying with it the mist of what had once been a living thing. It tore through the grass, flattening it in a perfect circle that extended dozens of meters in every direction. Dust and debris flew through the air, and somewhere in the distance I heard rocks tumbling down the mountainside, dislodged by the force of what I had done.
Then silence.
I stood there, arm still outstretched, trying to process what had just happened. Around me, the plateau looked like it had been scoured clean. The grass lay flat, pressed down as though by an enormous invisible hand. Spatters of blood painted the ground in an arc, but of the demon itself, there was nothing. No body. No bones. Not even scales that might have survived the destruction.
It was gone. Completely, utterly gone.
'I did that.'
The thought should have brought triumph, or relief, or at least satisfaction at having survived. Instead, I felt only numbness spreading through my limbs, a disconnect between what I had witnessed and what my mind was capable of accepting as real.
The translucent screen was still there, hovering at the edge of my vision. As I watched, new text began to scroll across it.
[Invincible Domain has deactivated.]
[Duration: 0.03 seconds.]
[Enemy eliminated: Obsidian Fang Demon (Nascent Realm, Stage 3).]
[Analyzing combat data...]
I lowered my arm slowly, staring at my hand. It looked the same as it had before. No glow, no aura, nothing to indicate that it had just delivered an attack capable of erasing a three meter tall monster from existence. The skin was not even bruised.
'What am I?'
The question felt different now. Before, it had been about identity, about recovering lost memories. Now it carried a deeper weight. What kind of being could do what I had just done? What kind of power was this?
[Analysis complete.]
The screen pulsed, drawing my attention back to it. More text appeared, scrolling faster now.
[Enemy defeated through activation of Ultimate Skill: Invincible Domain.]
[Combat evaluation: Perfect elimination. Zero damage sustained. Overwhelming force applied.]
[Experience gained: 2,350 points.]
[Calculating additional rewards...]
I read the words, but they felt disconnected from reality. Experience points? Rewards? It sounded like something from a game, a system of progression that belonged in stories told around fires, not in whatever this place was. Yet the screen was real. The demon had been real. The blood on the ground was very, very real.
My legs chose that moment to remind me they existed by suddenly refusing to support my weight. I stumbled, catching myself before I fell, and became aware that my entire body was shaking. The adrenaline that had kept me running, kept me alive, was draining away, leaving behind only exhaustion and shock.
I looked back at the temple. Its dark doorway seemed less threatening now, more like a refuge. Whatever answers existed, they would have to wait. Right now, I needed to sit down before I collapsed.
But the screen was still there, still scrolling, and something made me watch it. Some instinct that whispered this was important, that what came next would define everything that followed.
[Reward calculation in progress...]
[Please wait.]
The percentage appeared beneath the text, starting at zero and beginning to climb. One percent. Two percent. Five percent. I watched it tick upward, each number feeling significant in a way I could not articulate.
The wind picked up, carrying with it the scent of blood and ozone. Above me, the clouds continued their slow drift across that impossibly blue sky, indifferent to what had just occurred. In the distance, I could hear the faint sound of water running, a stream or river cutting through the mountains.
'Kai Silver.'
The name appeared in my mind without warning, solid and certain. I did not know where it had come from or why I was suddenly sure it belonged to me, but I accepted it the way I had accepted the voice in my head and the screen before my eyes. I was Kai Silver. Whatever else I might have been, whoever I might have been before waking in that temple, this was who I was now.
The percentage on the screen climbed higher. Twenty percent. Thirty. Forty.
I became aware of other sensations slowly filtering through the shock. Hunger, deep and gnawing. Thirst that made my throat feel like sand. The ache in muscles that had been pushed beyond their limits. I was alive. Against all odds, against all reason, I had survived.
Sixty percent. Seventy.
'The Eternal Body,' I thought, testing the words in my mind. 'Invincible Domain.'
They meant nothing to me. I had no context for understanding what they represented, what they made me capable of. But I had seen the results. Whatever this power was, it had turned me from prey into something else entirely. Something dangerous.
Eighty percent. Ninety.
The screen pulsed brighter, the text growing more distinct. I felt a tingling sensation in my chest, like electricity building beneath my skin. Something was about to happen. The system, whatever it was, had finished its calculations.
Ninety five percent.
Ninety eight percent.
Ninety nine percent.
[Reward calculation complete.]
I held my breath, watching as the screen flickered once, twice, and then stabilized. New text appeared, each line materializing with a soft chime that resonated in my skull.
[Rewards for defeating Obsidian Fang Demon:]
The list began to scroll, and I read every word with an attention born of desperation and curiosity in equal measure. Whatever came next, whatever these rewards were, they represented the first concrete information I had received since waking. They were a starting point. A foundation upon which understanding might be built.
The wind continued to blow. The blood continued to dry on the stones. And I, Kai Silver, stood in the ruins of my first battle, watching numbers and words appear on a screen that should not exist, waiting to discover what I had become.