Pre-chapter note:
Italics = Inner monologue
Example: Eidolon
Italicized curly quotes and font = Dialogue exchanges outside characters' POV
Example: "Eidolon."
Regular curly quotes and font = Dialogue exchanges happening directly within characters' POV
Example: "Eidolon."
Thunder crashed. Fires blazed. Wind roared. Ice swept the ground—ruins painted by the elements as if Armageddon had come at last—a massive battleship hovered overhead, providing cover fire.
Amidst the ensuing battle, a Captain and her subordinate pushed through the ruined structures and creatures toward their objective.
Red warnings blared from the distance.
A stasis pod—which had been hidden and sealed—received an abrupt awakening from the growing chaos above.
"—Captain, here!"
[Warning! System Failure]
[Cryostasis Pod Integrity: 13%]
[Initiating Emergency Protocol]
Weakly, he opened his eyes.
Where... am I?
Beyond the glass was a silhouette of a woman. Her voice was soft, laced with desperation as she struggled to fend off the creatures that came near them.
"—He's awake!"
"—Knock him out! We can't afford to deal with him and these monsters"
Another. Gritty and commanding—followed by gunshots—the sound far removed from anything he was used to.
The woman turned beside his pod, her silver hair catching the flashing of red lights momentarily.
The hatch opened.
"What are you...?"
Before he could react, she reached down to his chest. The palm of her hand grew heavy, and a swell of energy circulated through her skin—growing hotter until finally—it burst.
A surge of energy hit him, and his body went slack, eyes struggling to stay open as darkness slowly crept in.
Then, a voice in his head—gibberish and ancient—yet audible:
> ыq╚f
His eyes snapped open, gaze darting wildly across his surroundings. Everything was different.
Buildings now wore flesh-like clothing. Spikes, tendrils, and bones erupted from concrete and steel as if the structures themselves had become living things.
His hands pressed against the glass to break free, but to no avail. The abrupt awakening from the pod's multiple system failures had made his body weak. Even now, his thoughts struggled to return, and only the roaring noises of destruction echoed in his ears—sounds of a battle raging somewhere beyond his sight.
Out of nowhere, voices. Loud and desperate.
"Sonia, go! I'll hold them off!"
"What? Agnes, no! Get back here, we'll—"
"Captain Sonia, our mission is done! We need to get to safety!"
"NO! Get your fucking hands off me! Aria, help them!"
"I-I can't..."
"Your arm..."
"Zani, get them out of here!"
"Agnes... Leave it to me! One, two, three... There are six of us left, including this dead weight! I can only hold five people with this ability!"
"Damn it... JUST GO WITH THEM! I'll buy you some time!"
"..."
A slam. Blunt and powerful.
Then the environment began to shift. Blue streaks of light flashed over them, wrapping the area in a sphere of crackling energies. Small, vibrant runes floated aimlessly overhead—each one humming with unknown eldritch power.
"IDIOT! I told you to go with them!"
"...Hmph, I'm not going anywhere."
With a final pulse, the runes flared and burst—the world fracturing into shards of light. Beyond the radiance, beyond the pain—a gentle smile played on Agnes and Zani's lips.
Then, the gnawing of flesh and the crunching of bones rang through the survivors' ears. They were gone.
"STOOOOOP!!!—"
Then nothing.
"Zani... Agnes..."
"Captain... I'm sorry—"
"Don't fucking touch me."
"...Sorry"
"..."
Not long after, the light surrounding them dissipated, and the world restructured itself. No longer were the skies darkened, no more buildings made of flesh—just a vast wasteland as far as the eye can see, and the afternoon sky above him.
"Let's move."
His pod lurched, then pulled as multiple figures dragged his encased form to an unknown destination.
After a long, silent trek over the desolate wasteland, a massive battleship blasted through the clouds, descending into an open ground.
Moments later, they were inside the ship, immediately greeted by concerned crew members.
"Captain Sonia, sorry for the delay! We had no way of knowing where your location was," one man said.
"We lost our transponder in the middle of the chaos. It's fine."
"Right... Where are the rest of the squad...?" he continued, a tinge of despair in his voice just waiting to crack.
A heavy silence settled between them, and the surviving members averted their eyes.
"They're gone. We're the only ones left." Sonia answered finally, her tone matter-of-fact.
"W-what...? It was supposed to be a simple extraction mission?! How could you—"
Silence.
The pod lifted, and they began to move once more. Very briefly, he saw the sorrow etched in that man's face as they passed him.
"I lost people as well... Don't imagine for a second that this isn't difficult for me..." Sonia whispered, her voice low yet measured.
The man fell to his knees and broke down.
Sonia's step faltered. She looked over her shoulder, and whispered.
I'm sorry...
Shortly after, dark, metal walls now dominated their sight, and a faint light hung overhead. Two figures now loomed over his pod, their scrutinizing gaze piercing through the pod's glass.
"Why the hell is he awake? I thought you put him to sleep!"
"I-I'm sorry, Captain. I held back given his condition..."
"Tsk." Sonia's hand struck the glass—not gently.
"Hey! Can you move?"
He tried flexing his fingers, clenching and unclenching.
A nod.
"Good. I'm opening the hatch. Don't try anything stupid."
Sonia backed away, swiftly pulled out her pistol, and shot at the pod's controls. Thick fog rolled from the vents as the hatch slowly opened.
Briefed only in broad strokes before the mission, they had expected him to be weak and skinny—almost on the brink of death as a consequence of the pod's continued degradation.
However, as he raised himself upright, and as the fog began to clear—he was anything but.
He had a lean, muscular build, and his face surprisingly young despite the long passage of time. His body was covered with many malformed scars, and his eyes held no fear, no emotion—nothing—just that cold, inhuman stillness that sent shivers down their spines.
Sonia's jaw tightened, and Aria's clinical eyes studied him with newfound intensity—until they both noticed the mark carved on his torso.
On his upper chest was a scarred sigil: a jet-black sphere crossed by a diagonal slash and orbited by four stars.
Their expressions tightened. It was a symbol of great renown—a symbol that represents strength and perseverance in the wake of tragedy. To see that same symbol on him didn't make sense.
"Captain, isn't that...?"
"Yeah..."
He glanced around. Everything looked different—sleeker, more advanced. Far different from what he was used to.
The two women's appearance now came into view. Their voices, previously muffled, were now clear and unfiltered.
The one with the gun had short hair and sharp, almost predatory eyes. Two horns rose from her head—one broken at the tip—and a scaly tail with a pointed end swayed behind her hypnotically.
"Where am I?" he asked, voice hoarse.
The other woman stepped forward. Long, silver hair with no apparent mutations.
However, as his gaze fell upon her, her face blurred, then flickered. And for a moment, he saw someone else—someone he recognized, but couldn't quite place.
"Where am I?" he asked again, voice more insistent, "Who are you people?"
"Watch your tone," she warned.
"My name is Sonia Velmare, the Captain of this ship. The one beside me is Aria Silvers, our head medic."
"A ship... What happ—"
"No," Sonia interrupted, "We'll be the ones asking the questions here. Your name. Now."
His brow furrowed briefly before it relaxed. Not liking her tone.
"Ain," he answered flatly.
"Are you deaf? Your last name!"
"...I don't have one. Just Ain, Captain of the First Reclamation Division."
Sonia and Aria froze.
Every full-fledged Valkyrie recognized the name. A mononymous legend—the man who had reclaimed nearly a third of Terra... until a catastrophe swallowed his division whole.
They thought this was just another isolated fossil—a man out of time.
However, as their inspecting eyes narrowed, and as more of Ain's features resembled those from historical accounts—
Ain observed, clenching the pod's edges. "What is it?"
Another pause. Heavier this time.
"How long do you think you've been in that pod?" Sonia asked carefully.
Thinking back only brought fragments. The last thing he remembered was the pod sealing shut, someone's face blurring beyond the glass, and then—nothing.
"I don't know. Weeks? Months? Why?"
Aria glanced at Sonia. A brief nod.
After taking a deep breath, Aria's eyes met Ain's. When she spoke, her voice was as gentle and measured as she could make it.
"You've been asleep... for almost half a millennium..."
"Four hundred and seventy-two years, to be exact," Sonia added, tone sharp—clinical.
"F-four hundred...?" Ain's breath caught, his shoulders slumped, strength leaving him instantly.
He tried to move, tried to stand, but his balance failed him, and he collapsed to the deck.
Slowly. Desperately. He dragged himself forward—toward the exit, toward something. He didn't know what.
The two women exchanged a final glance.
"Do it."
The soft, charging hum behind him went unheard. The gentle press of a hand on his back went unfelt.
A familiar surge of energy hit him once more.
Darkness slowly took him; his body went lax against the floor, one arm still outstretched toward the door—reaching for something already lost.