Metro Manila, Philippines.
Rain poured relentlessly over the city of Manila, thick clouds swallowed the night sky, turning the horizon into a restless sea of darkness. Lightning flashed across the heavens every few minutes, followed by thunder that rolled through the city like the roar of a distant beast. Streets that were usually alive with traffic had grown quiet as people rushed indoors to escape the sudden storm.
Water cascaded down rooftops and gathered along the pavement, reflecting the pale glow of streetlights beneath the rain.
Inside a private hospital near the center of the city, however, the storm outside was the last thing anyone cared about. The atmosphere inside the building was tense.
Doctors and nurses hurried through the corridors while the sound of thunder echoed faintly through the glass windows. Medical equipment beeped steadily as staff members prepared for another delivery. In one particular room at the end of the hallway, the tension had reached its peak.
Alisa Natalia Volkov lay on the hospital bed, gripping the white sheets tightly as another wave of pain surged through her body.
Her silver hair clung slightly to her forehead from sweat, yet her sharp ocean-colored eyes remained focused. Despite the pain of childbirth, there was a calm strength within her expression.
A nurse beside the bed wiped the sweat from her brow. "Just a little more, Mrs. Nozomi," the nurse encouraged gently. "You're doing great. One more push."
Alisa inhaled deeply, forcing herself to remain steady. Across the bed stood a tall man whose presence seemed strangely out of place in such a peaceful hospital room.
Gabriel-Louis Nozomi, his dark hair was slightly messy, and his sharp eyes watched every movement inside the room with quiet intensity. His posture remained straight, shoulders squared like a soldier standing in formation.
But there was something unusual about him. His fists were clenched tightly, the nurses assumed he was simply a nervous husband witnessing childbirth for the first time.
None of them knew the truth. The man standing beside the bed was one of the most feared warriors in the country is an SS-Rank assassin.
Across countless battlefields and portals, Gabriel Nozomi had faced monsters capable of leveling entire cities. His reputation inside the Philippine Warrior Association was legendary. Yet at this moment, none of that mattered.
Right now, he wasn't a warrior, he was just a man waiting for his child to be born. Another flash of lightning lit up the hospital window. Thunder followed almost instantly, shaking the glass slightly. Gabriel glanced toward the storm outside before looking back at Alisa.
"You're doing well," he said quietly. Alisa managed a faint smile despite the pain. "You sound calmer than you look." Gabriel blinked.
For a moment, he realized she was right. Even though his voice remained steady, the tension in his shoulders betrayed him.
A doctor standing nearby raised his voice. "Alright, Mrs. Nozomi. One more push!" Alisa tightened her grip on the sheets and gathered the last of her strength.
Then she pushed. The room held its breath.
For a brief moment, the world outside seemed to fall completely silent.
Then—
A baby's cry filled the room. The sound cut through the storm like a spark of life itself. For several seconds, everyone froze.
Then the doctor broke into a smile. "Congratulations," he announced. "It's a boy."
The tension inside the room vanished instantly. One of the nurses gently wrapped the newborn in a clean blanket before carefully placing him into Alisa's arms.
Her breathing slowly steadied as she looked down at the small child resting against her chest.
Silver hair and Ocean-blue eyes. The baby blinked slowly as if adjusting to the light of the world he had just entered.
Gabriel stepped closer. The moment he saw his son, the cold expression that usually defined his face softened slightly. "Our son…" he murmured. Alisa smiled faintly. "He has your calm face. Gabriel shook his head. "No," he replied quietly. "He has your eyes and your hair."
The newborn remained unusually quiet. Instead of crying again like most babies, he simply stared upward, his ocean-blue eyes strangely focused as they moved across the room.
For a brief moment, the atmosphere inside the hospital room felt different. Still almost unnatural then lightning struck somewhere in the distance.
The hospital lights flickered for a split second. And a faint surge of mana spread through the room. Gabriel felt it instantly. His expression changed. "Did you feel that?" he asked quietly. Alisa nodded immediately.
As an S-Rank healer whose Mana was deeply connected to nature, her sensitivity to mana fluctuations was extraordinary.
"That came from him," she said softly.
Both of them slowly looked down at the newborn child. The baby blinked again. Outside the hospital, the storm seemed to grow stronger, wind howled across the streets, rain struck the windows harder. Lightning flashed repeatedly across the sky.
Inside the room, Gabriel studied his son carefully. He had sensed powerful mana before, he had felt it inside high-rank portals, he had encountered it on battlefields where monsters capable of destroying cities appeared.
But this.. This felt different, it wasn't violent, it wasn't chaotic, it was simply dense, unnaturally dense. Almost as if the child's body was quietly containing something far greater than anyone realized.
The doctor finished examining the newborn and gave a satisfied nod. "He looks perfectly healthy," he said. "Strong heartbeat, stable breathing. Everything is normal."
Alisa gently pulled the baby closer to her chest. "What should we name him?" she asked softly.
Gabriel remained silent for a moment. His eyes never left the child. Then he answered.
"Kosoku."
Alisa repeated the name slowly. "Kosoku.."
She looked down at the baby again and smiled. "Kosoku Roche Volkov Nozomi."
The newborn's eyes remained open. Calm and observant of his surroundings. Almost as if he were already studying the world around him.
But deep within his mind, something stirred. Fragments of darkness flickered through his thoughts like broken reflections in shattered glass.
A throne in a vast palace swallowed by shadows, a shattered crystal heart floating above an empty pedestal, a cold chamber filled with accusing voices and a single name echoing through the darkness.
Erebus.
The newborn's tiny fingers twitched slightly then his eyes slowly closed, the fragments faded. Outside the hospital window, lightning flashed across the sky once more.
The storm above Manila raged on. But inside that quiet hospital room, something far greater than a simple storm had just begun because on that rain-soaked night in the Philippines— A child carrying a power far beyond the understanding of the modern world had been born.
And his name was Kosoku Nozomi.