For thirteen years...
Emil Myers had lived in darkness.
Not the darkness of night.
Not the darkness of a closed room.
But the endless darkness that had followed him since birth.
He had never seen the faces of his parents.
Never witnessed the color of the sky.
Never watched a sunrise.
Never known whether the world around him was beautiful or terrifying.
To him, the world was a place of sounds, scents, and feelings.
But now...
That was about to change.
---
The forest around Emil grew strangely quiet.
Even the wind seemed to stop.
The golden energy surrounding his body gathered into a brilliant sphere of light.
The Sun God Fragment within him resonated intensely.
Ding!
[Sun Eyes activation sequence beginning.]
[Preparing host's vision system.]
[Warning: Transformation will affect the physical structure of the eyes.]
[Pain level: Extreme.]
Emil swallowed.
"Extreme..."
He gave a small laugh.
"After everything I've experienced, I think I can handle it."
The system remained silent.
Then—
[Beginning transformation.]
---
The moment it started...
Emil screamed.
Pain unlike anything he had ever experienced erupted through his head.
His entire body trembled.
It felt as though invisible flames were burning through his eyes, rebuilding them piece by piece.
He fell to one knee, gripping the ground.
The river beside him began boiling from the heat radiating off his body.
Golden symbols appeared across his skin.
The Sun God Fragment was rewriting his very existence.
---
Images flashed through his mind.
A blazing sun.
Endless golden oceans of energy.
Ancient beings kneeling beneath divine light.
A pair of eyes overlooking countless worlds.
The memories were not his.
They belonged to something far older.
Something that had once stood above the heavens.
The Sun God.
---
For hours, Emil endured.
He refused to give in.
Every painful second reminded him of the village.
The people who called him a curse.
The people who believed his life had no value.
He remembered the cliff.
The fall.
The cold river.
The loneliness.
And he remembered something else.
The promise he made.
I won't die here.
Not then.
Not now.
---
Finally...
The pain disappeared.
Silence returned.
Emil remained kneeling, breathing heavily.
Then—
Ding!
---
[Sun Eyes successfully awakened.]
Ability acquired: Sun Eyes — Beginner Stage
Description:
A divine eye ability inherited from the Sun God.
Current abilities:
- Spiritual Vision
- Energy Detection
- Heat Perception
- Enhanced Analysis
Future abilities locked.
Requirement: Increase Sun Eyes mastery.
---
Emil slowly opened his eyes.
At first...
Nothing happened.
He waited.
A moment passed.
Another.
Then—
Light.
---
A broken sound escaped his throat.
"...Is this..."
His voice trembled.
"...light?"
For the first time in his life...
He saw.
---
The world exploded with colors.
The sky above him was a vast ocean of blue.
The sunlight filtering through the trees created golden patterns across the forest floor.
The river beside him reflected the sky like a mirror.
The leaves were not simply shapes.
They were thousands of different shades of green.
The flowers.
The grass.
The clouds.
Everything.
Everything he had only imagined before...
Was real.
---
Emil slowly raised his hands.
He stared at them.
His fingers.
His palms.
His own body.
He had touched them countless times before.
But seeing them...
Was something completely different.
A tear rolled down his cheek.
Not from pain.
Not from sadness.
But from overwhelming emotion.
"So this is..."
"...the world."
---
For thirteen years, people had told him he was incomplete.
Broken.
A mistake.
But standing beneath the sunlight, seeing the world with his own eyes...
Emil realized something.
His blindness had not made him weak.
It had forced him to understand things others ignored.
Sounds.
Energy.
Life.
He had survived without sight.
Now that he had it...
He would become even stronger.
---
Emil looked toward the forest.
His new vision was completely different from normal sight.
Everything possessed energy.
Trees radiated faint green life force.
The river carried flowing blue energy.
Small animals appeared like tiny glowing sparks.
Even the air itself contained countless streams of spiritual power.
"This..."
"This is incredible."
---
Then his expression changed.
Because he saw something else.
Something that made his blood run cold.
Far beyond the trees...
Deep within the Forbidden Forest...
A massive pillar of energy pierced into the sky.
Golden.
Ancient.
Powerful.
But surrounding it...
Was darkness.
A black mist that twisted around the golden light like chains.
Void energy.
A lot of it.
More than he could imagine.
---
Ding!
[Unknown energy source detected.]
[Analyzing...]
[Connection established.]
[Possible relation to Lost Civilization.]
---
Emil stared into the distance.
The place called to him.
Not with words.
But with a feeling.
Like something had been waiting.
Waiting for someone carrying the Sun God Fragment.
---
Ding!
[New objective discovered.]
The Ancient Sun Ruins
Location: Unknown region of the Forbidden Forest
Description:
A location containing traces of the Lost Civilization.
Recommendation:
Increase strength before exploration.
---
Emil looked down at his sword.
Then toward the distant energy pillar.
A few weeks ago, he had entered this forest as a powerless child waiting to die.
Now...
He stood as a cultivator with divine eyes.
But he understood something.
The Forbidden Forest had only revealed its surface.
The spirit beasts.
The Void Wraith.
The ancient ruins.
They were pieces of a much larger mystery.
And somewhere deep within this forest...
The answers waited.
---
That night, Emil sat beneath the stars.
Except this time...
He could see them.
Thousands upon thousands of lights scattered across the endless sky.
For the first time, he understood why ancient people looked upward and dreamed.
The universe was enormous.
Beautiful.
And filled with secrets.
Emil smiled.
"I spent my whole life in darkness..."
He looked toward the stars.
"Now I'll use this light to uncover everything."
The Sun God Fragment glowed warmly within him.
The journey of the chosen one had truly begun.