"Huff… huff…"
Each breath scraped his throat raw, uneven, desperate.
"Why…?"
The word broke before it fully formed.
"Why is this happening to me…?"
Silence swallowed his voice. The cave did not answer. It never did.
"I just… I just want to prove… I'm not a mistake…"
A teenage boy lay crumpled against the cold stone, his body trembling like a dying flame.
Blood seeped from shallow cuts and deeper gashes, tracing thin, glistening lines across his skin before dripping onto the cavern floor. The metallic scent hung heavy in the air, mixing with damp earth and suffocating darkness.
His chest rose and fell in ragged bursts.
Too fast. Too weak.
His name was Aaron.
Once, he had been the kind of boy people described with easy smiles. Bright. Gentle. The one who laughed first and loudest, who stayed behind to help, who carried other people's burdens as if they weighed nothing.
The kind of boy who believed—truly believed—that if he was kind enough, good enough…
…he would be accepted.
A hollow breath escaped him, almost a laugh, almost a sob.
But somewhere along the way, that belief had shattered.
And now—
There was only darkness.
Only pain.
Only the quiet, gnawing question he could no longer outrun:
What if they were right?
What if I really am… a mistake?
In the world of TETHERIS every child awakens a trait at 10 years old age.
While all childrens awakened regardless of the rank of trait.
But he didn't.
In this world where strength and power means everything, Aaron became a liability.
As cruel as that may seem like , after a month of the awakening he was expelled by very orphanage he loved dearly .
The dean of orphanage who once loved him dearly for his intelligence now mercilessly kicked him out of the orphanage.
Aaron heart shattered at that very moment .
As he clearly remember every word he said back then
" You are a mistake....filth. Maybe that's why your parents abandoned you."
After that day, Aaron drifted through the town like a shadow no one cared to notice.
For months, he survived on scraps, scavenging whatever he could find just to quiet the hollow ache in his stomach. Eventually, his wandering led him to the slums, a place where even the broken came to break further. At least there, he thought, he could sleep.
He was wrong.
In a world ruled by the law of the jungle, peace was a luxury meant for the strong.
The goons found him.
From that moment on, Aaron stopped being a boy and became a tool.
They forced him into every kind of filthy work—stealing, pickpocketing, anything that could fill their pockets. And at the end of each day, he had to hand over everything he'd taken, keeping nothing for himself… not even dignity.
Because to them, he was nothing.
An unawakened failure. Trash.
And trash, in their eyes, existed to be used—and beaten.
Every single day, they took out their frustrations on him.
If he endured it quietly, he was beaten.
If he resisted, he was beaten worse.
Again.
And again.
And again.
The pain became routine. The bruises, familiar. Survival turned into a dull, endless loop.
Yet, in the middle of that hell, Aaron found something unexpected.
A friend.
Someone who stood beside him when no one else would. Someone who bled with him, stole with him, suffered with him. In that broken world, they became brothers—not by blood, but by shared pain and silent understanding.
And for the first time in a long while… Aaron believed he wasn't alone.
Two years passed like that—harsh, unforgiving, but bearable.
Until the day everything shattered.
Because the same person Aaron trusted…
the same brother he had sworn loyalty to…
Was the one who betrayed him.
A low growl rumbled through the air.
"Grrrrrr…"
Aaron slowly raised his head.
Two black-fang wolves stood ahead, their yellow eyes glinting with cruel amusement. They didn't rush. They stalked—circling, closing in, savoring the inevitability of his death.
Prey.
That's what he was to them.
Aaron's fingers trembled… then tightened.
He forced himself up, legs shaking, and grabbed the rusted, chipped sword lying beside him.
"Even if… even if I die—"
His voice cracked, but his eyes burned.
"—I won't go down without a fight, you bastards!!"
He lunged forward.
Reckless. Desperate. Alive.
The first wolf leapt, jaws opening wide enough to crush his skull—
"NOW!"
Aaron twisted his body and drove the sword upward with everything he had.
Slash!
The blade tore through the wolf's open maw, piercing deep into its skull.
A wet crunch.
The beast collapsed instantly.
But—
"AAARGH!!"
The second wolf struck.
Its fangs sank deep into Aaron's left shoulder.
Pain exploded through his body like lightning ripping him apart from the inside.
His vision blurred.
His knees almost gave out.
But he didn't scream again.
He endured.
"Not… yet…"
With trembling breath, Aaron clenched his jaw and yanked the sword free from the dead wolf's skull.
Shhinggg—!
Blood sprayed.
The second wolf growled, tightening its bite, shaking him like prey.
Big mistake.
Aaron's eyes sharpened.
With his remaining strength, he swung.
SLASH!
The blade cut clean.
The wolf's head separated from its body mid-motion.
A dull thud echoed as it hit the ground.
Silence.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Aaron staggered back, barely standing.
Blood dripped from his torn shoulder. His grip on the sword weakened, but he didn't let go.
This… this was impossible.
An unawakened person killing two black-fang wolves?
That alone should have been a death sentence.
But he was still alive.
Barely.
He forced his shaking hand toward his shoulder and ripped the severed wolf's jaws free with a grimace.
Then—
"Awooooo—!!"
A distant howl.
Then another.
And another.
His blood ran cold.
More wolves.
Coming.
"Damn it…"
No time to think.
Aaron turned and ran.
Fast as he could.
Because he knew.
This wasn't some forest.
This was a dungeon.
And he was on the fifth floor.
A place where even awakened fighters hesitated to step.
And yet—
He had been thrown here.
By someone he trusted more than his own life.
A friend.
No… a brother.
Used as bait.
Discarded like trash.
"…Money, huh."
His breath came in ragged bursts as he ran.
"So that's all it takes…"
Strangely—
He didn't feel hatred.
Not fully.
What crushed him wasn't betrayal.
It was something worse.
Powerlessness.
After all…
What else could he expect from a slum?
Trust?
Brotherhood?
Those were luxuries for people who could afford them.
"…Tch."
He clicked his tongue, forcing the thoughts away.
"Doesn't matter."
His eyes hardened.
"Power… only power can buy freedom."
At last, he spotted a narrow crevice between two jagged dungeon walls.
Without hesitation, he squeezed inside.
His hands moved quickly despite the pain, dragging loose rocks and sealing the entrance as best as he could.
Then—
He stripped off the blood-soaked cloth hanging from his shoulder and threw it deeper into the dungeon.
A small trick.
Enough to mislead predators.
Hopefully.
Finally, his body gave in.
Aaron collapsed onto the cold stone floor.
His breathing slowed.
His vision dimmed.
Heavy…
Too heavy…
"…Not yet…"
But his eyes refused to stay open.
Darkness swallowed him.
And soon—
Aaron lost consciousness.
{Ding… Required energy threshold achieved.}
For a brief, fragile heartbeat, the world held still.
Not silence.
Absence.
{Ding… AWAKENING INITIATED}
The air around Aaron didn't tremble.
It forgot how to exist.
Shadows peeled away from objects like wet paint sliding off glass. Colors bled into each other, crimson dissolving into gold, gold collapsing into a shade that had no name… a color that hurt to perceive.
{ERROR… BROKEN FRAGMENTS OF GODHOOD DETECTED}
{ERROR… INCOMPATIBLE EXISTENCE LAYER}
{ERROR… CONCEPTUAL COLLAPSE}
Something ancient stirred.
Not inside Aaron.
Not outside.
Somewhere… incorrect.
{Ding… Recalibrating…}
{Ding… Rewriting…}
{Ding… Birth of UNKNOWN SYSTEM…}
The cave walls began to breathe.
Stone pulsed like flesh.
Time stretched like molten glass.
{Activation of CREATION SYSTEM}
0% — 17% — 39% — 63% — 88% — 100%
The moment it hit 100%—
Reality snapped.
Not metaphorically.
Not poetically.
Literally.
Like a thread pulled too tight.
Far beyond the cave…
Across continents…
Above oceans that suddenly stilled mid-wave…
The World Will awakened.
{Ding… WORLD WILL OF TETHERION — "Tetherion Axiom" HAS NOTICED AN ANOMALY}
The sky turned pale.
Not cloudy.
Not dark.
Just… wrong.
In the capital of the empire—
A sword saint froze mid-swing, his blade trembling.
"...What… is that pressure…?"
His aura, which once split mountains, shrank like a frightened animal.
In the abyssal sea—
An ancient leviathan, older than kingdoms, sank deeper.
Not to hunt.
To hide.
Inside a forbidden tower—
An archmage dropped to his knees, blood leaking from his nose as spell circles shattered around him.
"No… no, this is not mana… this is… this is something before mana…"
In a battlefield soaked with corpses—
A demon warlord laughed like a madman… then abruptly stopped.
"…Why do I feel like I've already died?"
Even the strongest…
Even the arrogant…
Even those who called themselves kings of existence—
Felt it.
That suffocating realization.
They were no longer at the top.
Back in the cave—
The system flickered.
No.
It resisted.
{Violation detected.}
And then—
It spoke.
Not in sound.
Not in language.
But in a decree that crushed dimensions.
{Erasing the source.}
The world moved.
The cave began to collapse—not physically, but conceptually. The idea of "Aaron existing here" was being deleted.
But then—
Something flared.
The fragments.
The broken godhood.
The newborn system.
They didn't attack.
They didn't resist.
They…
Negotiated.
Time halted.
Completely.
Even causality held its breath.
For a moment—
The strongest beings across Tetherion felt it.
That eerie pause.
That unnatural silence.
Like the universe was waiting for a verdict.
Then—
The world spoke again.
Slightly… altered.
{Judgment revised.}
{Complete erasure… denied.}
{Existence deemed…}
…pause…
…hesitation…
…something impossible for a World Will—
{…UNDEFINED.}
And then—
{Punishment: EXILE}
{Destination: Ascesion Labyrinth — DEEPEST FLOOR}
Reality reassembled violently.
Time snapped back like a whip.
Inside the cave—
Aaron's unconscious body lifted slightly off the ground.
A golden-white aura erupted from him.
Not light.
Not energy.
But something purer—
Authority.
As slowly it healed all of the bite marks on the sholder and all types of hidden injury accumulated in Aaron's body.
Aaron oblivious to such drastic phenomenon occuring in his surrounding , went to a more deep sleep as soothing warmth of healing felt much better to him.
The wolves—
Those same predators who ruled this cave—
Didn't hesitate.
They whimpered.
And then they ran.
Tails tucked. Bodies trembling. Instinct screaming:
Run. Or be erased from the idea of life itself.
Far away—
The sword saint dropped his blade.
"…It's gone."
The archmage whispered, shaking—
"No… it's not gone… it's… hidden..but...what has attracted "it's" attention?"
The leviathan coiled tighter in the abyss.
And in the unseen layers of reality—
The Tetherion Axiom remained silent.
Watching.
Calculating.
Waiting.
Because something had just been born.
Not a hero.
Not a monster.
Not even a god.
Something the world itself…
could not define.
The golden-white aura didn't just flare… it erased the world around him.
Space folded like paper in a careless god's hand.
And then—
Silence.
Aaron's unconscious body laid down at the deepest layer of the Labyrinth… a place untouched, unseen, unallowed. The air itself felt ancient, as if it had been waiting. Watching.
No footsteps had ever echoed here.
No eyes had ever witnessed it.
Until now.
Far above, the world of Tetheris spun on, ignorant and indifferent. Cities breathed. Empires schemed. The strong grew stronger, the weak were crushed beneath quiet, merciless routines.
But in one forgotten corner of existence—
Something had gone wrong.
No…
Something had gone off-script.
That day, a boy awakened who was never meant to exist.
A flaw in fate.
A crack in destiny.
A variable no system had accounted for.
And somewhere—
Beyond stars, beyond realms, beyond the fragile veil of reality itself—
something noticed.
Not a person.
Not a god.
Something older.
Something that did not see… but recognized.
Like a sleeping ocean shifting after feeling the first drop of a storm.
The Labyrinth trembled faintly, as if acknowledging its new master… or its future destroyer.
And deep within Aaron's chest, something stirred—
Not power.
Not yet.
But permission.
The world would call it an awakening.
History would call it a turning point.
But in truths buried far deeper than either—
This was the moment the story of Tetheris stopped being written…
…and started being rewritten.
Name: Aaron (Unregistered Anomaly)
Age: 12
Race: Human (Unstable)
Existence Tier: Awakening - 0
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Physique: None
Bloodline: None
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Trait:
• Creation (Sealed ???)
• Unyielding Will (S)
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Talent: None
Skill: None
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Core Attributes:
• Creation Nodules: 100
• Imagination Stability: 3%
• Existence Load: 0%
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Authority:
• Concept Authority: Locked
• Reality Permission: Denied
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Archive:
• Blueprint Slots: 0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧩 Creation System Stage:
[ STAGE 1 — INFANT CREATOR ]
Progress: 0%
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⚙️ Available Functions:
• Scan [Unlocked]
→ Analyze basic information of target
• Analysis [Unlocked]
→ Break down structure & composition
• Blueprint Creation [Unlocked]
→ Store analyzed structures
• Reconstruction [Locked]
→ Recreate scanned objects
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🔒 Future Functions Preview:
[ STAGE 2 — IMAGINATION AWAKENS ]
• Imaginative Blueprint [Locked]
• Draft Creation [Locked]
• Error Feedback [Locked]
---
[ STAGE 3 — TRUE CREATION ]
• Imaginative Creation [Locked]
• Blueprint Fusion [Locked]
• Trait Construction (Low) [Locked]
---
[ STAGE 4 — AUTHORITY BUILDER ]
• Concept Extraction [Locked]
• Concept Infusion [Locked]
• Bloodline Drafting [Locked]
---
[ STAGE 5 — ANOMALY ]
• Existence Rewrite [Locked]
• Race Creation [Locked]
• Self Evolution [Locked]
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Remark:
"Below even failure.
…Yet the system did not reject you." |
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