Riel stumbled through the ruins, clutching his bleeding arm. Every breath felt heavy, every sound sharper than the next. The silence of this strange world was deafening.
His thoughts spun in chaos.
"Where… where am I? Eren?"
He shouted again, his voice echoing against broken walls and fallen statues. Nothing answered. Only the cry of distant creatures.
Riel took a shaky step forward, then another. He remembered the flash — the moment the computer blazed white —and Eren's shocked face before everything vanished.
Now, all he could feel was hunger, pain, and fear.
"Please… let this be a dream."
A faint shimmer flickered at the edge of his vision.
At first, he thought it was a mirage — until a faint blue glow appeared in front of him. A crystal. Embedded in a pedestal, pulsing gently like a heartbeat.
Curiosity won over fear. Riel reached out and touched it.
[System Message: User detected. No synchronization data found.]
[Warning: System access denied.]
"What? System?" he muttered, confusion deepening.
He tried again, but the crystal cracked with a sharp hiss. Panic rose in his chest. He didn't understand — wasn't he supposed to have a system too, like in Eren's game stories?
But before he could think further, a sound tore through the air — a low growl.
Riel turned. Two glowing red eyes glared at him from the darkness of the hallway.
A creature — something like a wolf, but made of stone and shadows — crawled into the light, its claws leaving glowing trails on the floor.
Riel froze. "No, no, no—"
The beast lunged.
He dived aside, barely dodging as stone claws scraped his shoulder. He stumbled, grabbing a broken spear that lay among the rubble. The weapon was half-snapped, but it was all he had.
He swung wildly. The spear hit the creature's head, barely leaving a mark. The wolf growled, shaking off the hit like it was nothing.
Then — a voice cut through the chaos.
"Don't just swing! Aim for the cracks!"
Riel blinked. A figure leapt down from the higher ledge — a girl in light leather armor, silver hair glinting, a dagger glowing blue in her hand.
In one motion, she slashed across the wolf's neck, leaving a bright trail of light.
The creature screamed and shattered into fragments of crystal.
Silence returned.
Riel fell to his knees, chest heaving.
"Who... are you?"
The girl glanced at him, brushing dust from her armor.
"You're lucky I came by. Newcomers usually don't last five minutes out here."
She crouched down, eyes sharp. "You're not from around here, are you?"
Riel hesitated. "I... I don't even know where 'here' is."
The girl tilted her head. "Figures. No System window, huh?"
He blinked. "You... you can see that?"
She smirked. "You're standing there all clueless — no glow, no interface, no data tag. You're definitely not registered in the System."
Riel's throat went dry. "Then... what does that mean?"
"It means you're an anomaly," she said flatly. "And anomalies either die fast... or change the rules."
Riel swallowed hard. "What's your name?"
"Lyra." She stood, spinning her dagger back into its sheath. "If you want to live, stick close. Monsters here aren't patient."
Riel nodded weakly. He didn't understand this world, this system, or why he was even here. But at least — for now — he wasn't alone.
As they walked through the ruins, Lyra's expression softened slightly. "You said your name's Riel, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, Riel," she said, glancing at the blood still staining his arm, "welcome to Valtheris — the world where only the strong get to wake up tomorrow."
Her words echoed in his head as the twin suns began to set over the shattered horizon.