A scream tore itself from Aeron's throat as he jolted awake.
Air burned in his lungs.
The sky above him was black, choked with smoke.
Ruined towers bent like dying giants.
Crimson lightning cracked the horizon.
The smell of ash.
The taste of metal and dust.
A battlefield.
He wasn't in Lyria anymore.
He wasn't even in his own body.
Aeron sat up, gasping, staring at his hands — larger, scarred, calloused.
Gloves, ripped and stained.
A half-broken gauntlet on his right arm.
His heart raced.
"This… this isn't me…"
He staggered to his feet, disoriented.
Explosions boomed in the distance.
Screams.
Creatures roaring.
Gunfire sparking red lines across the air.
A neon sign flickered nearby in a broken language he couldn't read.
Aeron stumbled forward, looking down at his reflection in a shattered glass pane.
A cold face stared back.
Sharp eyes.
Dark hair.
A cruel scar across the jaw.
Raven's face.
Aeron stumbled backward in shock.
What— what is happening?!
A voice crackled from a nearby comm device clipped to his belt.
"Protector! Raven! Solaris District is under breach! Repeat—under breach! We need you NOW!"
Protector?
Aeron froze.
Aeron looked around, panic rising.
He didn't know how to fight these metal beasts.
He didn't know how to use the weapons on his belt.
He didn't understand this world.
"What do I do…?" Aeron whispered. "Raven… where are you…?"
Then—
A faint whisper in his mind, like an echo traveling across ages.
Raven's voice. Cold, controlled, familiar.
Aeron. Listen to me.
Aeron gasped, spinning around.
You're in my world, Raven continued.
In my body. And you're going to die if you don't follow exactly what I say.
Aeron swallowed hard. "Raven… I don't understand—"
There's no time to understand.
Move. Now.
A massive explosion shook the ground behind Aeron.
He turned slowly.
A towering creature of corrupted magic and metal stepped from the smoke, glowing red eyes locked onto him.
Aeron froze.
It roared.
Raven's voice snapped sharply:
Aeron—RUN!
Aeron obeyed.
Because if he didn't…
The future hero's body — and Aeron's life — would be lost in the first few minutes.