✦ A Boy Already Fading ✦
People say death comes at the end of life, but mine started long before.
I just didn't realize...
After school, I worked part-time jobs. At night, I walked alone under flickering lamps, whispering to the rain:
"Please… let me die tomorrow."
"If there really is something above gods…. some True Eye…"
Sometimes, quieter: "Please… let it end."
But the rain kept falling—as if someone above still wanted to keep the rhythm, even if I couldn't.
If this was punishment, it was gentle.
For the first time, the darkness didn't hurt.
The rain felt different that night — heavier, almost listening. Like the sky was waiting for my decision.
Some nights, I'd look out the window and wonder if anyone would cry if I disappeared.
The thought didn't scare me anymore — that's what terrified me most.
I had one wish: if I ever died, I wanted no one to come to my funeral. And if they did — I hoped they wouldn't cry.
I wasn't living. I was dissolving, heartbeat by heartbeat.
I'd forgotten how laughter felt on my tongue, how warmth sat in my chest.
Even the stars felt indifferent — watching, but never reaching back.
And yet, some small, fragile part of me still whispered,
"Maybe tomorrow will hurt a little less."
I never realized that was hope — the last flicker still refusing to die.
✦ The Storm Returns ✦
The storm answered.
The night was the same as my first. Black clouds piled high. Rain in sheets. Thunder like war drums.
I pedaled my bike through it. Clothes soaked. Body trembling.
Headlights flared through the curtain. A truck bore down, horn screaming.
And I… didn't move.
One Second Before Death
It wasn't an accident. It wasn't surprise. It was my choice—and fate colliding with it.
One second before the truck hit me, I smiled.
Thank...you. Finally. My life's come to an end.
Eyes closed. Mouth curved into the smallest smile.
"…Finally. It's over."
Impact swallowed the world.
✦ Before the Light Went Out ✦
The moment the headlights filled my eyes, one thought cut through the noise.
Ray — my sun — already set.
Ren — my brother — you are my moon.
If the world still has any light left, it's you.
So please… don't lose your hope.
Even if mine stops breathing, let yours keep burning.
I smiled into the storm, not for myself —
but so he'd remember me that way,
a fool who still believed the moon could outlast the night.
✦ Rebirth in the Void ✦
But death was not the end.
Darkness surrounded me. No pain. No fear. Just quiet.
Then—something flickered inside that quiet.
A pulse. Not mine. Not human.
Violet-gold light cracked through the dark, pulsing like a heartbeat that refused to die.
Then—A voice. Ancient. Calm. Unavoidable.
"Born in rain. Died in rain. You cursed your gods, your family, your fate. The world ignored your prayers… but I heard."
Above me, a black sun ignited. It bled light and shadow both.
My body dissolved. Bones, blood, soul—reforged in fire that wasn't fire.
Light and shadow swirled, colliding until they became one.
Something within me—small as a spark, endless as breath—awoke.
It moved through me like memory learning to live again.
"You begged for death… yet your wound remembered how to breathe. Rise, not as mortal flesh—but as one bound to the Divine Vein.
The scar that defied silence shall become your light."
"Raindrops still fell in the void—but now, they fell upward.
And my heartbeat was no longer mine — it was Etherus learning to speak."
My eyes opened. Golden irises burned inside the void, ringed with shadows that moved like they had their own breath.
The broken boy was gone.
But somewhere, a little boy still waited under the rain, wondering why I never came home.
And something new—radiant, terrifying, born from Fracture—had taken his place.
✦ Epigraph ✦
Born in rain. Died in rain. You cursed your gods, your family, your fate. The world ignored your prayers… but I heard.
✦ Light & Clouds ✦
Light detonated.
My chest heaved, ribs rattling like they weren't ready for air yet. I gasped — not asphalt, not headlights, not rain, not pain, not broken bones.
Instead? Clouds.
Glowing silver clouds cradled me — like the universe spun silk just to cushion a respawn.
When I pressed my palms into them, they were warm — not vapor, not mist, but alive. They hummed faintly, like a heartbeat.
Above stretched a golden sky pierced by crystal towers that scraped infinity.
Waterfalls climbed upward instead of falling, silver streams dissolving into constellations.
It looked like someone built a city out of starlight and said, Yeah, that's practical.
The words slipped out of my newborn mouth before my brain caught up:
"W–what the hell…? Didn't I die?"
The taste of rain still lingered. Ray's voice still echoed in my skull. But now… this?
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✦ The Eye that waited for me✦
The storm had ended, but the world would soon learn it hadn't vanished—it had been reborn, inside me. The broken boy who prayed for death had died that night on the asphalt. What rose from the void was no longer prey.
And when the gods finally looked down, they would realize too late—
their hunter had already awakened.
The storm wasn't weather. It was the first Vein opening.
Raindrops still fell in the void—but now, they fell upward.
And my heartbeat was no longer mine—it was the echo of something divine remembering itself.
✦Chapter 0 - The Last Light Before I Fell ✦