Asiel Lumaric, seventeen, sat hunched over his desk in a dimly lit apartment, the soft hum of his charging laptop filling the silence.
A half-solved equation stared back at him from his notebook, but his eyes often drifted to the black-covered book resting just out of reach on the shelf—a silent reminder of dreams he no longer chased. Life felt small, grey, and suffocating.
Then, without warning, the ground shook. An earthquake—violent, relentless—tore through the building. Books, glass, and ceiling fragments rained down as the floor cracked open beneath him. In a panic, Asiel lunged for that black-covered book… but the world collapsed faster than he could move. Twenty stories came crashing down.
Twenty-nine lives ended. One of them was his. In those fading breaths, regret burned in his chest—If only I had lived for myself… Then—light. Air.
The scent of wild grass. Asiel opened his eyes to an endless green horizon, the sky alive with the shadow of a dragon soaring above. His heart raced, disbelief mixing with an almost childlike thrill.
“HOW DID I COME TO ANOTHER WORLD?!” But joy can be fleeting… and in this world, even the first step can be deadly.