Rain fell in sheets over the city.
Neon lights blurred across wet roads, reflected in puddles like shattered stars. Cars hissed past. Umbrellas collided in crowds. People hurried home with eyes lowered, each trapped inside their own life.
No one noticed the boy standing alone beneath a broken streetlamp.
Kyūsei stared blankly at the traffic crossing ahead.
Eighteen years old.
Thin frame. Hollow eyes. Shoulders bent as if the world had been resting on them for too long.
His clothes were damp. His hands trembled slightly from cold.
Or maybe hunger.
Or maybe fear.
He no longer knew the difference.
Behind him, through the rain and four floors of concrete, was the apartment he had just escaped.
The place others would call home.
To Kyūsei, it had always been a cage.
Dark curtains. Locked doors. Whispered insults. Sudden blows. Days without sunlight. Years without kindness.
He had learned early that pain could arrive without warning.
He had learned later that no one was coming to save him.
Tonight, for the first time in his life, he had run.
No plan.
No money.
No destination.
Just the desperate instinct of an animal chewing off its own leg to escape a trap.
Kyūsei took a shaky breath and looked up at the gray sky.
Freedom felt colder than he imagined.
A laugh escaped him.
Small.
Broken.
Pathetic.
But real.
He stepped toward the crossing as the signal changed.
A crowd moved with him.
People shoulder to shoulder, faces lit by phones.
He was swallowed among them.
For a moment, he almost felt normal.
Then someone screamed.
Headlights tore through the rain.
A delivery truck skidded sideways, horn blaring, tires shrieking against soaked asphalt. It spun past the red light straight toward the crossing.
Everything slowed.
Bodies scattered.
Umbrellas flew.
A mother yanked her child away.
Kyūsei froze.
His legs would not move.
The truck roared closer.
Bright white lights filled his vision.
So this is how it ends.
Not in the apartment.
Not by their hands.
But here.
Anonymous.
Forgotten.
Then another body slammed into him.
Kyūsei was thrown sideways onto the pavement.
Pain burst across his shoulder.
The truck passed inches away—
And struck the person who had pushed him.
A sickening sound cracked through the rain.
The world stopped.
Kyūsei rolled over, gasping.
A young man lay several meters away, blood spreading beneath him.
Dark hair.
School jacket.
Face turned toward the sky.
Kyūsei crawled forward.
"No… no…"
He reached him with shaking hands.
The young man coughed, blood at his lips.
Then he smiled weakly.
"…You're always too slow."
Kyūsei's eyes widened.
"Hansuke?"
His best friend.
The only person who had ever treated him like he mattered.
The one he had drifted apart from after changing schools.
The one he hadn't spoken to in nearly a year.
Hansuke laughed once, then winced.
"Still making that stupid face…"
"Why are you here? Why—why would you—"
"Tch… saw you standing there like an idiot…"
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Rain struck the pavement harder.
Kyūsei grabbed his hand.
"Stay awake! Somebody help! HELP!"
Crowds gathered in circles, filming, shouting, hesitating.
Hansuke's grip weakened.
"Guess… I made it in time."
"No! Shut up! Don't talk like that!"
Kyūsei's voice cracked.
He had no words for this pain.
No shape for it.
Hansuke stared at him through rain-blurred eyes.
"You better… live properly this time."
"What does that even mean?!"
But Hansuke did not answer.
His hand slipped from Kyūsei's fingers.
Something inside Kyūsei shattered.
He screamed.
The truck's rear wheels hit debris, bounced, and spun.
Metal screeched.
The vehicle lurched sideways again—
Straight toward Kyūsei.
People shouted.
Someone pulled back.
No one reached for him.
Kyūsei looked up at the wall of steel rushing down.
And thought only one thing.
I'm sorry.
Then darkness swallowed everything.
He awoke to silence.
No rain.
No sirens.
No pain.
Kyūsei opened his eyes.
Stars stretched endlessly above him.
But they were wrong.
Too bright.
Too many.
They moved like living things, swirling across a black sky threaded with gold.
He sat upright on smooth white stone.
There was no city.
No road.
No body.
He stood in a vast empty plain of marble that reached farther than sight. Pillars the size of mountains rose in the distance. Rivers of light flowed through the ground beneath transparent crystal.
At the center of it all stood someone waiting.
A man.
No—something wearing the shape of one.
Tall. Draped in robes that shifted like galaxies. Hair silver as moonlight. Eyes containing storms, oceans, fire, and stars all at once.
Kyūsei's throat tightened.
"Am I dead?"
The being smiled.
"Yes."
Kyūsei blinked.
"…Oh."
The being tilted his head, amused.
"That is not the reaction I expected."
Kyūsei stared at the endless horizon.
"I don't know what reaction you wanted."
The being studied him carefully.
"Most humans panic. Bargain. Deny."
"I'm tired."
That answer made the being fall silent.
For the first time, there was something like sadness in those impossible eyes.
"What is your name?"
"Kyūsei."
"A fitting one."
"What does that mean?"
"In an old tongue… it can mean salvation."
Kyūsei laughed bitterly.
"Wrong person."
The being stepped closer.
"You think yourself worthless."
"I know myself."
"No," said the being softly. "You know what pain taught you."
Those words struck deeper than any blow.
Kyūsei looked away.
"If this is judgment, just do it."
"There is no judgment."
"Then heaven?"
"No."
"Hell?"
The being smiled faintly.
"Already completed."
Kyūsei said nothing.
The vast white world trembled.
Somewhere beneath the marble floor, something ancient growled.
The being's gaze shifted toward the darkness below.
"There is another world."
Kyūsei frowned.
"What?"
"A world called Eryndor. A world of mana, monsters, kingdoms, dungeons… and a fate beginning to rot."
Kyūsei stared.
"This sounds insane."
"It is."
The being raised one hand.
A thousand images bloomed in the air.
Towering cities of crystal.
Knights fighting dragons.
Floating islands.
Armies beneath burning skies.
A black star cracking open above a continent.
People screaming.
Kyūsei stepped back.
"What does this have to do with me?"
The being's eyes locked onto his.
"I want you to become its god."
Kyūsei barked out a laugh.
"You picked the wrong corpse."
"No."
The word echoed like thunder.
"I chose the only one who still stood after a life built to break him."
Kyūsei's chest tightened.
"I'm weak."
"You endured."
"I know nothing."
"You can learn."
"I can't even save one friend."
The being's voice softened.
"Then perhaps… in the next world, you will save many."
Kyūsei trembled.
Hansuke's face flashed in his mind.
The smile.
The blood.
The hand slipping away.
"Why me?"
The being turned slightly.
"Because power given to the proud becomes tyranny."
He looked back.
"Power given to the wounded may become mercy."
For the first time in years, Kyūsei felt tears burn his eyes.
"What happens if I refuse?"
"You pass on."
"And if I accept?"
"You suffer greatly."
"…That honest, huh?"
The being laughed.
"I like you."
Kyūsei wiped his face with his sleeve.
"If I go there… can I become someone else?"
The being considered.
"No."
Kyūsei lowered his head.
Then slowly raised it again.
"…Good."
The being's brows lifted.
"I'm tired of running from myself."
Silence filled the marble plain.
Then the god smiled wide enough to frighten stars.
"At last."
He raised both hands.
Light burst upward.
The ground cracked into rivers of fire.
Runes spiraled around Kyūsei's body.
"Wait!" Kyūsei shouted. "You still haven't answered one thing!"
"What is it?"
"What are you?"
The being's voice shook worlds.
"I am the god who regrets creating limits."
The light consumed everything.
Kyūsei felt himself falling through oceans of flame and wind.
He screamed.
Then—
Trees.
Cold air.
Wet earth.
Birds shrieking overhead.
Kyūsei crashed face-first into grass.
He coughed dirt and rolled over.
Sunlight filtered through giant leaves larger than doors.
Ancient trees rose into the sky.
Unknown insects buzzed nearby.
Every breath tasted sharper. Richer.
Alive.
He sat up slowly.
"…I'm really here."
A low growl answered him.
Kyūsei froze.
From the bushes emerged a wolf.
Except it was twice the size of any wolf he had seen.
Its fur shimmered dark blue.
Its eyes glowed.
Drool hissed where it struck the ground.
Kyūsei stared.
The beast bared crystal-like fangs.
"…You sent me here with no weapon?!"
The wolf lunged.
And somewhere far above, a god laughed.