Al's sleep had been dreamless for a couple nights, but now he found himself in a mysterious space.
It was deeply forested. The sky was broken, not in the metaphorical sense but literally. The sky was fragmented, void filled the spaces between the jagged spaces of sky.
It was dark but thankfully the forest was being illuminated by fireflies.
Two paper lanterns could be seen flickering between trees.
I followed these flickering lights until it showed itself.
The stars felt closer than they should.
The Moon Shrine rose before him.
A shrine with nine steps and no end. Each footstep he took echoed like a droplet of water dropping into the ocean.
Stepping to the last step a platform appeared from the shadowed ground.
It rose and developed in the empty space before it as if it had always been there. A labradorite ring, ancient and overgrown, created an iridescent circle around a single silver pedestal where moonlight pooled like water. The moonlight flowed off the edge of the altar in a gas-like state spreading along the platform before dispersing into the air. .
Albert approached the pedestal slowly, reverently.
It called to him.
The Simulation never told him where the shrine was. It had simply… appeared. Like it was always meant to.
The moon above was full and distant, casting the forest in its image.
It bathed everything in silvery sorrow.
[Life Simulation System: Preparing Host for Transfer...]
[Moon Shrine Phase Initiated.]
The notifications from the system resounded in his ears.
He didn't respond to the system. His eyes were locked on the pedestal.
Floating above the altar was, A faint glimmer, like a bead of light caught stationary unaffected by the world around it.
His hands trembled as he reached out. He didn't know why he was crying until he touched it.
The fragment was warm. Like returning to a family who loved you.
[Divine Fragment Acquired: Akari – Thread Classification: Moon's Divine (Fragmented)]
In that instant, Al was overwhelmed with emotions foreign to him. Ones of sacrifice, devotion, obsession. It was as if the system was showing him strokes of a painting but refusing to show the final result.
Never did it show full images, not yet at least . Just the feelings. Laughter behind a clinic. The warmth of a fox's fur. Happiness held under a tree. Her name. Her love.
He staggered back, struggling to find words to express himself..
"She's…. Alive ," he whispered. "She's alive."
The shrine responded with a soft chime, as if to confirm his belief.
But then the wind changed.
The wind was calm, that was until now. A sickening howling spread through the air as the wind turned deviant Like another presence stepping through the veil behind him.
He didn't turn around.
After all, he didn't need to.
The threads revealed what his eyes couldn't.
Something cold slid against his spine, it was an all so familiar feeling that caused all to feel fear.
Unfathomable fear..
"You thought I couldn't follow," The wind spoke or perhaps someone else did.
Its voice was soft and melodic.
Like a whisper from behind the veil.
Albert turned slowly, and saw nothing.
Only the dark.
An echo of the shrine that once was.
But the fragment in his hand dimmed.
[Y-Thread Detected: Classification Aberrant, Status: Interdimensional Sync]
His breath caught.
His terror was made evident by his racing heart.
"She's following me," he muttered, gripping the fragment tighter.
His only sense of safety
"Even here…."
[Warning: Aberrant Thread Detected Beyond System Parameters]
[Containment—Failed]
[World Transition Pending...]
The world darkened. A light pulsed once filling the surroundings with blinding brightness, then again. Then his legs gave out beneath him. The silver light wrapped around his body like silk threads. They pulled him, pulled him far far away.
Not through space. But through fate.
As Albert fell, he saw that beautiful flicker of red.
It's flickering light like a smile meant for him..
Then, nothing.
==========================================
New World Simulation: Beginning
===========================================
[Simulation Thread Initialized]
[You will now live as: Kain]
[Age: 11]
[Occupation: Ironroot Mine Drudge, Depth Division]
[Region: Northeastern Sylvan Expanse – Territory of the Iron Cross Faith]
[Path Signature: Suppressed until Awakening Triggered]
[Warning: Host recognized as anomaly by local Pantheon. Termination Protocols Activated.]
====================================================
Pain greeted him first.
A weight on his back due to the heavy rocks in the basket attached to his back.. Stone dust filled the dark corridors.
Every breath felt like his lungs were on fire.
Chains dangled off his wrists. The stink of sulfur and blood filled his nose.
So potent it made his stomach twist in a knot.
Kain gasped as he woke no, as Al woke.
The body was thin, paper thin. He could see the bones in his hand from how malnourished this child was.
the hands blistered and raw gashes filling every inch of skin.
It was unbearably humid in this place, sweat stuck to Al's eyelids.
Kain was Al, or was it better to say Al was now Kain. His consciousness, his soul, trapped in another flesh.
He took this poor child's body, hopefully after the vessel was already empty.
And this world, his new hell, had already determined to make his life worse than it already was.
The world had already marked him to be terminated.
He looked down at his gaunt and malnourished limbs, specifically at the iron shackle bolted painfully into his ankle.
The mine tunnel stretched into darkness around him.
Lamps, casted warm light in the dim passages.
Children coughed sickly throughout his surroundings . Overseers snapped whips and shouted curses.
The haunting sound of the whips cracking the air caused the kids in front of him to shiver in fear.
No one had noticed he'd stopped.
His fingers scraped the ground, digging as deep into the soil as he could with his slim fingers.
Al brought the soil closer to his vision before opening his palm and watching as the soil he had grabbed pulsed faintly with corrupted energy.
The system was silent.
His mind struggled to find answers..
This was not the academy.
This was not the forest or the sects or anything resembling the wuxia world.
It was far different.
This was the beginning of something crueler.
More evil.
He exhaled, trying to keep his breath steady.
Fighting to keep his calm
Then he heard the voice.
Not from the system.
Not from memory.
It was a question, asked to him.
A small girl's voice, whispering from the crevice beside him.
Crouched in the dark crevice, her small figure peaked out.
"You're not from here, are you?" she asked.
Albert turned slowly.
Analyzing the girl who peaked out from the dark.
A girl no older than nine crouched out from her hiding spot. Mud covered her body and face. Her hair was short and caked in dirt and coal dust.
Her skin was pale from lack of sunlight, her eyes too sharp and a remarkable shade of yellow...
She stared at him with a strange softness.
"They hate you," she said, not as an accusation, but a fact.
Al was tempted to ignore the girl, but he knew she had a reason for purposely calling out to him.
"They hate all of us," he answered.
She crawled closer, the space in between them now irrelevant.
Her hand reached out quickly and took his hand, ignoring the blood dried to his skin.
"I saw the mark on your back," she whispered. "The church will kill you."
"I'm sorry, it must be hard"
Albert stiffened.
Albert's voice turned sharp as he tried to interrogate the poor girl.
"What mark?"
"The root. Like the old stories. You're the one they talk about."
Her hand was warm in his.
Silence rested in-between them for a while, no one said anything as the sounds of pickaxes hitting coal, and other stones rang out with an almost deafening tone.
"I don't think you're a monster," she said.
The light flickered.
The system.
[Simulation Bond Established: Senna – Classification: Anchor]
[Fragment Detection Rate Increased by 12%]
Albert stared down at the girl.
She looked like she hadn't eaten in days.
This environment should have long killed the light in her amber eyes, but here she was.
Senna looked at him like he was already something worth following.
Maybe even something worth worshiping.