Chapter 1: The Collapse of the Mortal Realm

The dark of night lay upon the village of Rynhill. The stars hung scattered like shards of broken glass, their pale light barely illuminating the thatched roofs and dirt paths. Kaiden Vardrak sat on the steps of their wooden cottage, tracing the rough grains of the banister with his fingers. It was chilly and bit his skin, but he didn't care. He gazed at the stars, where he always found peace, imagining the distant lands beyond this corner of the world.

"Kaiden," his mother, Elara, called gently from within. "Come inside before you freeze."

"I'm fine, Mother," he answered, looking into the flicker of lantern light inside. The silhouette behind the thin curtains moved around with a heavy grace, his constant lifeline.

But tonight, that tranquility felt brittle, as if the universe was holding its breath. Kaiden grimaced and looked over the horizon. The wooded landscape around their village was quiet, too quiet. No owls hooted. No insects chirped. The silence gnawed at him.

And then, the air split open.

A world-ending roar ripped through the night, a sound louder than anything Kaiden had ever heard in a thunderstorm. His head jerked up as a golden crack split the cold heavens above, spilling supernatural light over the village.

"Elara Vardrak!" The voice echoed with supernatural thunder. "Your defiance ends now!"

Kaiden froze. As the radiant forms of unique celestial entities emerged through the rift, each draped in divine energy, panic clawed at his chest. The gleam of their armor shone as if made of molten gold, their weapons full of raw energy. Gods. Or their enforcers.

Suddenly, a door behind Kaiden burst open. "Kaiden, inside! Now!" Elara's voice was strident, insistent. She grasped his arm and pulled him into the house, shutting the door behind them.

"Mother, what's happening?" he shouted, his voice quaking. "Who are they? Why are they here?"

Elara didn't answer. Quaking, she bolted the door and retrieved a small satchel from under the kitchen table. The violet of her eyes, like his, flicked over to his briefly, and in it, Kaiden saw something he hadn't seen before: fear.

"You have to run," she said, her voice firm, even as her hands shook.

"Run? I'm not leaving you!" Kaiden protested as he took a step toward her.

"You don't have a choice!" she landed, thrusting the satchel at him. "Go to Aerisfall. You'll find safety there. Answers, too. But you have to leave. Now."

A violent tremor shook the ground, silencing Kaiden's reply. The divine warriors were near. Even the air felt charged with their energy, heavy and smothering.

"Mother—"

"No arguments, Kaiden!" she exclaimed, her tone fierce. "Promise me you'll survive. "I promise you will find Aerisfall.

He nodded, tears in his eyes. "I promise."

Elara's expression softened. She stepped forward, sweeping a lock of silver hair from his face. "I love you," she whispered. "Now, go."

Kaiden did not have a chance to answer before the door open. As the three heavenly warriors entered the small cottage, light flooded the room, yet the heavy pressure they brought with them was unbearable.

"Elara Vardrak," one of them said, its voice cold and mechanical. "In the names of the gods, you and the abomination you carry must be wiped away."

He felt Elara's hand against his chest. The force — gentle yet inescapable — shoved him backward, out through the back window of the home. He collapsed to the ground with a thud, the breath forced out of his lungs.

"RUN!" her voice echoed after him.

Kaiden jumped up, his heart racing trying to catch his breath. He was reluctant to leave her, but the fear in her eyes haunted him. He spun around and ran toward the wood, branches and grass slashing at his face and arms as he blindly tore through the underbrush. The clash of power erupted behind him, divine light crackling against just as fierce a will.

She is fighting them… he realized, and the realization swept through him like all the guilt and helplessness that time half a second running through him. He tripped, dropping to his knees. "No," he whispered, as he clenched his fists. "I can't just leave her…"

Another explosion rocked the forest. A blinding light flared amid the trees and Kaiden had to shield his eyes. And then he heard it: his mother's scream, guttural, piercing, and cut off.

The light faded. The forest grew still again. Too still.

"No… Mother…" Kaiden voice wavered and he sank to his knees in the earth, sobs wracking his chest. She was gone. He'd gotten away from her, and now she was gone.

His eyes stinging with tears, despair pressed on him, immobilizing him. But just as the darkness was about to swallow him whole, something new stirred.

A deep, resonating thrum rumbled inside his chest. He gasped, clutching his shirt as heat coursed through his veins. And suddenly, before his eyes, a translucent screen shimmered into being, its symbols glinting faintly in the darkness.

System Activated:

Kaiden blinked, his grief forgotten for a moment. "What…?" he said under his breath, his eyes fixed to the screen. Words scrolled across it, in a language that was frighteningly alien yet banal.

Welcome, Kaiden Vardrak. Bloodline: Celestial-Demonic Hybrid. Parameters: Initializing…

His vision left with those words; they left behind a faint afterimage. Kaiden panting, the fire within him bubbling over, heating his fingertips. He felt stronger, sharper — as if some dormant aspect of him had finally sprung to life.

But with the power came something darker: fury. It simmered below the surface, fed by his grief and guilt until it erupted.

Kaiden tensed his fists as his violet eyes shone faintly. "Aerisfall," he said, his voice shaking with fury. "That's where she wanted me to go. That's where I'll start. But first … I'll make the gods pay for what they've done."

He stood up, his legs firm though his insides churned. He didn't know what lay ahead, only one absolute: he couldn't be here. Rynhill was no longer a home to him. Now it had become nothing but ash and memory.

Kaiden tightened his grip on the strap of the satchel he had been given by his mother. Bidding one last glance to where the forest met the light, where both extended the glow of divine destruction, he turned and walked. It was a labored step, but the resolution behind it kept him moving.

The stars overhead felt subdued, their light wan and far away. But Kaiden didn't look up. There, his eyes cast toward the horizon beyond the ship lay the City of Aerisfall. And with it, the answers he desperately sought.