The world had ended, but no one had the decency to tell the sky.
Soft sunlight filtered through the shattered windows of the old train station, dancing across dust-covered benches and cracked tiles. Birds chirped somewhere in the distance, as if unaware that just a week ago, monsters had torn through this place like a storm of teeth and claws.
A boy sat alone on the edge of the platform, legs swinging lazily over the side. His shoes were scuffed. His shirt was torn. Blood—most of it not his—had long dried on his sleeves.
He didn't blink much anymore.
Didn't cry either.
He just stared at the empty tracks like something might come for him—another monster, another tragedy, another reason to disappear.
His name was Kai. Just Kai now. No parents to call him anything else. No sister to tease him about how serious he looked when he sulked. Just Kai.
The air shifted.
A low rumble vibrated through the ground, like something enormous was crawling just beneath the surface. Kai didn't move. He'd felt it before—these strange quakes always meant one thing.
Another rift had opened.
Another monster was coming.
He closed his eyes. Good, he thought. Maybe this one will finish the job.
A second later, the silence shattered.
A scream tore through the air—sharp, panicked, human. A woman's voice. Then came the sound of crashing metal, splintering wood, and a roar so deep it echoed in his bones.
Kai turned his head lazily toward the source. From behind the ruined ticket booth, a monstrous form emerged.
It was ten feet tall, hunched and hideous, its skin a sickly gray-green. Its arms were too long, tipped with serrated claws that dripped a black ichor. Its eyes glowed orange like coals in a dying fire.
It sniffed the air—and locked eyes with Kai.
He didn't flinch.
He didn't run.
He simply stood, arms limp at his sides, eyes dull. The creature growled, confused. Prey usually ran. Screamed. Fought. But this one… didn't care.
It charged anyway.
The ground cracked beneath its feet as it lunged. A claw arced down toward the boy's chest—meant to tear him in half.
Then time seemed to slow.
The air around Kai shimmered. A deep hum rose from somewhere inside him. A soundless scream, a memory buried so deep it had become part of his soul.
He remembered the fire.
He remembered their faces.
He remembered the feeling of helplessness.
His chest burned—not with pain, but with power. His eyes snapped open, and they weren't empty anymore.
They were glowing.
One black.
One white.
And in the space of a breath, two shapes erupted from his back—one bathed in shadow, the other in fractured light.
In his left hand appeared a blade of pure darkness, serrated and pulsing like a living thing. It seemed to drink the sunlight around it, whispering hunger.
In his right hand, a light-forged sword, gleaming like a star—except its tip was broken, jagged, like hope cut short.
The monster's claw struck—
—and stopped.
The darkness sword caught it, absorbed the impact, and Kai moved—faster than he should have. The broken light blade flashed upward, slashing across the creature's chest in a burning arc.
The beast howled, stumbling back, smoke rising from the wound.
Kai said nothing. He didn't know how to use these weapons. Didn't know where they came from.
But for the first time in days, he felt something.
Not hope.
Not yet.
But a reason to move.
Even if it was just to kill the thing in front of him.
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End of Chapter 1