Darkness. Where... am I?
My eyelids fluttered open slowly. But only darkness greeted me—silent, cold, and empty. It felt like being submerged in a boundless void.
"Lixs, wake up. Let's eat together."
That voice… warm, gentle—like a familiar embrace. But… who?
A dim light pierced the darkness, revealing a black-haired woman standing before me. She carried a plate of food, smiling at me… and calling my name.
I was speechless.
Behind her, I saw Claude sitting at the dining table, laughing with… Father.
My body moved on its own, drawing closer to them. For the first time in a long time, I felt… at home.
Those words—"let's eat together"—had always been something I could only wish for in my heart. And now, even though I knew this was just a dream, I wanted to stay longer.
But like mist swept away by the wind, everything faded.
I woke up—and reality hit me, cold and sharp like an iron blade. Mother had been gone for a long time—since I was two. And when I was six, Father… died.
I couldn't speak then. I could only stare at my older brother, resigned to fate. I tried to hug him, to comfort him. But seeing the tears fall from his eyes, I realized—I wasn't ready to accept this reality either.
A month later, I learned… all this time, he had been secretly searching for Mother everywhere. In the midst of the inter-country war, he protected me. He kept me away from the chaos. And in the end… he too was gone—attacked by a mysterious figure.
If I were given another chance… I swear I would find Mother. I would find out who killed Father.
Life is simple now. I've taken over Father's responsibilities—working just to survive. But my foolish brother insisted on helping me earn money. Seeing his thin, scarred body, I begged him to stay home.
However, day after day, he returned in worse condition. I couldn't bear it. I told him not to go out again.
He ignored me. Every morning he left without a word. And when he returned, something was different about him. His smile was gone. His demeanor had changed. He wasn't whiny anymore. He became… cold.
Two months later, I dared to ask. Where did he go every day? Why had he changed?
He only answered, "No."
Flat. Frozen.
From that day on, I stopped asking. I focused on working. Ten years passed in relentless hard work—until my body began to weaken. Now, I even struggle to run or carry light loads. My breath comes in short, sharp gasps. Every penny I earn is divided in two: for food… and for medicine to stay alive.
"Tch, this dreadful situation… its nature has infected me," I muttered with a bitter smile.
I opened my eyes. The surroundings were strange—not my home, not the village, not Sichibukuten.
I stood slowly. The ground was damp, the air foreign, the sky… a dusky purple. Was I in another country?
Suddenly, a roar echoed in the distance.
"Wuaaaahhh!"
Monsters.
...****...
Disgusting creatures were running towards me at high speed. I immediately turned and ran, panicked. There was no way I could fight them. I'm not Zaresha. I have no powers. I'm just… me.
Worse—I'm alone.
I looked back. There was no Zuxsin. No Claude. No one. Just me… and those monsters.
I have to survive.
"Lixs, did you actually hear what Father said?"
"Yes, Father. I heard. Don't worry."
Once, I dreamed of leaving the village and exploring the world. But that desire was just a dream. Father knew—and of course, forbade it. After that, I ran away from home for two days. They worried about me.
When they found me, I was lying weak under a wooden post. They brought me home. That incident made me sick. But since then, I've been determined… to keep living. To make that wish come true.
Why am I remembering that now? I need to find a way to escape these damned monsters.
"Yes… I know. I have to survive. To get what I want," I whispered, but seriously.
I have to get out of here. But… this place. Damn it. Why does it feel so familiar?
I kept walking—running. Then, I stopped. Before me stood a house… my house.
"What the…?"
I knelt. My hands covered my face.
"What am I actually seeing…?"
However, in another corner of this foreign world, in a place no less inexplicable, two others were also trapped in a situation they didn't understand.
Silent. Blurred. And slowly—awakening.
Slap.
A slap landed on Zuxsin's cheek. He coughed softly, then slowly opened his eyes. His head felt heavy. His vision was blurry.
"Ugh… Zaresha? What's going on? Where are we now?" he mumbled, rubbing his temples.
"That's what I want to know," Zaresha replied, holding back a headache as she looked around. "I just realized we're in a strange place. Do you remember anything?"
Zuxsin shook his head slowly. "No… everything's blurry. But… why am I with you?"
He stood slowly, his body still unsteady. His eyes caught something in the distance—a book with a faint, pulsating light.
"Huh… what's that?" he muttered.
He began to walk towards the book.
"Zuxsin! Don't just touch it! It could—"
"Relax… it's just a book," Zuxsin mumbled, lazily. But his hand didn't stop moving. Something about the book seemed to be drawing him in.
But as his hand reached for it, his head suddenly felt like it had been hit with a hammer.
"Akh! What is this!? My head…!"
Zuxsin's vision blurred, the world seemed to spin. But his hand still grasped the book—and the moment his skin touched its surface, a piercing scream erupted from his throat.
"AAAAAAAAARGHH!!"
Zaresha flinched. Without thinking, she ran towards him.
"Zuxsin! Let go of the book!"
She tried to pull Zuxsin, grasping his shoulder. But the moment her skin touched Zuxsin's…
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
The same scream. Her head felt like it was bombarded with thousands of foreign memories forcefully intruding. Images—war, shadows, unfamiliar faces—all crashing in together. These memories weren't theirs… yet they felt real.
Both their bodies were thrown backward. They lay on the ground, their bodies trembling. Irregular breathing. The world felt distant. Silence enveloped them.
An hour passed. Consciousness returned.
Zuxsin was the first to open his eyes. His body was still weak, but he tried to get up.
"Tsk… what was that…? What was in that book…?"
He looked towards Zaresha who was still lying down, but seemed to be starting to move. Her breath was ragged, but she was conscious.
Zuxsin looked around. Unfamiliar trees. An alien sky. Unrecognizable land. Everything… was not the world he knew.
"This is troublesome…" he thought.
He massaged his temples. "Wait… Lixs. Where is he?"
Zuxsin stood fully, now with a sharp gaze.
"Is it possible… that we were separated? Maybe he's also in this place—alone. If so…"
"Wait a minute, Lixs. I'll look for you. And after we meet… we'll find out what we really want."
The ground around them was cracked and dry, as if it hadn't been touched by water for a long time. The night wind carried dust that danced in the air.
Slowly, Zaresha opened her eyes. Her head throbbed violently. Her last memory was a fleeting image of Lixs and Zuxsin. She tried to get up, her legs trembling.
"Lixs? Zuxsin?" she called, her voice breaking with exhaustion. Only echoes answered.
Zaresha looked up at the sky. The stars shone brightly, as if witnessing her loneliness from above. "Where are you…? I'm waiting…" she whispered. Tears fell, wetting the parched earth.
Suddenly, footsteps approached from the distance. The figure of a man appeared, bathed in moonlight. He approached and tried to help Zaresha stand, but his efforts were futile—Zaresha was too weak.
Soon after, Zuxsin appeared from the opposite direction, along with a strange man with short silver hair covering half his face. His eyes were a clear blue, like a deep and mysterious stream. He was Lheios Arshal, a researcher of the supernatural world who had secretly been following Zuxsin after hearing strange stories about their experiences.
"I know what happened to you," Arshal said, his voice deep but calm.
Zuxsin was surprised. "How do you know?"
Arshal smiled faintly. "From someone… I once knew."
He began to explain. The strange events they experienced were more than just random occurrences. Genies, monsters, demons, hidden places… everything was interconnected. Arshal believed that the disappearance of Zuxsin, Lixs, and Zaresha was no coincidence—but part of a larger phenomenon. Even the genies were trapped in the Vurce dimension.
"The world is changing," Arshal said. "Humans are evolving too fast. Ancestral legacies, conflicting ideologies… everything is bringing this world closer to destruction. Some want to preserve it, but others want to destroy everything."
****
Somewhere else in this bizarre world—specifically in Vurce..., the two who saw it wiped their eyes slowly, still trying to understand what they had just seen.
The frost that had previously covered the ground disappeared without a trace—melting without a trace, as if it were just a bad dream that passed quickly.
"What the hell…" he muttered softly. "This… really happened, I can't believe it?" he said.
The air was still cold, but not just ordinary cold. There was something more to it. Something that couldn't be explained by logic—and it was precisely because of that that Vurce began to feel fear.
Calm down, I have to find out what caused this ice to suddenly disappear, and I'm surprised to see Franz so scared. Should I act alone or with him, it's a difficult choice.
"Franz, calm down. I have to find something… and I need help. Are you coming?"
Franz took a deep breath, trying to calm the tremor in his chest. "Okay, Ren. I'm coming."
Actually, Franz was still surprised about what he had just seen, the floating ice chunk and the surrounding frost disappearing just like that could be said to be abnormal.
Franz began to convince himself to step forward and help his friend's search.
Exhaling slowly. "Okay Ren, I'll come."
Ren, hearing that, began to smile broadly, he began to tell Franz to follow him from behind.
"Wait, if you see something on the way, just stop and tell me what you see!" he said with a serious expression.
"Okay." He replied.
In the crevices of Nucle rocks,
Araka and Lylia prepared to unleash a secret technique. A blazing red aura surrounded Lylia as Araka handed her the magic crystal containing his Zensh. The energy created was uncontrollable—exploding into the form of a mysterious, luminous flying creature.
The creature shot out like lightning. In just half a minute, they had arrived at Vurce—even though the journey usually took a full day.
But the moment they arrived, an object attacked them from the sky.
Araka shouted, "Jump!"
They were thrown to the ground, while Araka got caught in a tree branch. Soon, another attack destroyed another tree near them. On the other hand, he heard a voice that had called to him from afar. Araka certainly recognized that call.
"That's Ren's voice!" Araka exclaimed, explaining that the warning came from him.
Kai and Kino laughed at how Araka got stuck, his clothes hanging from a tree branch, lightening the tense atmosphere slightly.
In Vurce, they finally met Ren and Franz. In the sky, a large chunk of ice was seen floating—that's what hit them upon arrival. At this moment, the ice fragments scattered in every direction.