The road east wasn't on any map.Because the land ahead didn't exist yesterday.
Each step the boy took—the world built itself.
Rocks shifted.Grass grew.Mountains rearranged.
Reality, chasing his footsteps.
Like the world remembered him.
Or feared him.
By nightfall, he reached a field where time refused to move.
Raindrops floated midair.Flames stood still.A deer blinked once—and never again.
He stepped inside.The field didn't resist.It watched.
And in its center:
A boy.
Not older.Not younger.Just… wrong.
Skin too pale.Eyes too dark.Breathing backward.
The boy looked up.
"Do you know me?" he asked.
The main boy stared.
Something in his chest twisted.
He didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
He did know him.
"I am Zero," the other boy said."The god they never counted.""The one beneath the Vaults.""The one before the Vaults."
The field trembled.Still frozen.Still mute.
Zero walked closer.
"Before they made chains," he said, "they made me."
The boy stepped back.
"This is a trick."
Zero smiled.
"Everything after the sixth is."
He touched the air.
It cracked.
Like glass.
And behind it—a thousand Vaults.
Upside-down.Stacked in spirals.Weeping fire and memory.
"This is where the real war begins," Zero whispered.
"Not for power.Not for freedom.But for identity."
The boy clenched his fists.
"I closed them. All of them."
Zero laughed.
A sound that bent light.
"You closed six locks."
"But you never stopped the key."
Behind Zero, shapes stirred.
Shadows wearing his face.
Each one a version that never survived.
One with wings.One with fangs.One with her blood on his hands.
They stepped forward.
Not attacking.
Joining.
Becoming one.
Zero's body shifted.
He became all of them.
Not a god.Not a Vault.A mirror.
Of everything the boy might've been.
The real boy fell to one knee.
He couldn't breathe.
Couldn't think.
The voice returned.
Hers.
"Wake up. It's not over."
He opened his eyes.
And found the sword.
Broken.Buried in ash.
But still watching.
He grabbed the hilt.
It didn't pulse.Didn't glow.
But it recognized him.
A whisper crawled through the cracks:
"No eye. No chain. Just you."
He stood.
Faced Zero.
Raised the ruined blade.
Zero opened his arms.
"Strike. And become me."
The boy didn't blink.
Didn't hesitate.
He moved.
The blade cut through everything.
Not Zero.
The field.
The sky.The silence.The lies.
And for one breathless moment—
the world remembered what truth felt like.
No Vaults.No gods.No chosen ones.
Just a boy.
Bleeding.Falling.
Fighting.
When the light faded—
Zero was gone.
But not dead.
Just waiting.
A new Vault rose from the dust.
No sigil.No door.
Just one word etched into stone:
"I."
The boy sheathed the shattered blade.
Turned away.
The war had started.
But he had no army.
No name.
Just a purpose.
He whispered to the wind:
"I won't be your god."
"I won't be your prisoner."
"But I'll burn every Vault that forgets my name."
And the land answered.
It began to burn.
To be continued…