I had no reason to live.
Not anymore.
My family—gone. My mother, the only person who ever truly loved me, gave her life protecting me. The memory of her final smile still haunts me at night.
Friends? They came and went like passing seasons.
A girlfriend? I never had the luxury.
My life was a quiet storm of silence and survival, each day bleeding into the next. I wasn't living—I was simply existing. Hoping, perhaps foolishly, that one day something would change. That I'd escape the hellish spiral of this world.
I didn't expect that change to come so suddenly.
"Kai, you know you're a genius," Vincent said one afternoon, walking beside me in the crowded hallway of our university. "Why don't you let me join you in prep? A study partner maybe?"
I didn't even spare him a glance. "I don't have time to babysit," I replied coldly. "So don't waste yours. Just f*** off."
"Tch," Vincent frowned, clearly irritated but still trying to keep it cool. "Fine. At least give me your notes, you bastard."
I smirked. "I don't have any. I don't need any."
Vincent stared at me in disbelief.
Damn this bastard, he thought. How can a transcendent freak like him exist in the same world as us?
As he walked away in frustration, he pulled out a small slip of paper and tossed it toward me. "In case you change your mind, take this."
His voice echoed faintly as he disappeared into the crowd. I didn't even bother looking at the paper.
Classes were over. My schedule was empty. And my soul felt heavier than ever.
I wandered aimlessly through the college garden, trying to escape the monotony of my routine, when I noticed something… strange.
A golden light.
It shimmered softly in the air, pulsing like a heartbeat, right in front of me. Suspended mid-air, glowing with impossible warmth, like sunlight captured and given form.
My eyes widened.
I'd read enough manga and web novels to recognize the trope. A mysterious light, a sudden pull, a teleportation into another world. Was this really happening?
"Maybe this is God's way of apologizing," I muttered bitterly. "Took Him long enough."
But I wasn't naive. If this was a trap, there was a good chance I'd die. Not that it mattered—I was already worse than dead.
So without hesitation, I reached out and touched the light.
The pain hit me instantly.
A searing force pierced my chest like a molten blade, then spread across my entire body. I screamed—not aloud, but within, as every nerve screamed back. My vision blurred. My lungs collapsed inward.
So this is it, I thought. Stupid move. Typical of me.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
But when I opened my eyes again, I wasn't dead.
I was… somewhere else.
The world around me shimmered with golden light, stretching endlessly in all directions. There were no trees, no sky, no sun. Just a radiant void—a land of light floating in nothingness.
And I…
I wasn't solid.
I looked down at my hands and saw only a translucent outline. My body had become faint, ghostlike, barely clinging to the shape of who I once was.
"What the f***…?" I whispered, voice shaky.
An ornate chair stood nearby, grand and thronelike, but when I tried to sit, my hand passed straight through it.
I was a spirit.
Before I could process anything more, a shadow flickered into existence behind me. I turned.
A man stood there—tall, graceful, and impossibly beautiful, like a sculpture carved by the gods themselves. He looked human… mostly. But there was something broken in his eyes. His face was calm, unreadable, but the sorrow beneath it was suffocating.
His presence filled the void like thunder without sound.
Then, he spoke.
"Finally," he said, his voice smooth and ancient, "I've found a man worthy of changing my fate."
My thoughts ground to a halt. "What?"
The man stepped forward, his crimson eyes glowing faintly. "My name is Ashen. Ashen Crimson. And I know you have many questions. Why you're here. What you are now. What your purpose is."
He paused, then smiled—not with joy, but with the resigned grace of someone who had waited centuries for this moment.
"But first," he said, "you need to understand who I am."
I blinked, heart pounding in this ghostly chest of mine.
Whatever this place was, it wasn't Earth. Whatever this man was, he wasn't human.
And whatever was coming next…
Was going to change everything.