Adam didn't sink into peaceful darkness after the Ravager fell. He plunged through layers of exhaustion and the clinging stench of blood and ozone, tumbling headlong into a void that ripped open into rain-lashed glass and the scream of tearing metal as he was unconscious .
He was twelve years old again. Hunched in the back seat, thumbs mashing buttons on a handheld console. Pixelated explosions flared in the dim cabin light.
A soft sigh cut through the digital noise. His mother leaned between the front seats, worry etching lines around her eyes as sunlight streamed through the window. "Sweetheart, won't you take a break? You've been glued to that thing since we left home."
Beside her, his father's voice rumbled low, eyes fixed on the winding mountain road. "Listen to your mother. Put it away. Now."
Adam scowled but thumbed the power button. Silence. He turned to the window. Outside, the world had dissolved. Grey rain hammered the glass like liquid nails. Ancient pines crowded the narrow road, branches scraping the gloom. Thunder growled, vibrating the car's frame.
He closed his eyes just for a second, seeking refuge.
A blinding flash of lightning struck a tree meters away. The car lurched violently sideways. Adam's eyes flew open.
His father wrestled the wheel, knuckles bone-white. Sweat carved frantic paths through grime on his temples. Panic choked his voice: "The brakes! Gone! Not responding! Gods it's accelerating!"
His mother whipped around. Pure terror locked her eyes onto Adam's. Her lips parted
The horrific sounds of crunching metal, screeching tires, and shattering glass filled the air. Splintering wood. Tearing steel. The world flipped. The car slammed into an ancient pine like a tomb sealing. Darkness swallowed him.
He awoke to the rhythmic dripping of blood hitting cold metal. Coppery stench filled the ruined cabin. Rain hissed through the gaping windshield hole. His father slumped against the steering wheel, unmoving, crimson blooming across plaid like a grotesque flower. His mother gasped a wet, ragged sound. Trapped.
"Mom!" Adam choked, fumbling numb fingers at his seatbelt. The buckle released. He shoved the mangled door, screaming as pain shot up his shoulder. It gave way with a metallic shriek. He stumbled out, legs trembling, and lurched through mud to the passenger side. Wrenched the ruined door open.
His breath strangled. A jagged branch, thick as his arm and glistening wet, impaled her side below the ribs. Blood pulsed around it with every shallow breath, dark and alive against her pale sweater.
"No no, no, NO!" He tore off his jacket, wadding it desperately against the wound, pressing down. Warmth soaked through instantly. "Hold on! Please, Mom, hold on!"
He grabbed her shoulders, ignoring glass shards biting his knees, and pulled. He pulled with every ounce of his twelve-year-old strength, teeth gritted, a raw cry tearing free.
She screamed pure agony. Useless. The branch was an anchor sunk deep into steel and flesh.
Her eyes, clouded with pain, found his. Beneath it, a terrible, bottomless love. Her voice shredded: "Dear I know how much you love me. But go. Get help. I'll I'll wait. Promise me go."
Tears blurred his vision. He couldn't leave. He couldn't.
The plea in her eyes was absolute.
"I'll be back! Promise!" He turned and ran.
Forest shadows swallowed him. Rain stung. Branches whipped. He ran until lungs screamed and legs failed. Ran for an eternity.
Lights. Huts. A village.
He staggered into mud, collapsing. "Accident tree parents bleeding help!"
Villagers swarmed. A truck roared to life. Adam scrambled into the back, pointing, chanting directions through sobs.
The truck jolted over ruts. Every bump was torture. Rounding the final bend wreckage.
Adam leaped out before it stopped. Sprinted through mud, screaming: "Mom! I'm back! Help's here!"
Skidded to a halt beside the car.
She was there. Held by the branch. But her chest didn't rise. Her eyes stared past the rain, past the trees, past him. Empty. Unseeing. Lifeless.
The world silenced. Rain vanished. Shouts faded. He stood frozen. Grief, guilt, horror crashed but he felt nothing. Hollow.
His legs buckled. He crumpled to soaked earth. Darkness took him again
Adam gasped back to the present, lungs burning as if he'd never stopped running. The sterile dream-scent of antiseptic vanished, replaced by damp earth, pine, and old blood. Pain throbbed across his back, a ghost of the Ravager's claws. Warm feathers shifted against his arm Storm nestled in the moss beside his head, letting out a soft, questioning chirp, bright eyes fixed on his face.
Before Adam could grasp where he was, harsh crimson lines seared his vision:
[Crimson Mark Awakened]
[User Status: Level 1]
[STR: 20]
[SPD: 20]
[DEF: 20]
[MANA: 50]
[Urgent Quest: Level Up]
[For every level up, the user receives a free stat point]
The numbers pulsed with cold, alien light. Adam flinched, a choked breath catching in his raw throat. The impossible display overlaid the dappled forest light, the moss, Storm's concerned tilt of the head. It felt like a violation a digital claw scraping the raw nerve laid bare by the dream. His mother's empty eyes in the rain bled into the crimson glow. The old, buried weight of that day the helplessness, the suffocating wrongness surged up, thick and sickening, tangled with this new, terrifying unreality.
A touch on his uninjured shoulder firm, careful. He jerked his head sideways.
Raven knelt beside him. The healer looked wrecked. Sweat-streaked grime marked his unnaturally pale face. Deep bruises shadowed his eyes beneath cracked spectacles. Bandages, already stained with blood and dirt, wrapped his hands; raw, weeping blisters peeked out at the edges. His usual precision was stripped away, leaving only a bone-deep exhaustion that seemed to drag at his very voice.
"Adam." Raven's voice was sandpaper on stone. His bandaged hand tightened slightly on Adam's shoulder, grounding. "What happened?.
Adam's gaze swept beyond Raven, taking in the chaotic aftermath. Nearby, school medical staff in crisp white uniforms with red crosses on their sleeves moved efficiently between injured students. One medic knelt beside Cain, applying pressure to a deep gash on his thigh while another splinted Andrew's cuts on his face . A third medic was carefully checking Brian checking his vital signs.
Lira stood watching the medics work, her posture tense. When she noticed Adam looking, her eyes locked onto his, as she smiled at him. Wren stood slightly behind her, his usual cocky demeanor replaced by unusual stillness as he watched Adam with intense focus. Kael was nowhere to be seen already gone to report to Instructor Garrick.
The crimson text still pulsed against the forest backdrop a cold, demanding counterpoint to Raven's human urgency, the medical activity, and the anxious presence of Lira and Wren. The path forward felt less like a road and more like walking on shards of his own past.