Weeks of careful mapping had revealed most of the floating city's surface, yet the west remained a blank on Alex's charts—a darkness stitched into the sky, as if the city itself had abandoned it.
In the south, the area he had arrived in revealed itself to be a slum that sprawled across the horizon.
In the north, a temple rose, from which aqueducts—abandoned—sprawled into the lower region.
In the center, an inner court was fortified by walls and divided into six gates forming a hexagon.
In the east lay a labyrinthine forest, inhabited by small fauna, not a reverent in sight, where he now resided.
He had left the west unknown.
— — —
Alex had chosen to idle in the forest, studying its occasional anomalies.
It seemed nothing here defied the name "Luminous Kingdom," as even the trees were built from the same milky paste as the kingdom itself.
Alex took a nap, recounting his observations.
The tension in his nerves, held too long, slipped away.
The fear that shielded him quivered, fragile.
The guilt that drove him faded, spent.
Alex was no longer tested.
Now, he would be the test.
He had earned his rest.
Yet at the same time—
He could not remember.
He could not understand.
He could not foresee.
Alex, in a move he both feared and needed, checked his status window.
Not to revel in power.
Not to uncover some hidden side effect.
But to understand what he had become.
Status Window
Username: Lumen of the Void
Age: 17
Revolution: Awakening
Class: Starkindred
Alignment: Neutral / Wretch
Status Effects:
Shattered Psyche
Curses:
Cursed Fate Insatient
Abilities:
Basic Awareness III — 642 / 4000 Combat Fundamentals IV — 1543 / 3200 Ascension — 65 / 100
Magic:
Star Magic II — 72 / 4000 Orionis Sagitta II — 321 / 1000 Ursa Ignis III — 242 / 2000 Frenzy Magic — Active (Unstable)
Battle Arts:
Starspear Arts II — 59 / 2000
Clarity was gone.
Agency was bought.
No, it wasn't agency.
It was self restraint.
— — —
Alex's favorite pastime was trying the delicate cousines of the Floating city.
Ants, squirrels and rats.
Anything to survive the city.
Anything not to consume himself.
Anything not to be consumed by hunger.
The sensations in his mouth ranged from crunchy to gooey.
The palette sank from spicy to bitter.
Alex thought he had escaped.
He always did.
Everytime he ran.
But he didn't.
[ SYSTEM MESSAGE ]
Void Entity Slain: Husk
Void Scale: 0–0–0
Elimination Credit: Full
The message repeated itself, with each bite.
Alex hated his hunger.
It gave him power.
It took his control.
It forced him to survive
And yet—
He wanted more.
He wanted to see.
He wanted to know what the west held.
The blankness on the maps called him like a wound in the sky.
A wound that whispered.
A wound that waited.
Every step westward promised nothing,
And everything.
He rose, brushing crumbs from his hands,
Heart beating against the hollow calm that had held him.
The forest behind him, the unknown ahead.
Hunger was no longer just survival.
It was a compass.
A guide.
A warning.
Alex stepped forward.
And the west waited.
— — —