Silence Reigned

After the chaos.
After the war.
After Morvath.
There was nothing.

A silence so complete it felt like the world had stopped breathing.

Ash fell gently from the skies, drifting like mournful snow over the ruins of the battlefield. The ground, still warm, still bleeding, bore the deep, ragged scars of a confrontation that would live in the nightmares of the Kingdom of Aerith for centuries to come.

And at the heart of it all—
A boy.
Still.
Eyes hollow.
Facing what should have been impossible.

The students who survived, battered and bloodied, began to stir. Some wept openly, sobs torn from their throats with the weight of what they had seen. Others sat motionless, their minds struggling to reconcile what reality had just forced them to witness.

One name passed from lip to lip. Quietly at first. Then louder. Repeated. Feared. Respected. Envied.

"Rioshi."

And so, the stories began to spread.

Across nearby guilds, through the whisper-net of taverns, brothels, training camps, and war tents—rumors blazed like wildfire. An unknown, a shadow of a boy, had brought down Morvath the Unchained. Alone. Unbelievable. Unforgettable.

Some wanted to challenge him.
Others sought to learn from him.

But among the survivors, decisions were made without words. Two of them—witnesses to something they couldn’t quite explain—stepped forward. They had seen something in Rioshi. Not talent. Not luck. But experience. Pain-hardened conviction.

And in a moment of rare courage, they approached him. No fanfare. Just fire in their eyes.

“We don’t know what you're after,” one said, voice trembling with sincerity, “but… let us walk beside you. Teach us. We want to become stronger too.”

Rioshi said nothing.

But he didn’t turn them away.

And that… was enough.

Elsewhere, Kaneshiro Daisuke stood amidst the rubble, fists clenched, jaw tight. The arrogance was gone. The theatrics, the cocky smirk, the hero complex—all shattered like the blade he had tried to lift against Morvath.

He, the self-declared savior, had been swatted aside like a child’s toy. While Rioshi—quiet, unknown, unremarkable Rioshi—had done what no one else could.

Defeat had never tasted so bitter.

And for the first time in his life… Daisuke said nothing.

No excuses.
No shouting.
No bravado.

Just silence. And then, without a word, he walked away.

Later, alone in the cold sterility of a training room deep within the citadel, he made a vow:

“I’ll train. I’ll surpass that damn ghost. I’ll prove I’m the true hero of this story.”

Far from the battlefield, Rioshi walked alone.

Wind whispered through his hair, cold and sharp. His eyes remained empty, but within, the Évolis pulsed—a silent murmur that never ceased.

⚠️ New Quest Unlocked: “Entry into the Blazing Voidlands”
🎯 Objective: Survival and Assimilation
💠 Reward: Unknown

He didn’t know what awaited him.

But he no longer feared it.

This world… its war… its eyes… the hunger for power…
It all made sense now.

And the void inside him—once a wound—was becoming something else.
A compass.

The wind howled over desolate plains, carrying with it the scent of ash, of metal, of destiny. He walked with no one. As always.

But this time, something had changed.

A voice echoed in his mind—words spoken in the final moments by a dying foe:

"You’re only at the beginning… Others will come. Stronger than me… And you… you will have to choose who you want to become."

The words clung to him. Heavy. Real.

But where once he might have felt doubt, or indifference, or apathy—
Now, something else rose.

Excitement.

A shiver traced his spine. Not of fear.
Of anticipation.

Finally, he thought.

Since arriving in this world, all he had done was survive. Adapt. Endure.
But now—for the first time—he wanted more.

Not for glory.
Not to prove anything.
But because something inside him had awoken.
A hunger—not to destroy, but to rise.

Before him, a fissure split the earth, revealing a hidden valley swallowed between cliff faces. The skies darkened as he approached, as though the world itself braced for what was coming.

A whisper trembled in the air. Not sound. Not wind.

An invitation.

⚠️ New Zone Detected: The Blazing Voidlands
🌌 Estimated Threat Level: Extreme
📜 Recommendation: Only for those who can endure the impossible

He stopped.

The entrance pulsed. It felt alive. Watching. Judging.

The ground radiated both heat and cold—flame and emptiness. The air shimmered with instability, an uneasy balance between creation and annihilation.

"You will have to choose who you want to become…"

Not just words from an enemy.
A warning.
Maybe even a prophecy.

Rioshi didn’t flinch.

He stepped forward.

And entered the unknown.

🔄 Évolis System Update in Progress…
🌐 Environmental Integration: Dimensional anomalies detected.
🔥 Phenomenon: “Voidfire” – unstable energy source.
🎯 Primary Objective: Assimilation or Erasure.

High in the mountains behind him, a cloaked figure watched.

“The boy enters the Void,” they whispered.

A second voice, ancient and cracked with time, answered:

“Then the Awakening of the True Cycle begins.”

Above, beyond the clouds, something opened.

An invisible eye. Watching. Waiting.