Chapter 1: Beginning

Rain lashed Sin Kerika’s face, each drop a cold sting against his skin. Blood, thick and warm, oozed from the wounds crisscrossing his body, only to be swept away by the downpour. 

His blade, its edge pulsing with a faint, otherworldly glow, trembled in his grip. The river beneath him ran crimson, a grim mirror reflecting the carnage he’d wrought. 

Alone in the dark, Sin’s voice rasped, barely audible over the storm’s roar. “I gave up my voice for this power.” His words hung heavy, swallowed by the wind. 

“I won… but at what cost?” Regret coiled in his chest, tighter than the wounds he bore. The rain fell harder, as if the heavens themselves wept for him. 

In his mind, he was already sinking, drowning in an ocean of choices he could never unmake.

Three months earlier, summer’s heat smothered the floating city of Aelthar. The world hovered above an endless void, its edges jagged and crumbling, as if carved from some ancient titan’s dream. 

Sin Kerika sprawled across his bed, staring at the ceiling of his small room. Sweat beaded on his forehead, the air too still, too heavy. 

His school was on break, leaving him adrift in days that blurred together like smudged ink. No classes, no obligations just silence, the kind he preferred.Sin wasn’t one for noise. 

Even when his friends dragged him to the bustling markets or the glowing arcades at Aelthar’s heart, he kept to himself, words sparse, thoughts locked away. 

They called him quiet, distant, but he didn’t mind. Silence was his shield, a way to keep the world at arm’s length. He’d always felt like he was waiting for something, though he couldn’t name what. 

A spark, a purpose something to break the monotony of his seventeen years.His room was a testament to his inertia. A worn desk sat cluttered with half-read books, their spines cracked from neglect. 

A poster of Yohei, the Starbound Warden, hung crookedly on the wall, its edges curling. Yohei’s stern face stared down, a reminder of the legend every child in Aelthar knew by heart. 

Thousands of years ago, two worlds this one and the one below, lost in the void had warred endlessly. Blood had soaked the skies, and both realms teetered on annihilation. 

Then Yohei rose, a warrior with power to shatter both worlds. Instead, he offered a choice: peace or destruction. The worlds chose peace, and Yohei ascended, becoming a star in the heavens. 

The story said he watched still, a celestial sentinel. If war ever sparked again, he’d return not as a savior, but as an asteroid to end it all.

Sin’s eyes lingered on the poster. He’d heard the tale a thousand times, recited in school assemblies, etched into the city’s monuments. 

It felt distant, like a fairy tale for someone else’s life. His world was peaceful, if stagnant. Below Aelthar stretched the void, an infinite abyss that swallowed light and sound. 

No one knew what lay at its bottom if it had one. Sin had stared into it once, from the city’s edge, and felt a chill that wasn’t just the wind. 

It was as if the void stared back, whispering questions he couldn’t answer. He rolled onto his side, the mattress creaking beneath him. 

The summer stretched endlessly before him, each day a mirror of the last. His friends were off somewhere probably at the Skyspire, laughing over games of crystal-dice or sneaking into the restricted districts for thrills. 

They’d invited him, as always, but Sin had waved them off. He wasn’t sure why. 

Maybe it was the weight in his chest, the restlessness that gnawed at him when he was alone. Or maybe he just didn’t know how to fit into their world of easy laughter and careless plans.

The room felt smaller today, the walls pressing in. He swung his legs off the bed and stood, stretching. His reflection caught his eye in the cracked mirror by the door. 

Dark hair fell messily over his forehead, framing eyes that looked too old for his face gray, like storm clouds. 

He wasn’t tall, but his lean frame carried a quiet strength, honed from years of climbing Aelthar’s spires for solitude. He turned away, restless, and crossed to the window.

Outside, the city hummed. Airships drifted lazily above the skyline, their sails catching the golden light of the twin suns. 

Spires of crystal and stone pierced the clouds, connected by bridges that swayed gently in the breeze. Aelthar was beautiful, in its way, but Sin couldn’t shake the feeling it was a cage. 

A floating prison, tethered to nothing but its own history.He pressed his forehead against the battered glass, the cool surface grounding him. 

What was he waiting for? The question had haunted him for months, maybe years. He wasn’t like his friends, content with games and gossip. He wanted… something more. 

Something real. But wanting wasn’t enough, and the days slipped by, each one emptier than the last. A sharp knock jolted him from his thoughts. Knock. Knock. 

The sound was insistent, cutting through the haze of his boredom. Sin frowned. He wasn’t expecting anyone. His parents were gone had been for years, leaving him to fend for himself in this cramped apartment. 

His friends rarely came unannounced; they knew he’d rather be left alone.“Open the door, Sin!” a voice called, muffled but familiar, edged with impatience. 

“Did you forget I exist?” Sin froze, his hand hovering over the doorknob. His heart kicked up a notch, though he couldn’t say why. 

The voice stirred something in him recognition, yes, but also a flicker of unease. He knew that voice, didn’t he? But it felt… wrong, like a song played in the wrong key.

He hesitated, fingers brushing the cold metal of the knob. The air in the room seemed to thicken, heavy with the weight of something inevitable. 

Whoever was on the other side of that door, they were about to change everything.Three months later, Sin stood in the rain, his blade’s glow fading as the river of blood lapped at his boots. 

The storm raged on, uncaring, as he sank to his knees. The cost of his power burned in his throat, a wound deeper than any on his skin. 

His voice his real voice was gone, traded for the strength to win this battle. But victory felt hollow, a pyre built on sacrifices he hadn’t understood until it was too late.

The world around him was silent now, save for the rain. No screams, no clashing steel. Just him, alone, with the weight of what he’d done. 

The glowing blade slipped from his hand, sinking into the crimson tide. He didn’t reach for it. What was the point? He’d won, but the price was etched in every drop of blood, every regret that drowned him.

Above, the stars burned coldly, Yohei’s among them. Sin wondered if the Starbound Warden was watching, judging.

Would he descend now, an asteroid to punish a world teetering on the edge of war? Or had Sin’s actions already tipped the balance, dooming them all? He closed his eyes, letting the rain wash over him. 

The void below Aelthar called, its whispers louder now, promising answers or oblivion. He wasn’t sure which he wanted more.