'This shouldn't be happening. Why the fuck—' Kuro's mind raced, his heart pounding as fast as it possibly could, while he sat on his knees beside Arthur, staring at Shin's motionless body lying in a pool of blood.[1]
And why not?
He was supposed to be on his first easy mission and return home safely. But everything had turned upside down the moment the mysterious woman appeared out of nowhere, trying to take him away.
'Please, please, Vice Chairman, you have to win...' This was the only thought Kuro could muster as he watched the furious battle unfold before him.
Brog, the Vice Chairman—the strongest person in Lumine—was being overpowered by a woman in a tattered overcoat. Yet Brog was the last piece of hope Kuro had left to cling to.
But that hope shattered too soon.
The woman raised a hand. The wind howled. A spear of compressed air formed at her fingertips, humming with deadly energy.
With a flick of her wrist, she sent it flying.
It struck the core of the metal titan encasing Brog's body.[2]
A shockwave blasted outward, knocking Kuro and Arthur off their feet. As the dust settled, their hearts sank.
The metal shell crumbled.
Kuro and Arthur watched in horror as the metal armour fell away, revealing Brog's motionless body. He collapsed to his knees—a gaping hole carved through his chest.
'No... No, fuck it all—it shouldn't be this way,' Kuro's inner voice screamed, but he couldn't even let out a breath.
Arthur clenched his fists, his entire body trembling. "You... you monster," he choked out. "He had a daughter waiting for him at home!"
The woman's expression remained indifferent. "He was in the way of my order."
Arthur's fury boiled over. "I will kill you. I swear, I will not die until I rip you apart!"
"That doesn't matter," she replied emotionlessly. "You two will come with me."
The woman chanted something, then flicked her finger—revealing a swirling, dark rift tearing through the very fabric of space.
"Come with me," she repeated.
Arthur's voice wavered. "But... what about our families? Shouldn't they know where we are?"
She paused, then said, "The moment you step inside the Rift, everyone in this world will forget you ever existed."
The words struck Kuro and Arthur like a dagger to the heart.
Kuro swallowed hard. "It's only been two days since I got out of that prison... and now I'm being taken to another world. I didn't even get to give Ilya her 18th birthday gift."
Arthur's voice hardened. "What if I refuse to go?"
"You have no choice," she stated simply. "Your destiny is already decided."
Without another word, she placed her hand inside the Rift and vanished.
Kuro took a deep breath. Then, with one final glance at the world he was leaving behind, he stepped forward, his hand disappearing into the darkness. The void swallowed him whole.
Arthur hesitated for only a moment before following.
They walked in silence, trailing the woman through the pitch-black void.
Then, without warning, a blinding light erupted around them.
They shut their eyes against its intensity.
When they opened them again—
They stood on a vast, open plain. The ground beneath their feet was covered in wild, untamed grass. The air howled around them. Behind them stretched an endless wilderness.
The woman in front of Kuro and Arthur dropped to her knees, coughing up blood.
Arthur took a step back, eyes wide with shock. Kuro, frozen in place, was still trying to process everything that had just happened.
The woman struggled to stand, her body shaking. She looked at them with tired, knowing eyes and whispered:
"My Lord will be watching you."
Then—just like that—she vanished into thin air.
"Who is your Lord?" Kuro tried to ask, but his vision began swimming. His head felt unbearably heavy, and slowly everything went black as he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
[1] The Battle had already begun and was about to end, Arthur had reached at the place but till then shin was already dead, Arthur tried fighting but was injured and Brog was the only one keeping up with the mysterious woman
[2] Brog had the ability to control metalic objects, he made a big titan with metal debris, umm like a transformer