The world had ended quietly.
Not with bombs, not with storms.
But with a soft hum that bled through the walls of reality itself.
Kael sprinted through the ruins of the Old District, lungs burning, boots splashing in the pools of black water. Behind him, the sound of something not human gave chase, its wet breathing twisting the silence into something unbearable.
"Don't look back," he told himself. "Don't stop."
But Kael had never been very good at listening even to himself.
He stole a glance over his shoulder.
A figure lurched after him.
It wore a face stitched from stolen skins, its mouth a jagged mess of broken glass teeth. Its fingers were too long, too sharp, dragging trails through the wet ground as it ran.
A nightmare. A real one.
Kael pushed harder, ducking under a collapsed street sign, weaving through broken cars half-swallowed by the mud. His heart slammed against his ribs like it wanted out.
He reached the broken tower. The last standing building for miles and threw himself through the shattered doors. Inside, the air was thick with the smell of rust and old rot.
A choice flashed before him, written in red across the crumbling walls:
[Ascend or Die.]
Kael staggered back.
What is this? Some kind of joke?
The nightmare skittered into view at the door, dragging a blade made of bone across the concrete.
Kael's body moved before his mind caught up.
He slammed his palm against the glowing rune beneath the words.
The world cracked open like a rotten egg.
Kael screamed as he was pulled into a vortex of light and shadow, tumbling through scenes of broken cities, burning skies, and endless stairs spiraling upward into blackness.
When he landed, he was no longer in the ruined tower.
He stood at the base of a colossal staircase carved into a mountain of dead stone.
Above him, in the choking ash-colored sky, something vast and winged circled.
A screen appeared before his eyes:
> Welcome, Initiate.
> You have chosen to Ascend.
> First Trial:
> — Survive the Hunger of the Forgotten.
> Reward: First Shard of Echo.
"Shards?" Kael thought weakly.
"What is this... a game?"
But the ground shook beneath him and the staircase above exploded with movement.
Hundreds of shapes, gaunt and skeletal, began to pour down the steps, shrieking, their mouths stretched impossibly wide.
Kael stumbled back, terror rooting him in place.
There was nowhere to run.
Only one way now:
Up
And he would climb... or he would die.