The world turned white.
Lucian didn't remember pain. Not even the impact of the car. One moment, he was walking across the street with coffee in hand, earphones buzzing with jazz. The next—silence. Pure, uninterrupted silence. No beeping heart monitors. No distant voices.
Just nothing.
Then came the pull. Like a cord wrapped around his soul, yanking him through something that was not space, not time. A sensation of being unraveled and rewoven. And when he opened his eyes again...
He was standing in the center of a temple made of light.
The ceiling stretched far above, curved like the inside of a dome, covered in glowing glyphs that shimmered with living energy. Marble pillars towered on every side, and beneath him, ancient runes blazed in concentric circles.
At the edge of the platform, a woman stood waiting.
She was... divine. Not in the exaggerated anime-goddess way, but in the way one might imagine an eternal concept sculpted into flesh. She wore white armor etched with golden stars, her silver-blonde hair flowing like silk caught in celestial winds. Her eyes—pale blue, crystalline, and cold—looked at him not with joy or awe, but calculation.
"You are the summoned one," she said, voice echoing across the hall like a hymn. "The Hero of Balance. The Chosen."
Lucian blinked. His throat was dry.
"…The what now?"
The goddess did not smile.
Somewhere in the Divine Realm...
The gathering of lesser deities shifted restlessly. The ceremony had drained more mana than any previous summoning. The Goddess of Light, Elaris Lumina, had poured her essence into the ritual—her reputation, her divine standing, her credibility—banking it all on the arrival of a prophesied hero.
A mortal with potential. Strong enough to shift the war. Moldable enough to control.
Instead, she summoned him.
Lucian took a step forward, glancing at his hands.
Something felt off. His body was... familiar, but there was a pressure under the skin. Like his bones were made of something heavier. His breath felt weightless. His thoughts were too quiet.
More than that—there was a presence in the room, a kind of suppressed tension, like reality itself was holding its breath.
The goddess walked toward him.
"You will serve me," she said, as if it were law. "The forces of darkness have risen. The world is on the brink. You will be trained, blessed, and made a weapon of light."
Lucian arched an eyebrow.
"You don't ask nicely, do you?"
Elaris frowned. No one ever spoke to her like that.
"You were chosen. Be grateful. Without me, you would be dead."
He tilted his head slightly.
"Maybe I was supposed to be."
Something stirred behind his eyes. Something old.
[System Notification: ERROR.]
Summoned Entity does not match Source Parameters.Expected: Mortal (Tier 0 – High Potential)Actual: ??? (Clearance Restricted)
In the divine console, panic erupted. High-level administrators scrambled as numbers blurred and crashed. The summoning crystal cracked—something impossible. The data collapsed.
Back in the temple, Lucian flinched slightly.
He felt it. The pressure. The distortion. It wasn't pain—it was memory. Like a door unlocking. Like a seal... loosening.
Elaris stepped back instinctively.
"What… are you?"
Lucian looked at her for a long moment. His voice dropped.
"…I don't know."
But a whisper coiled in the back of his mind.
Lies. You do.
Something cracked above. One of the floating glyphs exploded, showering the floor with fragments of golden energy. The light dimmed slightly, just enough to cast a shadow across Elaris's face.
She summoned a blade of pure light. Reflex. Habit. Fear.
Lucian raised an eyebrow.
"Are you going to stab your 'chosen one' already?"
"Your presence distorts this realm," she said. Her voice was steady, but her stance wasn't. "Your soul isn't human. It's ancient. Fragmented. Dangerous."
Lucian smiled, but there was no warmth.
"Then maybe you shouldn't have summoned me."
Far Beyond the Stars
A ripple passed through the outer realms.
In the deepest prison of the divine abyss, something opened a slitted eye.
"He wakes..."
Back in the temple, Lucian took a breath. It echoed unnaturally. He could feel something breaking beneath his skin. His heartbeat was slow—one every seven seconds. His perception expanded. He could see the magic circuits behind the walls. The divine core pulsing beneath the floor. The weakness in the fabric of reality itself.
He understood it.
Not as a mage. Not as a scholar.But as something that had once helped design it.
The glyphs began to flicker violently.
Elaris raised her blade. "I command you to stand down!"
Lucian took a step forward. The runes beneath his feet inverted. The summoning circle collapsed.
He didn't touch her.
But the moment he willed it, her blade shattered into fragments of song and starlight.
Elaris gasped, falling to one knee.
"You—!"
Lucian looked down at her, not with hatred, but with... detachment.
"Don't worry," he said softly. "I won't break your world. Not yet."
He extended a hand.
"But you will tell me everything. Who I am. Why I'm here. What you fear."
[System Alert: Emergency Override Initiated]
Codename: PRIME ORIGINAuthority Level: ∞Unlocking Concept Memory 1%…Awakening: In Progress
Elaris felt her divine code fray just being near him.
Her light. Her faith. Her dominion. All quivered at the name the world dared not remember.
He wasn't a hero.
He wasn't even a god.
He was the one thing the gods tried to erase.
And she had brought him back.