Rael didn't like leaving his apartment.
Even now, with power flowing through his veins and the world bending quietly to his will, he felt the weight of the outside—too many eyes, too much noise, too many memories. But today, he had to walk. He had to breathe the air again. He had to remind himself that the world hadn't ended when he died.
It just kept going… without him.
His hoodie concealed his face. Cracked headphones played low static in his ears. His limp was gone now—not healed, but dulled, suppressed by the System running in the background of his consciousness like a silent guardian.
He walked down an alley in Sector 7, a quiet district that bordered an inactive Gate. Just another place forgotten by the Hunter guilds—left to crumble.
That's when he felt it.
A presence.
Cold and familiar, like moonlight on steel.
He turned.
She stood at the mouth of the alley, where shadow and light met.
White hair like falling snow. Eyes black as starless night. She wore strange clothes—too elegant, too precise for this world. Her aura distorted the air around her, like reality couldn't decide if she belonged in it.
Rael's eyes narrowed. His system pulsed, confused.
> [Warning: Dimensional Signature Detected]
[Entity Status: Tower-Linked]
[Name: Selene Vireya]
[Threat Level: Unknown]
[Affiliation: ???]
[Recognition Level: MAXIMUM – "Welcome, Master."]
She stepped closer, barefoot on broken pavement, like nothing could harm her.
"Rael Arden," she said softly.
No one should've known that name.
Not that name.
Not this version of him.
He froze. "Who are you?"
Her lips curled slightly. "You don't remember me. But I remember you. Even after death. Even after reincarnation. I felt it the moment your soul stirred again."
Rael's system surged with warnings—her energy was pure Tower essence. She wasn't supposed to exist in this world. She shouldn't have even found him.
Yet here she was.
"I watched you climb," she whispered. "I watched you break the unbreakable, laugh at gods, rewrite the laws of the Tower. I watched them betray you. I watched you fall."
A gust of wind swept past, tossing her white hair across her pale face.
"And I waited."
He took a step back. "Why?"
She tilted her head. "Because you are mine."
Silence.
Rael's heart didn't beat faster—he'd long since buried his emotions beneath layers of logic, vengeance, and cold resolve. But her words hit something deeper. Some echo from the Tower floors he hadn't yet remembered. A connection his soul recognized, even if his mind refused to.
"I don't know you," he said flatly.
"But you will," she replied, stepping forward again. "You always return to me. In every life."
His hand twitched toward a defensive skill, but she stopped.
"I'm not your enemy, Master," she said gently, kneeling before him on cracked concrete. "I came to protect you. The Tower has started bleeding into this world. Your enemies are waking. The gods remember. And they will come."
She looked up, eyes glowing faintly.
"I am your blade."
Rael stared at her. Her voice was calm, but there was fire behind it. Loyalty. Madness, maybe. Love? Or something older—deeper.
He exhaled slowly.
"Then get off the ground," he muttered. "I don't need worshippers."
She smiled for the first time.
"No," she whispered. "You need monsters."
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