Oh, you.

It’s just you... You are no Husk, thank goodness.

"I’m done for, I’m afraid. Soon to be nothing, forgotten by the history we all failed to protect.

"I’ll be dead soon, and I can feel it coming—the darkness, slowly crawling into the hole in my heart. I will soon lose my sanity, and become no better than a husk.

"Regrettably, I have failed my mission, but perhaps..."

The voice faltered, its strength waning.

"You, Steven, can live on with our history."

— Salvat Perce

---

{Welcome Steven... Chosen of the Undead to the First Realm}

{First Realm: Treasures Long Forgotten}

From the insufferable darkness of his mind, the entire environment shifted, and in an instant Steven was within the mundane embrace of the First Realm.

Steven’s eyes blinked erratically, his ears clouded by a roaring wind. The air whipped violently through his hair, blowing it upward as though gravity itself had betrayed him. His armour felt strangely lighter than usual, unnervingly so, something was very wrong.

At first, the young Awakened was confused, wondering just where he might be, but nothing seemed to come into place. He was in the First Realm, yes! But somehow, he was unable to see or find anything solid to anchor himself to.

It was almost as if he were in another form of darkness, yet this time everything was painted white.

Or... was that truly the case?

Steven’s face paled as realization struck him like a hammer.

He was in the air.

Spawned in the fucking air.

Instead of the ground.

And the reason everything felt lighter was painfully obvious, he was plummeting from an unknown height straight toward the surface below.

The land beneath him was split into two halves: one massive outcrop, far larger than Steven’s immediate point of view, and a second, smaller fragment. It was this smaller one he was falling toward, which from his height had appeared like a tiny dark speck no bigger than his hand, but was now rapidly growing larger.

"Oh no..."

This was not good.

At such a height, the fall would be nothing short of dire and devastating.

There was no time to think. He was losing altitude fast, and soon he would meet the ground in a morbid splatter. Steven clung to the only idea that flew into his mind at that moment. It wasn’t the brightest plan, but it was certainly the best he had.

He opened his hand and summoned Nott.

The metal-crafted knight appeared instantly before him, wrapping its arms around Steven in a way that resembled a mother clutching her child. Steven’s plan was simple: allow the body of the Umbral Knight to take the full brunt of the fall. He wouldn’t escape unscathed, but at least he might survive whatever remained of the treacherous impact.

The moment of truth came far faster than Steven anticipated.

Nott landed on the stone pavement with its metallic boots crashing down with brutal force. Its legs quivered violently, bending slightly as mounds of grit exploded into the air. Rolling immediately, Nott released Steven from its grasp and collapsed forward onto its face, reeling from the crash.

Steven was no better off.

The impact was far more severe than he had anticipated, even with Nott bearing the majority of it. His armour designed to absorb shock now bore visible cracks, spiderwebbing across its surface. Beneath it, his body was bruised and trembling, pain corralled callously up his spine.

"Damn the fucking Realms!" he cursed, lying flat on his back against the hard, cold pavement.

He had survived, at the very least but with his current injuries and agony, this was certainly not the best way to begin his venture into the First Realm.

After resting for a moment, waiting for the worst of the pain to subside, Steven slowly pushed himself upright. His gaze immediately fell upon Nott the Honourable, which had already risen and stood watchfully nearby, one hand resting on its hilt, ready for any attackers.

There were fresh scratches along the knight’s armour from the crash.

{Knight Lv 1}

{HP: 8/10}

Steven checked the stats with a grim sigh. Luckily, the fall had only shaved off two points of Nott’s health. He could not say the same for himself, though he had managed to persevere enough to remain mobile.

"Damned luck."

Grumbling, Steven walked toward the edge of the black outcropping. During his fall, he had glimpsed several unsettling things...details he hadn’t had time to process until now.

When he reached the edge and peered down, his heart dropped in pure terror.

Below the outcrop lay nothing but a vast sea of white clouds, endless and formless, offering no hint of where the fall might end.

Steven imagined what would have happened if the outcrop hadn’t been there—if he had fallen even fifty feet more. It would have ended badly, even with Nott breaking the fall.

’Certain death,’ he whispered, taking a cautious step back from the edge.

He then turned his attention elsewhere, scanning the surroundings until his eyes landed on the other black landmass he had seen during his descent. This one was larger. From the outcrop, he could only see its side; a towering mountain wall, identical in colour and texture to the land he stood upon. Jagged rocks crowned its peak like broken teeth.

Before the wall lay a narrow strip of land, a small scape that seemed to have once been connected to the outcrop, before being torn apart by some calamity of the realm.

Now, separating them, was a ten-meter gap.

"I’m guessing that’s the first step to getting out of this horrid Realm, aye Nott?" Steven said sarcastically as he moved toward the opposite side of the outcrop.

But then, something strange happened.

"Did my shadow change?" Steven thought, his gaze fixating on the robust silhouette at his feet, one that should have been his own.

Many would not have noticed. Most would simply walk forward without paying attention to their surroundings. But Steven was prepared. This was the Realm, a damned hell that sought only to kill and destroy, in every twisted way imaginable.

He lifted his gaze toward the supposed direction of the sun.

There was none.

No sunlight.

No sky-bound star.

The source of light was unknown and as Steven looked upward, his face drained of all colour.

His body trembled as his mind struggled to process what loomed above him.

A monstrous being.

Large, cascading shadow-like wings spread wide. A grotesque, vulture-like body hovered overhead, its beak painted blood-red, its talons plunging downward toward him.

{Title: The Horrid}

{Status: Disaster}

{Warning: Do not challenge this being}

Steven’s face paled even further at the notification.

"Fuck!"