"So this... is the end... for me... huh..."
A young man, looking around thirty, lay with his back against a half-destroyed wall. Dust and debris littered the area as he watched once-grand buildings, symbols of humanity's progress, fall from the sky, burning in flames.
Cough!
Blood spat from his mouth, landing on his chest. The bullet wounds on his body felt hot, like fire on his skin. This was the price of his carelessness. He had killed a Russian army commander, only to be struck by a clean sniper shot from a nearby skyscraper.
"This must... be God's punishment for trying to steal His glory... hah... cough!" Blood flowed freely from his wounds, increasing the longer he stayed alive.
Aleck wasn't just a soldier—no, he was first and foremost a researcher. Raised in a fanatically religious household, his parents sought to make him the perfect human, inspired by Adam, the first man. They tried to shape him into someone innocent and pure, but their efforts only left him caged in their obsessive worship. Despite their attempts to keep him confined, they soon vanished, leaving only their son behind.
In time, Aleck learned not to pray to God but to himself. He became his own deity, seeing himself as capable of achieving perfection in his image. He scorned the idea of serving God and instead focused on unlocking humanity's potential. After all, what purpose could there be in serving a God who had none of His own?
And so, Aleck dedicated his life to research.
And he succeeded... almost.
After countless human sacrifices, Aleck discovered a unique energy signature emanating from the human mind, which he dubbed the Aleck Field. This phenomenon altered reality at a fundamental level, shaping it to allow life to exist. It was responsible for the quantum fluctuations that made up thoughts. However, the energy disappeared once separated from the human body, and despite all his efforts to contain it, Aleck failed. His government cut funding, and soon after, the Russian military came knocking at their door.
And here he was now, as New York fell in the fires of World War 3, slowly losing consciousness, his dreams left unrealized.
A cold shiver ran through his body. His fingers trembled. His pale skin was marred by patches of purple, covering his small frame.
Wait... Why can I still feel cold? And what is this pressure?
"Why does my head hurt... Argh!" The small, weak voice struggled to speak as pain flooded his senses.
Aleck's eyes snapped open, and foreign memories began to infect his mind.
Cypher... Valaria, thoughts raced, the pain was overwhelming—like tiny insects gnawing through his mind, leaving nothing behind. Terra... Nova... Argh!
The memories were fragmented, showing the life of a boy named Cypher Ren. His past felt jumbled, but some key details pierced through.
His life began in the year 1100ABR, born in the Terra Empire, a dictatorship ruled by an emperor with nearly absolute power, second only to the Church of Endo. His mother died during childbirth, leaving his father to fight in the empire's army against the Nova Kingdom. He perished along with countless others, and his meager earnings never reached his son.
With no one to turn to, Cypher struggled on the streets, surviving through hunger and constant danger, eventually starving to death in an alley.
Huff... huff... Aleck struggled to breathe as he processed the broken memories, the pain subsiding just enough for him to take in his surroundings.
He was lying against a wall in a dark alleyway, his body wet from the filthy water on the ground. The stone walls seemed neglected, cracked and suffocatingly narrow, as if designed to trap him.
For a while he simply sat in silence. The dripping of water from a nearby pipe created the perfect calming rythme for Aleck to regain his bearings.
"Have I transmigrated?" The thought excited him, proving that reality could be more fascinating than science ever could. But, he knew that being interesting didn't mean it was safe. For all he knew, he might be trapped in a story by H.P. Lovecraft.
Regardless, he had another chance at life to achieve what was lost after his death—reaching the peak of human potential. He might still make it.
"Heh, those old fools called me crazy for believing this. Now I can prove them wrong."
After years of ridicule from colleagues who disappeared before he could prove them wrong, Aleck could finally say he was right. Or at least, his existence proved it was possible. There was no way of knowing whether this was a one-off event or not.
But he couldn't afford to dwell on that right now. He needed to gather information quickly. From what he had learned from his new memories, this world was far more unforgiving than his previous one.
"This isn't good enough."
The walls around him obscured his view, so he decided to leave the alley and head toward the street.
His legs trembled as he struggled to stand. His bones and muscles screamed in protest, but he ignored them. Glancing down, he saw a puddle on the floor and the reflection of a young boy.
The boy in the reflection had short, slightly curly gray hair, with bangs hanging over his forehead. His face was gaunt from malnutrition, his body frail and weak. Yet his eyes were striking—glowing yellow, their supernatural light making them stand out even in the dim alleyway.
"This is my new face?" Aleck ran a small hand through the gray hair, pushing it aside for a better look. "I'll use this body well, Cypher Ren."
The idea of being in someone else's body didn't matter to him. His soul was all that mattered.
Turning away from the reflection, he made his way toward the alley's exit. As he stepped out, his feet left bloody prints on the ground. Cypher was poor, without the means to afford shoes, and the rough stone floor was merciless on his bare feet.
What he saw beyond the alley was something beyond anything he had ever imagined. An underground cityscape, pulled straight from a fantasy book.
Winding streets were packed with people of all shapes and sizes. They rushed about, seemingly eager to avoid being in the open. Children and the elderly huddled on the streets, covered in tattered blankets, living through the same struggles as Cypher.
The buildings around him were ancient, made of stone, and leaning precariously. Their architecture struck him as odd—he could see the influence of Medieval Europe but with one glaring difference: towering black spires rose from the ground, stretching up toward the rocky ceiling above. Arched black bridges connected the towers, dominating the skyline, while carriages and soldiers moved between them.
But it wasn't the towers that caught his attention. It was the massive cathedral at the center of it all. Made of white marble with golden accents, the cathedral's walls depicted a battle between angelic forces and winged demons. The windows, skillfully made from stained glass, depicted eyes with wings attached, giving the impression of being always watched, while others showed blood-soaked battlefields.
At the center of the cathedral stood a spire as tall as the tallest buildings Aleck had known. At the top was a statue of an angel, its wings stretching across the width of the building, holding a golden sword in defiance.
Haggard people pushed through the crowd, bumping into Cypher's frail body without even noticing. But he barely reacted, lost in the chaos and beauty of the scene.
"Haha!"
A manic giggle escaped Cypher's lips, his eyes wide with madness.
"Hahahaha!"
The laughter grew louder, echoing through the street, as the people around him shot glances his way.
"Amazing! Truly amazing!"
He spread his arms wide, feeling the world welcoming him to uncover its secrets.
"Sigh... another crazy."
"Shhh... he might hear you."
"Just leave him be."
The murmurs of the crowd didn't faze him. The pity they gave him was meaningless compared to his dream—breaking free from the cage and claiming the key for himself.