Chương 1: A Spark in the Void 1/2

Karina didn't remember dying. All she knew was that she wasn't dead anymore. She floated in a sea of stars without a body or eyes to see them. How could she see? It was that thought that began to spin Karina into existence. She could see, and thus had eyes. She could feel, and thus had skin. She could breathe, and thus had lungs. A single line of logic stitched through the aether and formed her. She looked down at herself, searching for a wound. Something that might explain how she'd died.

She was certain she'd died. She just couldn't find any grief to go with it. Only exhaustion and the faint taste of ash. [Soul Detected] The text was white and translucent, floating between Karina and the stars. [Soul already registered.] [Previous records corrupted.] [Restoring: Character Abilities] Already registered? She reached for a memory that might explain it. Nothing came close enough to grasp. Whatever she had forgotten, this thing had a record of her.

"What the hell?" Speaking gave her a voice. She tried it again.

"Hello?" She was speaking to the text. Something beyond it heard her. A constellation answered. Light stitched the stars together into an arm. The first rays of daybreak spun into golden hair. For an instant, the figure filled more of the sky than the sky possessed. Then a man stood before Karina. He raised a hand, and his shape slipped, broad shoulders narrowing, his face becoming a woman's. Neither form felt wrong. Karina's eyes simply couldn't understand both at once.

A thousand words appeared before her, but she caught only the beginning of one. [Cinder—] The woman waved them away.

"We don't need that if I'm here, thank you." Karina tried to recall the word. She'd had it a moment ago.

"You already have a body," the figure said, their voice deepening again. A golden staff formed in their palm.

"That's quite the talent."

"Am I not supposed to?"

"Not quite yet. But I can handle it from here." The text began to return.

"Quiet." They pointed the staff toward it, and the words vanished.

"You, child, have been selected to take up the fight to save another world." The words caught on something inside her, carrying the weary certainty that she'd heard them before.

"Another world?"

"The horrid Demon Queen has begun her invasion. You will be summoned shortly to begin your new life."

"I had an old life." The figure paused. Their eyes reflected a sun that never rose.

"Yes. One that ended in an unfortunate death."

"How did I die?"

"There is nothing to be gained by dwelling on it, child." That was an answer to a different question. Heat flickered beneath her ribs, then vanished.

"No. I'm not agreeing to anything until you tell me what happened." The figure's human outline seemed to stretch around something far too large. Karina knew she was furious. Why couldn't she keep feeling it?

"I would talk for longer, child, but the summoning ritual has begun. Listen to my priests. They will guide you."

"Your priests?" The stars at the edges of her vision began to blink out.

"Are you a god?" The god laughed as the world faded away.

"Then send me back! Send..." For a brief moment, Karina was bodiless again. There was nothing around her to measure distance against, yet she knew she was moving fast. First, there was nothing, and then there was cold. And then there was her. Karina felt cold stone under her knees. A cool wind kissed her ears. Her hair fell onto her shoulders.

"Cover her. Cover her. She's here," an elderly man said, and someone draped a blanket around Karina's shoulders. She opened her eyes. She was kneeling on white marble with subtle flecks of gold hidden within. Her shadow stretched wide across the floor, cast by coloured light pouring into the room. Golden suns had been carved into the marble around her, hundreds of them arranged in concentric circles. The stone was worn smooth where other knees had touched it.

Before Karina could look up, text materialized: [Soul Summoned!] [Restoration Incomplete—] What did that—"Hero," the elderly man said. His footsteps rang clear across the room as he approached. They were uneven, as if he had a limp. A warm, wrinkled hand took hers—gentle, welcoming.

"This must be overwhelming for you," he said, his words soft, practiced, and careful.

"Allow me to guide you for a moment. You have arrived in the Kingdom of Thiera. The High Holy Kingdom of—" This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Karina pitched forward. The man caught her beneath the shoulders, struggling to hold her upright. The text in front of her pulled at something deep inside, as though it had hooked her spine and meant to drag it out through her throat.

"Something's wrong!" the man called, his voice seeming to come from somewhere on the other side of reality. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears. Her skin burned at the air's touch. [RESTORATION INCOMPLETE] Voices rose around her. Another pair of hands caught her arm. Someone told her to breathe, but she remained rigid in their grasp. [RESTORATION INCOMPLETE—EMOTIONAL IMPRINT DETECTED] [CLASS SELECTION PARAMETERS CORRUPTED] [INITIALIZING] Heat flooded her chest. No face returned to her. No name.

Only the memory of hating them. Karina snapped back into herself, her muscles releasing all at once. The man lowered her to the floor with someone else's help. She lay beneath the ornate chandelier, sunlight glittering from its golden frame. A shadow came into her vision. She recognized the voice before she could focus on the face.

"My word. Are you okay, young hero?" Karina blinked, then struggled upright.

"In all my summonings, there has never been a—" The man broke off to steady her.

"Alyssia, send for a healer," the man said before resting a hand on Karina's shoulder.

"It is all right. We will take care of you. My name is Dashun. The rest can wait." Though the man's hair was completely white, his beard remained an almost youthful black, framing the deep lines around his mouth. He caught Karina focusing on him and offered a soft smile, as though her day might still be salvaged. She'd settle for an explanation.

"Hello," was what Karina eventually managed. Twice in a row, she'd opened her existence with a greeting.

"Hello," Dashun said, shifting into a more comfortable crouch.

"Thank you for coming to our world. I do not want to burden your tired soul, but you have a great destiny here." That same buried heat stirred at the word "destiny."

"I didn't choose to come." His smile faltered.

"No, I suppose you didn't." He adjusted the blanket where it had slipped from her shoulder.

"There will be time for questions. First, we'll attend to you." The text still hung between them. Karina watched it, waiting for something more useful than another promise to explain later. The words changed. [Class Selection System Online] [Threat Nearby: Skipping Tutorial]"What?" Karina asked. She looked around the chamber. Robed figures stood beyond the carved circles. She searched their hands for weapons, then looked toward the doors. Nothing. No one else appeared concerned by anything except her.

What had the text noticed that she hadn't? Dashun followed Karina's gaze before studying the reflection of the text, now soft blue, in her eyes. He jumped to his feet as quickly as his age would allow, his thick robe flapping behind him.

"She's beginning class selection!"

"How?" someone Karina couldn't see asked.

"It does not matter. Fetch the scribe. This moment must be added to the record!" Once he had finished shouting his orders, Dashun crouched back down beside Karina. He spoke to her, almost in a whisper.

"Hero, you are about to see many things, most of which will appear unnatural to you." He kept his attention fixed on the reflection in Karina's eyes, waiting for it to change.

"Our world is unlike yours. Here, we have—" A brilliant flash erupted where the text had been. It painted the room stark white, then red. The light became so fierce that shadow felt like mercy. Karina only realized she was screaming after it was over. Dashun had thrown himself between Karina and the flash, pulling her against his shoulder and draping his thick robe over her. As the light faded, he looked up, wide-eyed. His hands were shaking, though he quickly hid them inside his sleeves.

The text remained visible through his robe and shoulder. Its blue-white starlight had changed to the soft orange glow of a candle.

"What is this?" Karina asked. The warning had vanished, but she still didn't know where the threat was. She tried to hold on to that fear. It slipped away, just as her anger at the god had. There had been a word in the stars, too. The god had waved it away, and she could still feel the shape of the gap where it had been. She reached for it. Only the taste of ash returned. Something was stopping her from holding on to what she felt. How was she supposed to make a choice like this?

"Hero," Dashun said once he had collected himself. He rested a hand on Karina's shoulder and moved into her line of sight. His breath caught. He leaned closer, studying the changed reflection.

"What do you see, hero?" Karina stared past the man to the words written on existence. Then, some of the letters changed, swapping with one another and glowing gold, as if a hand was rearranging the ink on an already written page, smudges and all. They settled.

"Class Selection," she read aloud.

"Then read carefully," Dashun said as he backed away from Karina, giving her a moment.

"You should have three options. You do not have to choose immediately." Alyssia returned with a healer, who knelt beside Karina and gently took her wrist. Behind them, a scribe hurried into place with an open book. At the far end of the chamber, a guard eased one door open. Someone spoke from the other side. The guard shut it and reached for the bar. Karina watched him settle it into place. She looked back at the choices. Apparently, she had time to read, but the door needed barring.

"These classes will shape who you become in our world," Dashun said.

"The choice is a grave burden, but heroes have emerged from every class. There is no incorrect answer." The text burned itself into Karina's eyes.

"The Paladin of Light," she read as the first option. Its shape manifested in her head as she spoke the words. [Legendary Class: A Paragon of the Sun and a wielder of powerful divine magic. The Paladin of Light stands as the hope at the centre of any party, cutting through enemies with blade and radiance while shielding their allies from darkness.] Divine magic. She remembered the god waving away her questions. Would choosing this give her a way to demand answers, or just more orders to follow?

"A Paladin of Light?" Dashun whispered. Alyssia was less subtle about her delight.

"A legendary class!" Dashun nodded for Karina to go on.

"Continue, hero. You have a powerful soul."

"The Wounded Champion," she read aloud. [Legendary Class: A master of the battlefield built to outlast all opposition. The Wounded Champion transforms their enemies' strikes into strength, feeding their abilities with their own blood while standing between danger and their allies.] Her wrist still trembled in the healer's hand. She wasn't eager to find out how much blood that required.

"Two legendary classes?" Dashun asked. He closed his eyes, reverent in the moment.

"I wish I could guide you between those options, hero, but—""Exemplar of the Sky." The scribe dropped their book. [Divine Class: Exemplar of the Sky. This powerful mage commands the sky and wields the power of flight from the first level. At the height of their power, their gales can level fortresses, and entire armies break beneath their storms.] Flight. Her gaze rose to the windows. Whatever waited outside this room, she could rise above it. That was the first thing anyone had offered her that she wanted.

Divine. Did accepting the class mean accepting the god who had sent her here?

"By the Seven Lights," Dashun said.

"All of your options are legendary or above. To witness a hero offered a Divine Class in the flesh—I never thought I would live to see it." As the priest spoke, the text began to glow. Beneath the other three classes' titles, a fourth began to burn itself into the air. Nothing enclosed any of the choices, yet Karina felt this one force its way in from somewhere beyond the System's edge.

"Cinder Mage," she said. Dashun turned sharply toward her.

"Hero, there should only be three—" [You stole this fire. Use it.] Karina blinked at the words burning in the air before her. Cinder. The beginning of the word the god had waved away. She could remember it now.

"I don't know of that class, hero," Dashun said.

"But Exemplar of the Sky is a divine gift. Whatever this fourth option may be, I urge you to consider what you would be giving up." A moment ago, there had been no incorrect answer. Whatever emotions had been locked down within Karina snapped free as the chains holding them melted away. The anger came first. She had possessed a life—an entire self—and could remember none of it. The god had dismissed her questions. Now these people were telling her what she should become. The fear followed.

She had died and could not remember how. She could not remember who she had been. What could erase a person so completely and still leave them awake? Beneath both waited calm. Recognition. The sense of stepping into a footprint worn by her own feet. She looked again at Exemplar of the Sky. Flight. Enough power, eventually, to break armies. She understood why Dashun wanted her to choose it. But the god had interrupted the restoration of her abilities, and Cinder Mage had found its way back. You stole this fire.

Something of her old life was still hers. She wanted to know what else they'd stopped her from recovering.

"Cinder Mage," she repeated as she drew her hand from the healer's grasp and reached forward.

"Cinder Mage?" Dashun echoed. The colour drained from his face as the candle-orange words reflected in Karina's eyes.

"No, hero! Don't squander—" Her fingertips brushed the words. Heat bit into her skin, sharp enough to make her hesitate. She could still pull away. Choose the sky. Karina pressed farther into the fire. Her skin crackled and peeled. [CINDER MAGE] [CLASS SELECTED] [HERO RESTORED] [WELCOME KARINA, LEVEL—] [ERROR] [IDENTITY RECORD UNAVAILABLE] [WELCOME, HERO] [FATE SEALED - BASIC PYROKINESIS - 0/10] [FATE SEALED - BASIC SPELLCASTING - AFFINITY: FIRE - 0/10] [FATE SEALED: CINDER MAGE EXCLUSIVE - FIRESTEALER - 0/200]