📍Location: Earth, Year 3050 — Sector-9
The sky hadn't changed in years.
Grey, hollow, still.
No sun. No stars.
Just that cold, constant ceiling of clouds —
…as if the heavens were hiding something.
Rei pulled his hoodie tighter over his head, his footsteps crunching over broken metal and dry ash.
The ruins of old Earth creaked around him like whispers of a forgotten time.
"No one lives here anymore…"
He whispered to himself, as if saying it out loud made the silence less deafening.
He was 16. Maybe.
He didn't remember his birthday.
He only remembered waking up five years ago inside an abandoned train station, alone…
with a word carved into the wall above his head:
"Ascent."
🧬 The Ascent
It happened without warning.
No sirens.
No earthquakes.
No light.
Just — the feeling of his body lifting.
Like gravity had given up.
And then…
Nothing.
☁️ The Skygrave
When he opened his eyes, he was standing on clouds.
But these weren't the soft, dreamy clouds he remembered from childhood books.
These were solid, cracked like stone, cold like steel.
Buildings floated in impossible directions — upside down, sideways, half-melted.
Clock towers pointed at nothing. Roads led to the sky.
And everywhere he turned, he saw people…
…but they weren't alive.
They moved like humans.
Spoke like humans.
But their eyes… their eyes had no soul.
"Why can I breathe here?"
"Why can I feel… cold?"
"Why am I not dead?"
He tried speaking to them.
"Hey—hello?! I need help! I'm lost!"
No response.
Until one man stopped.
Dressed in a black formal suit, face like porcelain, no pupils.
He tilted his head, as if scanning Rei.
"Error: Subject not deceased."
"Ascent incomplete. Subject must be terminated."
Rei ran.
He didn't know what this place was.
Only that he didn't belong.
🕯️ The Inscription
Hidden inside a crumbling chapel floating upside-down, Rei found something.
A journal. Dusty. Handwritten.
"We thought the Skygrave was heaven.
But it was only a prison.
Those who arrive alive…
…never leave whole."
— Entry #46, Father Kaien
🎬 Final Line – Chapter Cliffhanger:
A voice echoed in Rei's ears.
But no one was near.
"They're watching you now, Rei."
"You were never supposed to ascend."
He turned.
And saw…
His own face —
reflected in a puddle of cloudwater.
But older.
Colder.
Smiling.