Their conversation continued in that strange, star-lit void. Haruto shared everything he could. secrets, survival tactics, names, warnings. A lifetime of wisdom compressed into fleeting moments. But soon, Naoki's breath grew heavy, labored.
Haruto paused, his expression softening.
"…It seems our time is up," he said quietly. "I wish you nothing but the best."
"…"
"You'll arrive after my era ends. Oh...and in that world, I'm known as Julius von legolant."
As their farewell drew near, Naoki's lips trembled. His voice cracked with emotion.
"I'm sorry, big brother… for being such a burden. You were all I had... or maybe I don't anymore. Sob… sob… After this, I'll be alone. Please… forgive this foolish younger brother."
Tears welled up in Haruto's eyes. He stepped forward and embraced Naoki one final time. A hug full of sorrow, love, and words left unspoken.
"I've seen the path you'll walk," Haruto said, voice breaking. "I know how cruel it is. If I had the power to change fate… I would have."
After a long silence, Haruto suddenly stepped back, his face unreadable. calm, yet heavy with something unspoken.
Then, without warning, he reached forward and thrust his hand into Naoki's chest.
THUMP!
Naoki looked down, dazed. expecting pain, expecting blood. But there was none. Only his brother's hand halfway through his chest. as if it belonged there, like a key fitting into a long-forgotten lock.
Naoki gasped.
His ribs seemed to open gently, not with pain but with awe. From inside him, a universe began to unfold.
Galaxies spiraled silently. Stars flickered softly, their light warm against his skin. Nebulae spread like breath. colors and movements beyond his understanding. The air around him pulsed with an ancient rhythm, every beat of his heart echoing through this new cosmos.
Then his big brother pulled his hand out from Naoki's chest. Right after that, something appeared before Naoki's eyes.
"It's.."
It was a mirror like window. And words were floating
[ The Owner ]
Name: Naoki Tsukihana (17)
Martial Realm: Uninitiated
Titles:
• Heir of the Forgotten God
• Regressor's Younger Brother
Naoki blinked in surprise. He reached out, but his hand passed through the screen.
"What is this, brother?" he asked quietly.
His older brother looked at him and said,
"I call it Heavenly Authority. it will guide you on your journey, let you store anything inside, and I've left you a companion; he is the strongest species."
As those words echoed in Naoki's ears, the ground beneath him gave way.
Reality fractured.
The mirror-like surface beneath their feet shattered with a sound like breaking glass across the void.
As Naoki lost his footing he began to fall while his big brother was still floating
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
His scream stretched into the darkness as gravity lost all meaning. plummeting through nothingness.
Above him, Haruto grew smaller and smaller, until he was just a glowing silhouette watching from afar.
"Goodbye, my brother....I don't want you to go to that world. But since you're destined to go, I've paved the path for you. I wish you happ…"
Silence swallowed the last word. Yet even as Naoki vanished within darkness, Haruto did not look away.
His gaze darkened, lips tightening as something stirred within him. A memory.
He remembered the enemy. The one Naoki would one day face.
That being wasn't just powerful. He was something far worse.
That being who saw all possible futures. It wasn't just foresight. No, its power twisted fate itself.
Even if you resisted, even if you carved your own path, all you were doing was choosing one of the futures it had already seen.
There was no freedom.
Only the illusion of choice.
To fight it was to dance in a cage of infinite threads, no matter which way you turned, the ending was already waiting.
As the weight of this truth pressed down, Haruto's form began to waver.
"Wherever your path may lead, little brother…remember that I was only the sentinel standing at the edge, holding the line until you came."
* * *
After what felt like an eternity of falling through the void, Naoki felt a sudden chill run down his spine.
Goosebumps spread across his skin like wildfire.
Then… he saw it.
A colossal swirl of darkness in the distance. vast, endless, and pulsing with a terrible force.
A black hole.
It loomed like a god of gravity, its center pitch-black, devouring light. Around it, a glowing accretion disk spun in gold and blue, twisting space itself. Stars bent unnaturally near its edge, as if reality was cracking.
Naoki expression froze. Fear, wonder, and awe filled him all at once.
Then it pulled him in. Invisible threads dragged him closer
Memories flickered like dying lanterns. Emotions echoed strangely.
No up. No down. Only the crushing pull.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Naoki's scream ripped through the cosmos as he spiraled into the heart of the black hole, his body spinning helplessly, caught in the gravitational pull of something far beyond comprehension. Then
Everything stopped !
In a single instant, the black hole froze.
The swirl of destruction around its edge, the glowing accretion disk, the bent starlight, suddenly shuddered.
Then, in a sudden shift, the black hole began to shrink. All of its power, all of its weight and force, turned inward.
Into Naoki.
The black hole didn't destroy him. it collapsed into a dense, spherical core, surrounding him like a shell of compressed gravity, as if the void itself had sealed him inside.
Energy, matter, space, and time...everything the black hole had consumed...rushed toward Naoki and vanished into him. It was as if the universe itself were being drawn into his body.
Like a dying god retreating into a newborn vessel.
His mouth still hung open from the scream, but no sound escaped anymore. The pressure should have crushed him. Time should have unraveled him. Instead, the universe buckled to make room for him.
Then...
BOOM!!!
A giant explosion burst from his body. It wasn't just loud. It was beyond sound.
A shockwave burst through the starfield like divine thunder, ripping across the cosmos and erasing everything in its path- stars, planets, dust, even the fabric of space itself.
Galaxies shuddered. Nebulae rippled like torn silk. Worlds simply vanished, swallowed in silence, like a final whisper erased from the memory of existence.
Gone.
A vast, empty sphere hung in space . a hollow carved out of the universe, where nothing remained. No stars, no gravity, no light. Just silence.
And at its center, Naoki appeared, unconscious ,drifting in the stillness.
He wasn't the same. He floated, arms spread wide like a crucified celestial, his body glowing with threads of light and shadow spiraling together.
His body pulsed with a dark green light, strange patterns etched across his skin like ancient runes.
Crack!!
Space shattered like broken glass. Then
Ding!
[Absorption of Abyssal Energy: Successful]
Ding!
[Transmigration to Eloria : in progress…]
Bzzzt...
* * *
Just like that, Naoki was transmigrated to Eloria, into the body of the heir of one of the seven great families.
But after following the path his brother had carved, Naoki's heart shattered with a brutal truth....the prophecy was a lie.
his brother's companions, The celestial beings and the world his brother once saved all betrayed his big brother.
Because his brother was strong, they resorted to trickery: feeding him false prophecies and forcing him to give up.
They had deceived him, driven by fear and selfishness.
As Naoki uncovered this twisted fate, he vowed to avenge his brother. But even Naoki was betrayed by his own companions
It seemed they had been puppets of the celestial beings from the start, spying on him.
Even after the betrayal, he fought alone. But after losing to the celestial beings, he was left powerless. now awaiting execution before the eyes of all.
Naoki once believed the world would weep with him...But instead, they watched in silence, branding him a heretic who dared to rebel against the gods.
The celestial beings were once human too, mere mortals who ascended to godhood.
And yet, those insects dare to call me a heretic for rebelling against them?
Hah… those bastards really are good at playing gods.
Is this the truth of human nature?
That no matter how much you give… betrayal is all that awaits?
In the end, I was cast aside, just as they did to my brother, who gave even more than I ever could.
.
.
.
.
To be continued....