They say the human brain remains alive for seven minutes after death- drifting through memories, replaying joy and regret in a silent farewell.
Seven minutes where a lifetime collapses into flashes of laughter, pain, love, and loss.
When my time came…
when death reached for me…
I was denied even that.
I was dragged back from the abyss.
—
The world was fire.
My vision flickered in and out like a dying flame. Vulcor's inferno roared toward us, burning reality itself, and in those final seconds my lungs tightened, ready to scream—
Then darkness swallowed everything whole.
My eyes didn't close by choice.
They collapsed.
Thoughts scattered. Memories blurred. My mind drowned in static.
Did I die?
…
No.
Not yet.
A breath rasped out of me, faint but present. I forced my eyes open. Smoke drifted like ash-drenched snow, and the world spun as though reality hadn't yet decided whether I belonged in it.
Then clarity struck me like lightning-
Grandpa.
He stood where I had been- where I should have died- his body shielding ours from the flames that could incinerate mountains.
He took it.
He took the entire force of Hell's Impact alone.
Not with magic.
Not with armor.
Not with immortality.
With his body.
"I got this," he had said.
He meant it.
I staggered toward him, heart pounding so violently it nearly burst through my chest. Broken fragments of wood and stone crunched beneath my feet.
Then I saw him.
And my soul shattered.
Grandpa was on the ground.. no, barely clinging to it. His chest had been burned halfway through, skin peeling and blackened. His hair, once silver, was now matted and maroon from blood. His arm was twisted, veins discolored and purple from absorbing impossible energy.
He gasped for breath like each inhale was a battle.
It wasn't a wound.
It was an execution.
"G-Grandpa…" My voice cracked apart.
My tears didn't fall slowly. They poured. I rushed to him, lifting him onto my lap, fingers trembling so much I could barely hold him.
"It'll be okay… it'll be okay… you'll be fine," I whispered~
but I wasn't speaking to him.
I was bargaining with reality.
Vulcor stood a distance away. His flames dimmed, not out of exhaustion—but boredom. He watched us like an artist observing a finished masterpiece.
He didn't attack.
He didn't need to.
He had already won.
My grief mutated into rage. My heart screamed louder than my voice ever could.
"You'll pay for this," I roared, lightning sparking across my arms.
My body couldn't handle the strain, cracks spread across my skin like glass fracturing under pressure. Still, I forced the orb of lightning that Grandpa had taught me to form. Every nerve felt like molten steel, but I leapt at Vulcor and struck him point blank.
Nothing.
He didn't budge.
Not an inch.
He grabbed my face casually, an adult catching a tantrum from a child and slammed me into the ground.
"You have suffered a fate more cruel than death," Vulcor said, turning away.
"You have lost your kin. Destiny has more plans for you, little one."
Then flames swallowed him, and he disappeared into the sky like a nightmare returning to the abyss.
I should have felt relieved.
Instead, the truth suffocated me-
He left because his purpose was complete.
Grandpa's death.
—
A faint, broken whisper dragged me back.
"Rai…"
I scrambled to his side, grabbing his cold hand. His fingers twitched weakly, searching for mine.
"My son," he breathed, voice thin as smoke. His other hand rose shakily and rested against my cheek.
"I'm sorry."
My heart stopped.
"Grandpa, no.. no, you saved us! You won! You.."
His head moved side to side, barely.
"Grandpa couldn't win… not this time."
He smiled then.
A soft, tired smile, untainted by regret or fear. It was the gentlest expression I had ever seen on any living being.
"I don't think… I can keep my promise," he whispered.
I broke.
I cried like I had never cried before. My voice split, my chest caved, and the world blurred. I clung to him because letting go meant accepting the inevitable.
He pulled my forehead against his, so gently, as if every remaining breath belonged to me.
"You will always be my son."
I could feel it
He was giving away what had remained of his power to stop the cracks that were tearing me apart.
Protecting me till the very end..
And then..
His hand fell away.
His eyes remained open.
His smile remained.
But he was gone.
My voice tore out of me, primal and raw.
"NO! Grandpa.. PLEASE - NO!"
I begged, screamed, cursed the world, anything to undo the moment.
But fate doesn't negotiate.
His body began to crumble into particles of light~ like stardust caught in the wind. Piece by piece, the man who raised me disappeared.
"I promise… I'll get stronger," I choked out, even though he couldn't hear me.
"I'll do everything you asked… just come back."
"I'll become someone who can protect. I swear it."
The wind carried him away.
And with him went my childhood.
My family.
My world.
I became an orphan again.
—
Days passed.
Fortiche, once noisy, bustling, alive- lay silent. A graveyard of scorched stone and memory. The smell of ash lingered in the air. No laughter. No merchants. No future.
The world changed that night.
People realized monsters didn't hide in myths.
They walked among us.
Vulcor's name became a whispered terror. But the truth was drowned in politics and fear. Officials labeled the calamity a natural disaster. Rumors turned to legends. Facts twisted into denial.
But those who lived it?
We knew.
The United Nexus Assembly shut its borders. Nations raised armies. Organizations formed in desperation. Rumors had become law.
Giyu and I were taken in by Zerro's family, wealthy merchants with ties strong enough to protect us.
Once again, I had a roof.
But never again did I have a home.
The world had entered a new age~
One forged from fear.
One awaiting the return of a monster.
And me?
I carried a promise carved into my soul:
I will become someone capable of stopping him.
No matter the cost.