The night Rein's life changed didn't feel special at all.
No thunder.
No prophecy.
Just a cold breeze brushing his neck as he walked home with his hands in his pockets.
He was seventeen.
The streetlamps flickered the way old lights do, but one thing was different — his shadow stretched longer than it should have, reaching far ahead of him like it was trying to show him something.
He didn't understand the strange squeeze in his chest until the pain hit.
A sharp, splitting headache.
He stumbled, placing his hand on the wall to steady himself—
And the wall… rippled.
Like water.
A pitch-black hole opened under his palm.
Not a hole — a doorway made of shadows.
On the other side stood a boy.
Same age.
Same height.
Same face but.
In a black suit.
His eyes glowed red and black, and the air around him trembled with something violent and alive.
Rein's breath froze.
The boy in the darkness lifted his hand too…
And their palms touched through the Rift.
Rein felt a surge burn through his bones — not pain, not warmth, but power, screaming to be awakened.
Then the Rift snapped shut.
Silence.
The next morning, Rein couldn't even remember the details.
Just the feeling of something cold watching him.
And from that night on…
His shadow was never just a shadow.