The night sky felt heavy, a dark and oppressive expanse devoid of stars. A deep headache throbbed behind Aster's eyes as he slowly regained consciousness, his body aching with unfamiliar weariness. As his vision cleared, the first thing he noticed was the strange, cloudy sky above him.
He blinked, his senses still muddled as his fingers brushed against the rough earth beneath him. The cold, hard ground pressed against his bare skin. The realization hit him like a wave: he was naked, and he had no idea where he was.
Aster's breath caught in his throat as he tried to gather his thoughts, the questions tumbling from his mind before he could fully process them.
"How am I?
Where am I?
What happened?"
His memories trickled back slowly, as if hesitant to reveal their full truth. He murmured to himself, piecing together the fragments of his past.
"My name is Aster Forder... I lived in Monacal... I managed to escape?"
The fog in his mind began to lift as he slowly pushed himself up, surveying the unfamiliar landscape. The ground around him was soft, covered in tall grass that swayed in the wind. Mountains loomed in the distance, their jagged peaks lost in the haze of the night. The storm had passed recently, leaving behind a quiet stillness that made the air feel heavy and charged.
As he turned his gaze upward, he felt a chill run down his spine. The clouds parted, and what should have been a familiar, comforting sight—a single moon—was replaced with three, hanging ominously in the sky. The moons were stark against the murky backdrop, each one casting an eerie, pale glow. The realization hit him hard: this was not Earth.
"Where am I?"
The words escaped his lips in a tremor of disbelief.Aster's mind raced. He had lived most of his life in seclusion, surrounded by the quiet isolation of Monacal. From the time he was twelve, he barely glimpsed the moon, yet he knew with certainty that Earth had only one. The sight of three moons was a direct contradiction to everything he knew.
His body trembled, not just from the cold, but from the sheer weight of the unknown pressing in on him.
"Am I... not on Earth?"
The echoes of the War of Gods in the year 2041 and the arrival of Ashal still haunted the remnants of human history. But the idea of reincarnation or transmigration—of being ripped from one world and cast into another—had always been relegated to the realms of anime and fiction. Yet here he was, a living contradiction.
"How did I transmigrate? The last thing I remember... we escaped from Monacal. My friend and I... we split up, thinking it would be safer that way."
The memories of his escape began to solidify in his mind. The journey had been long, and the path they chose had led them through the dreaded Graveyard of the Gods—a land ravaged by the War of Gods. He shuddered as he recalled the rumors and warnings surrounding this forsaken place.
"The Graveyard of the Gods... the land where the battle of the immortals had scarred the earth, leaving only remnants of their existence."
The destruction was vast, spanning over 20,000 kilometers, leaving behind a barren wasteland of twisted earth, scorched and scarred. It was a place of untold horrors, home to monsters and strange phenomena—an area where reality itself seemed to bend and warp.
"I remember... I saw something. A tear in space. Like the air itself was warping."
He swallowed, the memory sending a shiver through him. The sensation of wrongness—the feeling that something deeply dangerous lurked within that tear—was still vivid in his mind. He had tried to flee, but something had held him there, paralyzed, as though he were being drawn into the very fabric of that
distortion.
And then... nothing. Darkness.
"The last thing I remember... I was sucked into it."
Aster's eyes shifted nervously to the sky once more. The three moons hung overhead, casting a faint, eerie light over the landscape. The wind picked up, and he shivered, his naked body trembling in the cool air.
"So... I'm not on Earth?"
The thought echoed in his mind. The world around him was foreign, yet strangely familiar. As the dawn began to break, he felt a sense of relief wash over him. The sun's light spilled across the horizon, painting the sky with hues of orange and pink. But that relief was fleeting. Aster knew he couldn't afford to relax. He was alone in a strange world, without food, without shelter, without the faintest idea of what lay ahead.
He glanced around. The plain stretched out before him, an endless sea of grass. In the distance, he could see trees. That was a good sign. Trees meant water, shelter, and food. But how to survive here?
Aster's mind raced as he considered his options. His body was already fatigued, his muscles sore as though he had run a marathon. The idea of waiting for the sun to rise fully seemed pointless.
But then again, what if time worked differently here?
What if the cycle of day and night didn't follow Earth's rhythm? He wandered.
"I need to keep moving. I can't stay in one place for too long."
As he slowly made his way toward the trees, his thoughts began to drift. Despite the unfamiliarity of this world, there was something about it that felt oddly... human. The land was rich with plant life, and the air carried the scent of earth and rain. But his mind kept returning to the three moons. The very fact that they existed—beyond what he had known—suggested that this world was far beyond anything he could have ever imagined.
As Aster ventured deeper into the forest, he found trees taller than any he had seen on Earth. Some of them seemed to stretch endlessly toward the sky, their trunks thick and sturdy. He had seen what the world had evolved to after the War of the Gods—plants gaining consciousness, creatures becoming fiercer. It seemed like reality itself had been altered.
"I remember scientists believed that after the fall of the Gods, the earth absorbed most of their remains and powers leading to plants and animals evolving, with humans gaining Power's which they called Ashals."
In the forest, entering survival mode Aster used large leaves and vine to fashion a simple loincloth in the hopes of keeping his body warm and prevent hypothermia.
Aster thought of his current situation and what he should do to find humans or at the very least any sign of civilization. With that in mind, he continued walking while at the same time monitoring his environment.
But just then, something caught his eye.