Chapter 1
The wind carried dust across the empty road as a lone traveler walked without haste.
His name was Saeroyx.
At twenty-six, he had no kingdom to serve, no throne to protect, and no interest in the endless rivalries that divided the twelve habited planets of the Rytheris Galaxy. Free-spirited and fiercely independent, he lived by his own choices rather than anyone else’s commands.
Status meant little to him. Kings, nobles, and warriors were all the same in his eyes.
Years of hardship had forged a body of remarkable strength and a mind that refused to break. Even painful memories rarely lingered for long-whether by nature or fate, he forgot them with surprising ease, allowing him to move forward without being chained to the past.
He never chased destiny.
He simply walked wherever it led him.
And on this day, destiny had already begun walking toward him.
The desert stretched endlessly beneath a pale sky, its golden dunes broken only by jagged rock formations and towering excavation rigs that reached into the earth.
This was one of Rytheris’ resource worlds-a planet with no kingdoms, no cities worth remembering, and no life beyond those who came to work. Rich veins of ore lay buried beneath the sands, drawing miners from across the habited planets.
Yet people were few.
The work belonged to machines.
Massive mining robots moved with mechanical precision, carving through rock, transporting enormous loads of ore, and maintaining the endless network of industrial facilities. Their metallic footsteps echoed across the otherwise silent wasteland.
Saeroyx wandered through the desert without any particular destination.
He wasn’t searching for treasure.
He wasn’t running from anyone.
He simply had nothing else to do.
Everything about this planet felt dull. The endless sand, the humming machines, the same routine repeated day after day-it all blurred together. Every now and then he glanced at the giant robots as they carried on with their work, but even they failed to hold his interest for long.
With his hands in his pockets, he continued walking wherever the shifting dunes happened to lead him, unaware that the quiet monotony of the mining planet was about to be broken.
Saeroyx slowed to a stop.
A strange warmth crept beneath the back of his neck.
He frowned and rubbed the spot with his hand.
“That’s… new.”
The heat refused to fade.
Instead, it spread across his shoulders, flowing through his chest and down his arms like molten metal beneath his skin. With every step he took, the sensation intensified.
His breathing grew uneven.
The desert around him seemed to blur.
“What is this…?”
Within moments, the warmth became unbearable.
It was no longer heat.
It was fire.
Every nerve in his body burned as though he had been thrown into the heart of a star. He dropped to one knee, gritting his teeth, but no scream escaped his lips. The pain was beyond anything he had ever known.
The sand beneath him began to tremble.
Then, without warning, his body broke apart.
Not into ash.
Not into light.
Into countless grains of sand.
The desert wind scattered them for a single heartbeat before an invisible force seized every grain at once.
Space itself twisted.
An overwhelming pull dragged him into the darkness between worlds.
There was no up.
No down.
Only endless emptiness… and the feeling that something beyond his understanding had claimed him.
Darkness.
There was no sky.
No stars.
No time.
Only silence.
Then, somewhere beyond the void, a voice spoke.
“So… the bloodline still lives.”
Another voice answered, calm yet distant.
“It shouldn’t be possible.”
“The Star Doors have chosen him.”
Silence returned.
Far away, unseen by every kingdom in the Rytheris Galaxy, an ancient mechanism stirred for the first time in ages.
Saeroyx knew none of it.
He continued to drift through the endless darkness.
Cold.
That was the first thing Saeroyx felt.
His fingers twitched as sensation slowly returned to his body. He opened his eyes to complete darkness. There was no sky above him, no ground beneath him-only an endless black expanse stretching in every direction.
He frowned.
“…I’m alive?”
His voice echoed into the void before being swallowed by silence.
He looked down at himself. Not a single burn remained. The unbearable heat that had consumed him had vanished as if it had never existed.
“What kind of place is this?”
He took a step.
To his surprise, his foot landed on something invisible. It felt solid, though nothing could be seen beneath it.
Another step.
Then another.
The emptiness around him remained unchanged.
No wind.
No sound.
No life.
Only an unsettling silence that made the darkness feel endless.
Saeroyx scratched the back of his neck.
“This is somehow even more boring than the mining planet.”
He sighed and kept walking, not because he expected to find anything-but because standing still wasn’t any better.
After what felt like hours, a faint light appeared in the distance.
It was small.
No larger than a candle flame.
Yet in the endless darkness, it stood out like a star.
Saeroyx narrowed his eyes.
“…Well, that’s new.”
Without hesitation, he began walking toward it.
The faint light grew brighter with every step.
As Saeroyx drew closer, he realized it was not a star.
It was a door.
Suspended in the endless darkness stood an enormous gateway woven from silver and starlight. Ancient patterns shimmered across its surface, shifting like living constellations. It radiated a quiet power that felt older than the galaxy itself.
Saeroyx tilted his head.
“So this is what’s been calling me.”
Without fear or hesitation, he placed a hand on the door.
The moment his fingers touched it, the gateway opened without a sound.
Beyond it lay another world.
Curious, he stepped through.
…
Warm sunlight greeted him.
He found himself standing in the middle of a bustling stone courtyard unlike anything he had ever seen. The buildings bore an ancient style unfamiliar to him, and the people around him wore clothing from an era that no longer existed anywhere in the Rytheris Galaxy.
Conversations stopped.
Every eye turned toward the stranger who had appeared out of nowhere.
Silence spread through the crowd.
Among the faces, one person slowly rose to his feet.
His expression remained unreadable.
Calm.
Observant.
Nothing about him suggested panic, even though a man had just emerged from an impossible doorway.
His sharp eyes studied Saeroyx with quiet precision, as if analyzing every movement before speaking.
Unlike the others, he did not reach for a weapon or step back.
He simply watched.
For the first time since arriving, Saeroyx felt that someone was looking at him not with fear-but with understanding.
Neither of them spoke.
Yet something invisible had already begun to connect their fates.
