"To be cast from grace is not the end. Sometimes, it is the beginning." — The Book of Unwritten Truths
The sky was not blue when judgment fell.
Aetherion's throne hovered at the edge of the cosmic veil—where starlight bowed and dimensions fractured under divine pressure. The atmosphere shimmered with gold and dread. Thousands of winged arbiters stood in silence, arrayed like statues, their halos flickering like failing suns. The tribunal had already spoken. The verdict was absolute.
Two siblings knelt before the Pantheon of Light.
— tall for seventeen, shoulders broad, eyes defiant despite the chains biting into his wrists. He bore the look of someone who refused to kneel even as the world demanded it. His lips were cracked, but his silence roared.
Shiro — barely thirteen, hair tangled and eyes swollen with tears. Yet she clutched his sleeve with fingers that trembled but would not let go. She looked up not with fear but with the pain of betrayal. Not from the world — but from the heavens.
Aetherion's voice did not echo. It replaced sound.
"You are creatures of potential unmeasured… yet impure in your soul's weave. You defied the ordained order. You invoked questions where there should be faith. You sought knowledge not yours to claim. And thus, your sentence shall be your purification."
A.S. spat blood and rose to one knee. "If questioning you is sin, then what does that make you?"
A silence followed. Not the absence of sound — but the void of consequence. Even the angels stiffened.
Aetherion did not speak again. He raised his scepter.
Light pierced through their chests—not with pain, but with removal. A.S. screamed—not because it hurt, but because something inside him was gone. Magic. Essence. Connection. Everything that tied mortals to the great river of arcane energy was torn from them like a root from the earth.
A.Sh. clutched her chest and collapsed. Her breath faltered, eyes wide. "Brother… I can't feel anything."
From the corners of the chamber, ethereal chains wrapped around their souls—transparent, yet real. The curse manifested, not as fire or shadow, but as absence.
"You shall be cast into Arcanis, the world of swords and sorcery, as Nullborns. You shall carry no magic. You shall know no power. The world will hate you, for it fears that which it cannot control. You shall either rise beyond the bounds of fate... or be broken beneath them."
The throne split the air with a gesture. A portal opened — not a gentle swirl of mist, but a violent tear in space. Aetherion gestured again, and the children were lifted by unseen hands.
A.S. fought. He thrashed, kicked, screamed his sister's name.
A.Sh. only reached for him. "Don't let go—"
The portal swallowed them. Chains clattered behind them like thunder as the divine gates slammed shut.
And then, silence.
—
They fell through a screaming void.
Light spun like whirlpools around them—visions of lands unknown, creatures of claw and fang, floating cities, endless forests, and oceans of fire flashed past them. Yet they were shadows against a current that wanted to erase them entirely.
A.S. reached for his sister, eyes wide with terror, rage, purpose.
He would protect her.
He would protect her if it meant tearing down gods.
As they neared the edge of the spiral, a whisper carried from the fading light—neither male nor female, neither divine nor damned:
"One shall rise. One shall fall. Both shall burn. And from that flame… a new world shall be born."
—
They hit the ground like thunder.
A.S. was the first to stir. Blood trickled from his temple. He blinked against the sudden dawn light breaking through the trees.
Then he heard her crying.
"A.Sh.!"
He stumbled across the dirt and found her curled beside a moss-covered stone, shaking, but alive. He pulled her into his arms and held her so tightly it seemed he feared the world might steal her again.
A.Sh. whispered, "Where are we?"
He looked up. Trees unlike anything on Earth loomed overhead—glowing with arcane veins. In the far distance, floating spires pierced a violet sky. The air buzzed, not with electricity, but expectation.
A.S. clenched his fists.
"Wherever we are... we survive."