POV: Kai Mizushino
Place: Ruins of the Solar Throne, Once the Heart of Luminara
Date: [Unknown – Final Day of the Cosmic Calendar]
---
The world was ending.
Not with a scream.
Not even with a roar.
But with silence—the kind that follows a final breath.
The kind that seeps into your bones and stays, long after the stars forget your name.
The sky—once an orchestra of light—had gone dark.
The constellations, once the pride of the celestial artists, fell from the heavens like dying embers.
The Black Sun loomed above, unmoving, uncaring. It pulsed like a rotten heart as it devoured stars whole.
And beneath that dying sky, the universe collapsed.
Kingdoms fell.
Planets cracked like glass.
Realms tore at the seams, their screams swallowed by cosmic void.
Where once stood gods and legends… now stood only ruin.
And in the center of it all—
A boy.
No…
Not a boy.
A warrior.
A son.
A friend.
A survivor.
Kai Mizushino.
---
His cloak, once the symbol of his academy—a pristine white trimmed with blue and gold—was now blackened, shredded to tatters. Ash clung to every fold. His black hair, usually neat and parted, hung in damp, blood-matted strands. His right eye was swollen shut. The left still burned—a brilliant, vengeful blue.
But behind that brilliance… was pain.
Unimaginable pain.
His arms trembled. Not from fear. Not from fatigue. But from the weight of grief.
Because everywhere he looked…
They were gone.
---
The Solar Throne—a place once revered by gods and mortals alike—was now reduced to broken stone and molten gold. The floor, once alive with runes and warmth, was cold. Cracked. Bleeding.
And strewn across it… were the remains of everything he loved.
His feet carried him forward without thought, crunching over fragments of celestial crystal and forgotten dreams. He stopped before a body.
No.
Two.
He dropped to his knees.
"...No..."
His voice was hoarse. Small. Childlike.
As if saying it gently would undo what he saw.
---
Yuuna Mizushino.
His mother.
Her body lay curled around him—arms outstretched, as if she could still protect him, even in death. Her barrier had deflected the killing blow. He remembered the moment it shattered—a burst of light and a scream that was both hers and his.
Her hair—once long and silken—was scorched away. Her robes, tattered.
But her eyes…
Still open.
Still watching.
Still warm.
He leaned forward, pressing his forehead to hers.
His breath hitched.
He wanted to scream.
But the grief was too heavy. It choked him.
---
And beside her…
Thanatos.
His father.
The Reaper. The Silent One. The god who whispered to souls in their final moments.
He was a being of death—and yet, in this final act, he had chosen life.
For his son.
His obsidian armor was shattered. His chest bore a blackened hole where Zeus's lightning had pierced him. But he stood even in death—kneeling, body frozen in his final motion: shielding Kai.
His wings—massive, dark, ethereal—were reduced to bone and smoke. His hands had not held a scythe. They had held Kai.
---
He remembered the last words Thanatos had spoken:
"You are not death, my son.
You are the one who will defy it."
Kai clenched his fists. Blood leaked through his fingers.
His heart begged to stop.
But he could not—would not—fall here.
Not when they had given everything for him.
---
A sound behind him.
Soft. Wet.
He turned.
Touya Kamishiro and Akito Kusanagi—his brothers not by blood, but by soul.
They had fallen together. Touya's sword—cracked clean in half. Akito's gauntlet—melted into his flesh. But they had fought like lions. Protecting Kai's flanks. Buying time. Refusing to yield.
They now leaned against each other.
Their backs touching.
Their eyes closed.
At peace.
As if they had never left him.
As if they still watched.
---
"Don't cry, Kai," Touya had said, days before the war.
"You'll ruin your pretty face, bookworm."
"He'll cry," Akito had replied with a quiet laugh.
"But he'll still stand."
---
A glimmer of light.
Stardust.
Kai looked up—and saw her.
Saki Yamada.
She had always been there—at the edge of the crowd, just far enough to be forgotten, just close enough to care. She had smiled when no one else did. She had waited for him to see her.
And in the final hour, she had burned her life to shield him from a spear meant for his heart.
She was vanishing now. Turning into stardust.
But her voice…
"I always… loved you…"
It echoed inside him.
It hurt.
He reached out—
But she was already gone.
---
And then, thunder rolled.
Lightning cracked.
He was here.
Zeus.
Crowned in storms. Cloaked in hatred.
A god once praised for wisdom, now a tyrant mad with power.
He stepped onto the ruins like a god surveying his dominion.
Like this apocalypse… was his masterpiece.
He crushed the strings of Aria's fallen harp beneath his boot.
And smiled.
"You reached so far, Kai," he said.
"But even the stars have limits."
---
Kai didn't move.
Didn't flinch.
Didn't beg.
His voice, dry and shaking, clawed from his throat:
"Why…?"
"Why does this happen…?"
"I didn't want this…"
"I didn't want to become this…"
He could still feel his mother's arms.
His father's final embrace.
His friends' last smiles.
The warmth of a girl who had waited too long.
And now they were gone.
---
He looked up. Through blood. Through fire. Through tears.
"Is this… really the end of the world…?"
No answer came.
Only thunder.
And in that silence—
The strongest boy in the world wept.
But even in grief, he stood.
He would not run.
He would not beg.
He would not forget.
Because they had died for him to live.
And even if the stars were gone—
He would become their light.
---
To be continued
[End of Prologue: The End of Everything]