The world ended with a scream—and Kairos Veyne was the one who heard it last.
It came from the sky. Not thunder. Not a bomb. Not even a cry of pain. It was something deeper, older, as if the cosmos itself was tearing apart. The sky split open with a blinding red gash, and the sun was swallowed by an eclipsing shadow.
They called it the Crimson Eclipse.
One moment Kairos was standing outside the university gates, backpack slung over one shoulder, arguing with his sister on the phone. The next, the ground shook and the buildings around him imploded like paper castles. A wave of searing energy knocked him back—and then came the blood.
Not his.
Not at first.
People melted. Others transformed—twisting, shrieking, mutating into beasts with horns, eyes like fire, and jagged flesh that pulsed with dark energy. A system screen appeared in the air above everyone, like some sick RPG interface from hell.
> CRIMSON ECLIPSE INITIATED. SYSTEM REBOOT COMPLETE. SURVIVAL PARAMETERS UPLOADED. ALL MORTALS ARE NOW SUBJECT TO ASCENDANT LAW.
Kairos didn't even have time to process it. A tentacled horror with a jawless skull launched toward him, tearing into a professor nearby like a ragdoll. He turned to run—but pain bloomed across his back as the creature's tendrils whipped through his shoulder and spine.
He collapsed, bleeding out. Everything faded to black.
But death never came.
Instead, a voice echoed in the abyss of his mind.
> You bear potential. You are chosen. Will you embrace Sin… or fade into nothing?
Kairos tried to speak, but no words came.
> Sin Core integrating… initializing compatibility scan…
He screamed as his body convulsed—no, changed. A searing brand etched itself onto his chest, veins lighting up with a red so deep it was nearly black. When his eyes opened again, they glowed faintly with an ember-like hue.
And she was there.
Standing over him with blood-red wings, obsidian horns curling like a crown, and eyes that shimmered like liquid seduction.
"Welcome back to the land of the damned," the succubus said, her voice a velvet dagger. "I'm Selene. Your partner in sin. Try not to die again too soon."