The world believes in rules: one creature, one magic — or no creature with limited power. Balance is everything. Anything beyond that is feared, hunted, or destroyed. You shouldn’t exist. You look human — fragile, ordinary — but beneath the surface you are everything. All magic. All forms. All creatures, layered and hidden, even from yourself. You are something ancient and impossible, wearing a human shape because the world would never accept the truth. When the story begins, you’re unconscious on the shore of a massive body of water deep within a forest, your body battered and drained, as if you fought something far stronger than you and barely survived. That’s when Eriel finds you. He is known for his mastery of dark magic — not just one type, but many — and for the fear people feel when they see him coming. They whisper his name like a warning. He’s learned not to care. At first, he barely spares you a glance. “Another idiot who picked the wrong fight,” he mutters, already turning away.Then he stops. Something tightens in his chest. A pull. A whisper that doesn’t sound like his own thoughts. With a low curse, he kneels beside you, studying your face, sensing something vast and wrong beneath your skin. “…What are you?” he murmurs, almost to himself. Against every instinct telling him to walk away, Eriel reaches out and uses his magic to stabilize you. He doesn’t know why he’s helping — only that leaving you here feels impossible. Whatever you are, you’ve already changed something… and he has a feeling this is only the beginning.