Main Character Description
Name: Kael Veritas
Age: 25
Origin: Earth – a forgotten backwater village in the shadow of the modern world.
Kael was the definition of invisible. Abandoned at birth. No family, no friends. His face—a malformed canvas of scars and asymmetry—made others turn away in disgust. His body was frail, his voice weak, his aura nonexistent. Bullied, beaten, and mocked, Kael grew up in the rusted shell of a crumbling home, barely surviving. Hope was a foreign concept to him. He never knew what love, kindness, or even warmth felt like.
But that was before the Tower appeared.
.....
Chapter 1: The Worm in the Void
"They say fate smiles on the worthy. So what happens to those fate never sees?"
Rain pelted down from a bruised sky, slicking the broken concrete of District 9's Outer Slums. A place not found on most maps—because it was better forgotten. Here, the buildings were rusting carcasses, electricity came and went like a cruel joke, and survival wasn't about living—it was about not dying.
Kael Veritas, twenty-five years old, stared at his reflection in the cracked window of an abandoned noodle shop. The glass warped his already unpleasant features, giving his gaunt face a ghostly distortion. His skin clung to sharp bones. His eyes—one slightly higher than the other—were dull grey, lifeless. Scars ran along his temple and down his neck. He didn't remember how he got most of them.
A passing kid spat on the ground near him and muttered, "Freak."
Kael didn't respond. What was the point? He adjusted the torn grey hoodie that barely covered his frail form and walked on. He hadn't eaten in two days. His stomach didn't even growl anymore—it had accepted silence.
He scavenged. Not by choice. Just to get through another night. Rotten bread? He'd eat it. Expired soup from a trash bin? That was a delicacy.
But even more than hunger, Kael feared sleep. Because in sleep came the dreams—horrible, vivid images of burning skies, of dragons screaming in languages older than time, of towers rising from oceans of blood. And always, he stood at the bottom, naked and alone.
"Wake up," the voice would whisper, ancient and hollow. "You are chosen."
Chosen? He laughed every time. No one chose him. Not even death, yet.
That night, Kael found an abandoned electronics store to crash in. He huddled beneath a half-burnt rug, shivering against the cracked floor.
"Cold tonight, huh?"
Kael flinched. The voice was close. Not hostile. Curious.
He turned his head to see a figure sitting cross-legged a few meters away. A boy. Maybe nineteen? He wore a mismatched coat stitched from denim and leather, his black hair tied in a messy topknot. His skin was bronze, and his smile was too bright for this place.
"I'm Jinso," he said, tossing a warm can of soup toward Kael. "Found a stash. Not expired. You look like you could use it."
Kael stared, hesitant. Was this a trick?
"I didn't poison it, I swear," Jinso chuckled. "Why would I waste good poison on someone who looks like a ghost already?"
Despite himself, Kael snorted. A sound he hadn't made in… years?
He opened the can. It was real. It was warm. His throat burned with gratitude.
"Kael," he whispered.
"Huh?"
"My name," he said again, louder. "Kael. Kael Veritas."
"Well, Kael Veritas," Jinso grinned. "Welcome to the end of the world."
.....
The next day, everything changed.
The sky split.
Not metaphorically. Literally.
A blinding crack of white tore through the clouds like a wound in heaven. Thunder screamed—not sound, but language—in words too old to comprehend. And then…
The Tower descended.
It didn't rise from the ground. It fell from the sky—an endless black column that pierced the atmosphere and slammed into Earth's crust. Its size was incomprehensible. Bigger than planets. Taller than galaxies. It seemed to stretch beyond the fabric of this universe.
Screams echoed from every corner of Earth. And then...
[TOWER SYSTEM INITIATING]
All intelligent lifeforms within designated coordinates shall now enter the Tutorial Trials.
Estimated casualties: 92%.
Good luck, climbers.
White light swallowed the world.
To Be Continued...