Chapter 1 — The Night the Sky Turned Black
At midnight, every bell in the world rang.
Not one bell.
Not one kingdom.
Every bell.
Across mountains, villages, deserts, islands, and great cities, ancient bells began to move by themselves.
BOOOOOONG!
People woke from their sleep.
A farmer ran outside his house.
A soldier grabbed his sword.
A mother pulled her children close.
Kings opened their windows.
Priests stopped their prayers.
Even the animals became strangely quiet.
Then the bells rang again.
BOOOOOONG!
Seven times.
Exactly seven.
After the seventh ring, the world became silent.
For three seconds, nothing happened.
Then the sky changed.
A red light appeared beside the moon.
Then orange.
Yellow.
Green.
Blue.
Indigo.
Violet.
Seven brilliant lights appeared across the heavens.
People stared upward.
Some cried.
Some prayed.
Some celebrated.
The Rainbow Cycle had returned.
Every two hundred years, seven extraordinary children were born.
Seven children.
Seven powers.
Seven colors.
Humanity had waited two centuries for them.
The legends called them the Seven Chosen.
Red—the power of Fire.
Orange—the power of the Sun.
Yellow—the power of Thunder.
Green—the power of Nature.
Blue—the power of Water.
Indigo—the power of Night.
Violet—the power of Cosmos and Spirits.
They were supposed to save the world.
That was what everyone believed.
But high above the capital city of Asterra, an old man was not celebrating.
He was terrified.
His name was Master Orin.
For sixty years, Orin had studied the Rainbow Cycle.
He had read ancient records that most people believed were nothing more than myths.
He knew the signs.
He knew what should happen.
Seven lights.
Seven Chosen.
One great enemy.
That was how the cycle had always worked.
Or at least, that was what the surviving records claimed.
Orin slowly placed his eye against a giant telescope.
“There they are,” he whispered.
Behind him, his young assistant, Mira, smiled.
“The Seven?”
Orin nodded.
Mira hurried toward him.
“Then humanity is safe.”
Orin didn't answer.
His eye remained against the telescope.
Mira's smile disappeared.
“Master?”
Orin slowly moved the telescope.
His face became pale.
“What is it?”
He stepped away.
“There are more.”
Mira frowned.
“More what?”
Orin pointed toward the sky.
Mira looked through the telescope.
Her mouth opened.
Around the seven colored lights were ten enormous black points.
They were not stars.
They looked like holes.
As if someone had torn open the sky.
Mira stepped backward.
“But…”
Orin's voice was barely a whisper.
“There should only be seven.”
One of the black points moved.
It grew larger.
Then larger.
And larger.
Orin's hands began shaking.
“Wake the king.”
Mira stared at him.
“What should I tell him?”
Orin looked at the black object descending from the heavens.
“Tell him the cycle has changed.”
Thousands of miles away, in a small village called Lumeris, a boy was sleeping.
His name was Adrian.
He was sixteen years old.
And as far as everyone in the village knew, he was completely ordinary.
No powerful family.
No magical weapon.
No famous ancestors.
No special training.
No remarkable talent.
Adrian couldn't control fire.
He couldn't summon water.
He couldn't create lightning.
He couldn't even perform the simplest magic that most children his age could use.
Some people felt sorry for him.
Others laughed at him.
Adrian didn't care.
He had something more important to worry about.
His dreams.
Every night, he dreamed of the same place.
A place with no ground.
No sky.
No stars.
No moon.
Nothing.
Only darkness.
Adrian would stand alone in that endless darkness.
Then a voice would speak.
You were never supposed to exist.
Adrian had heard those words hundreds of times.
He never knew who said them.
He never knew where the voice came from.
And whenever he tried to answer, his voice disappeared.
Then seven enormous wings would appear behind him.
Red.
Orange.
Yellow.
Green.
Blue.
Indigo.
Violet.
Seven wings.
Seven colors.
And standing far ahead of him would be a figure covered in white light.
Adrian could never see its face.
Tonight, however, the dream was different.
Adrian stood in the darkness.
The seven wings appeared.
But this time, something else appeared.
A tiny white light.
It floated toward him.
Adrian raised his hand.
“What are you?”
The light stopped.
The mysterious voice returned.
Adrian.
He looked around.
“Who are you?”
You have very little time.
“Time for what?”
The darkness suddenly shook.
Adrian froze.
Something enormous moved behind him.
He turned.
A gigantic eye opened in the darkness.
It was blacker than the darkness surrounding it.
Adrian couldn't move.
The voice whispered:
They have found you.
Adrian woke up.
His eyes opened instantly.
He sat upright.
His breathing was fast.
“What…”
He looked around his small room.
His wooden table was beside the wall.
His old chair stood beneath the window.
Everything was normal.
Then—
BOOM!
The house shook.
Adrian jumped out of bed.
“What was that?”
Another explosion sounded.
BOOOOOOM!
This time, the ground shook beneath his feet.
Adrian rushed toward the window.
His heart stopped.
Lumeris was burning.
People were running through the streets.
Houses were collapsing.
Black smoke covered the village.
Someone screamed.
“RUN!”
Adrian stared in disbelief.
“What is happening?”
Then he saw it.
Something was walking through the flames.
It was tall.
Much taller than a human.
Its body was covered in black armor.
Strange blue symbols moved across its chest.
Its eyes glowed like two cold stars.
It stopped in the middle of the street.
“Locate the anomaly.”
Adrian couldn't understand how he heard those words so clearly.
The creature turned.
Its eyes locked onto his window.
“Target found.”
Adrian stepped backward.
“No.”
The wall behind him exploded.
CRAAAAASH!
Adrian was thrown across the room.
Dust filled the air.
His ears rang.
The creature walked through the broken wall.
Adrian struggled to stand.
“Who are you?”
The creature stared at him.
“You are Adrian.”
“How do you know my name?”
“You were hidden well.”
“Hidden?”
The creature raised one hand.
Black energy began forming above its palm.
Adrian's fear grew.
“Wait!”
The creature fired.
A black beam shot toward him.
Adrian closed his eyes.
He expected the attack to hit.
It didn't.
Silence.
Adrian slowly opened his eyes.
The black beam was floating directly in front of his face.
It had stopped.
The creature stared.
Adrian stared too.
“I didn't do that.”
A strange warmth suddenly spread through his right hand.
He looked down.
A tiny flame was burning between his fingers.
Adrian's eyes widened.
Fire.
Real fire.
He had never created fire before.
The flame grew.
The creature stepped backward.
“Impossible.”
Adrian didn't know what was happening.
He only knew that something inside him had awakened.
The fire exploded.
WHOOSH!
The creature was thrown through the wall.
Adrian stared at his hand.
“What am I?”
A voice suddenly came from outside.
“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”
KRA-KOOOOOM!
Lightning crashed into the street.
Adrian looked through the destroyed wall.
A girl stood among the flames.
Yellow lightning covered her arms.
Her eyes were sharp.
She looked furious.
The creature rose.
The girl raised one hand.
Lightning gathered around her.
“You picked the wrong village.”
A massive bolt struck.
BOOOOOOM!
The creature was driven into the ground.
Adrian couldn't speak.
The girl turned toward him.
She walked closer.
“Are you Adrian?”
He nodded.
“How do you know my name?”
“I was told to find you.”
“By who?”
“I don't know.”
Adrian stared at the lightning around her.
“You're one of them.”
“One of what?”
“The Seven Chosen.”
She paused.
“Yes.”
“My name is Lyra.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Yellow?”
“Thunder.”
A small bolt jumped between her fingers.
Adrian swallowed.
“So the stories are real.”
Lyra studied him.
“You have a power too.”
“I don't understand it.”
“Neither do I.”
She looked at his hand.
The fire had disappeared.
Lyra's expression became suspicious.
“You shouldn't have that.”
“Why?”
She didn't answer.
Instead, she clenched her fist.
Lightning appeared again.
“I was given another order.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What order?”
Lyra's face became serious.
“If you were dangerous…”
The lightning became brighter.
“…I was supposed to stop you.”
Adrian stared at her.
“You mean kill me?”
Lyra remained silent.
Then—
The creature laughed.
Both turned.
It slowly stood.
Its armor was damaged.
But it was smiling.
“Seven.”
Lyra looked at it.
“One has been found.”
Then its eyes moved to Adrian.
“And the anomaly has awakened.”
Lyra's expression changed.
“Anomaly?”
The creature looked upward.
“Confirmed.”
The clouds began twisting.
The moon disappeared.
Adrian looked at the sky.
The seven colored lights were still there.
But now ten black shapes surrounded them.
Huge shapes.
Moving shapes.
Lyra stepped backward.
“There are ten.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
Lyra's voice became quiet.
“There should only be one enemy.”
The creature laughed.
“You were told a lie.”
The ground shook.
“The Seven Chosen were never prepared for what is coming.”
One of the black shapes descended.
Then another.
The clouds turned dark.
Adrian felt something inside his chest.
His fire suddenly disappeared.
Everything became silent.
Then the voice from his dreams spoke inside his mind.
Do not let them discover White.
Adrian froze.
“White?”
Lyra looked at him.
“What did you say?”
A tiny white light appeared inside Adrian's eye.
The creature saw it.
Its smile vanished.
Its entire body began trembling.
“No…”
Adrian stared at it.
“What is White?”
The creature stepped backward.
“No one was supposed to awaken it.”
Lyra looked between them.
“What are you talking about?”
The creature suddenly screamed toward the sky.
“THE WHITE HAS AWAKENED!”
All ten beings above the village turned toward Adrian.
Adrian felt their attention.
His body became heavy.
Seven colors appeared around him.
Red.
Orange.
Yellow.
Green.
Blue.
Indigo.
Violet.
For a single moment, all seven surrounded his body.
Then they vanished.
A white light remained.
Adrian dropped to his knees.
“What…”
He looked at his hands.
“I don't understand.”
Lyra stared at him.
For the first time since she arrived, she looked frightened.
Not because of the enemy.
Because of Adrian.
Far beyond Earth, another world watched.
A world so large that more than eleven billion people lived beneath its skies.
Inside a palace larger than any human city, a king stood before a giant window.
Beside him stood a queen.
They had watched the events on Earth through an enormous crystal.
The king stared at Adrian's white light.
His expression changed.
“Impossible.”
The queen looked at him.
“You know what that is?”
The king remained silent.
“Answer me.”
He finally spoke.
“Something that was never supposed to return.”
The queen looked toward Earth.
“The White?”
The king nodded.
Then he gave an order.
“Send the Ten.”
“They are already going.”
“Send everyone else.”
The queen's eyes widened.
“Everyone?”
The king looked at her.
“If that boy truly possesses what I think he possesses…”
He paused.
“…then this is no longer about the Seven.”
Back on Earth, Adrian slowly stood.
The white light disappeared.
He looked at Lyra.
“What am I?”
Lyra didn't answer.
Behind them, the creature raised its weapon.
“Take the eighth alive.”
Adrian turned.
“Eighth?”
The creature smiled.
“You are not one of the Seven.”
The sky shook.
“You are the eighth child.”
Adrian's eyes widened.
“I wasn't born with them…”
The mysterious voice whispered inside his mind.
You were created.
Adrian's breathing stopped.
The creature charged.
Lyra raised her hand.
Lightning exploded.
Adrian's eyes suddenly flashed white.
For a fraction of a second, everything around him slowed.
The falling pieces of stone.
The flames.
The lightning.
The creature.
Everything.
Adrian blinked.
Time returned to normal.
He didn't understand what had happened.
But somewhere deep inside him, something had opened its eyes.
Something far more powerful than the Rainbow Powers.
And it was only beginning to awaken.
Above Lumeris, the ten Planetary Beings descended from the black sky.
The first battle of the new cycle had begun.
And Adrian still didn't know the most terrifying truth.
He was not created to become one of the Seven.
He was created because something was coming that the Seven alone could never defeat.
And whatever had created Adrian had hidden the real reason from everyone—even Adrian himself.
