CHAPTER 1 — BLOOD BEFORE DAWN
The sky burned red.
A battlefield stretched endlessly, marked with shattered ground, fallen heroes, and the sharp smell of blood hanging in the air. Every passing second made it clear—
The heroes were being pushed back.
Among them stood Hiro Valeus, breathing hard, wounded, but still refusing to step away.
A faint whisper of wind cut across the field.
A black blur moved between corpses—too fast for any normal eye.
Zareth “The Maws.”
The terror of the demon army.
A man with no fingers and no toes, yet the fastest being alive.
He held a sharp blade clenched tightly between his teeth.
No hands needed.
No mercy offered.
In a heartbeat—
SWISH—SHLICK!
The blade pierced straight through Hiro’s eye.
Hiro’s scream vanished into the roar of battle as he collapsed, blood soaking the dirt beneath him.
Not far away, seated in a reinforced combat-chair with shining robotic limbs, was:
Kaizen Arclight — the young strategist.
The genius boy who planned the entire operation.
The one who believed this war could be won with perfect logic and flawless timing.
He watched Hero fall.
He watched Zareth standing over the dying hero.
Something snapped inside him.
His robotic hands trembled violently.
“My… my whole strategy… why is it failing!?”
His voice cracked, filled with fear and frustration.
“Why can’t I save anyone… why isn’t anything working!?”
His robotic arms sparked with malfunction as he tried to push himself up.
“I calculated everything… every step… every outcome…
So why… WHY!?”
His vision blurred.
The battlefield, the blood, the screams—
all dissolved into blinding white.
FLASH.
Scene Shift — School Classroom
Sunlight fell gently through the windows.
Students chatted, laughed, and read books—normal school life, calm and peaceful.
At the back corner sat Kaizen.
Not with combat-grade robotics…
but with simple, wooden prosthetic arms and legs.
Silent. Fragile. Noticeably weak.
He flipped through his textbook:
“Advanced Robotics for Mobility Support.”
His wooden fingers tok-tok lightly as he sketched new mechanical arm designs in the margins.
Everything seemed quiet—
until a faint sound drifted in through the window.
sniff… sniff…
A small, soft crying.
Kaizen stopped writing.
He slowly lifted his head and looked outside, toward the source of the voice.
And he didn’t know it yet…
but this simple moment,
inside an ordinary school,
was where everything truly began.
