The city greeted Kaine with the silent whisper of its streets—empty and abandoned. There was hardly any wind, yet the air felt thick, as if the very space had absorbed the fear and despair of those who once lived there. With each step on the cracked asphalt, he felt something foreign trying to invade his mind, like invisible threads reaching out to his consciousness.
"Alert," the mechanical voice of the system suddenly broke the silence, causing Kaine to flinch. "High threat level detected within a one-hundred-meter radius."
He froze, listening carefully. Indeed, there was a strange rustling sound in the distance, muffled and uneven. At first, Kaine thought it was just the wind, but with every passing second, the sound grew clearer, turning into a steady tapping.
"What is this place?" he thought, scanning the ruins of the buildings around him. Every house looked like a monument to a forgotten era—windows shattered, walls cracked, covered in grime and dust. But the strangest thing was the statue in the center of the square—a majestic figure in a cloak, with a sword embedded in the ground.
As he approached it, Kaine felt something stir inside him. This statue was familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before—in dreams or memories. The delicate features, the deep, piercing eyes that seemed to look straight into his soul...
"Kaine..." a soft, almost tender voice sounded behind him.
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He spun around sharply and saw a girl standing before him. She stood against the backdrop of the gray sky, her long white hair flowing like ribbons, and her delicate face expressed mixed emotions—either joy or sadness.
"Who are you?" he asked tensely, raising his hands defensively.
"Don't you remember me?" she smiled, and a strange sense of déjà vu washed over Kaine. "We met... so long ago."
Her words echoed in his mind, as if awakening forgotten memories. Images flashed before his eyes: he and she, standing side by side on a battlefield, engulfed in flames, their hands intertwined, and all around—enemies, swords, blood...
"No, this is impossible," Kaine whispered, stepping back. "I don't know you..."
"You've just forgotten," the girl took a step toward him, and a fire lit in her eyes. "But soon, you'll remember everything. You are the chosen one. The one who must find his path."
She reached out her hand to him, and at that moment, the world around him began to distort. The endless sky turned into a whirlpool of darkness, the city ruins merged into one, forming a single mass. And suddenly, he was once again in the darkness, in the place where it had all begun.
"Walk your path, Kaine," the familiar voice reached him once more. "You must remember who you are."
He lifted his head and saw boundless light before him. One step forward—and the darkness began to retreat, giving way to his resolve. His journey had only just begun, and although he would have to face the ghosts of the past, he was ready to move forward.
A bright light flickered ahead, like a tiny flame in the endless darkness. Kaine took his first step toward it, feeling that with every movement, something greater, something ancient and powerful, was awakening within him. The one he had once been was returning.
"I will find my path," he thought.