Rin never imagined his life would end so suddenly.
One moment, he was a normal high school student, tired from another mundane day. The next, he was standing in the doorway of his home, frozen in horror.
Blood.
It coated the walls, the floors—everywhere. The metallic stench burned his nostrils, and the sight sent a shiver crawling down his spine. His mother, his father, his little sister… all torn apart, their bodies reduced to shredded remnants of what they once were.
And in the center of it all, hunched over the remains, was it.
A grotesque monster, its black, glistening skin pulsating with an unnatural energy, turned its attention toward him. Its maw, lined with serrated fangs, dripped with crimson. Its glowing, soulless eyes locked onto his.
He couldn't move.
Not out of fear, but because his body simply refused to obey. His instincts screamed at him to run, to fight, to do something. But he just stood there, rooted in place, as the monster slowly rose to its full height.
Then, it lunged.
Pain. Agonizing, searing pain tore through his body. His vision blurred. His screams were drowned out by the wet, crunching sound of his bones being crushed. And then…
Nothing.
---
Abyssal darkness.
Rin opened his eyes—or at least, he thought he did. But there was nothing. No light, no sound, no sensation. Just emptiness.
'Am I... dead?'
His thoughts felt sluggish, as if submerged in thick tar. He should be terrified, but all he felt was an overwhelming hunger.
A hunger that was not his own.
Then, like a switch being flipped, a flood of instincts crashed into his mind. He could feel it—something slithering beneath his skin, something foreign yet familiar. It whispered to him, urging him to consume. To devour.
And just like that, the abyss began to tremble.
A surge of energy coursed through his being, and suddenly, he wasn't just Rin anymore.
He was something more.
Something monstrous.
---
Rin's new form emerged into a new world, a world ruled by power. And in this world, he would rise.
No longer prey.
Now, he was the predator.