The sea whispered like it always did, a gentle hush across the shore where four old souls sat watching the horizon melt into fire. Ren draped a blanket around Yumi's shoulders and allowed the strands of silver hair to flutter away in the wind while nearby Alistair chuckled softly at one of Lyra's dry jokes, fingers curled around her hand-- leathery, but strong.
Together, they had spent the years of their lives, two pairs of couples growing old beside each other in the sleepy little coastal town of Yukino Bay. Days were slow, and that was their beauty. There was no race in love. It just had to stay.
But tonight, the sky was very different.
Stars fell-not as of shooting stars arcs across the sky but like threads burned from the fabric of the universe. The sky cracked. Time felt wrong. Then the pulse came-an invisible shockwave that shook their chests as if with lightning made of silence.
They never saw the body collapse.
They woke in the dark.
No pain-confusion-fear. Just emptiness, really.
In front of each hung a glowing blue screen, suspended in void.
[SYSTEM BOOT COMPLETE]
Welcome to ORIS: The Emotionless Rebirth Protocol
Subject Soul Integrity: Stable
Emotional Capacity: 0%
Objective: Retrieve lost emotional parameters
Death = Permanent Termination
Progression will unlock [Perks], [Skills], and [System Memories]
Initial System Gift: [Coupled Instincts] – Execute coordinated actions with your linked partner, even without emotions.
They stood in young bodies- agile, strong, unfamiliar but eerily right.
"Where... are we?" Alistair asked. His voice was cold, clipped.
Lyra blinked at him. "I don't feel anything. The most I could feel is a little ticklish in my throat. I should be afraid. Where's the fear?"
Then they focused on Ren and Yumi, both staring at the void with their brows furrowed as if summoning something from within themselves.
The void cracked like glass. Light bled through.
Then an ultimatum outset voice, one neither male nor female, echoed:
"Emotions are weakness. But they also hold the key. Only through peril, pain, and choice will you remember what it means to be alive. Begin your journey."
There opened the floor beneath them. Four bodies born to the greatest love now fell into another world-reborn emotionless but tied by forces that ran deeper than memory.
[QUEST UNLOCKED: Journey to the Ember]
Objective: Explore the world, face trials, and restore emotional capacity.
Reward: ???
Complication: The System adapts to love.
The wind howled thus as they fell into the beyond.
And this was how their second life began-where love had failed, and every heartbeat would have to be earned anew.