---
Chapter 4: Father From Beyond
I had a strange dream.
Not the kind that fades when you wake—
but the kind that burns itself into you, like a scar no one can see.
I was standing in a white space.
No ground. No sky.
Only light.
And then... a man appeared.
Wearing strange robes, face half-shrouded in shadows—
but somehow, heartbreakingly familiar.
I didn't think. I moved forward—
and hugged him.
His arms wrapped around me.
Warm.
Painfully warm.
> "I've missed you,"
said a voice.
Not from my mouth.
From the body I inhabited.
> "I missed you so much, Dad… but I know now I'll never see you again."
The voice trembled.
And then it cried.
I wasn't crying.
But I felt the tears.
Then gravity shattered.
I fell.
And woke up gasping.
---
> "Was that… a nightmare?"
I sat up. My chest felt tight.
Outside the room, I heard soft noises—
pans, oil, something sizzling.
I walked out.
My brother—his brother—was cooking breakfast.
> "Yo. Sleep well last night, Eon?"
That name hit me harder than any dream.
"Eon…?"
I said nothing at first.
Then, softly—
"Just had a weird dream."
> "Again?" he laughed. "Might need to take you to a psych check."
His voice was light, but I saw it in his eyes:
worry.
Then—
A blast shook the walls.
A siren started wailing from far off, in the direction of the city.
> BOOM.
> "What the hell was that?!"
I shouted instinctively.
He glanced at the window, narrowed his eyes.
> "...Another dragon?"
Suddenly, a robotic voice echoed from a speaker overhead:
> ⚠️ "Warning: Unknown entity detected."
"Classification: Level 0 threat. Divine tier."
"Designation: UNKNOWN."
> "God-class…?" my brother whispered.
> "We're screwed."
> "But… why now?"
He grabbed my wrist.
"Come on! We need to go—now!"
We ran.
Down the stairs. Through the smoke. Into the alleyways.
Then I stopped.
I turned.
And I saw him.
---
The man from my dream.
Floating above the city skyline.
His robes tattered and glowing with streams of corrupted light.
His arms were stretched wide, but from his back—
Came tendrils.
Long, sharp, slithering things that twitched with memories I didn't understand.
I couldn't move.
My brother grabbed me, shouting—
> "MOVE, EON!"
But I couldn't.
Because that thing in the sky—
It looked at me.
Right at me.
And it whispered, inside my skull:
> "My son... you still exist?"
---
To be continued...
---