“Survive the first three tests to enlighten your soul.”
“Prove you are worthy of this life.”
"Worthy? I didn't come here for a job interview,"
Haruto muttered, his hand grazing the dark stone.
(inner thoughts)“Am I dreaming or this is because of that shooting star”
Haruto stood by the Obsidian pillar, his hand still hovering near its cold surface. Suddenly, the pinkish-orange sky began to groan, as if the fabric of the atmosphere was being stretched to its breaking point.
The silence of the bone-filled field was shattered.
The voice came from the very sky itself, a voice that felt like It was the voice of the world.
"THE STAR HAS DELETED YOUR PAST. TO EARN YOUR FUTURE, YOU MUST CHALLENGE THE THREE ALMIGHTY SOULS OF THE LUNAR REALMS."
"BEAT THE GODDESS OF LOGIC. BEAT THE GODDESS OF LUST. BEAT THE GODDESS OF WAR. "
"ONLY THEN SHALL THE SYSTEM RECOGNIZE YOU AS WORTHY."
“Huh, what is this saying ?....something deleted my past”
“Is it some stupid game?” Haruto muttered, his voice sounding small against the vast silence of the bone-field.
Suddenly, the pinkish-violet sky began to groan, a sound like the fabric of space being stretched to its breaking point. The horizon didn't just move; it shuddered.
The three moons—Silver, Crimson, and Gold—began to drift across the atmosphere with impossible, jerky speed, looking like a glitching video file. Within seconds, they locked into a single, vertical line. A blinding, kaleidoscopic light erupted from the alignment, tearing through the clouds and casting three distinct, elongated shadows behind Haruto.
(Inner Thoughts:) ‘The sky is trembling. This isn't just a change in weather; it’s something more. My chest feels tight, but for the first time... I don't want to look away. This is the "Boss Entrance" I’ve been waiting for. If this world is going to kill me, at least it’s doing it with high-end graphics.’
As the kaleidoscopic light hit the ground, the air grew heavy, thick with the smell of ozone and ancient dust.
The ground beneath Haruto’s feet vibrated as the shadows began to solidify, the very air screaming as it was forced to accommodate their divine power.
(Inner Thoughts:) ‘Look at her eyes. No pupils. She isn't a person; she’s a god type being. A beautiful, lethal firewall designed to keep me out. Logically, I should be terrified. But all I can think about is how interesting this is getting.’
She stood on the left, her presence as cold as a mountain peak.
- Face: Her skin was pale like fine porcelain. Her eyes were solid silver— just a metallic sheen that reflected Haruto’s bored expression back at him.
- Hair: Long, dead-white hair that reached her ankles, flowing upward as if it were underwater.
- Clothes: She wore a skin-tight suit of silver scales that shimmered under the moon. Over it, a translucent silk robe drifted in the wind. She looked like a statue brought to life.
“I am ivory, I shall test your your intelligence as fools life is short in this realm”
She stood on the right, radiating a light so bright it was hard to look at her directly.
- Face: Perfectly symmetrical, divine beauty. Her eyes were a deep, glowing gold, and she wore a constant, arrogant smile.
- Hair: pink hair braided with actual threads of gold, sparkling with every movement.
- Clothes: She was draped in heavy, regal robes of white and gold silk. She wore a crown of floating golden shards above her head, and her hands were covered in intricate golden gauntlets.
“I am lustra, I test your lust and self control from lust as mortals get killed by it”
The Soul of the Crimson Moon
Haruto scratched his head, his eyes moving from the silver scales of Ivory to the blood-stained steel of Bellona, and finally to the blinding gold of Lustra. The excitement was there, but so was a heavy sense of irritation. This didn't feel like a dream. The air was too cold, and the smell of ozone was too real.
“Excuse me... can I know where I am?”
Haruto asked, his voice echoing in the vast, bone-filled silence.
“And why do I have to give you a test?”
Ivory stepped forward, the translucent silk of her robe shimmering. Her silver eyes locked onto Haruto's.
"You are in the Cradle of the Lunar Realms,"( Ivory replied coldly.)
"You are here because the fabric of the old world could no longer contain you. It was a hunger so vast it began to consume the reality around you. So you have been selected as a Candidate."
Bellona grinned, tightening her grip on her massive broadsword.
"The Star doesn't pick just anyone. It picks the ones who have reached the absolute edge of existence. Your desire to 'break the script' was loud enough to shake the foundations of this realm.”
Lustra adjusted her golden crown, her arrogant smile widening.
"Most mortals beg for life. You begged for excitement. You were chosen because you were the only soul dead enough to be reborn into something... more."
Haruto’s brow furrowed. He wasn't impressed by the 'Candidate' talk. It sounded like another job interview, another scripted promotion.
"Chosen?" (Haruto muttered, his voice dropping an octave.)
"By whom? Who has the right to drag me here and put me through 'tests' like I’m some lab rat?"
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The wind died down. The pinkish-violet sky turned a shade darker. The three Goddesses—beings who looked like they could crush a mountain with a thought—suddenly went silent.
In perfect unison, Ivory, Bellona, and Lustra dropped to one knee. Their heads bowed low toward the Obsidian pillar behind Haruto, their divine arrogance replaced by a terrifying, absolute reverence.
The air grew so heavy Haruto could barely breathe. A single word escaped their lips, whispered with a fear that made the ground tremble:
"AETHERIS."
Haruto turned his head slowly to look at the jagged black pillar. It wasn't just a stone anymore. It is like a machine, a power source for everything.
"Aetheris..." (Haruto repeated the name, testing the weight of it on his tongue.)
He didn't feel like bowing. He felt like a gamer who had just seen the name of the Developer.
The moment the name Aetheris faded from the air, the heavy silence snapped. The three Goddesses rose in unison, their divine auras flaring up like dying suns. The brief moment of reverence was over; now, there was only the cold, hard reality of the trial.
The visual shift is instantaneous. The monochromatic graveyard is suddenly flooded with a violent, neon spectrum:
- Ivory: A frigid, electric blue aura erupts around her. It doesn’t flow like mist; it flickers like a corrupted monitor. The air around her crackles with the sound of static, and the "clinical detachment" in her eyes sharpens into a killing inten.
- Lustra: Her golden robes are washed out by a toxic green radiance—pulsing, rhythmic, and suffocating. She doesn't just hover; she seems to exist in several frames at once, a blurring presence of pure, emerald data.
- Bellona: Her aura is red, thick and heavy as cooling lava. It smells of ozone and burnt copper. As she heaves her broadsword, the red light bleeds into the ground, turning the bleached skeletons into silhouettes of flickering ash.
Haruto doesn't flinch. The "predatory grin" stays fixed. To him, the terrifying display of power looks less like divinity and more like a high-end boss cinematic he’s seen a thousand times.
"Nice VFX," Haruto muttered. His cheap retail vest—the fabric that had absorbed the sweat of a thousand boring shifts—flapped violently in the conflicting winds of their divine auras.
Ivory stepped forward, her silver eyes scanning him with the clinical detachment of a scientist examining a virus under a microscope.
"The name of our Creator, Aetheris, is the only reason you are still breathing," Ivory stated, her voice devoid of any human warmth.
Haruto didn't flinch. Instead, his eyes narrowed, his mind already running a diagnostic on the situation. "Aetheris... You keep mentioning that name." he said, his voice cutting through the divine hum.
"So, tell me. Why am I here? Why does a 'God' need a retail clerk from a 24-hour mart?"
"Because Aetheris, the God of Creation and the Architect of all Realms, requires a Successor," Ivory replied, her silver robes shimmering like digital rain.
"We are nothing but the Weavers of his will, his loyal servants. For eons, we have searched. But no soul had the capacity to contain His power. Most would shatter like glass if even a fragment of the Aetheris Core touched them."
Bellona grinned, resting her massive blade on her shoulder.
"The Star chose you because your soul is a vacuum, Haruto. You’re so hollow, so 'dead' inside, that there’s finally enough room to pour His power into you."
Lustra hovered closer, her golden eyes twinkling with an arrogant light.
"You must pass our tests to prove you are Worthy. Only then will the Core unlock."
Haruto scratched the back of his neck, looking completely unimpressed.
"And what’s in it for me? Sounds like another promotion with more responsibility and the same shitty pay."
Lustra’s smile widened, almost predatory. "What’s in it for you? The God of Creation has granted you a second life. A life where the 'Loop' is broken. With His power, you can rewrite the rules of existence. No more gray walls. Isn't a world of absolute chaos and infinite power more 'stimulating' than your pathetic past?"
(Haruto’s Inner Thoughts:) ‘A life that isn’t a series of boring, predictable lines of code... A world where I’m the one holding the controller. They think they’re offering me a test but they don’t realize they’ve just handed a bored man a flamethrower in a room full of gunpowder.’
A dark, genuine spark flickered in Haruto’s eyes. "A world that isn't boring, huh?"
He looked at the three Goddesses and then at the Obsidian Pillar.
"Fine. Let's see if your 'God of Creation' has a better script than my old manager."
Suddenly ivory started talking with a serious tone.
"But do not mistake our respect for Him as mercy for you. You are a Candidate, But a Candidate is nothing more than raw data until they are proven."
"Enough talk,"(Bellona growled, her crimson hair flickering like real fire.)
"Look around you, boy."
She pointed her blade toward the sea of bleached skeletons that lay just inches outside the glowing circle.
"Every one of those 'bones' was once a person who thought they were special. They thought they could 'beat us .' But they lacked the soul, the grit, and the power to survive even the first second outside this boundary."
Lustra hovered slightly off the ground, her golden robes billowing.
"You have no third option. You either step out your cool play and challenge us to earn your right to exist, or you stay in that circle until your body rots and your soul withers away joining this pile. Either way, the world of 'WEAKLING' is gone. You are in the grinder now."
Haruto looked at the skeletons. He looked at their reaching fingers, their frozen screams. In his old world, he was already a skeleton—walking, talking, but dead inside. To him, staying in the circle was just another retail shift.
(Inner Thoughts:) "Calculation: Staying here = 100% chance of a slow, boring death. Stepping out = Unknown. High risk of immediate death. But… all I want is excitement, so why not enjoy the test”
A chill ran down Haruto’s spine, but it wasn't cold. It was the first spark of genuine fire he had felt in years. He looked back at the three Goddesses, his sharp features twisting into a cold, predatory grin.
"You're giving me a choice between a boring death and a violent one?"
Haruto asked, his obsidian eyes locking onto Bellona molten red ones. He loosened his grip on his sleeves, his retail vest fluttering in the divine wind.The fabric of his cheap retail vest felt like a lead weight. Every thread was a reminder of the 12-hour shifts and the fake smiles.
"That’s the easiest choice I’ve had to make in eighteen years."
He took a slow, deliberate step toward the edge of the circle. As his foot hovered over the line, the Obsidian pillar behind him hummed with power, and the three moons above glowed with a terrifying intensity.
"That’s the easiest choice I’ve had to make in eighteen years," Haruto said, his voice cutting through the divine hum of the moons.
He took a slow, deliberate step toward the edge of the circle. But just as his foot hovered over the glowing line, he stopped. He tilted his head, his obsidian eyes locking onto the three Goddesses.
"Wait. Before we start this 'test,' I have one last question," Haruto muttered, his voice dropping an octave.
"How do you know so much about me? My shifts, my boredom, my 'dead' soul... Did you spend your divine time stalking a retail clerk? Did you have to go looking for me in that gray world?"
The three Goddesses stood in perfect, haunting unison. Their auras pulsed, and for the first time, Haruto noticed that the air around him was vibrating in sync with his own heartbeat.
"We did not have to look for you, Haruto," Ivory replied, her silver eyes glowing with a strange, translucent light.
"In the vastness of the multiverse, most souls are like tiny, quiet flickers of light. But you? You were a roaring void."
"We didn't find you," Bellona added, a sharp, predatory grin stretching across her face.
"You found us. Your soul’s presence is so heavy, so dense with suppressed hunger, that it tore through the fabric of your old reality. You didn't just arrive here; you crashed into our awareness."
Lustra hovered closer, her golden robes billowing.
"Even now, as you stand there, your soul is screaming your history to the heavens. We don't need to stalk you, Haruto. Your presence tells us everything—every 12-hour shift, every lonely night on that balcony, every moment you wished for the world to simply stop. Your past isn't a secret; it’s the very atmosphere you radiate."
Haruto stared at his hands. He felt a chill go down his spine. He wasn't just a "Candidate"; he was a walking, talking System Error that was too big for his old world to contain.
(Haruto’s Inner Thoughts:) ‘So, I didn't get lucky. I just got too "heavy" for that boring world to hold me. My soul was leaking data like a corrupted file before I even knew this place existed. If my presence is already this "loud," then I might as well turn the volume up until the whole system breaks.’
"Prepare yourselves," (all three said together)
"I hope your 'Tests' are half as good as your speeches. Because if I’m going to be a Candidate, I’m going to be the one who breaks the high score."
Haruto whispered, his voice dripping with a newfound edge.
The moment Haruto stepped beyond the glowing perimeter, Ivory’s lips curled into a frigid, lethal smile.
"Very well... then let the game begin."
crashed the system.
Quick Question: Which Goddess has the best design so far? Ivory, Lustra, or Bellona? Drop your thoughts in the comments! See you in Chapter 3.