Chapter 1: Nameless

  "Having endured loss and grief, we found each other.

  Regret, an unending cycle that echoes through tless moments.

  Decisions that alter the course of destiny,

  written in blood and tears, observed by mortals and gods alike.

  In embrace of each other, we found soce.

  e, let us write a tale that will never be told again"

  Pain throbbed through Dev's skull like a relentless drumbeat, each pulse sending waves of agony c through his body. His sciousness floated in a haze of fusion, struggling stantly to find its anchor iy.

  What happened?

  His eyelids feel heavy as if it was weighed down by something unfamiliar as he forced them open, only to find the world around him refusing to settle into focus. Everything seemed to shift and blur, as if reality itself was uain. His thoughts came slowly, eae struggling through disorientation and fusion.

  The room... This isn't mine.

  The space around him felt wrong in ways he couldn't quite define. Dull gray walls loomed over sparse Victorian-era furniture, the air hanging unnaturally still and heavy. A part of him wao dismiss it all as a dream, but the gnawiion in his chest, the oppressive weight pressing down on him, told him otherwise.

  Was I drunk? The thought fshed through his mind, only to be rejected almost immediately. No—he didn’t drink. Or at least, he always cimed he didn’t.

  Focus, Dev. Think.

  He tried to gather his scattered thoughts. Slowly, he pushed himself up from the bed, his limbs heavy and uncooperative, as if moving against an invisible force. The silen the room was suffog. Even the low hum of the fan above felt wrong, its meical rhythm far too steady, the air it ed unnervingly stilent. An eeriness was lingering in the air.

  July 7th !

  The date g to him, the only anchor in a storm of fusion. Today was important. He was supposed t his family somewhere—a surprise, he had pnned for a long time. It was supposed to be the happiest moment of his life. The thought gave him a moment of crity, but it was gone before he could hold onto it.

  “I should get some water”

  Dev staggered toward the door, his footsteps eg impossibly loud iillness. Then, abruptly, he froze.

  Stop.

  His pulse hammered in his ears. Srickled along his skin. His breath quied. He turned his head, his eyes log onto the mirror in the er of the room.

  No. This 't be.

  rad felt a sense of horror he never felt before. It was the familiar obje front of him that made his heart raced faster than anything at that time. It was a mirror. The mirror held secrets that shattered his uanding of reality. Dark hair with shades of mahogany and chestnut, cut in a style that straddled Victorian propriety and modern fashion. The face that greeted him might have been handsome in another text—but now it was a mask of horror, each familiar expression pyed out on unfamiliar features. Most strikihe eyes: deeply, impossibly blue, like fragments of twilight trapped in gss. They held knowledge that didn't belong to him, memories he'd never lived, dreams he'd never dreamed.

  The refle wasn't distorted or ed—that would have been a fort. Instead, it moved with perfect synization, every gesture precise, every blink coordinated. It was alive in a way that transded mere mimicry. This wasn't just someone else's face—it was someone else's life staring back at him, wearing his expressions like borrowed clothes.

  His firaced the cold gss, and the stranger's ha his touch. The sensatio shivers down his spi from the gss's chill, but from the perfect reality of it all. No dream could manufacture this level of detail, this depth ness.

  Who is that?

  “Is it me? No…impossible”

  Ice seemed to crystallize in his veins as his mind reeled from the impossible sight. The room's Victorias suddenly felt more pronounced, more real, more threatening. His heart raced faster and faster until he feared it might burst from his chest.

  Dev had alrided himself on his mental fortitude. Even in his darkest moments, he'd maintained his posure. But this—this plete viotion of reality—left him utterly unmoored.

  His body shivered, his legs trembling from the fear of the unknown.

  I'm not dreaming. This is real.

  He squeezed his eyes shut, desperately trying tute his breathing, to find a touch of rationality in this madness. Slowly, his hammering pulse began to steady. Then a chill swept through the room—not the natural cold of night, but something deeper, something that seemed to freeze the very marrow of his bones.

  “Shhhhh—” He heard a whisper, a whisper so faint it might have been imagination, brushed against his sciousness.

  Dev tried to scream “who is there ?” But his sound seemed trapped ihe looming walls, whiow felt like a cage trapping his existence.

  Dev's eyes snapped open. His muscles tensed as the moonlight filtering through the window seemed to flicker and dah unnatural rhythm. The cold intensified, and with it came a terrible certainty, a logical dedu.

  I'm dying. But, why ? I just woke up ? I don't know what is happening? Who’s body is this?

  tless thoughts surged as Dev Colpsed to his knees. His life was going to end in just a few seds, this realization came with the iability of night, as warmth and vitality drained from his body like water from a broken vessel. His vision began to dim around the edges, reality bleeding away into nothingness.

  What have I done? Why is this happening to me? Is it because I never believed in God?

  For the first time since childhood, he felt utterly helpless, like a small boy watg disaster unfold in slow motion.

  Help... please—

  A clock ticked softly in the distance: 12:00.

  Unknown to Dev, a third preseched from his bed. A figure in a tattered wedding dress, its face a void of absolute darkness, observed his final moments with eternal patienbsp;

  Click !

  With a sound a window opened, chilled air came into the room as it brought a ray of hope for Dev. Suddenly, crity returo his vision, bringing with it a strange new awareness. The room no longer felt alien—instead, it carried an odd familiarity, like a pce visited tless times in dreams. His body felt lighter, more vital, yet fually ged in ways he couldn't prehend.

  An inexplicable force drew his gaze to the window. There, in the darkness, stood a figure. Bathed in moonlight, calm and steady as if it was standing there for ay.

  A girl.

  She stood alone, her silhouette melting into the night as if she were its very essence. Her presened the space around her, an otherworldly beauty that seemed both fragile aernal. The corset dress she wore shimmered like midnight itself, her gloved hands resting delicately at her sides. Her crimson lips curved into a smile that held infinite sadness as a siear traced its way down her por cheek.

  Who is she? Why is she g? rad thought to himself. In that moment, all the questions swirling in his mind vanished, dissipating into the void. Nothing else mattered when his eyes fell on the girl but before he got to ask the girl anything. she colpsed.

  Her colpse was graceful, silent, iable—like watg a star fade from the night sky. Even in her weakness, she ahe very essence of the darkness around her.

  Dev stood up slowly. He lurched forward on unsteady legs, fighting against his own failing body to reach her. His knees gave out and he fell, finding himself face to face with this otherworldly girl, close enough to see the depths of emotion in her inhuman eyes.

  Her voice, when it came, seemed to resoh the very fabric of eternal darkness: "Are you alright... my lord?"

  Dev struggled against the encroag darkness, his sciousness flickering like a dle in the wind. Yet his gaze remained fixed on the girl before him, her fragile appearance belying the power he sensed within her. Despite his deteriorating dition, he felt an inexplicable e to her—something beyond mere ce or ce, as if their meeting had been written by God of fate itself.

  Without thinking, he reached for her hand. Her skin was cold as midnight frost, but the tact sent warmth spreading through his dying body, anch him to this moment, this reality.

  The room around them felt suffogly still, the silence so deep it resembled the oppressive quiet of a coffin. An otherworldly presence filled the space, raising goosebumps along his skin aing every instinct screaming of danger.

  At 12:02 AM, Dev and the mysterious girl drew their st breaths in perfect synization, their hands still joined. A siear fell, its impact silent against the floor.

  Dev awoke, startled, in an unfamiliar pce. His surroundings were shrouded in darkness, with a dense mist curling around him like a liviy. This was no dream. The sharpness of his thoughts firmed that. Many questions bombarded his mind, eae feeding his growing fear of the unknown.

  Did I just die? Is this what awaits beyond life?

  Before panic could fully take hold, ahereal voice cut through the darkness.

  "Why did you save me, my lord?"

  The voice was soft yet poignant, tinged with emotions he couldn’t quite pce. Turning, he saw her again—the girl who was more than human, whose beauty defied mortal uanding. Her corset dress seemed woven from shadow itself, making her appear as if she'd emerged from the darkness rather than merely standing in it.

  Dev forced himself to focus, to analyze the impossible situation before him. Years of experience dealing with people with many faces had taught him caution, and had ingraihe philosophy of not telling everything till it's absolutely necessary.

  "Who are you?" he asked, his voice a little shaky despite his attempt to sound authoritative.

  Her crimson eyes captured him, seeming to peer into his very soul.

  "I am Anira Veil. At least, that is what those who perceive me call me."

  Her face remained a mask of serenity, but Dev's mind raced with calcutions. His experience as an IT professional and his years of analyzing problems let him quickly deduce two crucial points: this girl had mistaken him for someone else and maybe this world was not his own.

  I've transmigrated and I am into someone's body. All those novels and mangas I've read as a self-procimed weeb elite didn't prepare me for how terrifying this actually is. This isn't some fantasy world with ve exposition or friendly guides. It’s not like some cat or elf girl is greetih exposed breasts. This is real. I don't know how to deal with such situations.

  He studied Anira carefully, weighing his words. His intuition told him she had saved him somehow, but if she discovered he wasn't who she thought he was, death might be the ki fate awaiting him. He o know more about the retionship between her and this body's inal owner.

  "Anira, why didn't I see you before?"

  She opened her mouth to respond, theated, uainty flickering across her perfect features. Her gaze lowered, as if searg the darkness for answers.

  "....I am sorry, my lord. It's just a moment ago I found out about you using my vision. Before this, I was searg for you, but I was never able to find you, no matter what," she admitted apologetically.

  Dev frowned slightly.

  Vision? Sounds like something a street fortueller would cim. But in this world...

  He filed away every word she spoke, building a mental database of information. Two possibilities emerged: either the body's inal owner was some hidden power pyer meant to meet Anira tonight, or she was somehow looking for Dev himself. The first option seemed far more likely.

  "Anira... do you know what happened after we died?" rad asked.

  "I am uain," she replied with unnatural calm. "But I know this: your Brahman was being devoured by an Oddity. I came to intervene, but my own life force was already at its end so it was not enough to save both of us. I believed I had perished before even saving you, yet something pulled me back—your Brahman, merging with my existe anchored me here."

  Brahman? Oddity?

  The terms meant nothing to him, yet Dev uood the unknown nguage used by Anira perfectly—another mystery in a growing colle.

  Is it ese ? Russian ? No. I don't think I know this nguage at all. But then again I am not some linguistic expert. Maybe this is part of a gift as a transmigrated person.

  A ical part of his mind suggested hidden cameras and eborate pranks, but he knew better. This was far too real, too dangerous for such mundane expnations.

  The mist swirled around them like a living thing, reminding him of their precarious situation.

  rad looked around him to survey his surroundings.

  "Where are we? And how do we leave? Are we even alive?"

  Anira tilted her head slightly, her posure unwavering. "We are not dead, my lord. sciousness does not linger ih. This pce... it feels like aension of myself, yet I ot fully prehend it. Perhaps I sever my e to it. May I have your permission to try?"

  “Extension of yourself? Okay it's better than standing here doing nothing. Go ahead try to sever the e” Dev said hesitantly.

  The moment he gave sent, the darkness began to recede. Reality shifted and reformed around him until he found himself ba the familiar room. The clock read 12:05 AM, and moonlight streamed through the window, casting soft shadows across the floor. The oppressive atmosphere had lifted, repced by the gentle sounds of night. The shadowy figure was gone, and so was Anira.

  Dev sat up, his mind reeling from everything that had transpired. "What just happened...?"