Silence descended upon the grand court, heavy and suffocating.
Hide stood alone beneath the swirling nebulae, his mind completely unraveling.
Every single memory of his life rushed past his vision like a cruel, mocking carousel: the damp, moldy walls of their tiny apartment in Area 17; the agonizing poverty he live in after his mother passed away; the endless nights he spent hyperventilating, crying quietly in the dark; the day the calamity beasts smashed through their living room, plunging a hand into his stomach; the jagged, permanent scar across his abdomen; his awakening with a unique class and the system that had given him the confidence and power to do what he had so far.
