More than eight hundred years ago, the world still remembered King.

Not as a myth.
But as a real man.
A warrior who walked among mortals, bearing the weight of an impossible promise.

He didn’t belong to that time.
It was as if the world was late in receiving him.

King brought order to chaos.
Tamed monsters, silenced wars, unified tribes.
But one day, he looked to the skies and decided the time had come.

— I leave this world to its true owners.
Whoever seeks the power of God...
Come to me.

And before kings, soldiers, and children, he vanished into the sky, like a comet that rises instead of falling.

He left behind a legacy — or perhaps a challenge:
climb.

And ever since, the world has tried to climb.

Two hundred years ago, Earth began to collapse.

The oceans poisoned their own shores.
Forests died, not by fire or axe, but by surrender.
The sky grew dull, sick.

And people... well, they stopped dreaming.

Entire cities vanished in earthquakes or new diseases that spread faster than any vaccine.
Borders fell. Civilization turned to dust.

It was in this setting that the Hunters Project was born.

Led by a desperate global council, the project had one clear goal:
invade the first floor of a new world, known as Apex, and make it habitable.

The mission was a partial success.
We took Apex... but at what cost?

Only three nations survived:
Japan, the United States, and Brazil.

Hunter academies emerged shortly after.

They weren’t schools in the traditional sense.
They were fortresses.

Inside them, children as young as eight were shaped into soldiers.
Education combined monster theory, dimensional geopolitics, and hand-to-hand combat.

I was one of those children.

My name is Saicha.
Born in Japan, raised among ruins and silence.
My father was a Korean refugee.
My mother, one of the last descendants of a Japanese spiritual clan.

I grew up hearing stories of how Korea sank into black waters.
How Japan endured out of pride alone.

I passed the aptitude exam when I turned eight.

It was a cloudy morning.
My father hugged me tighter than usual.
My mother gave me a charm I still carry today.

Then, I was teleported to the headquarters of the American Hunter Division.
No long goodbyes.
Just a flash... and silence.

The boarding school looked like a clean prison.
Endless hallways, cameras in every corner, windows with reinforced glass.

But there... I met Melina.

She was Brazilian. Her voice sang when she spoke, and she smiled wide even on the worst days.
We slept in the same room.
We shared blankets, rations, stories, and fears.

She taught me to sing softly in Portuguese.
I taught her how to write kanji.

Life there wasn’t easy.
Grueling training, impossible exams, instructors who acted like soldiers.

But I had Melina.
And she had me.

At age sixteen, every hunter goes through a ceremony.
A crystal orb reads your soul and reveals your class.
For some: Swordsman, Summoner, Sorcerer, Barbarian.

For others... none.

But with me... it was different.

At fifteen, before the ceremony, I awakened on my own.

It was a rainy night.

I woke up with my body on fire.
Felt my skin vibrate, my bones crack like they were breaking and rebuilding.
My eyes… saw things I had never seen.
The world looked like it was made of lines. Code. Hidden truths.

I passed out.

When I woke up, three instructors stood around me.

There was fear in their eyes.

I wasn’t supposed to have awakened.

With no other choice, the administration sent me to Apex immediately.
They said I needed to be observed… closely.

No Melina.
No goodbyes.

They left me at the portal, alone.

— You’re strong, Saicha — they said. — You’ll survive.

But I wasn’t so sure.

The crossing was... indescribable.
Like my body had been stretched and stitched back together.
When I arrived in Apex, the gravity felt wrong.
The sky... larger than any sky.

The ground was made of bluish, pulsating rocks.
Giant plants whistled when the wind passed.
And the sounds... something was crawling beyond the mountains.

The portal behind me vanished.

There I was.

Alone.

I walked for hours until I found a clearing.
Hunger gnawed. My muscles ached.
When I fell to my knees, ready to give up... I heard footsteps.

Five people emerged from the blue mist.

They didn’t look friendly.
Weapons drawn. Cold eyes.

The first was tall, Black, with golden eyes and tribal tattoos.
He spoke in a low voice:

— The newbie?

I nodded.

A girl with white hair and a cynical expression laughed.

— Looks more like a scared child.

— Quiet, Skya — said a muscular guy, arms crossed. — We were the same at the start.

Their leader, a man with short hair, deep eyes, and a calm expression, extended his hand.

— Kaien. Leader of Sector 12. You survived alone this far. That says a lot.

I took his hand.

— Saicha. I won’t be a burden.

He smirked slightly.

— Good. Because here… burdens don’t last long.

That day, my life changed again.

I gained a new group.
A new fight.
A new mission.

Twenty-one years have passed since then.

And all of it... has brought me back to the starting point.
To reuniting with Melina.
To the beginning of a new era.

And maybe... to the top of King’s staircase.