Their steps out of Trinity’s castle carried a strange weight. Relief, yes. But also a chill omen curling at the edges.
Skyler broke the silence without a preamble. “Roxy… who exactly is Trinity?”
The major shot him a look like he’d just asked if the Earth was flat.
“The ruler. The architect of Eden. The one who opened the Dark Gate. If this universe has a god… he’s the closest thing.”
“And Quanigma?” Skyler pressed. “That’s why you came to Cosmic City, wasn’t it?”
She stopped walking. The fading sun carved her face in half-shadow, revealing just enough irritation to make it clear: this was her final answer.
“Yes. It’s power—power everyone wants. But in the wrong hands…” her tone sharpened, “…it’ll blow up in your face, like kids setting off fireworks in a wooden house. That’s why Trinity seeks to control it. Before your world turns it into a hotpot of disaster.”
Zoe, who’d been drifting in blissful thought-vacancy, fired off a perfectly timed jab. “And who’s to say your leader isn’t the kind of chef who burns the kitchen down himself?”
Roxy chuckled low, unimpressed. “You won’t rattle me with grade-school taunts, bubblegum.” She strode ahead, never looking back.
Skyler wasn’t done yet. “Then why bring us here?”
Zoe clicked her tongue. “Please. You hugged carrot-top so hard we practically got dragged in by proxy.”
She folded her arms, scowling at herself for reasons she didn’t even get. “What’s next—fix his cosmic Wi-Fi?”
Skyler glanced over, about to retort. Instead, his tone dropped into mocking sing-song. “Hey, look on the bright side. You’re the first off-world idol to set foot on Eden. Congratulations.”
Zoe elbowed him hard enough to knock the wind out. “Do I look like a baby sucking her thumb? Just admit it—you only want to know carrot-top better.”
Busted. Dammit. I really hate perceptive kids.
The evening wind brushed past, carrying apology from the sky for what had just happened inside that throne room.
They walked beneath ancient trees, their bark charred black but unbroken—survivors of a thousand wars.
Blue particles swirled in the air, lit from within. They weren’t just shining—they were singing.
“This is straight-up isekai anime,” Skyler muttered.
“Look!” Zoe spun, mouth half open. “The glow’s pouring from the trees—it’s like a snow globe that shakes itself!”
She held out her hand. The motes circled her fingers, living sparks moving to the rhythm of her heartbeat instead of gravity. She twirled her wrist, and they danced with her, eager to trace her in their own shimmer.
“Pretty gorgeous, right? Total slay.” She winked, haloed by the living aurora.
Skyler stared, speechless.
Yeah… gorgeous. But hey, leave some awe for the rest of us, will you?
And then—Eden revealed itself.
If you asked ChatGPT for ‘fairy-tale city,’ this was the answer.
Every building was unique, proportions exact—dreams rendered three times over. The stone streets shimmered faintly, as though laced with ancient mind-matter fused with alien alloys. The architecture didn’t just stand. It breathed.
Atlantis if it had never drowned—risen into the sky instead. Walls lined with script that fused Kalyne glyphs with Aztec design and something unmistakably extraterrestrial.
The city’s square pulsed with life. Cafés—half-ancient, half-futurist.
Produce stalls set beside digital bookstores cover blending galaxies and greenhouses in the same design. Citizens moved in flowing Grecian forms, fabrics whisper-thin, their edges traced with futuristic seams.
Skyler blinked, pinching himself. “Dream within a dream? Am I awake?”
“Skyler—look.” Zoe tilted her head back.
Above, auroras drifted across the heavens, permanent ribbons of light. Her sight glowed, wonder filling them with the hush of a bedtime story.
For once… she’s right. That sky, I’ll allow. Roxy thought silently.
“Roxy…” Zoe lowered her tone, walls softening. “How did you grow up here?”
The redhead only flicked her gaze, razor-thin. “That’s your idea of polite conversation?”
“Look at those shops, Sky! Let’s go!” Zoe snapped her head away and bolted —a ping-pong ball on a trampoline, zero control.
For crying out loud… this kid makes me sigh more than the battlefield ever did.
Roxy exhaled, weary as a soldier who’d survived a hundred wars—yet somehow couldn’t outmaneuver one hyper pink-haired brat.
Skyler sneaked a glance toward the bookstore, curiosity bubbling in his chest, steam rising fast, threatening to burst… but he swallowed it down and followed Roxy toward the city’s central plaza.
At Eden’s very heart stood a statue of Trinity, towering above a base carved with four lion heads. Sacred brushstrokes of architecture framed the scene—waterfalls flowing upward, openly mocking Newton to his face.
They said Trinity wasn’t just a fireside legend. He was the kind of record no survivor ever came back to repeat.
His power wasn’t the ‘darkness’ kids fear under their beds—no. It was gravity itself, sharpened into a predator. The kind that devoured everything, leaving not even a shadow behind.
This man was a living legend, and the Eden Empire… moved to the rhythm of his steps.
For centuries, no continent dared challenge him. No kingdom dared interfere. Eden stood calm, a city perched above calamity itself.
Until the day they came.
Rippers—monsters from another dimension unlike any foe Trinity had faced. No goals. No negotiations. Just raw destruction, shredding everything in sight—and worse, they enjoyed it.
Entire battalions fought until their bones shook, but numbers meant nothing against the swarm. Blood painted the earth. Silence cut deeper than any scream.
And then—something shifted.
The air warped, shimmer bleeding across it, fragile as liquid glass.. Darkness swelled outward, devouring every Ripper into an abyss with no horizon, no edge, no end.
At the center of that storm stood one man.
Trinity.
With a flick of his hand, the surge he unleashed was overwhelming—equal parts awe and terror. In a single heartbeat, hell flipped into a void.
Yet even power vast enough to swallow death couldn’t be everywhere at once. Eden was his anchor; leave it unguarded too long, and all could unravel. To keep the universe from resting on one man’s shoulders alone… he created something new.
That was the birth of the Sigma Unit.
A force gathered from the extraordinary: bloodlines, broken pasts, unshakable resolve. It didn’t matter where they came from—only that they were willing to stand where even Trinity could not. To protect Eden… on the day God himself stepped off the throne.
“Losing more lives,” he had said,
“is not a choice I will allow again.”
“Is he a king? A god? Or what exactly?” Skyler whispered.
She lingered on the statue, carrying both weight and ease.
“All of them. And more.” For once, she looked… almost at peace.
And honestly—if you set aside the dorm-head-from-hell vibe and her talent for dropping words that scald hotter than a kettle on max heat… she’s exactly my type.
Skyler shoved the thought deep into his pocket, stealing another glance at her.
Before the idea could wander further, Zoe bounced in with a laugh, a chorus of fairy cafés coming alive. She pressed her hand against the plaza’s water wall. Droplets burst into sapphire fireflies, rising alive and dazzling—so pretty the author probably rewrote the scene a dozen times.
Skyler stared, thinking… Yep. Cut the brat act and she’s basically a magical girl.
He let slip a soft grin, the kind you’d see on a love-triangle protagonist who couldn’t pick a side.
And then Roxy snapped the spell. “Can we move already? I’ve got missions to run. I’m not your tour guide.”
Skyler nodded, tugging Zoe away from her fairyland. Neither spoke. Maybe because they knew they’d be stuck here a while… or maybe because they didn’t mind. This world was a dream no one wanted to wake from.
They crossed the market zone into the residential edge. A cottage by the city’s border—before the military camp began. A woman in a sea-blue woven dress stepped out, her face lighting up, carrying the unmistakable glow of a mother seeing her daughter home.
“How are you, my dear?” She stroked Roxy’s arm with care.
Roxy hugged her lightly. “Mother… Trinity approved my request. Soon… we’ll be together again. I promise. I’ll find them.”
Skyler stayed back. Some moments weren’t his to intrude upon. In Roxy’s eyes, strength wasn’t a mask—it was her reason to keep going.
He turned, searching for Zoe—predictably off causing chaos somewhere in town. “Lost again… feels like leaving a kid loose in a mall.”
“You look worried,” Roxy said—her tone softened, her delivery slipping gently, like winter easing itself into spring.
“No big deal. The city’s built on a perfect grid. She’ll pop out at an exit eventually. Still… it’s getting late. We should head to the barracks before nightfall.”
Skyler blinked—Roxy, actually talking longer than three words? And without biting his head off? Maybe… just maybe… a wall had cracked.
A shadow slashed across the sky. He looked up, certain he saw wings slicing through clouds—too vast to be a plane.
Wait… a dragon? No way. That’d be overkill—
Before he could process, Zoe came sprinting back.
“Sky! You won’t believe it—I found a UNICORN! And it totally called to me—with a Japanese anime VA voice. So. Freaking. KAWAII!”
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Skyler smiled, unwilling to crush her giddy high.
“This place is…” Zoe’s delivery trailed off as Roxy’s glare screamed enough already. But pink hair snapped back: Not my fault if this world’s amazeballs.
“…The peaks here are insane,” Skyler added, keeping it cool. “Even the clouds are below us.”
“This isn’t a mountain,” Roxy said evenly. “Eden… is a floating island.”
“Floating… island!?” Skyler and Zoe shouted in unison, whipping to stare at each other before dashing straight for the cliff’s edge.
And there it was—no valleys, no land. Only a rolling ocean of clouds and a sky so deep no color in existence could compare.
“SO. FREAKING. AWESOME!!!” they screamed together, no rehearsal needed.
—
At last, the trio reached what Roxy simply called her “quarters.”
The word made Skyler imagine a cozy wooden cabin with hand-sewn lavender pillows.
Reality? A black stone fortress, tall as a level-nine military secret, perched on the cliff’s edge, out of sight from the city below.
Every warrior’s home in Eden looked medieval—walls thick enough to stop artillery, silence heavy enough to cage dreams.
But inside? The opposite.
The main chamber opened into a square hall, two stories high. No stairs. No lifts. Just… her.
Roxy stepped forward—and beneath her feet, a crystal spiral staircase bloomed into existence, rising smooth and seamless.
So that’s why she manipulates mirror dimensions like other people make coffee. It’s literally her daily routine. Skyler went full wide-lids.
Even stranger than the magic… was the warmth.
Instead of cold walls or combat gear, the space welcomed them, warm as a mother’s embrace in winter. A golden tree grew in the corner, luminous flowers arched out of pots—glowing lamps in bloom.
“You… decorated this yourself?” Skyler blurted, forgetting to play it cool.
Roxy spun with a ghost-smile. “What did you expect to find in my quarters? Chains? Whips? Handcuffs?”
“Uh—n-no, that’s not—” His tone cracked. This was, after all, his first time inside a girl’s room.
And of course, it had to be a warrior sorceress’s chamber that could win Designing Eden on Netflix.
His gaze caught on one wall, soaring to the ceiling, packed with digital tomes—enough to teach a robot how to start its own religion.
Among them, one stood apart: an old wooden-bound book, sealed in glass.
“What’s that one?”
“The Legend of Gaia,” she said flatly.
“Gaia?”
“Yes. The essence of all life. The spirit binding soil, sky, and breath together. Not just a belief. A presence—always there, whether you sense it or not.”
“You mean… even in my world?”
Roxy tilted her head. “Would you deny what you feel, simply because you can’t see it?”
Suddenly his father’s words echoed uninvited:
‘Love’s the same way, son…’
Wait—is she low-key trying to tell me something?
His brain spun out into self-insert mode—not because her tone were confusing, but because her voice was too soft, too warm not to overthink.
Skyler shook it off, flipping the book open. Ancient landscapes, mythic beasts, maps… one detail froze him. A world without a moon.
He tucked the thought away, spotting another spine: Albert Einstein Daily.
A touch on the glass—instantly, equations scrolled, mechanical thought grinding forward long after time stopped.
“That one’s my favorite,” Roxy called from the upper floor. And for the first time, her tone had softened—almost playful, almost Zoe-like. Skyler glanced up.
“It updates with new theories. Quite entertaining.”
“Wait… your world has Einstein too?”
“Not exactly. An AI that simulates his thought patterns. Not perfect—but close enough to keep writing new equations.”
So Eden’s been watching us all along?
Skyler wiped imaginary sweat.
“Your library’s insane… like moving the Nexus archive from Cosmic Tower here—or better.”
“You’re welcome to stay with me,” Roxy said, calm as always. Which, ironically, was more dangerous than any flirt.
Skyler froze. His brain short-circuited. Was she serious? Joking? His logic screamed one thing, his ego screamed another.
…And before he could implode, pink chaos stormed in.
“Sky!” Zoe tugged his sleeve, lashes lifted. “Let’s go find that unicorn!”
“B-but it’s almost night—” he tried, cautious.
‘Cautious’ didn’t exist in Zoe’s dictionary. Her pupils twinkled brighter, and the next thing he knew, she was dragging him out—zero-g action figure, flopping along for the ride.
—
After two more hours of Zoe’s endless exploring, Skyler pieced the fragments together and began to see the truth—this world, all magic on the surface… might be built on something more.
The young man scanned his surroundings, eyeslit, glowing with the thrill of a forbidden code unlocked
“Every law has a pattern. This world is saturated with Comet Particles. They flow from nature itself, not force-bred into humans the way Cosmic City tried—draining the earth until it was almost dead…”
He paused, glanced at the pink-haired girl—who, as expected, didn’t give a damn—then pressed on.
“Here… they let the Comet energy cycle back into the land, like a cosmic filtration system. That’s why everything feels alive, meaningful, rooted.”
Zoe didn’t reply. She just tilted her head back, eyes reflecting the aurora that danced above them, holding the whole galaxy in their shimmer.
Quiet like this… she’s actually beautiful.
The thought slipped in, lingering the way a crush’s stare stretches minutes into hours in class.
“You’re crushing on me, aren’t you?” she blurted, no warning, no build-up.
“W-what? N-no… of course not…”
“Just so you know, I don’t have time for kiddie romance.” Her tone was more press-conference than conversation. “I’ve got a mission, and that comes first.”
Wow. Miss Celebrity here—sounded like she was announcing a breakup on live TV. And I wasn’t even trying to hit on you… probably.
“Zoe.” His voice sharpened, more serious than he’d intended. “I’m staying here for a while. I want to help Roxy find her family.”
Her face stiffened instantly. “Did you forget she betrayed us already?”
“I know. But that was before we met Trinity. I get it now—she did that mission because she had no choice. She risked her life just to earn the right to ask for her family back.” He locked eyes with her. “If it were you… wouldn’t you do the same?”
Zoe bit her lip, flicked her head aside with a sharp tsk—a signal she was already softening.
“Will you come with me?”
“You make it sound like you don’t even want me to,” she shot back, rising.
“No, no—that’s not what I meant!” The more he defended himself, the guiltier he sounded.
She turned away. He followed, scrambling for the only tactic that ever worked: hitting her weak spot—her idol dream.
“Think about it. A time-traveler idol taking on a mission in this world? Instant viral. I’ll record it—you’ll be trending across every platform in the multiverse.” He pushed harder, smirking. “Hell, we could spin it into a cross-universe VTuber debut. Total smash.”
She stopped dead—full-on brake-check at rush hour energy. Then smiled—the kind of smile that could sign away a man’s soul on a carousel ride.
“Fine. I’ll go. For you, Sky.” The words carried the air of forgiveness.
“For me?” he echoed.
She pouted, refusing to admit it directly, but the corners of her lids betrayed a laugh.
Skyler scratched the back of his neck, helpless.
Yep. Emotional trap. Classic.
They sealed their decision without contracts, oaths, or ceremonies—just a promise heavier than any law.
Roxy had never shared her past, never revealed the scars she carried. She didn’t need to. Every action, every sacrifice, spoke louder than words.
And for the first time, Skyler saw her not just as a warrior… but as a human being.
When Roxy was still one of the scattered cadets, Sigma Four was a brand-new program that shoved the weird, the misfits, the ones who didn’t fit any mold into a single crucible—and shook.
Those who survived? Fewer than the graves they left behind. The commanders of Sigma Two and Sigma Three took turns running a hellish regimen with no mercy. If you made it through without becoming a corpse—or a soulless husk—you were ‘almost’ a warrior. In the end, only one earned the title: leader.
“I can’t believe they were this weak,” Rin muttered. Her face didn’t show pity so much as cold assessment.
Roxy stood beside her—the closest thing she had to a friend in that world. They trained together, fell together, smacked each other’s heads when they were stupid, slapped shoulders when they were tired, and kneed one another in mock duels. Sigma’s version of friendship.
“Don’t quit on me,” Roxy said, flat. “I’m not done having fun yet.” Rin smiled, the slow, certain grin of a predator with prey already trapped.
Today’s test sounded deceptively simple. Climb the cliff. No ropes. No gear. No augmentations. Nothing but muscle, nails and guts. Fail and you were out—no re-tests, no second chances—just a soft bag to catch your fall before you were dragged away from the system.
Roxy wasn’t afraid of heights. She was afraid of this place—the same ridge where she’d lost her father and little sister, the place where rippers had shredded that day and the screams never stopped replaying in her dreams. She had to climb through that fear because there was no other option. Muscles shook. Bones throbbed. Her hands bled. Yet she pushed.
I have to be first.
Her nails dug into stone. Bone ground against rock. Nothing stopped her—until a voice cut through.
“Roxy—help me!” Rin’s shout sliced up the wall.
She glanced back. Hands trembling. Heart slamming. “Almost there. Hang on—just a little more!”
“I can’t go on…” The words came out—a whisper meant to die.
“Don’t say that. You’ll make it.”
“You’ll make it… but I—”
“Shut up and grab my hand!” Roxy barked, reaching out. Pain and exhaustion burned in her skin, but if the roles were reversed, Rin would pull the same.
“Grab my hand!”
Rin lifted her face slowly and wrapped fingers around Roxy’s. “Thanks…” Her tone was thin, cold, wrong.
Then Rin yanked—hard. Roxy’s hand slipped. Everything flipped. A body flailed in empty air.
“You—!!?” Roxy’s scream tore off her throat.
“Sorry—” Rin yelled, her tone quick, sharp, venom-laced. “The top’s for me.”
Her sentence stabbed harder than any cliff edge.
That was the day Roxy learned the cruelest lesson faster than a bleeding cut: there was no friendship inside Sigma’s crucible. There was only filthy survival. It was a war that stole trust whole.
Roxy looked at Rin gaze hot enough to make sweat on the other woman’s palms vanish. Beneath Roxy’s hard shell lay a wound that refused to close—fresh, jagged, and pouring.
Then Roxy did something Rin didn’t expect.
She swung her leg into the void. A transparent mirror-plate sprang from nothing beneath her foot and took her weight. She crawled back up—a helix of glass unfurling against the air, each step curling into place, walking back against gravity on a wall of air. Beautiful, dangerous, physics-defying.
Rin gaped, seeing herself reflected in the pane—completely defeated.
Roxy reached the ledge and offered her hand once more. But this time she didn’t offer rescue. The shard of glass that had risen from her palm whirled, its rim sharpened into a blade. It sliced—clean and merciless—across the other woman’s wrist.
Rin’s scream shredded the air. Her body tumbled down the cliff with no dignity left—only the harsh rasp of a last breath and the echoing silence that followed in Roxy’s chest.
Roxy stood frozen, jaw clenched. Something inside cracked, worse than any broken bone. This training had not only torn muscle and nails—it had shredded the part of her that felt, ground it into dust and set it alight.
From that moment on, She was never the same.
Years later, the commander of Sigma Three announced, “Congratulations, Roxy. You are now the leader of Sigma Four.” She nodded to accept the title without saying a word, then glanced at Emilia—the woman who had saved her, the only person Roxy ever called an inspiration.
In the Sigma universe there were only four units—pillars of Eden:
- Sigma One: Trinity. He alone, whose words could crush armies.
- Sigma Two: The shadow unit of Len—so unseen many doubted its very existence.
- Sigma Three: The strike force led by Emilia, who carried both past and future in her hands.
- Sigma Four: Roxy—once a bottom-dweller beneath Eden, remade by sheer endurance and iron resolve into a commander of the extraordinary.
Roxy’s knot of trauma ran deep. She feared bonds, every connection—the raw skin beneath old scars.
The moment your heart began to trust—someone could shove you off the cliff again.
So she always chose to cut ties first.
Her betrayal of Skyler and Zoe wasn’t some random cruelty—it was the only thing that woke her up and reminded her that she could still feel.
“So what are we doing next?” Zoe folded her arms, tone pure annoyance with no filter. She looked at the two of them like a judge on The Voice who couldn’t decide which chair to slam.
The idea of being a side character in someone else’s story was an insult she, as a top-tier idol in her own head, refused to accept.
Roxy and Skyler were neck-deep in yet another nerd-off about nanotech and atom-scale molecules—the sort of topic that makes the rest of the universe want to file for a headache. Zoe sighed loud enough to drop a mic (if there were one).
Then Roxy spoke without turning around. “Tonight you stay here. Tomorrow we head for the front. I have to meet someone who might have a lead.”
“And where am I supposed to sleep?” Zoe snapped.
“You sleep downstairs with Skyler,” Roxy replied, flat, words landing with all the excitement of a duty roster at 6 a.m
“What? You expect me, a ridiculously cute idol, to do that?” Zoe gasped.
“Or would you rather have Skyler sleep up here with me?” Roxy’s voice was as casual as a weather report.
Oh. Thank God.
Skyler nearly collapsed. Breath gone. Limbs disobeying. His wrists tangled nervously, movements jerky, misfired signals sparking through his body.
“N-no—Zoe, it’s fine. I can—Roxy can make a protective field or something,” he blurted, panic leaking from every syllable.
“—A protective what? Are you afraid I’ll—rape you in your sleep or what, huh!?” Zoe exploded—exhaling Godzilla-beam style.
Skyler shot Roxy a look that contained enough unasked questions to fill a thesis. He didn’t get to speak.
She smiled.
Not the ironic smile she kept as a weapon. Not the biting grin sharper than a lightsaber. This was real—honest—soft. Relaxed. And somehow, far more dangerous than anything she’d leveled at an enemy.
Everything went quiet. Even Skyler’s breath held. Except one thought humming, brain-radio stuck on corporate lobby hell FM.
…oh no, we are so, so doomed.