Silence. No wind, no sound. Like the world was holding its breath.
The city of Griteul stood like a ruin of memories slowly eroded by time. Uninhabited, rickety houses surrounded the cracked cobblestone streets, the roofs of buildings dominated by moss and fungus testified to how abandoned this place had been. The dull walls that might have once heard laughter and cries, now only echoed with shadows.
Kael stared at the sky from the second floor of the building where he and his brother lived. The sky of Griteul was always gray, as if reluctant to show the face of the sun. This city was not just dead—it was buried. There were no residents, no traders, only the remnants of the past that were slowly rotting. Only the two of them, him and Caius.
"Do you see anything?" asked a calm voice from below.
Kael turned, smiling thinly. "No. Just like yesterday, and the day before that."
Caius stood in the doorway, his shoulders covered by a dark, worn coat. His eyes were sharp, but never cruel. One hand clutched an old book, the other rested on the hilt of the weapon hanging from his back. He never looked completely relaxed, as if he was ready to slash at anything that came his way at any moment.
But that day, something was different.
___
In a dark room filled with holographic screens and capsules filled with greenish liquid, a man in a white coat stood facing the silhouette of a world map. Embedded on his chest was the symbol of the organization N.E.S.I.S—Neo-Essential Singularir Integration Syndicate. He was not a soldier. He was a scientist. But also an executioner.
"The Lydra sisters..." he muttered as he stared at the screen showing two different silhouettes.
"Kael has a rare dormant potential. His resonance with Fragment energy shows a non-linear pattern. Unstable, but promising."
He then typed something. Caius' image appeared, surrounded by a red pulsating graph.
"And his brother... he's even more interesting. Abnormal synchronization at a low level. He's only at level 3, but his body has already shown the ability to stabilize an artificial Singular Core. In fact, he managed to last a full 42 seconds in an integration simulation. That's a new record."
He turned to face the room.
"We need a vessel that can hold more than one Fragment. The Singular Integration Project cannot succeed without a truly synchronized vessel. And Caius—" he clenched his fists, "—is the only natural candidate so far."
"Take them alive. If that doesn't work, take their neural network and core. Don't let their potential be lost!" he said with a grin.
__
Night began to swallow Griteul. Shadows crept through the cracks in the city, and five figures clad in black emerged. The NESIS emblem was etched on their backs. Their faces were hidden behind organic-designed metal helmets. The energy that enveloped their bodies felt piercing and alien. Unlike natural Fragments—they were artificial.
"Targets detected. Two individuals. Fragment potential and Singular response extremely high. Command: Capture."
Caius had sensed it for minutes.
"Kael, get down. Now."
"What? But—"
"Don't ask. Get down!"
Kael bit his lip and followed the order. He darted down the stairs.
Caius stepped out into the middle of the street, standing alone among the ruins. His eyes were sharp on the five figures.
"You guys?! NESIS!?"
"Caius Lydra, you should surrender. And surrender yourself and your sister. Or die!" one of them said firmly.
Caius shrugged. "Bastards! You keep targeting me and my sister! Don't expect me to surrender. One day I will destroy that bastard NESIS!" Caius shouted in anger.
The attack came faster than words.
The energy blade slashed through the air, met by Caius's double scythes that spun and bounced the attack off the wall. Cracks spread. Dust exploded. Two of them attacked simultaneously from the left and right, but Caius spun around, kicking one back and slashing the other right in the neck.
"He's moving like he's at level 4! Impossible!"
"Don't let your guard down! Coordinate!"
One of them activated his vessel ability. A magic circle appeared on the ground, and his body disappeared.
Crack!
Caius flew forward. Blood spurted from his mouth. But he didn't fall. He got up.
The five NESIS members surrounded him. They remained on guard—because they knew this target was unusual.
Caius took a deep breath. His breath froze in the night air. His hand gripped the scythe, and at that moment—a different energy erupted from his body.
The air suddenly became heavy. Floating dust began to fall to the ground. The light from the remaining city lights swayed, as if attracted by something invisible.
One of the NESIS members gasped in surprise, "A gravity field… He still has that much power?"
Caius spun his scythe, then stomped on the ground.
Duum!
A wave of pressure spread instantly from where he stood. The road cracked, rocks leaping into the air and then immediately jolting back down, as if being pulled down by an invisible force.
Two of them jumped back, but one was not fast enough—his body immediately hit the ground hard, pulled by gravity five times stronger than normal.
Caius shot up.
In an instant, his scythe swept horizontally, and created a minor gravity fissure—a small crack in the air, which sucked in the surrounding energy.
The attack passed through the enemy's protective armor like tissue being torn by hot metal.
"Gahkk!!"
One of them was thrown into the wall, his bones shattered by the sudden force of gravity that locked him in midair and dropped him mercilessly.
Caius didn't stop.
With a flick of his left finger, he bent gravity locally—making an arrow fired by one of the enemies deflect, then pierce the shooter's own body.
"Impossible! He can manipulate the field!"
"Hack his gravitational field! Use the stabilizer!"
But they were too late. Caius raised his hand, and five small black spheres appeared in the air, spinning like mini planets in an artificial orbital system.
"Singular Orbit."
The five gravity spheres shot toward them. Each sphere created a local pull—pulling their weapons from their hands, warping the surrounding field, even immobilizing one of them as his body was pulled in two opposite directions.
Caius's scythe appeared behind him, cutting through the enemy's scythe like butter. Blood spurted.
But…
NESIS didn't just rely on technique.
One of them, the team leader, activated the gravity-neutralizing mechanism in his robe. A cube-shaped field appeared, reflecting the pull of the Singular Orbit.
And from behind, another member—who had previously disappeared—appeared in Caius' shadow and stabbed a metal blade into his left shoulder.
Crack!
Caius' body was thrown. Blood spilled from the wound, and this time, he was actually pushed back. His knees fell.
"Bastard...!"
But he did not give up.
With a single angry shout, Caius slammed into the ground.
BOOM!
A building-sized wave of gravity swept around, knocking the five enemies away.
But his body began to tremble.
Using such complex gravitational forces—compressing the field, reversing direction, stabilizing orbital pressure, all of it was taxing on his body's systems. His fragments had not yet fully fused, and his body was still at level 3. He had pushed too much.
"Brother!!"
Kael's voice called out—and when Caius turned around, he saw him in the enemy's grip.
"You... touch he again... I'll kill all of you...!"
But his steps faltered.
Two of the NESIS were still standing. One of them shot up, hitting Caius in the back with an energy hammer. His body hit the ground. His scythe flew away.
Blood soaked the ground.
He tried to get up... but his own gravity was pulling him down. His body began to lose control.
"Your brother is ours, and now you are the only one left, Caius Lydra."
Caius looked up. His breathing was heavy. His eyes still burning with anger.
"You think... this is over...?"
But his body could no longer move.
Kael screamed as he watched his brother being tortured before him. But there was nothing he could do.
Guilt hit him like a wall.
Caius struggled to stand, his body covered in blood, his left shoulder stabbed, and his breathing heavy. But his eyes were still burning—the eyes of a protector who had lost too much to give up.
"I told you... don't touch my brother!"
The wind around Caius stopped. The dust that had previously been flying now hung in the air, still, frozen. For a moment, the world felt like it was trapped in a time curse—but it wasn't. This was gravity.
The ground around Caius' feet began to crack like glass being hit by a hammer. The invisible force of attraction increased thousands of times. The five NESIS members reacted immediately, jumping back, but one of them was half a second too late—his body was dragged and hit the wall with incredible force, collapsing instantly.
"A mid-level gravitational singular effect! He's manipulates the direction and strength of the masses directly—changing them instantly to his will?!"
"Impossible! That's complex-scale vector manipulation! He's only level 3!"
But Caius' power was more than just gravity manipulation. He raised his bloodied right hand and squeezed the air.
Graviton Lock.
The four of them suddenly stopped in place. It was as if their bodies were being held down by a mountain of pressure. One of them let out a shriek—their custom-made armor was beginning to squeeze, the metal bending and slowly breaking.
"Increase the output of the vessel system! Release the Singular limiter!"
Caius stomped his foot.
A gravitational wave erupted from the center of his body, twisting the space around him. Nearby buildings collapsed as if pulled by an invisible vortex. He shot forward, his scythe dancing with deadly precision. Each slash was propelled by artificial mass, creating impossible momentum that sliced through the bodies of his enemies mercilessly.
Three of them collapsed.
Blood stained the ground.
But the remaining two activated advanced combat protocols.
A magic circle based on the Singular appeared in the air. Synthetic light formed an intricate network that fused with their bodies. They transformed. A mechanical voice echoed from their helmets.
"Singular Mode Ω activated. Totality operation: target execution."
One of them disappeared from sight.
Caius didn't have time to dodge—an attack hit his back, knocking him down. But before he fell completely, he manipulated his body's gravity, bouncing off the ground, then creating two points of gravitational anomalies in the air.
Duality Shift.
His body appeared behind one of the enemies, and with his scythe filled with vector charges, he cut through the air. The attack penetrated the defense.
But his body was already badly injured. His breath was short. Gravity did not forgive the human body, even if he was the master of it.
"I... must stay standing... Kael..."
Caius fainted, and the battle ended, Kael who saw his brother like that was very sad before he was finally knocked unconscious by one of the members there, and they brought Kael and the unconscious Caius back to their headquarters.
___
NESIS Headquarters – Primary Observation Room
Inside a cylindrical tower rising from the ground, shrouded in a tangle of wires and artificial crystals, a man stood with his back to the scientists and operators bustling about at the terminal.
His face was partially covered by a transparent mask. His left eye glowed bright red—a reconstruction of a partial integration. His robes were clean, but beneath the white cloth, a cold, cruel authority radiated clearly. Embedded on his chest was the primary emblem: "N.E.S.I.S. - Primary Integration Director"
His name: Dr. Arvein Kauld, founder and supreme leader of NESIS.
He stared at the hologram of Caius's body, which was nearly collapsed, but his gravitational energy had not yet completely dissipated.
"Fascinating..." he murmured.
"His Singulir Core has not yet been implanted. But his body is already responding beyond prediction. This abnormal synchronization is even... passing over Subject-09."
A researcher approached.
"New report: Subject-K aka Kael exhibits dormant potential. Not yet active, but unstable fluctuations. We detect a spiral resonance pattern—not linear."
Arvein smiled slightly.
"Dormant potential is a power that lies dormant in neural networks or sub-organic energy pathways, dormant due to trauma, emotional limitations, or hereditary factors that have not been activated. In Kael's case… trauma or loss could most likely have been the catalyst."
He then pointed to Caius on the screen.
"Unlike dormant, Caius is an abnormal synchronizer. His body is able to stabilize the artificial Singularir Core, even without the balancing module. This means that his neural structure has elastic resonance. Not only does it accept integration, but it adapts."
He walked over to the crystal table and activated the secret project recording.
Singular Integration, as Arvein explained, is an attempt to implant an artificial core—a Singularir Core—into a human body. This core is created from a combination of synthetic Fragments and a reverse imprint of the will of a primordial being, allowing the user access to limitless power.
But there was a problem: most human bodies rejected integration, leading to cellular destruction, insanity, or death.
"Caius… is an exception. He could become a 'Pure Vessel.' Even without a core, he was already synchronized. If we implant two or three cores into him… we could create a perfect existence. An omega vessel."
Someone asked, "And Kael?"
Arvein grinned.
"Kael will be the trigger. When he sees something tragic enough, deep enough… his dormant potential will awaken. And when that happens—we will have two vessels at once. One as a foundation, one as a test subject. Yin and yang."
After Caius and Kael were kidnapped, they were immediately placed in an observation room, where not only the two of them were inside, there were many people who were the same as those who were used as subjects by NESIS.
___
In the middle of the underground ruins, in a room filled with ancient symbols, Yeon stood alone.
He took a deep breath. His left hand opened an old scroll. A faint light shone on his face.
Slowly, he took off his sunglasses. His left eye was visible.
Six symbols revolved around a red pupil that had a crystal crack.
The strange symbols sometimes rotated to the right, and sometimes to the left. One symbol was in the shape of a chain, the second symbol was an inverted crown, the third symbol was an hourglass that sometimes rotated from top to bottom, the fourth symbol was a symbol that represented infinity, the fifth symbol was a ball with a white dot in the middle, and the sixth symbol was an inverted cross.
On the other hand, his right eye was closed, as if he did not want to open it.
"Fragments... are not just power. They are traces of will."
A faint whisper was heard. But Yeon ignored it. He stared ahead.
Suddenly, his pupils changed. The cracks shone. His gaze penetrated the world.
He saw everything.
Caius was lying down and captured as well as Kael who was unconscious. Five people dressed in black. A hidden base behind the western mountain. And currently Caius and Kael were in the observation room, becoming research subjects.
Yeon sighed.
"I've only been here for a day, and a problem immediately appeared.... It seems... I'll have a little fun" he said with a smile.
The air around him vibrated. The ground cracked. Yeon began to step out with a dark aura, responding to his master's actions. The dark shadow immediately grinned with glowing red eyes.
He stepped into the exit of the ruins.
"NESIS, huh.... I just heard about that group."
His voice was soft and full of curiosity.
"It seems I'll get some information."