The sigil was gone.
So was the voice.
Kael lay on the floor of the tavern, drenched in sweat, blinking up at the rafters as if they might offer some explanation. They didn't. Just dust, cobwebs, and the echo of something that had changed inside him.
His body didn't hurt — not exactly — but he felt stretched, like a skin too tight around something bigger, hotter, hungrier.
Then came the screen.
A floating pane of softly glowing red light hovered a foot from his face. Text pulsed across it in elegant, inhuman script.
---
> [SYSTEM: L.U.S.T. PROTOCOL ONLINE]
Classification: Sinborn – Lustbound
Core Class: Incubus
Subsystems Unlocked: Emotion Drain, Aura Weave (Dormant)
Essence Collected: 0
⚠️ Your Sinborn status is anomalous and dangerous. Concealment recommended.
▸ Initiate cover identity?
▸ Generate false class profile?
---
Kael stared at it. He didn't speak. Didn't move.
The system didn't wait.
> False Class Suggested: Empathic Channeler
[Support Tier – Emotion-based utility. Rare but non-threatening. Low threat profile. Plausible social cover.]
> Accept identity mask? Y/N
He hovered his fingers just inches from the screen. This wasn't real. It couldn't be.
But then again… neither was being ignored by the system for eight years. And that woman — that voice in his dreams — she hadn't just been a fantasy.
This was happening.
And it was dangerous.
> "Y," he whispered.
The screen blinked.
> Identity Mask Engaged. Public Class: Empathic Channeler. Tier: Unclassified.
Warning: Lustbound system will automatically suppress aura during normal interaction. Emotional overflow may cause instability.
▸ Begin Tutorial? ▸ Access Status? ▸ Enter System Dreamspace?
---
Kael swallowed.
> "Status."
A new screen materialized.
---
KAEL VIREX
Race: Human
Level: 1
Sinborn Classification: Lustbound (Incubus)
Essence: 0
Lust Aura: Dormant (Manual Trigger Required)
Abilities Unlocked:
– Essence Drain (Touch) – Minor emotional energy absorption on contact
– Desire Sense – Passive detection of nearby emotional tension/lust
– Charm Pulse [Locked] – Tier 1 Ability – 50 Essence required
– Dreamstride [Locked] – Tier 1 Ability – 100 Essence required
---
He sat back, breathing slowly. The names alone were enough to send a chill down his spine. Dreamstride? Charm Pulse?
He didn't want this.
And yet…
He could still feel the echo of it. The power. The sense that for the first time in his life, he mattered.
And the hunger. That, too. Just beneath his skin.
---
Kael didn't sleep.
He paced the back room of the tavern for hours, washing his face, drinking water, reading and rereading the system menu.
He didn't activate anything. Not yet.
But once, when his hand brushed the rim of a glass someone had left behind, he felt something strange — a flicker of warmth, desire, not his own.
A woman. Drunk. Lonely. Her memory lingered in the glass.
And Kael felt it. Drew it in. Like steam rising through his skin.
He pulled back instantly.
> Essence gained: +1
Current Total: 1
He stared at his palm like it had betrayed him.
---
By morning, he'd made a decision.
He would hide the truth.
He would learn the rules.
He would survive — no matter what the system wanted him to become.
And no one could know.
Not Rhea.
Not the guild.
Not the strange woman who still laughed in his dreams.
> "Incubus or not," he whispered, pulling on his coat, "this world eats people like me. Not this time."