---
The silence after the kill was heavier than the battle itself.
Li Tianming stood alone in the grey-red light of the dying sky, breath slow, pulse colder. The Chaos Seal on his chest pulsed once and faded, absorbing the last fragments of the drone's corrupted soul.
> [System Sync: 67% – Core Stabilizing…]
[New Directive Unlocked: "Chaos Trace — Reveal Residual Auras within 20 meters"]
He closed his eyes for a moment.
And the world… shifted.
Everything turned grayscale, like a fog of memory. Within it, trails of red and blue danced like smoke — the lingering footprints of energy.
A blue streak led into a collapsed building nearby.
Tianming's instincts kicked in. Not beast. Not drone.
Human. Recently hidden. Armed. Watching.
He didn't hesitate.
Sliding the steel rod into his back belt like a makeshift blade, he stepped toward the crumbling structure. Rubble shifted under his feet. Wind whispered through cracks.
But the air… something felt wrong.
Like the world was holding its breath.
> "Reveal."
He activated the trace again — but this time, something else lit up beneath the ground.
Not red. Not blue. Not human.
A deep black aura, pulsing… alive.
Buried right below the building's center.
> [Warning: Mutant Signature Detected]
[Class: Unknown. Status: Dormant. Estimated Threat Level: Unscanned.]
Tianming stepped back.
And that's when the wall behind him exploded.
BOOM!
He spun mid-air, barely landing on one foot as a massive iron claw burst out of the earth, dragging a skeletal beast behind it — four-armed, skull-faced, with wires wrapped around its bones like veins. One eye glowed like molten glass, the other was just a hollow pit.
> [New Lifeform Identified: "Ruinborn"]
[Variant of extinct humanity, infected with Decay Code]
[Soul Signature: Hybrid — Organic + Digital]
The monster roared in a broken, glitching voice:
> "Chaos… must be purged…"
Tianming grimaced. "Guess I triggered something ancient."
The Ruinborn charged.
This wasn't like the Hell-Hound. It moved like it remembered being human once — fast, intelligent, and unpredictable. One claw missed Tianming's face by an inch, carving a gash into the metal pillar behind him.
He ducked, spun, flung a blast of Hellfire Surge toward its chest.
🔥 WHOOM!
The fire landed — but instead of burning, it was absorbed into the creature's ribs.
> "Adaptive core…" Tianming hissed. "That's new."
The Ruinborn lunged again, this time grabbing his ankle mid-step.
He hit the ground hard — the world shook — claws aimed for his throat—
But then:
> [Emergency Protocol: Shadow Step Unlocked — 1 Use Only]
[Consume 10% Soul Energy?]
"Do it!"
The world blinked.
He vanished in a flicker of shadow, reappearing behind the beast. With a grunt, he yanked the steel rod from his belt and drove it through the back of its cracked skull.
It screamed, body twitching violently.
> [Soul Capture in Progress…]
[Partial Success: Memory Fragment Absorbed]
Tianming's pupils contracted.
Visions flooded in — not from the Ruinborn's life… but from before it became a monster.
He saw rows of humans being injected with glowing black fluid. He saw scientists wearing the Eagle Dominion's sigil. He saw one word again and again in their documents:
> "CODE: BLACK HEAVEN PROJECT."
Then it faded.
The monster's body slumped, still twitching.
The system spoke again — but this time, slower. Heavier. Almost… alive.
> "This world no longer wants saviors."
"It only births monsters… and kings."
Tianming stood up, blood dripping from his arm, breath ragged. But his eyes — colder than before.
> "Then let me be both."
---
Far away, deep in a command chamber within Eagle Dominion airspace, the female scout from before stared at her screen in disbelief.
> "The Ruinborn… dead?"
She clenched her fist. "That's impossible. Those things were made to kill S-class threats."
Suddenly, a voice behind her spoke, deep and mechanical.
> "Deploy the Valkyrie Protocol. Chaos Seed or not — he dies before evolution completes."
She turned slowly, saluting.
> "Yes, Commander."
---