The city buzzed with noise.
Street vendors. Passing bikes. Children yelling in side lanes. Everything on Earth still moved as if gods weren't rising across dimensions. As if the balance of reality wasn't hanging by a thread tied to one schoolboy's chest.
Rudra sat quietly at the back of a local manga shop after school, flipping through a tattered volume of Bloodfang — a violent, black-and-white comic about a brutal antihero with clawed arms and regenerative skin.
He wasn't reading it.
He was remembering.
Each page burned with a strange familiarity now. The faces on paper stared at him. As if they knew. As if they were waiting.
The Zix Core inside him thrummed — an unstable thump.
> [Zix Core: 3.5% Sync]
[Comic Summoning System – Beta Permission Granted]
[Initiating Origin Draw Test...]
> Choose:
◉ Comic Character: Bloodfang
Summon Type: Single Panel | Limited Duration
Tier: D+
Power: Enhanced Speed, Brutal Claw Combat, Regeneration
Rudra's thumb hovered over the invisible interface.
He hesitated.
But only once.
Then: tap.
---
The world around him blinked.
Not just visually — but conceptually.
Time slowed.
Ink bled into the air like fog.
And from that ink… something stepped out.
---
The man who emerged wasn't quite real.
Not flesh.
Not dream.
Illustration made flesh.
Torn jeans. Bandaged forearms. Jet-black eyes and twin clawed gauntlets strapped into his wrists with chain-threaded leather. His expression was feral — part man, part predator — yet somehow focused entirely on Rudra.
He looked down at his own claws.
Then up.
"You… summoned me?"
His voice was rough. Gravel poured through steel.
Rudra nodded.
Bloodfang tilted his head.
"I'm not supposed to exist here."
"You do now," Rudra said calmly.
---
> [Summon: Success]
[Duration: 180 seconds]
[Combat Power Scaling to Local Threat Level: Activated]
[Warning: Public Summons Attract Dimensional Awareness]
---
Suddenly—glass shattered.
From the alley outside the shop, a ripple tore open in the air.
A masked man in black robes burst through the tear, landing hard on the tiled floor. He held a jagged silver blade that crackled with aura.
He didn't look like he belonged here.
Because he didn't.
> "You're the one," the intruder hissed. "You've touched the forbidden core."
Rudra's eyes narrowed.
"Bloodfang."
The comic warrior didn't need orders.
He moved.
One second he was crouched beside Rudra.
The next—
Claws through flesh.
The masked man screamed — but not for long.
Blood splashed across the manga shelves. The scent of it mixed with old paper and dust. The attacker's body dropped in pieces.
Bloodfang looked back at Rudra.
"I don't know who you are, kid," he said, flexing his claws. "But I like your style."
And then — his form crackled, unraveling back into black ink.
---
> [Summon Ended]
[Feedback Stored]
[Cooldown: 6 hours]
[New Comic Slots: +1 Unlocked]
Rudra stood still, breathing slowly.
A corpse lay at his feet.
A rift still buzzed in the air.
And the Zix Core whispered—
> "You've broken the veil.
They will come now.
But so will your army."
---
Back at Home, Underground — Hidden Organization HQ
An old man in a grey robe stared at a crystal glowing red.
His eyes were wild.
"Someone has summoned a being not bound by this world…"
He turned to his subordinates.
"Find the source. Kill the wielder. Before he realizes… he can summon gods."
---