The warning from the system echoed in Jace's mind long after the alert faded.
> [High-energy pulse detected. Location: Zone 5W, Sector 9A.]
He stared at the map as the digital overlay pulsed red. Sector 9A wasn't far. Maybe thirty minutes on foot if he moved fast. His instincts told him to steer clear — especially if it was the same kind of pressure that had flooded the vault.
But instincts could lie.
The system, however, hadn't lied to him once.
He stood up and stretched, wincing at the tightness in his limbs. His body still carried the bruises and fatigue from the Vault Guardian trial. But he had power now — new skills, a forming soul weapon blueprint, and the beginnings of something he couldn't yet name.
And there was one thing he'd learned the hard way since awakening:
Staying passive meant staying prey.
He grabbed his salvaged blade, tightened the straps on his boots, and slipped quietly out of the subway control room. The morning sun cut through the city haze, revealing more of the ruins in full view — vine-covered skyscrapers leaning at odd angles, and rusted skeletons of hovercars scattered like bones across abandoned streets.
Jace kept low as he moved through the cityscape, ducking under wreckage and using Echo Sight every few minutes to stay ahead of any hidden dangers.
> [Echo Sight – Active: 5 Seconds Remaining...]
The city's energy trail lit up briefly — empty on the surface, but deeper underground, he saw faint movements: crawling beasts, shifting cores, the slow rhythmic pulse of subterranean life. None of it was interested in him.
Not yet.
---
Thirty-five minutes later, Jace reached the edge of Sector 9A. The wind was hotter here, the air drier. Smoke curled from a collapsed crater in the center of the plaza, and black scorch marks laced the surrounding buildings. A statue — once of some Federation hero — had been melted down to a bubbling pool of slag.
The crater itself pulsed red.
And in its center stood a girl.
She was alone. Young, maybe his age or slightly younger. Her long black coat whipped in the updraft, and strands of ash-blonde hair trailed behind her like embers. Her hands glowed with fire — actual flame — not conjured through tech or enhancement gear, but from the body itself.
Jace ducked behind the frame of a ruined tram stop and watched, frozen.
> [Scan Initiated...]
[Unknown Ability Signature Detected: Pyra-Class Mutation – Subtype: Flameborne Soul Core]
> [Warning: Entity's energy output exceeds standard A-tier combatants. Approach with caution.]
His heart skipped. A-tier? Already?
Was she like him?
Or something else entirely?
Before he could move, she turned — as if sensing his gaze — and locked eyes with him across the field.
Her voice rang out, calm and clear.
"You've been watching for seven minutes. If you're here to fight, let's not waste time. If not, come closer. I won't bite."
Jace cursed under his breath. He'd thought he was being subtle.
He stood up slowly, hands raised. "Not here to fight. Just... trying not to get burned."
Her eyes narrowed, then softened slightly. "Smart answer."
He approached carefully, boots crunching over cracked tile. The heat from the crater made the air shimmer.
"I'm Jace," he offered.
She tilted her head. "Kira."
"Kira," he echoed, glancing at the crater. "Did you do this?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
She gestured to a pile of blackened bones at the edge of the pit. "There was something here. Big. Fast. Ugly. I burned it until it stopped moving."
Jace looked again — the remains were massive, easily the size of a full-grown bear, with armored plating fused to its spine. Its core had been crushed in the blast.
"And you're alone?"
Kira smirked faintly. "So are you."
Fair point.
He folded his arms, still keeping some distance. "Are you with the Federation?"
She laughed — a short, humorless sound. "No. I was born in a fire sector. Raised in one of the southern vaults. Federation didn't want us."
"So... a rogue?"
"Call it what you want."
Jace nodded slowly, not sure what to make of her. She didn't move like someone trained at an academy. She moved like someone born in battle.
"You came here for the pulse too?" he asked.
She gave him a curious look. "You felt it?"
He hesitated. Then nodded. "System warned me."
Her expression shifted — just slightly.
"You have one too," she said.
It wasn't a question.
Jace nodded again, slower this time. "I didn't choose it. It just... happened."
Her fingers curled. "They're waking up everywhere. These 'Archives.' Something's changing."
"Archives?" Jace repeated.
Kira didn't elaborate. Instead, she looked toward the buildings around them. "You shouldn't stay long. I'm not the only one who felt the anomaly. Others will come. Federation, mercs, scavengers... and worse."
"Worse?" Jace asked.
She turned and began to walk.
"Vaultborn."
Jace followed Kira through the fractured alleyways of Sector 9A, the lingering scent of scorched metal and blood thick in the air. Her movements were swift but precise, weaving through the ruins with someone who clearly knew how to survive.
Vaultborn.
The word echoed in his mind.
He hadn't heard that term before. Not in training. Not in history lectures. Not even in the half-corrupted archives of the academy's network.
"What are Vaultborn?" he asked, finally catching up beside her.
Kira didn't answer immediately. She climbed over a collapsed support beam and helped him across without breaking stride.
"You're new to all this," she said, more observation than insult.
"I'm trying not to die. Learning as I go."
Kira gave a slight nod. "Vaultborn are those like you and me. People who didn't awaken with a clean-cut, Federation-registered ability. We were... touched by something older. Systems that aren't part of the Academy's controlled tech."
"You mean like the tomb?" Jace asked, remembering the shifting walls, the eye of the Archive, the Guardian's voice.
Kira stopped walking.
"You found one of the tombs?" she asked, voice sharper now. "Which?"
"I don't know. It called itself the Bloodbound Archive."
For the first time, Jace saw something like recognition — maybe even fear — flicker across her face.
"You really shouldn't be walking around in one piece, then."
Jace raised an eyebrow. "Thanks for the confidence."
Kira didn't laugh. She looked away, back toward the glowing smoke behind them.
"There's more than one Vault," she explained, quieter now. "Dozens. Maybe hundreds. Each tied to something ancient — relics left behind by whatever came before. Federation says they're ruins from lost tech civilizations. Others think they're more than that — records of a war that erased half the world."
"And the systems?"
"Built into them. Locked away. They choose who they bond with. And they don't always choose right."
Jace frowned. "So we're what... cursed?"
Kira turned back to him. "We're chosen. And people hate what they can't control."
---
They found shelter in the skeleton of an old government building, hidden beneath the lower levels of what had once been a judicial sector. Most of the walls had collapsed inward, but the foundation was solid, and the deeper levels were cool and dry.
Kira lit a small flame in her palm, illuminating the chamber. The fire didn't flicker like normal — it danced in shapes, like it was alive. Controlled.
Jace watched her with a new kind of curiosity. "That's not just a mutation, is it?"
She smirked. "No. My Archive is called the Ember Vault."
"So yours talks too?"
She chuckled faintly. "Sometimes. Usually when it wants something."
He nodded. "Same."
They sat in silence for a while. Not awkward silence, but the kind forged through shared danger — a wordless agreement that talking could wait, but the company was welcome.
Eventually, Jace leaned back against the cold wall and opened his system menu.
> [System Status: Active]
[Soul Weapon Blueprint: Crimson Echo Blade – 17%]
[Skill Set: Shadow Blink Lv.1 | Blood Instinct Lv.1 | Crystal Hide Lv.1]
[Passive Buffs: Vampiric Regeneration Lv.1 | Instinct Sync Lv.1]
[XP to Next Level: 840 / 1,200]
[Vault Keys Acquired: 2]
[Vault Shop Access: Tier 1]
He hovered over the Soul Weapon blueprint. It was forming slowly, piece by piece, from each core he absorbed. As it grew, so did the pressure within him — the sense that the weapon wasn't just a tool. It was a part of him waiting to awaken.
"I'm guessing you've done more than two Vaults," he said aloud, not looking up.
Kira nodded. "Five. The last one nearly killed me."
"What changed?"
"Everything."
She summoned a blade of white flame from her wrist — elegant, curved, and etched with sigils that shimmered like heat mirage.
Jace let out a low whistle. "That... is not standard Federation tech."
She dismissed the flame. "It's a piece of my soul. Like yours will be soon."
Before he could ask more, the system pinged.
> [Alert: System Signature Detected – Matching Archive Protocol ID#B91 – "Blightroot Core."]
[Distance: 4.8km – Estimated Level: Mid B-tier]
[Warning: Infected variant – Non-standard evolution path.]
Kira's face hardened. "Blightroot. I've seen that one before."
"You've fought it?"
She shook her head. "I ran."
> [New Mission Unlocked: System Challenge – Defeat Blightroot Variant to unlock Tier 2 Vault Shop.]
[Reward: ???]
Jace's blood stirred.
"You in?" he asked.
Kira stood without hesitation. "Always."