Kite watched in stunned silence as the golden light flickered in Kayden's eyes—the same strange glow that had preceded the destruction of the Catastrophe. With a single, fluid strike, he had knocked out a fully armed EB-Zero operative without breaking a sweat.
That shouldn't be possible.
The guard was no rookie. EB-Zero enforcers were required to be at least Advanced Rank Awakened—trained killers, enhanced with tactical implants, Force-dampening armor, and years of field experience. And yet, Kayden had dropped him like a falling leaf.
Agent Vex let out a low exhale, adjusting the collar of his long jacket with one hand. The movement was casual, but Kite could see the subtle shift in his posture. He was reevaluating everything.
Vex's eyes suddenly glowed white as he activated his Analysis Field, a high-tier skill used by elite Enforcement Agents to assess power levels and detect combat readiness. A glyph-based interface shimmered in front of him, projecting a holographic status window linked to the Central Authority's internal system.
"What the hell is this…?" Vex muttered.
[Initializing User Interface… Loading Sequence Report…][Subject: Kayden Tenet – Rank: Initiate (1st Order)][Warning: Anomalous Data Detected. System unable to fully synchronize.]
(Force Calibration Failed. External Source Required.)
[Core Awakener Status Readout][Awakened Stat Analysis – Subject: Kayden Tenet]
Strength: Tier 4+ Agility: Tier 4+ Endurance: Tier 4+ Dexterity: Tier 4+ Intellect: Tier 4+ Willpower: Tier 5 Perception: Tier 5 Tactical Sync: Tier 5 Soul Density: Tier 5 Force Capacity: ?? Resonance Factor: ?? Law Resistance: ?? Adaptational Progress: Unable to Determine
Value Descriptors:• Supreme-grade kinetic output detected • Enhanced reflex loop • Post-resurrection acceleration anomaly • Astral-tempered physique • Cellular reinforcement observed • High precision / tactical execution • [Readout Error: Anomalous Presence Detected] • [System Rejection: Core not compatible] • [Pillar Sync: REJECTED] • [Celestial Law Effects: IMMUNE]• [Sequence Integration: VOIDED] – External Progression Method Required
Vex's eyes narrowed. His jaw tensed.
"This makes no sense," he muttered, flicking through the data feed with increasing speed. "He's reading like a Tier Five threat—but he's of the lowest rank. No registered Sequence. No system compatibility. It's like the entire interface can't read him properly."
Kite stepped backwards slowly, her voice low, yet Vex could still hear her. "So what does that mean?"
Vex looked up from the readout, meeting her gaze from across the room.
"It means…" Vex said slowly, his voice quiet but firm, "…this kid is an unknown entity. He has no registry within the Awakened community, no guild lineage, no Sequence signature, and no Pillar system compatibility. He's completely off the grid."
Kite's brow furrowed, her voice tight with disbelief. "Then what is he?"
Vex's expression darkened. The analytical glow in his eyes faded, replaced by a grim, clinical detachment.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But whatever he is… the system just classified him as equivalent to a Soulweaver-class Catastrophe."
Kite's eyes widened in shock. So he was equal to a Soulweaver class Catastrophe just like her scanner once said.
"He's on par with a Supreme Rank, yet he is of a low..."
"That's exactly why we can't take risks," Vex cut her off coldly. "We eliminate threats. We don't negotiate with them."
He raised one hand, fingers splayed.
"Open fire."
Without hesitation, the EB-Zero enforcers responded to the command. A deafening hail of gunfire erupted within the lab—standard kinetic rounds tearing through the air, each one aimed squarely at Kayden. Kite gasped, her hand rising instinctively—but it was too late.
The bullets slammed into Kayden's torso, arms, and legs. Blood sprayed. His body jerked slightly with the impact—dozens of rounds unloading into him. Then—silence.
Vex lowered his hand. "Cease fire."
The agents stopped instantly, weapons still raised, smoke rising from overheated barrels.
Kite stared, stunned. Kayden hadn't moved. He stood in place, riddled with holes… but still upright. Slowly, impossibly, the bullets began to push themselves out of his flesh, clinking onto the floor with wet metallic thuds. Wounds closed behind them, skin knitting together without scars. Not even a wince crossed his face.
His body wasn't just regenerating—it was adapting. The next moment, a faint shimmer spread across his skin like a defensive sheen, reinforcing his frame. The kinetic rounds would no longer penetrate.
Vex clenched his jaw.
"Tch. Switch to Force rounds."
The agents reloaded with precision, slotting in new magazines lined with blue circuitry—rounds infused with raw Force energy, designed to bypass regeneration, pierce metaphysical barriers, and disrupt Awakened cores.
The command was clear.
"Engage."
The second barrage erupted—these rounds glowing as they tore through the air, pulsing with high-frequency resonance.
But Kayden sensed the change. His eyes narrowed. Then, in an instant, he moved. A golden blur surged across the room. One moment, he was standing still. The next—he was everywhere. A shockwave followed his wake as he danced through the firing line, too fast for any of their tracking visors to follow.
Boom.
One punch—an agent was down.
Boom. Another.
Boom. Boom. Two more collapsed before their bodies even registered the impact.
To Kite's eyes, it was surreal—like watching time bend. Each of his movements was fluid, deliberate, devastating. He wasn't just fast—he was precise, his blows measured to incapacitate without killing.
In seconds, every agent in the room lay unconscious.
Vex was the only one still standing, hand near his sidearm, his face unreadable as Kayden slowly turned to face him.
Kite stepped forward, her voice low, shaken.
"You just tried to execute someone who doesn't even know who he is…"
Vex didn't respond immediately.
He just stared at Kayden—at the golden flicker still burning faintly in the boy's eyes—and muttered under his breath:
"…This isn't a field op anymore. This is a containment scenario gone very wrong. I have no choice but to put you down."
Wind screamed into existence, swirling around Agent Vex in a violent cyclone. His Ability Factor had activated—raw, refined aerokinetic acceleration. In a blur of motion, he vanished from where he stood, leaving only a trailing gust and the sound of air splitting apart.
Kayden sensed him just in time.
He turned—and caught the punch head-on.
The collision was cataclysmic.
The sheer force of Vex's strike sent Kayden hurtling across the lab like a missile. He tore through steel supports and shattered reinforced walls, finally crashing into the adjacent chamber with a deafening explosion of debris.
Dust rose in a choking cloud.
Kayden's body skidded across the floor until he dug his leg down, shattering the tile beneath him to kill his momentum. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ground from the impact point.
He barely had a second to recover before a pressure spike hit his senses.
He's already here.
Vex reappeared in a gale-born flash above him, both fists raised high for a double-handed strike, wind spiraling downward in a compressed vortex.
Kayden didn't dodge.
He tanked it.
The blow connected with a thunderous crack, and while his head dipped slightly from the force, he didn't go down. His eyes narrowed. A fraction of a second later, his leg snapped upward in a brutal arc—an upward kick aimed straight for Vex's ribs.
But Vex was already twisting through the air, narrowly evading the strike with inhuman agility. As he spun, his hand extended, palm open. A sphere of condensed wind swirled into being, then detonated forward as a compressed air blast.
It struck Kayden clean in the chest.
This time, he felt it.
The blast tore through his defense, the impact shredding skin and muscle in a burst of blood. He staggered backward, breath hitching—not from shock, but from the sharp sting of pain. His nerves flared, his instincts roaring.
For the first time since awakening, he hurt.
His fingers curled into fists.
They think I'm something they can contain. Bind. Use.
Rage welled up within him. Burning. Heavy.
He tried to summon that golden light—the same divine force that had obliterated the Catastrophe before—but there was only silence inside. Whatever that power was… it remained buried, unreachable.
Why now? Why won't it answer me?
All he could feel was his body—his muscles coiling, his heartbeat pounding like war drums, the sheer gravitational weight of his physical power.
Fine, he thought. If that's all I have... then I'll use it to break everything they throw at me.
Blood still dripping from the wound on his chest, Kayden's eyes locked on Vex, his posture straightening. He didn't flinch. He didn't run. He charged.
Kite stood near the broken threshold of the lab, her body tense, eyes locked on the battle unfolding before her.
Two Awakened—one known, the other an enigma.
Wind howled through the chamber as Vex danced with controlled fury, his every motion propelled by the precision of an elite Disciple-ranked operative. He had hunted high-tier Catastrophes, survived dead zones, and adapted to the Pillar system more thoroughly than most Awakened ever could. His Force capacity was immense, his skillset wide, honed by bloodshed and battlefield command.
And yet… Kayden was matching him.
No, Kite realized, her eyes narrowing, *he's not just matching him—he's pushing Vex back.
Strike after strike, Kayden advanced with relentless pressure. His body moved like a weapon forged for war—reflexes sharp, strikes precise, each movement flowing into the next with brutal elegance. There was no wildness, no hesitation. Every step was grounded in lethal intent, every attack calculated to maximize force with minimal effort.
Kite's mind flashed back to the moment he annihilated the Dimensional Titan—when he unleashed that blinding golden Force and turned a nightmare-class Catastrophe into dust with a single blow. That display had shaken her to her core. It was the kind of power you feel through every cell in your body. But this... this was different.
There was no golden light now. No overwhelming pressure.
His Force energy is barely active, she realized. Her senses were sharp—finely tuned for reading power levels and metaphysical surges—and what she saw in Kayden didn't align with what she was witnessing.
His Force signature was low, almost dormant.
And yet his body...
Monstrous, she thought. His combat strength alone is enough to overwhelm a Disciple-class Awakened.
Even more than his power, it was his discipline that unnerved her.
Kayden fought like a veteran of a hundred campaigns. His form was clean, his counters instinctive, his awareness sharp. There was no wasted movement, no arrogance, only pure execution. He fought not like someone gifted with strength, but like someone who had trained for years—who understood the cost of every movement, the weight of every blow.
Kite had seen plenty of powerful upstarts. But none of them moved like this.
He's fighting like a commander, she thought. Like a man who's led others through war. Like someone who's survived it.
But that shouldn't be possible.
Kayden Tenet was a blank slate. No history. No affiliation. No past. So where did this power come from? And more importantly—
Who was he before he woke up?
Kite exhaled slowly, watching the escalating clash between Kayden and Agent Vex. The lab was in ruins—most of the EB-Zero enforcers lay unconscious, groaning or still, strewn across broken equipment and debris. Only Vex remained in the fight, and he was losing ground fast.
Kite narrowed her eyes. Reinforcements would be on their way—those stationed outside were no doubt getting ready to breach the lab, and when they did, they'd find their commanding officer being dominated by a supposed unidentified hostile.
She wasn't about to stick around for that.
With a fluid motion, she activated her movement technique: Umbra Glide—a signature skill of her Ability Factor, allowing her to traverse through connected shadow lines like a phantom. The darkness around her shimmered, then swallowed her whole as she sank into the lab's warped shadows.
In an instant, she was gone.
Kayden blinked, sensing the sudden absence of her presence. She had fascinated him for reasons he couldn't explain. Something about her stirred a strange familiarity—like a thread from a half-remembered dream pulling at his thoughts.
Now she was gone.
And he was left with Vex.
"Don't waste your focus on Miss Moretti," Vex said sharply, his voice strained. "Worry about yourself."
With a sharp motion, he slashed downward, summoning a wind blade that screamed through the air. It struck Kayden across the chest, carving into his flesh and sending blood spraying across the floor.
But Kayden didn't flinch.
The wound began closing before Vex even completed the motion—skin, muscle, tissue knitting itself back together with terrifying speed. Not just fast—instantaneous.
Vex's eyes narrowed. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Super recovery was common among Awakened—enhanced healing, regenerative tissue, augmented durability. And even then, they still relied on Pillar tech to accelerate recovery when needed.
But this?
This was beyond Awakened.
Kayden's regeneration wasn't just efficient—it was absolute. His body operated as if every cell had been upgraded, evolved into a perfect combat engine.
Everything physical about him was simply… monstrous.
Before Vex could recenter himself, Kayden surged forward, his knee snapping up in a vicious arc. Vex managed to shield his core with a wind barrier, but the blow still hurled him like a ragdoll. He crashed against the ceiling, then ricocheted off the floor with a heavy thud. His barrier cracked—but held.
Barely.
He gasped for breath—only to see Kayden already mid-air.
A flying kick came crashing down.
It shattered the barrier.
The force of the blow sent Vex sprawling, and before he could even react, Kayden was on him. One hand wrapped around his throat, lifting him effortlessly into the air.
"I have no reason to worry," Kayden said, voice low and resolute. "You should've left me alone."
Vex struggled, his limbs twitching as he tried to summon more wind, more strength—but something was wrong.
His power—his Force—was draining. Rapidly.
Kayden's hand was glowing faintly now, a ripple of golden energy just beneath the skin. Not full—just a glimmer—but it was returning.
As the battle raged, Kayden had realized the truth.
The reason he couldn't access that overwhelming power from before… was because he had nothing left to draw from. His internal energy was nearly depleted, and something deep within him—some ancient mechanism—had sealed off the rest, preventing further output.
So he had made a decision.
If he couldn't awaken it from within…
He would take it from without.
And that was exactly what he was doing.
Draining Vex of his Force—his life-force reservoir—through sheer proximity and instinct. Not a technique he had learned. Just something his body knew how to do.
Vex's eyes dimmed, his arms falling limp.
By the time Kayden released him, the elite agent of EB-Zero collapsed to the ground, unconscious, his energy siphoned down to a dangerous minimum.
Kayden stood still, staring at his hand.
He could feel it—just a flicker of that radiant power. Barely enough to scrape the edge of it.
His internal reserves were rising.
But not nearly enough.
Not yet.
He looked toward the remnants of the lab—toward the fading traces of Umbra energy left behind by Kite.
I need more, he thought.
If I'm going to survive what's coming next… I'll need all of it.
****
Kite emerged from the shadows at the edge of Gravemarch's dead zone, reappearing in the dilapidated ruins just outside the old city sector. It wasn't nearly far enough—not for comfort—but it was the best she could do with her current limitations.
She was still Initiate-ranked. And that meant her usage of Umbra Glide came with a cost. Distance, duration, frequency—it all depended on her Force reserve, and hers was running low after everything that had just happened.
But for now, she'd put enough distance between herself and the chaos at the lab. Between herself… and him.
Kayden.
Still catching her breath, she leaned against the cracked wall of an abandoned storefront, her thoughts shifting to what truly mattered right now—her Sequence.
It was still ongoing.
Still unfulfilled.
A flicker of frustration crossed her features. It had been almost a month since she had accepted the Pulse-grade Sequence—an assignment to track down and retrieve a set of rare Force Shards believed to have originated from a collapsed Pillar site.
It should have been simple. Isolate the shard's signal. Retrieve it. Sequence complete.
But then they appeared.
A clandestine group—unnamed, unregistered, their members cloaked in nullifying enchantments—who had been after the same shard. They'd gotten to it first. Kite had been forced to pursue them, which led her deeper than she'd planned into the underbelly of Arkenfall's forgotten districts.
That trail had ultimately led to him—the scientist.
And that hidden lab in Gravemarch.
By the time she arrived, it was already too late. The shard had been absorbed or repurposed. Her Sequence, originally focused on the Force artifact, had evolved—as Sequences often did when obstructed. Now, the target was no longer the shard…
It was the man behind it all.
The scientist.
And he had escaped—disappeared through a Rift signature Kite hadn't been able to trace. She was left with nothing but fragmented data and burned ground.
Her Sequence had failed to resolve. Worse, its difficulty tier had risen, recalibrating in real time. What was once a shard recovery had transformed into an extended pursuit of a high-clearance rogue technomancer with access to forbidden Pillar tech.
That meant more risk, less time, and greater penalties for failure.
As she made her way into the heart of Arkenfall's capital district, Kite pulled her hood low over her face. Her dark cloak billowed in the wind as she moved through the busy streets unnoticed. Around her, the Mundanes—unawakened citizens—went about their lives in peaceful ignorance. Their smiles were careless. Their thoughts occupied by jobs, schedules, relationships—not survival.
They lived under the false safety net that the Awakened provided.
They had no idea how close death had been to them hours ago. A Dimensional Titan had breached their reality—and they'd slept through it.
Kite stepped into a side alley, letting the shadows consume her again. The darkness felt familiar. Soothing.
She glided from shadow to shadow, traversing the city unseen, her presence no more than a ripple in the void.
I need leads. I need resources. And I need to finish this Sequence before the system penalizes me.
But even as she tried to focus on the mission…Her thoughts kept drifting back to Kayden. To the golden light. To the calm way he'd spoken. The instinctive, devastating power.
Who the hell are you…? she wondered, fading deeper into the city's hidden veins. And why do I feel like this is only the beginning?
"Hey… you."
The voice cut through the silence like a blade, snapping Kite out of her thoughts the moment she emerged from the alley's shadowed wall. Her instincts flared, hands twitching toward her daggers even before she fully turned.
Hovering just a few feet above the ground, bathed in the flickering light of a neon sign, was Kayden Tenet.
He wasn't naked anymore.
His long, dark hair was tied into a neat ponytail that fell just past his shoulders, and he now wore the fitted black combat uniform of EB-Zero—Vex's uniform. The coat fluttered slightly with the breeze, sleeves rolled to the forearm, revealing the faint golden lines of residual energy tracing across his veins.
He looked calm. Focused. Eyes glowing faintly with that same eerie golden hue from before.
But there was something else in them too.
Recognition.
Not of her name. Not of her past.
But her.
"How… how did you find me?" Kite demanded, immediately shifting into a defensive stance. Her daggers manifested into her hands with a shimmer of black steel, glowing with the edge of Force-infused sharpness.
Kayden floated down, his feet gently touching the ground. "I followed the energy traces you left behind."
Kite's brows furrowed.
"Energy traces? That's impossible. I made sure to wipe out all of my Force residue when I left Gravemarch."
Kayden tilted his head slightly, as if trying to translate her words.
"Force… is that what you call that energy inside you?"
Her stance eased slightly—not by much, but enough for curiosity to win over instinct.
"You don't know what Force energy is?"
"No," he admitted, his voice low and honest. "I… don't remember much. My name, yes. But the rest—what I am, where I came from… it's just empty. Like someone erased everything but left the shell."
Kite stared at him, analyzing his posture, his tone. He wasn't lying. There was no deception in his aura.
Interesting, she thought. Not just powerful… but amnesiac. And yet his instincts are sharper than most Masters.
She lowered one dagger—but kept the other ready.
"Did you kill Vex?" she asked, her voice flat.
Kayden blinked, then shrugged slightly. "Vex… that man I fought. No. I left him alive. Knocked him out. Took his outfit as a warning."
Kite raised a brow. "A warning?"
He nodded. "To leave me alone."
There was something chilling in the simplicity of his words. No bravado. No malice. Just a quiet certainty that he could back it up.
Kite crossed her arms, her tone skeptical. "You know stealing an EB-Zero uniform will get you marked by the Central Authority, right?"
"I didn't steal it," Kayden said, glancing down at the coat. "I claimed it. There's a difference."
Kite let out a slow breath, weighing her options.
He was dangerous. Too unpredictable. But there was a strange gravity around him—a pull that made her hesitate, even as logic screamed to disappear again.
"You came all this way just to follow me?" she asked.
"I didn't know where else to go," he said, his expression suddenly distant. "But I remembered your presence. Your shadow. It felt... familiar."
That gave her pause.
Familiar?
She didn't know what to make of that. But deep down, a question she didn't want to ask formed in the back of her mind.
Why does a part of me feel the same?
"Okay," Kite said, folding her arms with a guarded breath.
Kayden tilted his head. "What were you doing in that lab?"
"I was working on my Sequence," she replied, eyes scanning the crowd around them.
"Sequence?" Kayden repeated, clearly confused. "What's that?"
Of course, Kite thought, resisting the urge to sigh. She had to keep reminding herself—he might have the power of an Awakened, but mentally, he was starting from zero.
"A Sequence is like a mission," she explained, her tone steady but clipped. "Or a trial, depending on how you look at it. It's something assigned by the Pillar system to Awakened like us."
Kayden blinked. "Awakened… Pillar system... What are those?"
Kite raised an eyebrow in growing irritation. She didn't have time for a basic civics lesson, but Kayden's expression was sincere—frustrated, not ignorant. He truly didn't know.
Right. Amnesiac. Great.
She exhaled and adjusted her hood, stepping just beyond the alley into the soft glow of the streetlights. The capital buzzed around them—hovercars gliding past, holograms dancing across ad boards, and civilians walking casually, unaware that a walking weapon stood just meters from them.
"Awakened are people who've gained access to power—like you and me," she said, keeping her voice low. "We don't follow the same rules as Mundanes. We awaken abilities… talents… and are recognized by the system."
She then pointed upward, toward the sky.
"That—is the Pillar system."
Kayden followed her finger. Above the city, massive structures hung in the sky like silent gods—angular, celestial platforms with rotating glyphs etched into their surfaces. One of them loomed above the capital like a second moon, casting a faint silver glow over the skyline. Though distant, it pulsed with a quiet, terrifying authority.
Kite continued. "Three centuries ago, the world changed. We call it the Pillar Descent. These artifacts appeared out of nowhere—impossibly vast, sentient, and far beyond our understanding. They didn't just hover there. They restructured everything."
"Restructured… how?" Kayden asked.
"They brought disasters," she said grimly. "Earthquakes, dimensional ruptures, storm clusters, mana spikes… and worst of all—Catastrophes."
Kayden's eyes narrowed slightly at that word.
"Those monsters from the Riftgates," she added. "Beings from outside our reality. They began pouring into our world once the Pillars appeared. They wiped out most of the human population. Our governments fell. Whole continents were lost."
She glanced at him then.
"You destroyed one earlier, by the way. A Dimensional Titan. That's not something most people survive seeing, let alone defeat."
Kayden nodded slowly, the pieces beginning to click together.
"I see. And… this system you mentioned—what exactly does it do?"
Kite gave him a small, ironic smile—bitter and weary.
"Well, turns out the Pillars weren't just some cosmic horror machines. They gave us something back. A system. We call it the Pillar System—a kind of vast, semi-sentient interface hardwired into the world now. It governs everything about Awakened life: growth, power progression, adaptation. It's how we survive."
She paused.
"It gives out Sequences—trials, missions, survival events—and if you complete them, you grow. You adapt. If you fail… you die. Simple as that."
Kayden looked back up at the sky, silent.
"…And this is just how things are now?"
Kite gave a slow nod. "For three hundred years. This is the world you woke up in, Kayden."
He looked at her, something unreadable behind his gaze.
"I don't know who I am… but it seems like I've been thrown into something big."
"You're not wrong," she said. "The real question is—are you part of the solution?"
She looked at him meaningfully.
"Or are you going to become another Catastrophe?"