The world returned to Kael in shattered fragments.
Heat.
Dust.
Screams muffled beneath collapsing stone.
Iria Nox dragged him across the broken cavern floor, her breaths sharp and ragged. Rai Kuroda limped beside her, sparks spitting from the torn cables of his cybernetic arm. Tessa Wyn stumbled behind them, goggles cracked, her gauntlet flickering in and out like dying starlight.
The Forgotten's sanctuary once a refuge was now a graveyard. Melted metal dripped from the ceiling like candle wax. Ancient machinery lay twisted and blackened, humming their final mechanical breaths.
Tessa crouched over her ruined goggles, tapping the remaining lens.
Static.
Flicker.
Then a faint map projection sputtered to life.
"There," she rasped. "Old rail tunnels. Off-grid. Dominion won't track us there."
They moved half-carrying Kael, half-dragged forward by desperation until they reached a rusted ladder descending into darkness. One by one, they vanished below.
THE ABANDONED STATIONThe station beneath was a tomb of forgotten steel. Tracks broken. Screens shattered. Benches draped in dust thick as ash. The air tasted stale, metallic untouched by life.
No drones.
No sensors.
No Dominion eyes.
Just silence.
Kael's voice broke it, soft and trembling.
"…Did I… do all this?"
He couldn't meet their eyes.
Iria's grip tightened.
"Not now. Breathe."
But guilt crushed him harder than the falling rubble had.
Overhead, Dominion alarms wailed shrill, panicked, metallic.
Rai cursed.
"We won't make it far. Not like this."
Tessa pulled a bronze disc from her belt etched in runes glowing a faint, pulsing blue.
Rai blinked. "What's that?"
"A signal," Tessa muttered. "I sent it before Solis hit us."
Rai froze.
"A signal to who?"
The lights flickered.
A shadow moved across the tracks.
The ground trembled.
A figure emerged from the smoke eyes glowing like a wolf in torchlight.
THE ARRIVAL OF DARIUS HALLOWHe stepped forward like a legend torn out of old war tales tall, scarred, draped in a cloak the color of dead ash. Tribal tattoos coiled across his arms, alive with faint lightning beneath the skin.
Darius Hallow.
The Beast-Touched Warrior.
A man the Dominion once labeled: Too dangerous to kill, too wild to control.
His voice rumbled low, like a storm pacing behind a thin cage.
"You said urgent. You undersold it."
Tessa gave a weak, humorless smile.
"Yeah… we didn't want to scare you off."
Rai gestured at the ruined station.
"You missed the fireworks."
Darius ignored the banter.
His gaze landed on Kael.
And he stilled.
Recognition.
Concern.
Something older fear? Respect? Memory?
"The Void touched him," Darius murmured.
Iria's jaw tightened.
"He almost died."
Darius crouched, placing a calloused palm over Kael's chest. His tattoos glowed brighter responding to the unstable vortex inside Kael.
"If he stays here," Darius said quietly, "he won't last an hour."
Rai's voice cracked.
"Can you move us?"
In answer, Darius raised two fingers and whistled a piercing note that vibrated the rails.
The wall beside them shifted.
Stone pillars cracked open, revealing a secret passage descending deep into the earth.
"No Dominion map holds this route," Darius said.
"My den is close. Move quickly."
His golden eyes flicked toward Kael.
"That boy's awakening has stirred predators."
THE WOLF'S DENDarius's shelter was no hideout.
It was a domain.
A vast underground world carved by nature but reforged by tribal hands. Blue fire burned in stone sconces. Beast skulls hung like ancient guardians, their hollow eyes glowing with crystal embers. Pools of luminescent water cast drifting silver mist across the cavern.
Rai muttered, "Your taste still sucks."
Darius didn't respond.
"Lay him there."
They placed Kael on a fur-lined stone slab. Iria stayed closest. her shadow never leaving him.
Darius knelt, pressing a hand to Kael's chest.
His tattoos ignited.
Heat spread through Kael not soothing, but stabilizing. Forcing the raging Void within him into stillness by sheer will.
Darius exhaled, exhausted.
"Untrained. Raw. Catastrophic."
He looked at the rebels.
"If he'd stayed conscious for one more heartbeat… this entire mountain would be ash."
Iria didn't blink.
"Then teach him."
Rai added, "You're the only one who can."
Tessa whispered, voice cracking,
"He's terrified, Darius. He needs someone who understands."
For the first time, Darius looked at Kael not as a weapon…
but a young wolf, trembling and alone.
They rested wounded, shaken, half-broken.
Tessa repaired her gauntlet with trembling hands.
Rai wrapped plasma-conductive bandages around his damaged arm.
Iria kept silent vigil beside Kael, blade on her lap.
Kael woke in scattered breaths.
"…I hurt all of you," he whispered.
Iria placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You also saved us."
"I didn't mean to."
"Power doesn't care about intention," she murmured. "Only control."
Kael stared at his trembling hands.
"Then I want control."
Something changed in her eyes something she didn't allow herself to say.
THE TRAINING BEGINSDays passed.
Their wounds healed.
Kael's resolve did not.
The Void whispered like a storm behind a fragile wall always hungry.
One morning, Darius stood in the training hall, arms crossed, eyes blazing.
"Stand."
Kael rose.
Darius circled him like a wolf evaluating prey.
"Your power responds to instinct," he said. "Fear. Rage. Survival."
Kael swallowed.
"Then teach me control."
Darius stopped.
"Control?" he repeated softly. "No."
He stepped back.
"You must survive it first."
His tattoos erupted in bestial fire.
Kael's heartbeat thundered.
Iria watched tensely from the shadows.
Rai muttered, "And here we go…"
THE FIRST TRIALDarius closed his eyes.
His tattoos pulsed then exploded with primal energy. Aether swirled around him, thick as fog.
The ground cracked.
A massive Aether-formed bull materialized horns blazing, hooves sparking trenches into stone.
Darius's voice boomed:
"STOP IT."
The bull charged.
Kael braced tried to summon power
Nothing.
The beast thundered closer.
Kael dove aside, smashing into stone, ribs cracking with pain.
The creature evaporated in smoke.
Darius exhaled.
"You need a foundation first. Strength. Balance. Instinct."
He helped Kael to his feet.
"Rest. Tomorrow, we train in the forest."
Kael nodded through the pain.
His journey had begun.
THE OTHERS PREPAREIria Nox Seeking the Silent PhantomIria contacted the assassin known only in whispers:
Veyla Xirion.
The Silent Phantom.
Tall. Lithe. Jet-black hair fading into violent purple. One cybernetic eye glowing with a shifting crosshair.
Veyla listened then smirked.
"My services are… costly."
She named a price that made Iria's breath hitch.
"Meet me alone," Veyla said. "Morning. Don't be late."
The link cut.
Iria clenched her fists.
For Kael for her team
she would pay the price.
Rai Kuroda The Path of the Arc Warden
Rai accessed an illegal combat guild, seeking one man:
Orion Draeven.
The Arc Warden.
A towering, masked titan with drones orbiting him like moons. His broadsword crackled with Aether thunder.
Training under him would be brutal.
Maybe fatal.
Rai didn't hesitate.
He needed this strength.
That night, the den was quiet, too quiet.
Each of them carried their own fear.
Their own purpose.
Their own battle waiting on the horizon.
Tomorrow, Kael would face the wild forest.
Iria would descend into the assassin's shadows.
Rai would walk into the jaws of a war machine.
Their paths were diverging.
But one truth held them together:
Everything was about to change.