The alarms were deafening.
Red emergency lights flashed across Dusthaven's slums as colony-wide speakers blared the same recorded warning on loop: "Sanctuary destabilization in progress. Dimensional collapse imminent. All citizens evacuate to designated inner shelters immediately."
Inner shelters. Kai almost laughed as he sprinted through the chaotic streets. Those were reserved for registered residents with Alliance IDs—people who lived behind the energy domes. For the slums, there were no shelters. Just open ground and the faint hope that the beasts would head elsewhere.
People ran in every direction: mothers clutching children, men dragging whatever belongings they could carry, old scavengers hobbling on makeshift crutches. Hover-drones buzzed overhead, broadcasting calm instructions for the privileged while completely ignoring the panic below.
Kai didn't care about any of it. His eyes were fixed on the horizon where the public Sanctuary rift now raged like a living storm. The usual violet shimmer had turned violent crimson, lightning crackling across its surface. Massive spatial tears split the air around it, and through them poured beasts—dozens, hundreds—roaring as they charged into the open colony.
Ironhide Wolves. Razorback Boars. Shadow Claws. All Base Aether level, but in these numbers they were a death sentence for anyone unarmed.
Enforcers in powered armor formed a defensive line near the inner gates, plasma rifles picking off the larger threats—but only to protect their side. The slums were left to burn.
"Lira…" Kai's heart pounded harder than his feet against the cracked pavement.
She had left at dawn to gather moonshade herbs that grew in the irradiated soil near the rift. They sold well on the black market—enough to buy real antibiotics for the cough that had been worsening. He had told her not to go alone, but credits didn't wait for permission.
He pushed harder, leaping over abandoned carts and shoving through crowds. His cracked ribs screamed with every breath, but pain was irrelevant right now.
The closer he got, the worse it became.
Beasts had already reached the outer habitats. Screams echoed as a pack of wolves dragged down a fleeing family. A massive boar gored through a makeshift wall, collapsing a shelter on the people inside. Smoke rose from burning scrap-metal homes.
Kai's plasma cutter was already in his hand, blade humming low. He didn't slow down.
A lone Shadow Claw broke from the pack and lunged at him—sleek black fur, blade-like talons extended. Kai met it head-on. He ducked under the swipe, drove the cutter upward through its jaw and into its skull. The beast dropped without a sound.
Hot blood splashed across his face and arms. Again, that strange warmth flickered through his skin—like the blood was seeping in rather than just coating him. Strength surged for a split second, sharper than yesterday's refinement.
He shook it off and kept moving.
The rift's edge was pure chaos now. The bleed zone had expanded massively, swallowing entire blocks of slums. Spatial fractures hung in the air like broken glass, distorting everything around them. Beasts poured out endlessly.
Kai scanned desperately for any sign of Lira. Nothing but monsters and bodies.
Then he saw it—a small figure in a patched gray cloak, limping toward the rift itself, away from the colony.
Lira.
She was heading deeper in, probably thinking the collapse would force beasts outward and make the inner dimension temporarily safer. A desperate gamble, but one that might work short-term.
Except the entire Sanctuary was coming apart.
Kai didn't hesitate. He charged straight into the rift.
The world twisted.
One moment he was in the burning colony, the next he stood on uneven stone ground inside the dimensional pocket. The sky above was a fractured void—stars visible through massive cracks, lightning arcing between floating landmasses.
The air here was thick with aether energy, making his skin tingle. Beasts roared in every direction, fighting each other in the chaos as the dimension unraveled.
He spotted Lira immediately—fifty meters ahead, backed against a crumbling ancient wall, surrounded by five Shadow Claws. Her herb basket lay broken at her feet. One of the beasts had already slashed her leg; blood trailed down her calf.
She held a small mining knife in shaking hands, face pale but defiant.
Kai's vision went red.
He moved.
The first Shadow Claw didn't even see him coming. The plasma cutter took its head clean off. Blood sprayed in a wide arc—and this time, Kai felt it clearly. The hot liquid hit his skin and vanished, absorbed instantly. Raw power flooded his muscles like he'd refined a dozen Base shards at once.
The remaining four beasts turned as one, hissing.
Kai didn't wait. He charged into them like a storm.
The fight was brutal, fast, and one-sided.
He took hits—claws raking his shoulder, another gashing his side—but he didn't feel the pain. Every splash of blood that touched him vanished into his body, each one bringing a burst of strength and speed. His movements grew sharper, more precise.
One beast down. Two. Three.
The alpha—a larger specimen with glowing crimson eyes—leapt from above. Kai met it mid-air, driving the cutter through its chest. They crashed to the ground together. He twisted the blade deeper, then ripped it free in a fountain of blood.
All five lay dead.
The absorbed essence surged through him wildly, far beyond anything he'd experienced from normal refinement. His saturated Base Aether felt… strained, like it was on the verge of something.
But there was no time to think.
"Lira!"
He dropped beside her. She was conscious, breathing shallowly, eyes wide with relief and fear.
"Brother… you came…"
"Always." He tore strips from his jacket, binding her leg wound tightly. "Can you walk?"
"With help."
The dimension shuddered violently. Massive chunks of floating stone began raining down. The rift's exit back to the colony had completely collapsed—blocked by a wall of fractured space.
They were trapped inside a dying Sanctuary.
Kai scanned the area desperately. Most paths led to open drops into the void or swarms of incoming beasts.
Then he saw it—half-buried under rubble shaken loose by the collapse, an ancient structure that hadn't been there yesterday. Tall obsidian pillars, cracked but standing. Something about it pulled at him, like a heartbeat in his blood.
"We're going there," he said, hauling Lira up and supporting her weight.
They moved as fast as they could. Beasts ignored them for now, more interested in easier prey or fleeing the collapse themselves.
The structure's entrance was a broken archway leading into darkness. Inside, dust motes floated in faint crimson light. At the center, on a raised pedestal of black stone, rested a single object.
A massive scale—deep crimson with edges of molten gold, larger than a man's torso. It pulsed slowly, like a living heart.
The moment Kai's eyes landed on it, his blood roared in response. Every vein burned. The strange absorption sensation from the beast blood intensified a hundredfold, as if the scale was calling to him.
Lira sagged against him, barely conscious. "Kai… what is that?"
"I don't know," he whispered. "But it's our only chance."
He carried her the final steps and laid her gently against a pillar. Then, hand steady despite everything, he reached out and touched the scale.
The world exploded in crimson light.
Power—ancient, overwhelming, draconic—surged into his body like a supernova.
Lines of text burned themselves into his vision.
[System Awakening Initiated…]
[Unique Bloodline Resonance Confirmed]
[Legacy Artifact Recognized]
[Eternal Blood Dragon System Activated]
Kai staggered, knees hitting stone as the scale dissolved into pure crimson energy and flowed into his chest. His blood boiled. His vision sharpened to impossible clarity. Strength beyond anything he'd imagined flooded every cell.
And deep in his mind, a cold, mechanical voice spoke for the first time.
[Welcome, Heir.]
[Your path begins now.]