Kai Veylan wiped sweat from his brow as he hauled another crate off the rusted truck bed. Dockside District smelled like low tide and diesel, same as always. Salt air stuck to his skin, and the late-afternoon sun baked the cracked concrete. Another odd job, another fifty credits that would barely cover half of Mom's meds this month.
He was twenty, still unawakened, still nobody. Two and a half years since the first Gates ripped open across the world, and most people his age had already sparked—Blade, Arc, or Veil. They got licenses, guild contracts, real money. Kai got crates to carry and bills to dodge.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. A news alert: micro-gate activity in the Riftline again. He ignored it. Alerts happened every day. Dockside sat too close to the unstable zones; people here had learned to live with the sirens.
Then the sirens actually went off.
Not the usual distant wail—this was the full-throated, city-wide scream that meant a Rogue Gate had spawned inside populated blocks. Red strobes painted the warehouses. People started running.
Kai dropped the crate and sprinted toward home. Mom was at her second job in the market strip three streets over. He cut through alleys, boots pounding, heart already hammering.
The air shimmered ahead of him, like heat rising off asphalt, but wrong. Too thick. Too purple.
A Gate.
It yawned open right in the middle of Harbor Street, a jagged oval of violet light, edges crackling like torn fabric. Screams erupted as the suction hit—wind howling inward, dragging debris, signs, people.
Kai tried to brake, but the pull caught him. His feet slid. He clawed at a lamppost, fingers scraping rust, but the metal groaned and bent. The Gate swallowed him whole.
Darkness. Then cold.
He landed hard on damp earth. Trees loomed overhead, black trunks twisted into impossible spirals. Fog curled between them like living smoke. The air tasted metallic.
A blue panel flickered into existence in front of his eyes.
[Awakening Detected.]
[Origin Assignment: Blade.]
[Name: Kai Veylan
Rank: F
Strength: 8
Agility: 9
Vitality: 7
Focus: 6
Perception: 10
Skills:
- Basic Slash (Common)
- Endurance (Common)]
Kai stared, breath fogging in the sudden chill. It was real. He'd finally awakened. Late, weak stats, bottom-tier rank—exactly what everyone predicted for a Dockside nobody.
A howl split the fog.
Three wolf-like things burst from the underbrush, bigger than dogs, eyes glowing red, hides made of jagged stone. Domain monsters. Unawakened humans didn't survive five seconds against them.
Kai's hand closed around a broken branch—closest thing to a weapon. The first wolf lunged. He swung wildly. The branch cracked against its skull; stone chips flew. Pain exploded up his arms.
[Basic Slash activated. +5% damage.]
The wolf staggered. Kai stabbed the splintered end into its eye. It shrieked and dissolved into black mist, leaving behind a small glowing core.
The other two hit him at once.
He went down hard, ribs cracking against root-knotted ground. Teeth tore into his shoulder. Blood soaked his jacket. The system blared warnings in red.
[Vitality critical.]
He kicked, rolled, slashed blindly. One wolf died. The last pinned him, jaws inches from his throat.
Something snapped inside his chest—not bone, but deeper. A second panel unfolded over the first, edges glowing gold instead of blue.
[Soulmate Sync System Activated.]
[Scanning for optimal compatibility…]
[Sync Partner Assigned: Aria Kline.]
[Relationship Stage 0: Linked (Forced)]
[Distance Limit Engaged. Sync Strain will begin if separation exceeds 5 kilometers.]
Kai blinked through blood and pain. Aria Kline? The Aria Kline? Astral Crown's Ice Queen? The S-rank Arc Hunter who solo-cleared a B-rank Gate at seventeen? The one on every recruitment poster in North Spire?
The wolf's jaws widened.
A bolt of pure white lightning speared down from nowhere, punching straight through the monster's skull. It burst into ash.
Kai rolled onto his side, gasping. Footsteps—light, precise—approached through the fog.
A girl stepped into view. Platinum-blonde hair tied high, storm-gray eyes, guild leathers bearing the silver crown insignia of Astral Crown. She lowered her hand; faint sparks danced between her fingers.
She looked down at him like he was a bug that had accidentally wandered onto her shoe.
"You," Aria Kline said, voice cold enough to frost the air. "Why does my system say I'm linked to you?"
Kai tried to push up on one elbow. Blood dripped from his shoulder. The golden panel floated between them now, visible to both.
[Sync Confirmed.]
[Failure to cooperate will result in Sync Collapse for both parties.]
Aria's eyes narrowed. For the first time, something like alarm flickered across her perfect face.
Kai managed a weak, crooked grin. "Guess we're stuck together, princess."
Her hand twitched, lightning crackling again—this time aimed at him.
The Gate behind them began to destabilize, violet edges fraying.
And in the corner of Kai's vision, buried in fine print at the bottom of the golden panel, new text scrolled slowly into view:
[SYNC SUBJECT: EXPERIMENT 07.]
(To be continued...)