The city of Ashveil no longer existed.
Its streets were fractured, air shimmering with residual energy, and the smell of ozone mixed with something older, primordial.
Auren Veythar's fists burned. His muscles ached… yet not from fatigue. Every cell in his body pulsed with amplified potential, as if the very laws of biology themselves were being rewritten.
He looked around. The three-meter-tall, multi-limbed abominations were gone—disintegrated by the force of his first strike. But that victory was hollow.
He could feel them. Not physically, but through something deeper—a resonance in the threads of existence itself.
[Threat Detected: Abyssal Dominion Scout Unit]
[Distance: 3.2 km]
[Potential Power: Unknown]
The system's alert appeared inside his mind, mechanical yet faintly alive.
"Unknown?!" Auren whispered. The creature he'd destroyed had already felt like a god. If something stronger was approaching… he didn't want to think.
Yet instinct and adrenaline carried him forward. He ran through the fractured streets, every step sending vibrations through reality. He leapt across a collapsed building, and his eyes—now attuned to the laws around him—detected microfractures in gravity and energy currents.
This wasn't just overpowered speed. This was heightened existence itself.
Then he saw it.
A shadow in the horizon, far taller than the skyscrapers, crawling over the broken remnants of Ashveil. Its limbs were armored in black crystalline structures, its eyes like twin voids, swallowing light.
It moved with terrifying intelligence.
This isn't just a monster, Auren realized.
It's organized. Tactical. Calculated.
The Abyssal Dominion.
The first faction hint. The system had warned him. But Auren now understood: the world he thought he knew was gone. Everything was a battlefield.
He clenched his fists. Every breath felt like fire. And then… the first subtle change within him.
[Singularity Threshold Detected: Minor Activation]
[Amplification Applied: ×7,256]
Auren froze.
He hadn't done anything. He hadn't made a conscious breakthrough. And yet, energy surged inside him—not raw, not chaotic—but sharpened, aware, and hungry.
His skin rippled, veins glowing faintly as if reality itself recognized him as something more than human. His vision sharpened to the point where he could see the threads of laws interlacing the battlefield: probability flows, time distortions, energy currents, even tiny fissures in the laws the Abyssal Dominion relied on.
So this… this is what the system meant by Singularity.
It was subtle. He could barely control it. But he knew one thing: if he could harness it, the very fate of Ashveil and perhaps this universe might bend to his will.
The first Abyssal scout unit attacked.
It moved faster than Auren could normally perceive, warping space slightly with each step. Its claws tore through the shattered streets, sending debris into the air.
Auren reacted. Not with thought. Not with strategy. With instinct.
He moved like lightning, weaving through attacks. His fists glowed faintly as they struck the first limb—shattering it instantly. But another struck at his side. He barely twisted in time, and the energy from the impact reverberated back into the air, fracturing nearby walls.
[Combat Experience Gained ×2,150]
[Amplification Random Return: ×3,500]
The system rewarded him—but in ways he still didn't fully understand. Each hit, each movement, each microsecond of survival was logged, amplified, and returned. And it wasn't linear. Some attacks made him stronger instantly, some subtly enhanced muscles, reflexes, or perception, others… he couldn't even see yet.
Auren's awareness began to split.
He could sense multiple possibilities:
If he continued his current trajectory, he could destroy the scout… but risk collapsing part of the city in the process.
If he tried a defensive stance, he might survive but lose the initiative.
If he tapped deeper into the minor Singularity… he might gain enough power to overpower the scout instantly, but risk destabilizing his body.
It doesn't matter. I'm ready, he thought.
He chose action.
The energy surged. His limbs blurred. He moved beyond normal speed, hitting three critical points on the scout simultaneously. The black crystal armor shattered, fissures forming across its body like lightning on water.
Then he stopped.
The scout paused. Its intelligence—it wasn't instinct—it recognized something. Something terrifying.
Auren felt it too. A presence inside the scout… an echo of the Abyssal Dominion command. It knew he was different. Not human. Not even fully amplified yet. But something more.
[System Hint: Candidate exceeds early survival threshold]
[Singularity Minor Evolution Confirmed]
Energy coursed through him. Reality rippled. Auren's fist slammed into the scout's core. Light exploded across Ashveil. Buildings crumbled. Laws fractured. Time skipped.
The scout disintegrated, leaving a void residue where it once stood.
Auren breathed heavily. Sweat ran down his face. Every nerve was alive. Every sense screamed.
And somewhere far above, in the fractured sky, a black silhouette watched.
Not angry. Not amused.
Waiting.
The Observer.
Auren clenched his fists.
I don't know what you are… but I will surpass you.
He looked at the horizon. More shadows were moving—the Abyssal Dominion's full scout regiment, dozens of creatures marching with precision.
And he smiled.
Then let's begin.