The air was thick with the scent of rust and blood.
Victor lay on the ground, his body twitching as he tried to push himself up. His once-pristine suit was torn and soaked in crimson. The cocky grin he always wore was gone.
"You should've stayed dead, Leon," he rasped, blood dripping from his lips.
I stepped closer, my jaw clenched.
"Yeah," I muttered. "I get that a lot."
Victor's eyes burned with hatred, but I didn't care.
I was done talking.
But then…
A low hum filled the air.
I felt it before I saw it.
A pulse.
The lights overhead flickered. A strange energy rippled through the steel mill, sending a shiver down my spine.
"Lance!" I shouted, glancing toward him.
"On it!" he yelled back, hauling Damien's half-conscious body toward the exit.
Good.
I needed them out of here.
Because whatever was coming…
It wasn't normal.
I wasn't the same person who died three days ago.
The System had changed me.
When I absorbed Jared Liu's power that night in the morgue, I didn't just steal his abilities. I saw flashes of his life. Memories. Pain. Triumphs.
And the more abilities I took, the more pieces I collected.
Fragments of a world I didn't understand.
Awakened.
That's what people called them.
Humans who had been touched by the Abyss, gifted—or cursed—with powers that defied logic. Some could manipulate elements. Others could alter their bodies or bend reality itself.
But it wasn't random.
The Awakening Phenomenon had started ten years ago, after the Event.
A massive energy surge that split the sky open for exactly seven minutes and twenty-three seconds.
No one knew where it came from.
No one knew what caused it.
But when the world stitched itself back together, everything had changed.
A small percentage of the population—less than 1%—developed powers. Abilities that made them more than human.
The governments tried to regulate it.
They failed.
The world descended into chaos. Countries fell. Cities turned into battlegrounds. And when the dust settled, new powers rose to fill the void.
Out of the ashes of the old world, The Four Pillars emerged.
1. The Syndicate – A criminal empire controlling the black markets of Awakened abilities. They traffic powers like currency, selling them to the highest bidder.
2. The Covenant – A religious order that believes the Awakening is divine punishment. They hunt down Awakened, purging them in the name of their twisted faith.
3. Aegis Corporation – A tech conglomerate that rose to power by weaponizing Awakened abilities. They don't just create weapons. They own the people who wield them.
4. The Warden Collective – A loose alliance of rogue Awakened who enforce their own brutal version of justice. Vigilantes who believe they're the last line of defense between order and chaos.
Each group had their own agenda. Their own vision of what the world should be.
And somewhere in the middle of all that chaos…
Black Sun had tried to carve out its place.
We weren't heroes.
We weren't villains.
We did the jobs no one else would take.
But now, with Victor at the helm…
Black Sun had become something else.
Something darker.
A New Threat
As I stood over Victor's broken body, I felt it again.
That pulse.
It wasn't coming from Victor.
It was coming from me.
> [New Ability Detected.]
[Ability Name: Crimson Echo]
A sharp pain lanced through my skull as information flooded my mind.
Crimson Echo.
A power that allowed me to feel the remnants of blood—echoes of the past.
I staggered back, gripping my head as visions flashed before my eyes.
I saw the men who had beaten him. Saw their faces. Felt their fear as Victor hunted them down, one by one.
But then I saw something else.
Someone.
A figure standing in the shadows, watching it all unfold.
"You did well, Victor," the figure had whispered.
I couldn't see their face, but the power radiating from them was suffocating.
"But this is just the beginning."
Back to the Present
I snapped back to reality, my heart pounding.
Victor was still on the ground, but his eyes…
They weren't focused on me.
They were looking past me.
"Shit," I muttered, turning around.
A man stepped out of the shadows, his presence sending a chill down my spine.
Tall. Impeccably dressed in a suit that looked too clean for this place. His face was calm, but his eyes…
Like he was looking at something beyond this world.
"Leon Graves," he said softly.
My blood ran cold.
"Who the hell are you?" I asked, my voice low.
The man smiled.
"Just someone… who's been watching."
A New Game Begins
"Leon," Lance's voice crackled through my earpiece. "You okay in there?"
I didn't answer.
Because I knew…
This wasn't over.
Victor was just a pawn.
And now?
I was on the board.
"Don't worry," the man said softly, his smile never fading.
"We'll meet again."
And then—
He was gone.
Vanished like a shadow in the night
To be continued....