Rei stood at the dungeon's entrance, the cold night air biting at his skin. The world beyond the gate should have felt familiar—the city skyline, the neon lights, the distant noise of traffic—but it didn't.
Something had changed.
No, he had changed.
The moment he stepped out, his senses expanded. The mana in the air, once invisible to him, now pulsed like a living entity. He could feel the energy within every person, every building, every shadow that stretched under the streetlights. The Awakener Guild's officers whispered among themselves, their hands twitching toward their weapons. Even High-Ranking Hunters who once scoffed at his existence—watched him with wary eyes.
Rei tilted his head, his expression unreadable.
They're afraid.
"Good." He said to himself.
He had spent years scraping by, fighting for scraps, enduring sneers from those who thought strength was all that mattered. And now? Now they didn't even dare meet his gaze. One of the officers, a tall man with silver hair and a military stance, finally stepped forward.
"Rei Kisaragi, your rank… your power… there's no record of such a sudden increase. I need you to come with us to the Guild Headquarters for an evaluation." He was calm
Rei exhaled slowly, considering his options. "I could go with them, play along, pretend to be an anomaly that the Guild could classify and contain. Or…" he stopped
A shadow moved.
A flicker of motion in the corner of his vision.
Then—
A dagger, aimed straight for his throat.