The scent of scorched stone and iron clung to the ruins like a bad memory.
It was quiet—unnaturally quiet. No birds, no wind, no life. Just smoke curling upward from charred rubble and the distant echoes of something that once screamed.
Kael Arclight stood at the edge of the crater, the black cape of his academy uniform tattered and fluttering in the breeze that didn't exist. His boots crunched ash. Beneath the weight of the sky, the world felt heavy—like it knew what had happened here.
Like it remembered.
"Third squad... confirmed dead."
The voice came from behind him, low and mechanical, through a comm-crystal. Kael didn't turn around. His fingers were still trembling, blood caked along his knuckles, a thin trail running from his lip to his jaw.
That wasn't just a dungeon raid.
It was a massacre.
And he was the only one who walked out alive.
Hours Earlier
Aurenya's capital city, Solmaris, gleamed like a polished blade beneath the noonday sun.
Tall white towers lined with golden veins spiraled toward the clouds, casting long shadows over the crowded lower sectors. Airships zipped between spires, while radiant banners flapped with the crests of elite guilds. Everything shone. Everything whispered power.
And Kael Arclight... didn't belong.
"Another rejection?"
"Yeah. Seventh one."
"They keep saying your aura's unstable."
"More like unrankable."
He sat alone on the Academy steps, hood drawn low, fingers toying with the edge of his old training gloves. Around him, other initiates showed off their relics, sparred, flirted, or climbed into armored caravans bound for real dungeons.
Not Kael.
He wasn't chosen. Not for a guild. Not for a party. Not even as a tagalong recruit.
He didn't even have a proper aura rank. Every scan gave a different reading. Sometimes D. Sometimes A. Once, an examiner's crystal just… cracked.
So the academy branded him a Null Type. Unstable. Useless.
He'd tried not to care. He told himself it didn't matter.
But it did.
Gods, it did.
Present
Kael's breath shuddered.
The dungeon was supposed to be a low-tier clear. A basic culling assignment with a squad of five and one B-rank lead. Entry-level stuff. A chance to prove himself.
Then the rift changed.
It pulsed.
It evolved.
A split-second surge of black and red—a corrupted gateway unlike any he'd read about. Monsters that weren't in the logs. Creatures that moved like liquid shadow and tore through ranked hunters like paper.
He hadn't seen it.
He felt it.
A pressure. A presence. Like something ancient looking down.
Watching.
And then… everyone screamed.
Kael's hand twitched.
Beneath the ash, buried in the crater, a thin sliver of metal glowed faintly—his blade. Burned halfway down the hilt. The rest melted.
He dropped to one knee, fingers brushing it. The moment he touched the ruined weapon, a whisper skated across his thoughts.
"...you survived."
It wasn't a voice. Not exactly. More like instinct wrapped in language.
A chill ran up his spine.
His aura flared without permission—flickering like a match about to die… or ignite.
[Aura Detected: Ashen Type – Unregistered Class]
[Condition: Unstable Sync – Adaptive Root Detected]
[Commencing Resonance…]
Kael staggered back. Symbols flickered across his vision—glyphs, runes, data he couldn't read. His core ached like it was being rewritten.
What is this…?
His mind raced. The academy said Ashen types were myths. Adaptive aura couldn't exist—it violated balance laws. It couldn't be ranked. Couldn't be controlled.
It shouldn't exist.
And yet, it was his.
A sudden sound—like a heartbeat made of fire—pounded in his ears.
He looked up.
Across the crater stood a man. No—something shaped like a man. Cloaked in darkness so dense it rippled.
The Eternal.
It hadn't left.
Its face was smooth and featureless, but Kael knew it was staring at him.
Then, it spoke.
"Haaah..."
A pause. A smirk, as if amused.
"...what a weak aura."
Kael's pupils dilated.
Pain. Anger. Fear. They churned inside him until something else surfaced—clarity.
He rose slowly, hand on the broken hilt.
His voice came low. Controlled.
"Haaah... what a strong aura."
[Resonance Triggered – Ashen Sync Stage 1: Emberspark Initiated]
[Relic Shard Bonded: "Charcoal Fang" – Temporary Weapon]
Kael dashed forward.
Faster than he'd ever moved.
The Eternal raised a hand.
Too slow.
Kael struck.
A flicker of flame. A burst of ash. A scream—his, not from pain, but from the pressure in his chest finally being released.
The broken blade bit deep.
And the Eternal bled.
Not much. Not nearly enough.
But it was something.
It stumbled.
Kael didn't wait. He pressed the attack, his aura burning away everything else—his doubt, his fear, his past.
He wasn't a Null.
He wasn't a failure.
He was something else now.
The Eternal roared.
Black tendrils shot out, slamming into Kael's side. He flew back, crashing into a wall of jagged stone. Blood filled his mouth. His vision doubled.
Still, he smiled.
"Not bad for a weakling, right...?"
The Eternal moved forward, slower this time.
It was wary.
Kael forced himself up. Body screaming, heart racing.
One more strike. Just one.
His aura pulsed again.
The ground cracked beneath his feet.
He dashed again—
And the scene went black.