The world didn't end with a bang.
It ended with my whimper.
No one cared. No one saw.
Just a boy bleeding out in an alley, holding on to a life the world had already thrown away.
Kaelis hadn't planned on dying on his sixteenth birthday.
But District Seven had a way of grinding plans into dust.
The Wall towered over the slums—a hundred feet of rusted steel slicing the city in half. On one side, the rich buried themselves in comfort and credits. On the other, people like Kaelis survived on scraps and silence.
Rain hammered the alley, streaking neon into puddles—blue, red, then blue again. A holoscreen on the corner fizzed static before blaring another empty slogan:
UNITY THROUGH PROGRESS.
Faces smiled down from the screen, all teeth and gloss. Kaelis didn't recognize a single one.
The air stank—of oil, rot, and something worse.
Like lies left out too long.
Air purifiers? Broken.
Schools? Boarded shut.
Hope? Folklore for fools.
Nothing in District Seven broke by accident.
Kaelis crouched low, knees soaking in muck.
In his arms, a rat—small, mangled, breathing shallow. Its one good eye blinked slowly, its fur matted with blood.
It didn't have long.
Overhead, surveillance drones buzzed like flies, scanning every shadow for "threats."
That meant anyone left behind.
No one saved a rat.
Hell, no one saved people.
But Kaelis would.
"You're not alone," he murmured, gently tucking it into the folds of his hoodie.
Ms. Chen had given him that hoodie last winter, after he salted her steps so she wouldn't slip.
"I've got you."
He didn't have much to offer.
Mom had vanished into a haze of corporate-priced pills.
Dad had disappeared into a prison system that made more money than it cost.
Foster homes chewed him up, spat him out.
But maybe he could give this little thing the one thing no one had ever given him—
—a death that mattered.
Footsteps splashed behind him.
Laughter, sharp and cruel, cut through the rain.
District Seven's lullaby.
"Look at Rat Boy," Marcus sneered.
His cybernetic eye glowed blue, twitching with predatory glee.
"Your junkie mom left you to rot, and this is what you cling to? A rat?"
Kaelis didn't turn.
He knew Marcus. Knew the gang he ran with—burnouts who set stray cats on fire for kicks, dreaming of breaking through the Wall but breaking everything else instead.
He curled tighter around the rat.
Some people break things because they're already broken, Mom used to whisper.
A boot slammed into his ribs. Pain flared white-hot.
Another kick cracked his head against brick. Blood mixed with the rain.
The drones kept watching.
Always watching.
Never helping.
The rat squeaked—barely. Still breathing.
"Don't cry," Kaelis mumbled through the haze. "Just… stay with me."
Marcus laughed.
"That rat's worth more than you. Might even feed my snake."
Another blow.
Something inside gave way.
The rat slipped from Kaelis's arms, hitting the ground soft as a whisper.
Its chest rose once.
Then stopped.
I'm sorry, Kaelis thought, as the dark took hold. I tried.
[Soul Detected]
[Mission: Unite the Broken. Break the Chains.]
[District Seven Parameters: Oppression Factor High.]
[Activating Monster Link System...]
Silence.
A void without shape.
No rain.
No Wall.
No pain.
Only stillness.
Then—something.
Something there.
A presence vast and old.
Watching. Waiting. Not cruel. Not kind. Curious.
Like a god cradling a cracked toy.
Why save that creature?
The voice wasn't sound. It was feeling, etched into his bones.
Kindness is a currency your world does not trade.
Kaelis's voice was a whisper in the dark.
"Doing nothing costs more."
The void shimmered. Amused.
A thousand others begged for power.
You gave yours away.
Rare. Dangerous. Necessary.
Then—light.
Blinding. Wild.
The color of broken chains.
Rise, Kaelis, Kindest of the Broken.
Where others build walls, you will build bonds.
You will be the king monsters kneel to.
The void shattered.
Flames roared.
Kaelis gasped—alive. Awake.
No alley. No Marcus.
Just a sky of black stone cracked with veins of fire. The air pulsed—savage and free.
A howl shook the horizon.
Then came the words:
[Monster Link System: Activated.]
[Core Trait: Empathic Bond — Borrow the strength of those you save.]
[Mission: Unite the Broken. Break the Chains.]
[Warning: Divine Chains Detected. System Access Restricted.]
Stone groaned. Claws scraped.
A beast stepped from the shadows—towering, fur bristling, eyes molten gold.
It didn't growl.
Didn't bow.
It saw him.
The boy who died for a rat.