Chapter 2: Echoes in the Circuit
Pain came first.
A jagged, electric scream lanced through Kai's bones as the Star Vein Protocol surged into his body. His back arched, eyes wide with silent agony. The ancient data—not lines of code, but raw will—tore through his spiritual core like a wildfire, rewriting circuits that hadn't existed seconds before.
He saw visions: constellations bleeding into each other, a child floating in a void of shattered satellites, a star blooming inside a human heart.
Then everything went dark.
Booting system. Synchronizing soul-script...
Compatibility: 97.4%
Primary Directive: Survive.
Kai awoke on the cold stone floor of the abandoned node, gasping like he'd been drowning. His skin radiated heat, glowing faintly with threadlike patterns—veins of starlight—that pulsed once and faded into his flesh.
"What... was that?"
He sat up slowly. The datapad had overloaded, its screen cracked, but something new pulsed in his vision—a faint overlay only he could see. Stats. Readouts. Meridians mapped like a constellation chart. The Protocol had embedded itself in his neural lattice.
This wasn't just a technique. It was a living system.
He turned to check on Lina.
She stirred, murmuring in her sleep, face pale and sweating. Her spirit core was destabilizing. Her parents had said she was "special," but Kai never understood what they meant—until now. He reached out and touched her forehead.
Instantly, her energy flared—a brilliant gold that turned white at the edges.
She's syncing with me, Kai realized. The Protocol is recognizing her...
He had no time to think.
A distant explosion thundered through the Undergrid. Sirens followed. From the edge of the broken window, Kai glimpsed the unmistakable shimmer of Astral Lotus Enforcer Mantids descending like celestial reapers.
They'd found him.
"Time to go," he muttered.
Kai scooped Lina into his arms and grabbed what little he had—his jacket, a fractured spirit talisman, and the datapad fragments. As he stepped out of the sanctuary, the broken ward behind him fizzled and died.
He barely made it two levels down before a blast of kinetic energy slammed into the wall beside him, hurling debris in all directions. A metal shard sliced his cheek.
Three Enforcers stood at the far end of the hallway, clad in chrome-white armor etched with lotus glyphs. One of them stepped forward, raising a gauntleted hand glowing with spirit-tech energy.
"Kai Ardent," the voice buzzed through a voice modulator, "by decree of the Lotus Ascendancy, you are charged with illegal possession of classified protocols and the obstruction of galactic order. Surrender now and your spiritual core will be spared."
Kai grit his teeth. "You killed my parents."
"We preserved galactic stability."
That was all he needed to hear.
He slid Lina behind a support column and whispered, "Don't move. Whatever happens—don't scream."
Then he stood up.
And the Protocol responded.
A hum filled the air—low and unnatural, like a solar flare trapped inside a cathedral bell. The air warped around him, the veins on his arms lighting up once more. He raised his hand, and energy flickered into existence—not the red or blue of normal qi, but a soft violet tinged with starlight.
The Enforcers paused.
Then, they opened fire.
Kai moved like instinct. Like memory. He didn't know the technique he was using—his body simply obeyed the new laws pulsing in his blood. He bent space just enough to let the energy rounds pass. His counterstrike wasn't elegant, it was raw and unstable, but it blasted one Enforcer through the wall.
Too much output, he realized as pain lanced up his spine. The Protocol is unstable... I can't keep this up.
He grabbed Lina and ran, a door bursting open before he even reached it—responding to the Protocol's spatial interference field.
Behind him, the remaining Enforcers regrouped, one activating a tracking beacon.
"This is no ordinary fugitive," the leader said. "He's active. The Protocol is awake."
And above them, far in orbit, a signal pinged deep within the vaults of the Astral Lotus Grand Temple.
Subject ARDENT has awakened. Authorization requested: Level Prime.