Pain returned before thought.
His body screamed before he even knew it was his again—lightning arcing down his spine, nerves twitching like puppet strings. He gasped. The breath felt... wrong. Too cold. Too sharp. Like ice had replaced his lungs.
Joe opened his eyes.
He lay in the middle of a blackened crater. Around him, the ground was glassed and scorched, steaming in the morning light. Ash floated through the air like snow.
[New Notification]
Core Awakening: Lightning Aspect – Complete
Level: 1
Title Earned: "Stormborn"
What?
The words hung in the air in glowing white glyphs, shimmering like static. He blinked. They didn't disappear. He reached out a hand and watched the blue electricity crawl across his fingers like a living thing.
"This… this isn't Earth," he muttered.
No phone. No buildings. No storm sirens. Just twisted trees, a red sun climbing a violet sky, and something howling in the distance.
A message blinked again:
New Objective: Survive 24 hours.
Joe staggered to his feet, wincing at the pain lacing through his joints. His hands still tingled. His veins glowed faint blue under his skin. Static danced in the air around him.
He looked around the crater—bare trees twisted toward the sky like claws, their bark pulsating faintly, as if breathing.
Then the howling stopped.
Suddenly, the tree line shifted.
Something slithered.
It didn't walk. It glided—a creature unlike anything Joe had seen before.
It was tall and thin, easily seven feet high, but it had no face. Just a long, smooth, featureless head tapering to a sharp point—like an arrowhead made of bone. Its torso was human-shaped, but split down the middle, opening like a flower in bloom. Inside, there was nothing but rows of teeth and a glowing red core pulsing with heat.
Its arms bent backwards like a mantis. Its legs ended in points that didn't touch the ground. It hovered inches above the earth, as if gravity forgot it existed.
And then it screamed.
Not a roar. Not a shriek. A radio-static scream, high-pitched and broken, as if the world itself was glitching.
[New Threat Detected]
Species: Unknown
Classification: Aberrant – Class D
Behavior: Aggressive, Hungry, Unstable
XP Reward: 40
Joe backed away. "Oh, hell no…"
The monster lunged.
Joe raised his hands on instinct—electricity surged up his arms, and with a violent snap, a bolt of pure lightning erupted from his palms, slamming into the creature's chest mid-air.
The blast threw the monster into a tree with bone-crushing force—but it didn't scream. It didn't bleed. It just tumbled, shuddered, and floated upright again, steam rising from its core.
Then it split wider.
The flower of teeth opened fully—and it charged again.
Joe screamed.
The fight was chaotic.
Lightning surged again—wild and barely controlled. Each bolt staggered the creature, but the drain on Joe's body was instant and brutal. His muscles locked up. His hands blistered.
He dodged a slicing strike—barely. The monster's arm scraped his shoulder, and pain flared. It burned like acid.
[Status: Soul Burn – Minor]
Regeneration halted. Magical resistance reduced.
"WHAT?!"
In desperation, Joe grabbed a fallen tree branch and channeled everything he had into it. The branch ignited with electric heat, glowing blue-white, and he swung—
CRACK!
The creature's core shattered like glass.
The world fell silent again.
It slumped, folded in on itself like melting wax, and vanished into a mist of red particles.
Joe collapsed to his knees, panting.
[Level Up – Level 2]
+2 STR
+1 MAG
Skill Gained: Spark Nerve (Passive) – Your nervous system partially channels electricity. Reaction speed increased.
Joe lay in the grass, blinking at the sky.
This wasn't a dream.
This wasn't Hell.
It was Torn.
And if that was a weak monster… then this world wanted him dead.
But a flicker of lightning crackled up his arm again, responding to his fear. His will. His hunger.
Maybe it wasn't just trying to kill him.
Maybe it was testing him.