Vague images drifted in the darkness. Blurry, fragmented—glimpses of people, places, feelings—but none of it made sense. Like shattered reflections in black water, the memories floated just out of reach, slipping away the moment he tried to grasp them. Voices murmured in languages he couldn't recognize. Faces flickered and vanished.
Then—light. It came suddenly, slicing through the void like a blade of clarity. The darkness shattered, scattering the broken memories like ash in the wind. And then—awareness. Kayden's eyes opened. For a moment, everything was distorted—warped by the refracted glow of the containment fluid surrounding him. But through the haze, one image cut through with crystal clarity:
A girl.
She stood just beyond the glass, her black hair falling like a silken veil past a pale, angular face. Crimson eyes, impossibly vivid, stared at him with unreadable intensity. Her frame was slender, poised, and she wore clothing that made no sense to him—form-fitting, tactical, and strangely regal, as if pulled from a world he'd never known.
Kayden blinked, heart pounding. That's when he noticed the fluid—thick, unnatural, clinging to his skin. He floated in it, his limbs heavy, lungs burning with a pressure that told him he shouldn't be breathing.
Panic surged. He reached out instinctively, palm slamming against the inner glass. It cracked. A second tap, harder—crack. A third—shatter. The pod exploded open, sending a rush of containment fluid splashing across the metallic floor. Kayden tumbled out, landing hard on his hands and knees. Cold air slammed into his soaked skin, and the first thing his body did was convulse.
He vomited—expelling the fluid he had unknowingly inhaled, gasping between retches. Chest heaving, he coughed once, then again, before finally rising on unsteady legs. His body trembled, not from weakness—but from something deeper. Displacement.
He stood—tall, broad-shouldered, six-foot-two, his muscles lean but sculpted. His breathing began to steady. Then came the awareness. That feeling. Something was off. Something in the air.
His head turned. There, near the edge of the chamber, was a structure—circular, massive, and glowing with pulsing blue runes. The light it emitted wasn't just illumination—it was rhythmic, alive, as though the machine were breathing. Space itself seemed to flicker inside its center.
Kayden's gaze shifted again. Two figures stood nearby. The girl—still watching him, her crimson eyes intense and focused. And beside her, a man in a white lab coat, blood staining one side of his face, his eyes narrowed with something between awe and dread.
Both were staring at him. Silence hung in the air, thick and electric. Kayden's fists clenched. His voice, hoarse and unsure, broke the quiet.
"…Where am I?"
His voice was soft—resonant and strangely melodic. To Kite, it sounded unreal, almost angelic, vibrating with a purity that struck something deep within her. And yet, it wasn't just his voice that caught her attention. It was the life in him.
He looked… awakened.
The containment wires that had once pierced into his chest and spine now hung uselessly around him, torn free. Open wounds where the electrodes had connected were already knitting themselves shut—muscle regenerating, skin reforming. His body was restoring itself in real time, fueled by something far beyond normal healing.
Kite tried her best not to look below—he was completely naked—but her eyes kept drifting up to his face.
Who the hell is this? she wondered, pulse quickening.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! It worked! It worked!"
The scientist's voice broke the moment, wild with manic triumph. He stood a few meters away, eyes glowing with the fervor of someone who had touched the divine.
Kite snapped her head toward him, her instincts demanding answers, but she didn't have time to interrogate him. Because something else was coming. She felt it before she saw it—a ripple in the Force, a tremor in the metaphysical boundaries of the room.
The rift—it was no longer just a portal. It had become a gateway. A Riftgate. And through it… they came.
Kite's breath hitched.
Catastrophes.
Monstrous beings that emerged from Riftgates—aberrations that devoured worlds, collapsed civilizations, and left nothing but entropy in their wake.
But how was there a Riftgate here? How had the scientist opened one? And what kind of Pillar tech could summon from that realm?
A massive shadow loomed through the swirling gate. Then, with a distorted shriek, a gigantic insectoid creature burst forth—its chitinous body warped and bloated, limbs twitching unnaturally, eyes glowing like molten pits of hate. Dark mist clung to its carapace, seething with corruptive Force energy.
The pressure hit her like a collapsing wall.
Kite staggered, her lungs constricting.
A shrill alarm erupted from her Commband.
"Warning: Catastrophe Detected. Classification: Dimensional Titan. Threat Level: High. Authorized Combatants: Disciple Rank and Above."
Her eyes widened as the system confirmed her worst fear.
"Damn it," she breathed.
A Dimensional Titan. The kind of monster that should only appear in outer warfronts—not in the middle of a hidden lab in Arkenfall. Just being near one was like standing in the path of a collapsing star. She could feel her Sequence difficulty spiking just from its presence.
She turned to the scientist—
But he was already gone. A trail of smoke and pulsing telekinetic residue marked his escape path. He'd vanished, using the chaos and the Titan's arrival as the perfect distraction.
"Shit," she spat.
Kayden blinked at her language, brows knitting in confusion—then his attention was pulled to the creature that had crawled through the Riftgate. As his eyes settled on it, something changed.
A sickness twisted in his gut. The moment he looked at the Catastrophe, his mind screamed in rejection. Its form shouldn't exist. Its shape didn't belong to this world. Reality warped around it like the universe was trying—and failing—to erase its presence. Revulsion gripped him. And then—rage.
Kite's head snapped toward Kayden as his aura suddenly flared. Force energy rolled off his body in waves—wild, unrefined, but immense. It was like standing next to a gravitational rift.
Her Commband shrieked again.
"Warning: Catastrophe Detected.""Classification: Soulweaver.""Threat Level: Severe.""Authorized Combatants: Supreme Rank and Above."
Kite's breath caught.
"Shit," she cursed again, voice nearly drowned by the alarms.
But Kayden wasn't listening. Something ancient, something instinctive, had taken over. He clenched his fist, drawing all the Force energy in his body to a single point. The ground beneath him cracked, shattered under the weight of his rising power.
Then—he moved. In a flash, he launched off the floor, a sonic boom trailing behind him. His fist met the Catastrophe mid-lunge—striking it dead-center in the chest. A blinding burst of light exploded through the room. And just like that—
The Dimensional Titan disintegrated into dust. Erased. Kite stood frozen, eyes wide, heart hammering.
What in the hell… is he?
Kayden dropped to the ground in a crouch, the floor beneath his feet cracking from the residual shock of his descent. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, steam rising from his skin as the last remnants of his unleashed power evaporated into the air.
He looked at his hands, confused.
The golden light was gone.
It hadn't just faded—it had vanished, like it had never been there at all. He clenched his fists and focused, willing that same energy to return—but nothing happened.
Instead, he felt something stir within him—something deep, ancient, and caged. Like a beast pressed against the walls of his soul, its claws dragging along the inside of his ribcage, waiting.
What was that power? Why is it gone now?
He turned slowly toward the girl—Kite—who instinctively stepped back. Her stance wasn't one of fear, but of caution. The way a hunter might react to a weapon that suddenly became sentient.
The Commband on her wrist sparked briefly to life.
"Dimensional Titan-rank Catastrophe has been eliminated. Sequence Trial: Pulse-grade Sequence—Status: Ongoing. All Catastrophe-class threats have been neutralized."
Kite tapped her device in irritation. "Is this thing working right?" she muttered. The earlier pressure—his pressure—may have overloaded the signal. Nothing about this situation felt routine anymore.
"Who are you?" Kayden asked again, his voice calmer now, yet edged with confusion. "Where… is this place?"
Kite studied him carefully. The overwhelming power he had radiated moments ago—it was gone. Like it had been sealed again, hidden beneath the surface. Without it, he seemed like a normal—if not exceptionally well-built—young man.
Before she could answer, the chamber's main blast door hissed open.
Dozens of armored figures stormed in—clad in black tactical gear, visors down, weapons drawn. Each one bore the insignia of EB-Zero, the Enforcement Bureau Zero—the Central Authority's elite task force, deployed in emergencies involving unauthorized awakenings, Catastrophe incursions, and classified tech events.
"Hands where we can see them! Down on your knees, now!"
Kayden glanced around, eyes wide. These weren't like the men who had run containment pods or surgical tools. These men moved like soldiers.
Kite sighed and slowly raised one hand, the other flicking back her sleeve to reveal her guild band.
"I'm Kite Moretti," she said clearly. "Awakened-class operative from Dark Swarm Guild. Registered. Sequence Rank: Class-Echo."
The soldiers hesitated for half a second, scanning her badge.
A new voice cut through the room, smooth and authoritative.
"Well, well. What's an assassin from Dark Swarm doing here in Gravemarch, of all places?"
Kite turned sharply.
A man stepped through the dispersing EB-Zero ranks—tall, wearing a black regulation jacket over a gray combat vest, fitted black jeans, and reinforced boots. His sunglasses gleamed under the artificial lights, despite being indoors. Short brown hair framed a face that was all business—sharp jawline, faint stubble, the air of someone who never asked twice.
She knew him. Everyone in the field did.
"Agent Vex," she muttered, voice cool.
He smirked faintly. "Kite Moretti. I thought we pulled your access from restricted zones last quarter."
"I wasn't here on official business," she said.
"No," he said, glancing past her to the wrecked lab, the shattered containment pod, and the still-naked boy standing calmly in the center of the destruction. "But you're about to be part of one hell of a report."
Kayden blinked, barely processing the rapid exchange, his voice dry.
"…Am I under arrest?" Kite asked.
Agent Vex adjusted his glasses, the lenses catching the flickering blue light of the still-active Pillar device behind him. His expression remained unreadable—cold, composed, and calculating.
"That depends," he said, his voice sharp and measured. "On whether you're going to cooperate… or not."
His eyes shifted toward Kite for a moment, then back to the young man at the center of the chaos.
"And who is this?"
He pointed directly at Kayden, his tone laced with suspicion.
Kayden straightened, suddenly aware of how many weapons were still trained on him. The name came to him instantly—too instantly—like a reflex. But everything else was blank. Just... void.
"I'm… Kayden. Kayden Tenet… but…" He frowned, his brow furrowing. "That's all I know."
"Kayden Tenet," Vex repeated slowly. He narrowed his eyes and reached for a compact scanning device attached to his utility belt. He lifted it, and a quick pulse of light flashed across Kayden's face, causing him to instinctively flinch.
Vex didn't react.
He simply looked down at the device, scrolling through its holographic interface, accessing the Central Registry and biometric archives.
After a moment, his brow twitched.
"…Nothing," he muttered. "No birth record. No census data. No guild tags. No medical ID. Not even a phantom profile."
He glanced up at Kayden again, something darker creeping into his tone.
"There's no record of your existence. Which either makes you a ghost…"
He stepped forward, unblinking.
"Or someone very dangerous."
He gestured toward the EB-Zero enforcers. "I don't know if you were a victim of this illegal operation or part of it—but until we figure that out, you're coming with us. Alive. Take him."
One of the armored guards stepped forward, pulling out a set of restraints—thick, black chains forged from suppression alloy, laced with anti-Force runes. The kind used for high-grade Awakened threats. They sparked faintly as he approached, humming with nullification energy.
Kayden's eyes locked onto them—and a chill spread through his veins.
Whatever instinct guided him before—it rose again, primal and fast.
The moment the guard reached for his wrist, Kayden vanished in a blink.
A split-second later, he reappeared behind the enforcer, moving with impossible speed. One open palm struck the man across the neck, precise and controlled.
The guard collapsed instantly—unconscious before he even hit the ground.
A gasp echoed from a few of the EB-Zero agents, weapons rising, fingers on triggers.
"Hold fire!" Vex barked, his hand raised. His tone had changed—still firm, but now tinged with something else.
Interest.
Curiosity.
Kayden looked up, his expression calm—but his eyes glowed faintly with golden embers, the same hue as the light that had obliterated the Catastrophe.
"I'm not going anywhere in chains," Kayden said, voice quiet but unwavering.
Vex exhaled slowly, adjusting his collar. "Well," he said, "this just got a lot more complicated."