Kairen sat slumped against a jagged slab of stone, the uneven edge digging into his spine. Every muscle in his body quivered, not with the rush of battle anymore, but with a deeper, heavier exhaustion that seemed to seep into his bones. The cold mist clung to him like a damp shroud, and beneath it, the air still reeked of burnt flesh and something metallic blood, both his and the thing he'd just killed.
The fight had stripped the world of its background noise. No wind. No birds. No shifting rubble. Only his heartbeat, dull and uneven in his ears, as if even that was debating whether to keep going.
The system's voice bled into his thoughts, cold and without emotion.
> Tutorial Complete.
Core Fragment Acquired.
Warning: Corruption rate increasing…
He almost laughed, but what came out was a low, breathless sound, bitter around the edges.
"I should feel bad," he muttered. "But it feels like I just leveled up in murder."
His fingers flexed slowly. They didn't feel like his. Thin lines of faint red still traced along his skin marks from the Feral Crown's awakening glowing just enough to make his hands look alien. It wasn't just the fight that had changed him. Something else had taken root.
And there, hovering over the shattered altar, was the reason for it all.
The Core.
A jagged crystal, no bigger than a fist, suspended as if the air itself refused to let it touch the ground. Its light wasn't bright. Not warm. It was the kind of glow that belonged in the depths of a crypt, the last flicker of a star that had burned itself out ages ago.
Kairen's chest tightened as he stared at it. This was what he had killed for. This was what had made the beast fight like something that refused to die. And now, it was his to claim or to curse himself with.
The system spoke again.
> Core ready for absorption.
Choose Path:
[1] Bestial Path – Primal instincts and combat boosts.
[2] Sovereign Path – Domination and mental control.
He let out a long breath, the kind you give when the only choices on the menu are poison or poison.
"Right. Pick your poison."
The Core seemed to pulse in response, the ripples in its surface shifting like it was aware of his hesitation.
Bestial Path… he could still feel the rush of that feral transformation in his bones, the intoxicating speed and strength. It had felt good too good. But he'd seen how the beast fought, how it lost itself entirely in violence. That path wasn't survival; it was surrender to something else entirely.
Sovereign Path sounded cleaner, sharper. But "domination" had the stink of traps hidden in fine print. The kind of power that came with invisible chains.
He rubbed at his temple. Losing control was dangerous. But losing himself was worse.
"Guess we'll go with the creepy, thinking version."
> Path selected: Sovereign.
Initiating Core integration…
Kairen stepped forward, boots grinding on stone slick with blood and mist. The Core pulsed brighter as his palm reached for it. The moment his fingers made contact, heat tore through him like a living brand.
It wasn't fire. It was something purer, sharper like every nerve in his body had been struck by lightning at once. His knees buckled, but the Core didn't let him fall. It held him upright, strings pulled taut, a marionette in a cosmic ritual he hadn't agreed to.
Visions punched through his mind in jagged flashes.
A battlefield drowned in black rain, where creatures howled over mountains of corpses. A temple lit by fire and shadow, where hooded figures poured blood into open mouths. A throne made of bone, its surface crawling with symbols too ancient to understand. And above it all a crown. Not golden, not jeweled, but forged of shifting shadow and molten red, twisting like it was alive, waiting for a head to claim.
The memories weren't his. They belonged to the beast. And yet, as the Core's power sank deeper, they began to feel like they could be.
He tried to scream, but no sound came out. The crystal cracked, splintering into ash that flowed up his arm and into his veins. His skin lit with the faint, molten glow, then dimmed as if the world had swallowed it whole.
> Core absorbed: 27%
Path: Sovereign.
First Ability Unlocked: [Command Pulse] – Emits a shockwave of will, stunning low-fortitude sentient beings. Success based on relative mental dominance.
When the Core finally released him, he collapsed. The impact rattled his teeth, the cold stone unforgiving beneath his shoulder. He lay there for a moment, gasping like a man who'd just surfaced from drowning.
He didn't feel stronger. Not yet. But something heavy now sat in the space behind his thoughts, like a shadow that wasn't his own. A presence. Whether it was power or infection, he couldn't tell.
The sky changed.
Not the sun there was no sun here but the very dusk above seemed to ripple, as though the world's fabric had been pierced. Through the tear, a burning red glyph appeared, shifting its angles faster than his eyes could follow. Every blink showed a new pattern.
> DOMAIN PULSE DETECTED.
Regional entities notified.
Classification: Rogue Sovereign emerging.
Kairen's stomach sank. "Oh great," he muttered, "I just pinged myself to the interdimensional apocalypse radar."
The glyph faded, but the silence that followed was no longer neutral. The ruins felt watched.
He didn't get long to think about it.
The fog thickened, twisting like something alive, and three shapes stepped out from the folds of reality. They wore dark robes that trailed along the ground, masks of bone carved with spirals that hurt to look at. Their movements were too smooth, like puppets guided by an unseen hand. Each carried a jagged blade that pulsed with the same sickly light that lived in graveyards.
They didn't speak at first. They simply looked at him, heads tilting at unnatural angles, until one spoke in a voice like an echo run through broken glass.
"Anomaly confirmed… Sovereign signature. Corruption level rising."
Another's voice slithered over the air.
"Vessel must be harvested… before bloom."
They moved as one.
The first lunged with a speed that stole the air from Kairen's lungs. He dove, the blade slicing through the coat at his ribs. If he'd been a heartbeat slower, it would have carved him open. He rolled behind the altar, panting, ribs aching with every breath.
The Reapers split formation one circling, the other raising a clawed hand. The air grew heavy, the kind of weight that crushed thought as much as body. His knees threatened to buckle.
Not again.
Kairen reached inward, grasping for the instinct the Core had left behind. He didn't know if it would work, but it was all he had.
> [Command Pulse] activated.
The world shuddered not physically, but in some unseen layer beneath it. An invisible shockwave burst from him. The nearest Reaper froze mid-step, limbs locking in place. The second staggered, losing its rhythm. The third flinched but kept moving.
Kairen didn't hesitate. He seized a broken stone from the altar and charged the frozen one. His swing connected with the mask, shattering bone into fragments. The creature collapsed with a sound like wet paper tearing.
The other two hissed in some language he didn't know, retreating into the mist as fast as they'd appeared. Gone for now.
> Threat repelled.
Experience threshold approaching: Level 1 Awakening.
The adrenaline drained from his limbs, leaving him shaking. He looked at his hands coated in blood again. He wasn't sure if it was all theirs.
The remains of the beast from earlier still lay scattered across the ground ash, bone, and fragments of something once alive. He knelt, gathering what was left of its skull, and carried it to the altar.
He buried it with broken stones. No prayer. No ceremony. Just the act itself. Maybe it was pointless. Maybe it was stupid. But some part of him needed to do it, not for the beast… but for himself.
Standing over the shallow cairn, his body ached with every breath. His vision dimmed at the edges, but he stayed there a moment longer.
"I didn't ask for this," he murmured.
A silence followed, the kind that made you think the world was listening. Then, a dry chuckle escaped his throat.
"But if I'm the villain in their story…" His gaze drifted toward the mist, toward the things that had fled. "…then I'd better make it one hell of a nightmare."