The night was alive with silence.
A boy stumbled through mud and rot, his limbs shaking violently. His skin was pale, his lips cracked, his throat burning from poison. Every heartbeat tore at his veins as if molten knives ran beneath his skin.
Seven days he had wandered. Seven days without food. Seven days without mercy. Seven days he had vomited blood, shivered in the rain, and begged for the end that never came.
All because he failed.
The Hall of Awakening had marked him a disgrace. No bloodline. No divine blessing. A hollow shell among lions.
His family had not killed him with blades. No ceremony, no mercy. They had poisoned him and discarded him like refuse at the edge of the wilderness.
And yet… he lived.
Pain carried him forward. Hunger drove him on. Fire and frost burned through his veins as he stumbled deeper into the forest. The twisted trees whispered, branches clawing at his face, roots tangling his feet. His vision blurred, and he collapsed at the edge of a clearing.
And there, bathed in an unnatural glow, he saw it: a ruin.
Cracked pillars rose from moss and stone, etched with symbols that seemed to breathe. Faded murals pulsed faintly as if crying golden tears. At the heart of the ruin, a stone archway opened into darkness, humming with a power older than the sky itself.
Something called to him.
He crawled forward. Every movement was agony. Each breath was fire. Each heartbeat felt like a war against death itself.
And then—
The air changed.
Symbols carved into the ancient stones flared with golden light, spiraling like constellations alive. The chamber shivered, resonating with a sound that clawed into his bones.
From the center, a cube floated into existence. Black-gold, etched with ever-shifting constellations, alive, infinite.
The boy froze.
Then, the voice came—not from the cube, not from the air, but inside his mind.
"Designation: Fateless detected. Probability strands unreadable. Outcome unpredictable. Error: subject has no recorded destiny.""Activating Aeon Nexus: Relic of Destiny, Cosmic Fate, and Chance."
Light erupted, golden threads wrapping around his body. He saw it then: his fate. A single black thread, frayed, burning, unraveling as the poison devoured him.
"Predicted Fate: Death by poison. Override sequence… engaged."
Agony exploded through him. Fire clashed with poison. He screamed, blood spraying from his lips. His vision went white-hot, then black. His body convulsed.
And then… stillness.
Mission: Survive the Poison
A message etched in the threads of reality appeared before his eyes:
Mission: Survive the PoisonStatus: OptionalObjective: Endure and overcome the fatal toxin within your veins.Reward: Hidden Trait → AwakeningBonus: +1000 Fate PointsFailure: Death
He coughed, blood streaking his face. A week of death had taught him one lesson: he would not die quietly.
"If even death is written for me…" he rasped. "…then I'll tear it apart myself."
He accepted.
Fateless Awakening
The cube flared. Threads of light pulsed through his chest, burning away the poison. Veins glowed black and gold. Muscles spasmed, bones trembling, then steadied.
When he opened his eyes, they were voids of black fractured with golden cracks, infinite and unreadable.
"Mission Complete: Survive the Poison. Hidden Trait Unlocked: [Null Fate]. +1000 Fate Points. Fate Shop Unlocked."
[Null Fate]
The bearer walks outside the tapestry of destiny. No prophecy can bind them. No blessing or curse affects them. Fate itself cannot touch them.
Immune to prophecy, divination, and fate-based powers.
Resistance to poison, corruption, and destiny-bound afflictions.
Passive Aura: Beings sensitive to fate feel unease and dread in the presence of the Fateless.
A lattice of weapons, armor, and artifacts appeared, each glowing with cosmic runes and marked with a price: Fate Points.
"Acquire destiny's fragments. Reforge your path."
He laughed. Low, sharp, hollow.
"Poison me. Discard me. Curse me as useless… You should have killed me."
A cold smile spread across his lips. Not hope. Not warmth. Hunger. Cold, precise, unrelenting hunger.
"Then let's begin."
The temple dimmed, leaving only him and the faint hum of the Aeon Nexus. The boy who had been abandoned to die was no longer human.
He was the Fateless, and the world would never see him coming.