Chapter 1: The Betrayal
The fluorescent lights of the office buzzed like angry hornets, casting a sterile glow over the endless rows of cubicles. Kael Vance, twenty-eight and already feeling like a relic, hunched over his keyboard, fingers flying across the keys in a desperate bid to salvage the project that had consumed his last three months. Lines of code blurred into a chaotic tapestry— debugging firewalls, optimizing algorithms for the company's flagship Al security suite. It was supposed to be his big break, the promotion that would finally pull him out of this soul-sucking grind.
"Almost there," he muttered, wiping sweat from his brow. The clock on his monitor read 2:17 AM.
The office was a ghost town, save for the hum of servers and the distant whir of the janitor's vacuum. Kael's eyes burned, but sleep was a luxury he couldn't afford. Not with the board meeting at dawn.
A shadow fell across his desk.
Kael glanced up, forcing a tired smile. "Adrian? Man, you're a lifesaver. Pull up a chair-this encryption layer's a beast."
Adrian, his best friend since college, leaned against the cubicle wall, hands shoved in his pockets.
His grin was too wide, too sharp.
"Nah, Kael. Just came to say... good luck with that."
Something in his tone prickled the hairs on Kael's neck. "What? You know something I don't?"
Adrian eyes flicked to the door, then back. "Yeah. I know you're about to blow the whole thing sky-high."
Before Kael could process the words, Adrian hand darted out-not in friendship, but with purpose. He slammed a USB drive into the server port beneath Kael's desk, the click echoing like a gunshot. Code flooded the screen: overrides, backdoors, a cascade of errors blooming like digital cancer.
"What the hell, Adrain?!" Kael lunged for the keyboard, but it was too late. Alarms blared-red warnings flashing across every monitor in the building. The air grew thick with the acrid scent of overheating circuits.
Adrian stepped back, his grin twisting into something feral.
"Sorry, buddy. The promotion was mine. Always was. You were just... collateral."
Betrayal hit Kael like a freight train.
They'd shared dorms, beers, late-night rants about climbing the corporate ladder. Adrian had been the one who'd vouched for him, pulled strings to get him this job.
And now? This.
"You son of a-" Kael's words choked off as sparks erupted from the console. Flames licked up the cables, hungry and unforgiving.
He scrambled back, chair toppling, but the fire spread with unnatural speed-fed by whatever malware Adrian had unleashed.
Smoke clawed at his lungs. Kael coughed, vision blurring, as he crawled toward the emergency exit. His mind raced: Why? For a damn job? Rage boiled in his chest, hot and unyielding. If there's a God up there, you're a joke. Cursing you feels too good.
The door was just feet away when the world exploded. A surge of electricity arced through the room, igniting the gas from a ruptured line. The blast hurled Kael like a ragdoll, slamming him into the wall. Pain shattered through his body-ribs cracking, skin searing. Darkness rushed in, but not before he saw Adrian silhouette fleeing into the night, untouched.
Betrayed. Burned. Forgotten.
Kael's last thought was a vow, etched in the void: If I get another shot... no one touches me again.
⸻
Silence.
Kael floated in endless black, his body gone, his soul stripped bare. Shards of dying light drifted around him like broken stars.
Then a voice pressed into his mind.
Mortal.
It wasn't sound. It was a force, vast and crushing. A figure formed in the void—cloaked in shifting shadow, crowned with eclipsed light.
"I am the Void Arbiter. I offer you a choice."
Kael's thoughts screamed. He was dead. He should have been nothing. Yet the presence pinned him in place.
"A… choice?" His voice cracked.
"I require a vessel. A champion. The multiverse bleeds, and I seek one who hungers to defy gods themselves."
Kael laughed bitterly. "You've chosen wrong. I couldn't even stop my own friend from stabbing me in the back."
"No. You are perfect. Betrayal burns deeper than hatred. You crave power not for glory, but to never be helpless again. Accept my pact, and I shall give you strength beyond death."
A pale window flickered before Kael:
[System Notice]
[Eclipse Sovereign System Initialized]
Condition: Awaiting Host Acceptance
His breath caught. Power. A second chance. Adrian's smug smile burned in his mind.
"I accept. Give me strength… enough that no one can betray me again."
The Arbiter's laughter shook the void.
"So be it."
The darkness shattered.
⸻
Kael gasped awake—alive, but not in his own body. He lay on dirt, lungs heaving, surrounded by fire. A village burned around him, screams tearing through the night.
[System Notice: Host Reincarnated in Realm – Aethryon]
[Quest Activated: Absorb the Flames of Ruin to Awaken Your First Power]
The fire pressed closer. Instinct screamed to run, but the System's command burned into him: Absorb the flames.
He reached out. The fire curled against his hand like molten silk. Instead of pain, hunger surged through him. The flames sank into his veins until only ash remained.
[Power Acquired: Ember Void Strike]
—A basic flame technique infused with the Void's hunger.
Kael's heart pounded. His body burned, but it was strength, not agony. For the first time, he wasn't powerless.
Then a voice slithered through the smoke.
"The Void has chosen poorly."
Kael spun. A figure cloaked in black stood in the inferno, eyes glowing like coals.
Before he could move, the figure raised a hand. The flames bent toward Kael like a tidal wave.
[Warning: Host Under Attack]
And the System screamed alive.