Eighteen years had passed since the night Isoprism vanished, and the world had slowly stitched itself back together with sweat, fear, and stubborn hope. Twisted forests clawed toward the sky, and across the borderlands, life returned in fragile patches. Yet even now, shadows lingered, whispering of monsters, fire, and the Black Dragon whose name no one dared forget.
At the far edge of the Voidcrest Arrangement, the border camp of Stonebrook stirred with morning activity. Children ran barefoot along dirt paths, dodging piles of scrap metal, while elders shouted over the clatter of cooking fires and disputes over rations. The smell of roasted roots mixed with the acrid smoke from hearths, filling the air with the scent of survival.
Among the chaos, Avi moved with a calmness that belied the world around him. Broad-shouldered and tall for his age, he adjusted a loose plank on the camp's barricade with hands that seemed unnaturally steady. He scanned the horizon, alert and deliberate, as if he could sense danger before it arrived.
"Oi, Avi!" a boy's voice called from across the camp. Ethan, wiry and energetic, struggled with a crate too heavy for him. "Think you can help me lift this thing? I swear, my arms are about to fall off."
Avi smirked and set the plank down. "Careful not to drop it on your foot. I don't want to hear you whining for a week."
Ethan laughed nervously. "Fine, fine. Just… don't crush me, yeah?"
From nearby, a girl with tangled hair and sharp eyes muttered. Mira was impossible to ignore, even when she wasn't speaking directly to anyone. "You two are idiots. Why don't you ever do anything useful?"
Avi shrugged. "Carrying crates is useful enough for me."
She muttered under her breath and stalked off, but her gaze lingered on him a moment longer than necessary.
Even in ordinary moments, Avi felt the dissonance in himself. Cuts barely scarred him. Blows that would shatter bones in ordinary humans seemed to roll off his body. He moved faster than anyone else, lifted more than he should, and rarely seemed tired. But no one knew why. Even he had never questioned it.
The conversation in the camp often drifted toward the center of the Arrangement, where espers held sway.
"They've got a new esper guarding Cinderwall," a man whispered while sharpening a dull blade. "Three mutant wolves destroyed at once without breaking a sweat."
Ethan snorted. "And they sit in the center, eating well and watching us bleed at the borders. Funny world, isn't it?"
Avi heard it, but said nothing. He had watched enough of the espers' arrogance to know better than to argue. They came out only to claim uninhabited clusters or enforce their dominance. The weak bled first, the strong were rewarded later.
The border of Stonebrook stretched toward the Voidcrest Cluster, jagged fragments of meteorite rising like dark towers against the horizon. Some fragments remained unclaimed, crawling with minor mutants, wild and dangerous. Espers rarely ventured this far, leaving border camps to fend for themselves.
"You think we'll ever see an unclaimed cluster close by?" Ethan asked, squinting at a distant black spire.
Avi shook his head. "Too dangerous. Even if we did, the espers would claim it before anyone else could."
Mira, tying a rope around a bundle of firewood, muttered, "They've got towers, machines, heaters… and we've got smoke, mud, and hunger. And they want us to call that fair."
Avi didn't respond. Instead, he lifted the crate Ethan had been struggling with earlier and set it down with a lightness that made Ethan stare in disbelief.
"See?" Ethan said, scratching his head. "You never get tired. Not even a little. I don't know how you do it."
Avi shrugged. "Guess I've always been… different."
The morning carried a fragile peace. Even at the border, danger lurked beyond the walls. Minor monsters roamed, and skirmishes with rogue superhumans were a constant threat. Avi walked toward the edge of the camp, Ethan and Mira trailing behind, pretending not to be curious.
"You ever think about leaving Stonebrook?" Mira asked quietly, almost shyly. "There's talk of joining the center… living in the towers."
Avi shook his head. "What's the point? You trade one cage for another. At least here, we make our own choices."
"But… if you're strong enough, you could survive there," Ethan said. "People would respect you."
Avi's lips pressed into a thin line. He didn't want respect from people who hid behind power. He wanted something else — freedom, control, understanding of what made him… different. Something he didn't yet realize.