Light swallowed the sky. Then came the fall, a whisper threading through the dark like static.
Connection lost.
Arlen Thane hit the ground hard. The impact jarred his lean frame, a shock from shoulders to teeth. Ash filled his lungs, fine and bitter, like ground-up memories clogging his throat. He coughed, ribs burning, tasting only the salt of something old and metal. His hazel eyes stung against the gray haze. Short black hair clung to his forehead, matted with sweat, and his patched jacket last worn to a dead-end job tore at the shoulder. His thumb rubbed the faint scar on his jaw, an anxious tic from years of guilt, missed jobs, broken promises, people he let drift away.
The world was broken.
Obsidian walls sliced the crater's edges into jagged teeth, gleaming like shattered screens. Blue Mana Veins pulsed beneath the stone, a dying signal. Skeletal trees leaned like broken bones, roots tangled with Ironbloom Vines, thorns snapping at the air. The air reeked of rot, heavy with decay.
"What the hell…" Arlen's voice was small, uncertain.
No answer came, only a wind hissing through the ruins, soft and wrong like a voice forgetting how to speak. Static crackled in his skull, a glitched hum. Then came light. Not sunlight. System light.
[System Notification: Unauthorized Summon Detected.]
[User Classification: Undefined // Soul Integrity: Null.]
[Welcome, Fragment. :)]
Blue runes hovered, flickering, tender yet unsettling, like a machine trying to care. Arlen froze. Fragment? Soul Null? The words cut deep, his life, uncategorized, meaningless.
"A hero?" He laughed, half-hysteria, half-relief.
"I can't even save myself."
His thumb rubbed his scar harder, guilt twisting. Back home, he shrank from hard things, a man of forms and apologies. The System's smiley face felt like a mask, hiding something broken. The runes rippled, then vanished. The world dimmed, ash settling like forgotten files.
[System Update: Default Parameters Active: Beginner.]
[Emotional Stability: Questionable.]
"Great. Beginner."
Arlen's laugh was half-choked. The tenderness chilled him, like a friend hiding a knife. He hauled himself up, ash shifting under his boots. His clothes an old jacket, threadbare tee, felt like someone else's. The crater curved toward a shattered altar, stone cracked, bloodstained, runes flickering like corrupted code. They spelled Veyrn and Control, glowing blood-red, accusing.
[System Warning: Summon Circle – Incomplete.]
[Energy Source: Missing Core. Ritual Failed.]
A pit opened in his stomach. Failed summon. They wanted a hero. They got him.
"Great." His voice cracked.
"They wanted a savior and got… me."
Guilt surged, his life was letdowns, and now he was someone else's mistake. His thumb rubbed his scar, anchoring him.
A high chirp cut the air. Tiny lights skittered over the crater's rim, Glintmoths, wings pulsing with stuttering light, like flickering pixels. Their glow seared his eyes, lens flares and frame tearing, a high-pitched whine drilling his skull. Fear clenched his chest.
[System Threat Detected: Glintmoths (Lv. 1).]
[Recommended Action: Evade / Seek Shelter.]
[Skill Unlocked: Improvised Smash (Tear).]
[Comment: I'll pretend that was intentional. :)]
Pretend? Ouch. Like the System was babysitting a screw-up. His hands shook.
He wasn't a fighter.
He grabbed a rusted dagger from the altar's cracks. Blood darkened the stone. The blade bit his palm. Blood dripped, red against gray.
The first moth dove. Its light hit like a blade.
He swung.
Missed.
The dagger scraped stone. Sparks scattered like dying pixels. A moth nicked his shoulder. The sting was white-hot.
He'd always backed away jobs, people, himself. But the System's text nudged, expectant.
Fear cracked the air. A Wisp bloomed in his hand, dim, trembling, born of adrenaline and despair.
[System Skill Activated: Wispbind (Tear).]
[Output Stability: Unreliable.]
[Comment: Best effort. No promises.]
"Thanks." Arlen's sarcasm steadied him, grateful for any voice not his own.
The Wisp's light pushed the swarm back. One moth struck, shattering into glass confetti. He lunged. The dagger caught a wing. The moth exploded, light flaring.
[+1 Dexterity.]
Two more converged. He swung, clumsy, desperate. Another shattered. Blood trickled from his palm. The dagger slipped.
[System Health –2. Bleeding Status: Minor.]
"Shut up!" He slashed again. The Wisp flickered, scattering sparks that singed a moth.
The swarm thinned. Duskrats skittered from shadows, gnawing Glintmoth dust. The world corrected itself, cold and indifferent.
Arlen stumbled back, panting, tripping in ash, almost dropping the dagger. He grimaced.
[System Comment: Congrats, you almost broke your thumb. :)]
Guilt whispered he didn't deserve to win.
[System Achievement Unlocked: Didn't Die (Yet).]
[Reward: +1 Point for Effort.]
[Note: :) …You shouldn't smile.]
"Noted, jerk." Arlen snorted, thumb rubbing the dagger's hilt.
He slumped against the altar. Its bloodstained stone was cold. Runes pulsed, accusing Veyrn, Control. Ash settled, clogging his throat like lost data. He was soft-edged, lost, a boy stripped of identity. The System called him a fragment, soul null.
Was it right?
Shame tugged, familiar rooms avoided, appointments canceled, a life of retreats. The Mana Veins pulsed, blue light scalding, tugging at his despair. Ironbloom Vines snapped nearby, thorns glinting, fed by the Veins' predatory energy.
He scavenged a root, bitter like cafeteria greens he'd thrown away wasted chances. The Wisp curled at his shoulder, a fragile lantern.
[System Quest Added: Don't Starve.]
[Objective: Acquire Sustenance.]
[Reward: Continued Existence // Minor Dignity, Ba…r…e…ly.]
The glitched text made him shudder, like decaying code.
"You're all I've got," he whispered to the Wisp. Hope flickered, a rebellion against despair.
He dug in the altar's cracks, finding a silver half-ring, etched with a sigil, heavy with history. The rune Veyrn slid cold into him.
[System Note: Summoning Residue Detected.]
[Origin Signal: Fragmentary // Source: Unknown.]
A Duskrat skittered nearby, leg caught in Ironbloom Vines, squealing. Guilt surged, his Wisp's light drew the moths, harming it. His thumb rubbed the dagger's hilt. He knelt, cutting the vines. The Duskrat fled, leaving a Shadow Pelt. The altar's runes flared brighter, recording his act, then dimmed.
[System Processing Moral Variable…]
[Action Logged: Compassion.]
[Humanity +5.]
[…Why?]
"Why?" Arlen's voice was low.
"Because someone's gotta care."
The machine's pause chilled him, it couldn't compute kindness. Hope felt fragile, like ash scattering. He collapsed by a Mana Vein, its heat searing, light pulsing like a broken connection.
[System Progress: Still Alive. Surprising for a Mistake. :)]
A salt-ozone scent wafted through the ash, like a breath of sea air. A silhouette moved - long black hair flowing, stormy eyes catching light, a trembling hand barely visible. She stood at the crater's edge, half-real, half-reflected, a faint Sirenweaver's aura flickering.
[System Entity Detected: Unknown Signature.]
[Classification: ???]
[Recommendation: Approach Carefully.]
[Comment: Don't Mess This Up, Fragment.]
Arlen's eyes widened, hope sparking. The altar hummed, blood-red runes glowing. A whisper carried:
"The Summon was not ours…"
[System End of Chapter 1: Shards of the Fallen.]
[Next Objective: Find Out Who Summoned You.]
[Estimated Difficulty: Painful.]