Location: The Ruined Frontier — remnants of an ancient Halburn outpost, buried in red sands.
Time: Five years after the Fall.
Kaleo: 21, scarred, living as a survivor, hunting corrupted beasts for food and old tech.
The creature's scream shattered the canyon — a fusion of bone and machine, its tendrils laced with void energy.
Kaleo swung his broken blade again, lungs on fire, the world spinning red and gray.
Each strike tore at his body more than his enemy's. His divine veins had long gone cold.
The Eclipsera Core lay silent within him — just another curse in a dying world.
The beast lunged.
Its claws pierced his chest, pinning him to the shattered ground.
Blood — bright and golden — spilled onto the sand.
He could taste iron and smoke.
"I promised…" he whispered, voice shaking. "I promised I'd avenge them…"
"Mother, Father… I failed you."
For the first time in years, tears burned his eyes. They mixed with his blood. And the world — stopped.
Every droplet of blood rose into the air like molten starlight. The canyon froze mid-motion. Then, a voice — calm, resonant, divine — echoed inside his mind:
[System Activation: Eclipsera Core Resonance Detected]
[Host: Kaleo Halburn — Bloodline Confirmed: Pure Halburn Divinity]
[Status: Near Death — Edict of Blood Initiating]
A searing light ignited in his chest — the artifact awakening like a second heart.
Energy surged through his veins, ancient runes blooming across his skin.
"Vengeance… is not your purpose." the voice intoned.
"Rise, son of Halburn. The realms still await their sovereign."
Kaleo's dying scream turned into a roar of rebirth. The beast dissolved in a flash of divine energy.
As he collapsed to his knees, the Eclipsera Core pulsed once — and a holographic sigil burned into his palm:
[Divine System Online]
[Edict of Blood: Completed — New Path Unlocked]
"Welcome, Son of Aether."