Kai Voss stumbled down the marble steps of the Grand Spire, legs numb, ears ringing with the roar of ten thousand voices.
Null.
Null.
Null.
The word chased him like a curse. Guards shoved him through the side gate into the back alleys reserved for failures. The massive iron doors slammed shut behind him, cutting off the ceremony's golden light and leaving him in the cold shadow of the city walls.
He didn't stop walking until the cheers faded completely.
Only then did he lean against a crumbling brick wall in a narrow slum street, slide down to the filth-covered ground, and bury his face in his knees.
Three years of scavenging Rift scraps.
Three years of skipping meals to buy training manuals from black-market stalls.
Three years of telling himself that hard work could beat bloodlines.
All for nothing.
The copper token he'd clutched like a talisman was gone, confiscated at the gate. He had no money, no beast, no future. Guilds wouldn't take a Null. The army used Nulls as bait in high-rank Rifts. Most ended up monster food within a month.
Kai laughed once, a dry, broken sound.
The sky above the slums was the same dull gray it had always been. No dramatic storm. No heroic second chance.
Just the distant howl of a low-rank Rift somewhere beyond the walls, reminding everyone that the world didn't care about dreams.
He closed his eyes, waiting for the despair to swallow him whole.
Instead, a voice spoke inside his skull.
"Do you accept despair so easily, child of the forgotten thrones?"
Kai's eyes snapped open. The alley was empty. No one around. Even the stray dogs had fled when he arrived.
The voice came again... ancient, layered, as though a thousand overlapping echoes spoke at once. Male and female, young and old, calm and furious all together.
"You were rejected by their false light. But the true power remembers you."
A burning sensation flared behind his eyes. Kai clutched his head, gasping.
Crimson runes... no, black runes edged in crimson — scrolled across his vision like falling ash. They arranged themselves into neat panels that only he could see.
[Ding!]
[Divine Beast Seal System binding in progress…]
[Host identified: Kai Voss]
[Bloodline resonance: 0.0001% (Forgotten Throne Fragment)]
[Compatibility: Extreme]
[Binding complete.]
[Warning: This system originates from the sealed Celestial Thrones. Its use weakens the ancient barriers that protect the world from the Divine Calamity. Proceed with utmost caution.]
Kai stared, mouth dry.
A system.
He had a system.
In all the stories scavengers told around gutter fires, systems were legends, gifts from gods or otherworldly invaders, bestowed on one in a million. Some said the top Tamers of the Empire secretly had systems. Others claimed systems only appeared during world crises.
No one had ever heard of one awakening in a Null.
The panels shifted.
[Divine Beast Seal System — Core Functions Unlocked]
Seal Perception (Lv.1)
Passive. Allows detection of sealed Divine Beasts and ancient throne remnants hidden from normal senses. Range: 10 meters.
Taming Slots: 1 / ???
Current limit based on host strength and World Seal Integrity.
Corruption Resonance: 0%
Measures the erosion of the host's soul and the global seals. At 100%, irreversible Divine Calamity may trigger.
Beast Inspection
View detailed status of contracted Divine Beasts.
[First-time bonus granted.]
[Skill: Basic Seal Reinforcement (Lv.1) unlocked — temporarily stabilize minor seal fluctuations.]
The voice returned, softer now, almost amused.
"I am the remnant will of the Thrones. You may call me… Warden."
"Warden?" Kai whispered aloud, glancing around to make sure no one heard him talking to himself.
"A title from an age when gods still walked. Names have power, boy. Use mine sparingly."
Kai swallowed. "Why me?"
"Because you carry a fragment, the tiniest sliver, of the blood that once sat upon the Thrones. Because the false crystal rejected you. Because you stood before ten thousand and did not break."
"And because the seals are already cracking. The world needs a Sealbreaker… or it will have a destroyer."
Kai pushed himself to his feet, heart pounding harder than during the ceremony.
"What are Divine Beasts?"
"Entities that once ruled alongside the gods. Sealed after the Celestial War for crimes too terrible to speak aloud. They are not pets. They are calamities wearing chains."
"Normal Tamers contract wolves and dragons. You will contract what they fear to even name."
Kai's breath came faster. Power. Real power. Not the safe, ranked beasts that nobles paraded.
But the warning lingered.
"What happens if the seals break completely?"
Silence stretched long enough that Kai thought the voice had left.
Then:
"Everything ends. The Rifts will swallow the sky. The Thrones will rise again. And the Divine Beasts will remember what it means to be free."
"But that is a concern for later. First… survive."
The panels flickered.
[Quest Generated: First Contract]
[Objective: Locate and tame your first Divine Beast fragment within 72 hours.]
[Location Hint: Low-rank Rift Zone — Eastern Slums Gate (Shadow-type anomaly detected).]
[Reward: Full system interface unlock. Starter evolution material.]
[Failure: System binding destabilizes. Host becomes permanent Null.]
[Time remaining: 71 hours 59 minutes]
Kai stared at the countdown.
Seventy-two hours to find a beast no one else could see, tame a calamity, and prove he wasn't worthless.
Or lose everything again.
He clenched his fists until the nails bit into his palms.
The humiliation on the platform still burned. The laughter. The pity.
Fine.
If the world wanted to brand him Null, he'd become something they couldn't even comprehend.
Kai pulled his hood up and started walking toward the Eastern Gate.
The slums were alive with the usual evening chaos, vendors hawking charred Rift rat skewers, drunk guild rejects fighting over dice, children darting between legs to pick pockets.
No one spared the hooded teenager a second glance.
At the gate, two bored city guards leaned on their spears.
"Low-rank Rift permit?" one asked lazily.
Kai hesitated. Permits cost silver he didn't have.
Then he remembered the system.
He focused on [Seal Perception].
The world… shifted.
Faint crimson threads appeared in his vision, overlaying reality like ghostly veins. Most were thin and faded, stretching toward distant high-rank zones.
But one thread... thicker, pulsing gently, led straight through the gate into the dim forest beyond.
The guards saw nothing.
Kai met their eyes calmly. "I'm just going for a walk outside the walls. No Rift entry."
The second guard snorted. "Walk where? Monsters eat idiots who wander off-path."
"I'll stay on the road."
They waved him through, too lazy to care about a slum kid's suicide.
The moment Kai stepped beyond the walls, the city noise vanished. Night insects chirped. Wind rustled through twisted trees scarred by old Rift energy.
He followed the crimson thread.
It led him off the main road, deeper into the wilderness, until he reached a small, unstable Rift, barely five meters tall, flickering between existence. City patrols marked it F-rank and ignored it.
A few novice Tamers camped nearby, roasting meat around a fire. They had common beasts: two iron boars and a stone lizard.
They glanced at Kai curiously.
"Lost, kid?" one called. A girl about his age with short brown hair and a bow across her back.
Kai shook his head and kept walking toward the Rift.
The thread pulsed brighter.
Inside the Rift, the air grew colder. Twisted trees glowed faintly blue. Small shadow wisps, normal F-rank pests — drifted aimlessly.
Normal Tamers couldn't contract them; they had no combat value and dissipated at dawn.
But Kai's [Seal Perception] flared.
One wisp, slightly larger than the others, hovered alone near a cracked stone pillar covered in ancient runes.
The crimson thread ended there.
Kai approached slowly.
The wisp noticed him. Two tiny crimson eyes blinked open inside the black mist. Thin tendrils waved like curious feelers.
It didn't flee.
Kai extended his hand, heart hammering.
The system prompted:
[Sealed Divine Fragment detected.]
[Name: Unknown (Infant Form)]
[Bloodline: Abyssal Throne Sovereign (0.1% Awakened)]
[Taming difficulty: Low (due to host resonance)]
[Begin contract? Y/N]
Kai didn't hesitate.
Yes.
A black circle of runes flared beneath his feet. Crimson chains shot out, wrapping gently around the wisp.
The little creature tilted, eyes widening, then drifted forward willingly.
The chains dissolved into light that flowed into both Kai and the wisp.
[Ding!]
[First Divine Beast contracted.]
[Name the beast?]
Kai thought of the endless nights he'd spent staring at stars through slum roofs, dreaming of darkness that could hide him from the world.
"Nyx," he whispered.
[Name registered: Nyx]
[Nyx - Shadow Veil Wisp (Sealed Infant)]
[Level: 1 → 3 (first contract bonus)]
[Bloodline Awakening: 0.1% → 0.5%]
[New Skill Unlocked: Shadow Cloak (Lv.1)]
[Corruption Resonance: 0% → 3%]
A faint warmth spread through Kai's chest. Nyx floated closer, brushing against his arm like a cold breeze — affectionate, curious.
For the first time, Kai smiled genuinely.
Back at the novice camp, the girl archer stared wide-eyed.
"You… contracted a shadow wisp? Those things can't even fight!"
Her companions burst out laughing.
"Kid's desperate. Probably thinks it'll scare rats away."
Kai ignored them. He sat against a tree, opened the full interface, and began reading every panel slowly.
There was a long, long way to go.
But for the first time in his life, the path ahead didn't look hopeless.
In the distance, thunder rumbled, though the sky was clear.
Warden's voice returned, quieter than before.
"The first seal weakens. The Abyssal Throne stirs in its sleep."
"Rest tonight, Sealbreaker. Tomorrow, the world begins to notice you."
Kai looked at Nyx curled in his shadow like a loyal cat made of night.
He closed his eyes.
Tomorrow, he would start climbing.
And no one, not nobles, not geniuses, not even the gods themselves, would stop him.