The sirens started before dawn.
Long, metallic wails rolled across the city like a dying animal's cry.
People on the streets froze.
Shop shutters slammed down. Cars screeched to a halt. Digital boards across Neo-Vardis flashed the same crimson warning:
MONSTER BREACH — DISTRICT 7
Kael Ardyn was already awake.
He always woke before sunrise.
Not because he was disciplined.
Because hunger didn't let him sleep.
He sat up on the thin mattress in his one-room apartment, ribs pressing against skin, breath shallow. Cold air leaked through cracked windows, carrying distant screams and the sour smell of ozone.
Another breach.
Another day of people dying.
He pulled on his jacket — two sizes too big, scavenged from a donation bin — and tightened the frayed straps on his worn boots.
He hesitated at the door.
For a moment, he pressed his palm against his chest.
Right over his heart.
Where everyone else had it.
The Potential Core.
The invisible organ that defined your entire life.
He felt nothing.
No warmth.
No pressure.
No pulse.
Just emptiness.
Kael exhaled slowly and stepped outside.
District 7 was already chaos.
Defense drones buzzed overhead. City guards formed barricades while evac sirens echoed between concrete towers. People ran past Kael, faces pale, clutching children, dragging luggage, shouting names into the air.
Above it all, black smoke curled into the morning sky.
Kael moved in the opposite direction.
Toward the breach.
Not because he was brave.
Because Hollows didn't get evacuation priority.
Tier 0s weren't on the rescue lists.
If you couldn't fight, you weren't worth saving.
He kept his head down as he passed a Hunter squad assembling near a collapsed metro entrance.
They were young.
Bright uniforms. Clean weapons.
Tier 2 trainees, maybe one Tier 3 leading them.
Their aura leaked faintly into the air — a subtle pressure that made Kael's skin prickle.
One of them noticed him.
A girl with short silver hair and sharp eyes.
She frowned.
"Hollow," she said flatly. "Why are you here?"
Kael stopped.
"I live two blocks in."
Her gaze flicked over him.
Too thin.
No aura.
No weapon.
Dead weight.
"Go," she said. "You'll just get in the way."
He nodded once and continued walking.
He didn't argue.
Hollows learned early that explaining yourself was pointless.
The breach zone was three streets wide.
A reality fracture had split open between two office buildings, black mist pouring out like blood from a wound. The air shimmered strangely, bending light, warping sound.
And monsters were crawling through.
F-class first.
Small, hunched things with too many joints and needle teeth.
They scuttled across asphalt, tearing into abandoned cars, sniffing the air.
Hunters engaged them in coordinated formations.
Aura-enhanced strikes crushed skulls.
Blades flashed.
Gunfire echoed.
Kael watched from behind a shattered storefront.
His hands shook.
Not from fear.
From instinct.
Every part of his body screamed at him to run.
He forced himself to stay.
Because running never saved anyone like him.
A screech cut through the noise.
Something larger pushed through the mist.
A D-class brute.
Over three meters tall. Four arms. Chitin armor layered over pulsing muscle. Its mouth split vertically, revealing rotating rings of teeth.
The ground cracked beneath its weight.
Hunters repositioned instantly.
The Tier 3 leader shouted orders.
They attacked together.
Speed users darted in.
Strength types slammed into its legs.
Aura blasts detonated against its torso.
For a moment, it looked controlled.
Then the monster adapted.
Its outer shell hardened.
A backhand swipe sent two hunters flying into a wall.
One didn't get up.
The silver-haired girl moved to intercept.
Too slow.
The brute's lower arm hooked her ankle and yanked.
She hit the pavement hard.
Her weapon skidded away.
The monster raised its claw.
Time slowed.
Kael didn't think.
He ran.
People later said it was suicide.
They were right.
He grabbed a broken metal rod from the ground and hurled himself at the creature's side, slamming the rod into a damaged joint he'd seen earlier.
The impact barely pierced the armor.
The monster turned.
Its eye locked onto him.
Kael felt its killing intent like ice poured into his veins.
Tier 0.
Hollow.
Unarmed.
He had less than a second.
The brute lunged.
Kael twisted, the claw grazing his shoulder, skin ripping open in a spray of blood. Pain exploded through his body, but he stayed on his feet.
Barely.
He slipped under its next strike and drove the rod again into the same weak point.
Something cracked.
The monster roared.
Hunters surged forward.
Aura blades tore through exposed tissue.
The brute collapsed in a thunder of broken concrete.
Silence followed.
Heavy, stunned silence.
Kael dropped to his knees.
His vision blurred.
Blood soaked his sleeve.
He laughed weakly.
He was alive.
Again.
The silver-haired girl stared at him.
Not gratitude.
Not relief.
Confusion.
"How did you know where to hit?" she asked.
Kael wiped blood from his mouth.
"I didn't," he said honestly.
"I guessed."
Medics dragged him away before she could respond.
As they loaded him onto a stretcher, a scanner passed over his chest.
The screen flashed:
Potential Core: Inactive
Tier: 0 — Hollow
The medic sighed.
Another useless one.
They treated his wound quickly and moved on.
Outside, no one noticed the quiet anomaly.
Because buried beneath Kael's damaged flesh, deep inside his chest—
something had moved.
Not awakened.
Not activated.
It had shifted.
Like a locked door flexing under pressure.
And somewhere in the hollow space where a ceiling should have existed…
nothing resisted.