---
The slums didn't sleep.
Not really.
Even at night, the low groans of rusted machines, the whir of broken drone wings, and the choking hiss of leaking vents filled the air. But this night was worse.
Something was moving in the smog.
Something old.
---
Kael crouched on the roof of a derelict silo, staring into the distance.
The Void Engine pulsed.
> [ Anomaly Detected. Energy signature: Entropic Mutation. ]
[ Classification: Aberrant-class Cryptid. Unstable. Highly aggressive. ]
> "Interesting," Kael murmured.
Below, shadows shifted. A large, hunched creature emerged between collapsed scaffolding and rotting machinery. Its body was fused with mechanical limbs and bone — a grotesque fusion of cybernetics and warped flesh. Its core pulsed with a sickly green light.
> "The Empire's waste never dies," Kael muttered. "It evolves."
He stood, joints cracking. The Void in his blood began to hum.
> "Let's see how well this body fights... with death on its side."
---
The creature roared.
It turned with unnatural speed, leapt up a wall like a feral predator, and launched itself toward Kael's position — three tons of madness in motion.
> [ Threat proximity: 2.4 seconds. No terrain advantage. Suggest: Immediate suppression. ]
Kael raised his hand, palm glowing.
> "Collapse."
Void energy flared, and a bolt of black flame burst from his palm, coiling midair like a snake. It struck the creature mid-lunge.
The flame didn't burn — it devoured.
Its cybernetic arm rusted to dust instantly. Flesh melted into black vapor. The creature screamed, rolling midair, slamming into the rooftop in a storm of shrapnel and steel.
But it wasn't dead.
---
> THUMP.
It rose again.
Half its body gone, but still moving. Its eyes now glowed white-hot. It released a mechanical shriek, then launched three spine-darts from its chest.
Kael moved sideways — slow.
Too slow.
One dart tore through his shoulder.
He staggered back, blood running down his arm. But his face remained calm.
> "Pain… familiar."
He lifted his other arm.
Closed his fingers.
> "Collapse again."
A ring of void glyphs ignited in the air around the creature's head.
With a soundless snap, space itself compressed.
The beast's skull caved inward.
Silence.
Then it dropped.
Dead.
---
Kael stood over the corpse.
Breathing heavily. Bleeding. But victorious.
> [ Biomass available. Extract entropy essence? ]
> "Extract everything."
The void flame flared again as Kael absorbed the lingering entropy. His wounds stopped bleeding. Muscle tissue regrew, skin hardened.
> [ Void Initiate — Level 3 attained. ]
[ Neural Speed +11%. Strength +9%. Mutation threshold: 4% ]
> "Rapid… but not unstable."
Behind him, he heard a sound.
He turned.
Elin, the girl from before, stood wide-eyed in the shadows, holding the rusted bowl. Her mouth was open.
> "What… what are you?"
Kael met her gaze.
His voice was cold but steady.
> "A dead man. Becoming something more."
He looked at his bloody arm.
> "And this city… is the first to fall if it gets in my way."
---