Pain.
That was Kiel's first sensation as he regained full consciousness. His skin felt like it was on fire, every nerve screaming. Seris hovered over him, frantically pressing herbs and synth-gel over his burns.
"What the hell were you thinking?" she snapped. "You took on a Reaper-class with no backup!"
Kiel chuckled, and winced. "Didn't exactly have time to file a team request."
She rolled her eyes. "You're lucky your regeneration kicked in. Whatever you absorbed... it's unstable."
He sat up slowly, gritting his teeth.
[New Trait: Synthetic Predation – Grants Enhanced Reflexes and Partial Immunity to Tech-based Tracking. WARNING: Integration Incomplete.]
His arm spasmed, the skin flickering between flesh and alloy for a moment.
"I'm mutating again," he muttered.
Seris paled. "You're fusing with the machine parts."
"No. I'm dominating them," he growled. "I'm still in control."
He hoped.
They moved at dusk, heading deeper into the Wastes, where Dominion surveillance was weaker. Kiel needed time — and prey. His Core pulsed with new hunger. Not just for flesh, but for code, power, dominion.
They found an abandoned satellite relay base buried beneath roots and vines. The tech was mostly defunct, but Seris managed to hack into the Dominion's black channels.
She gasped. "They've marked you as a Cataclysm-Class threat now."
Kiel smirked. "About time they got the memo."
"But they're not just hunting you," she added. "They've issued purge orders for the entire Outlands. Anyone suspected of aiding you will be executed."
The smirk faded.
Kiel stood, eyes cold. "Then I'll make sure no one has to aid me."
That night, the dreams returned.
He was back in the Ebon Core, surrounded by fractured reflections of himself — some monstrous, some broken, some regal and godlike. They whispered to him.
You were born prey. You became predator. But that is not the end.
One stepped forward — a version of him with obsidian wings and a crown of bone.
Become the apex. Rewrite the food chain.
He woke with a gasp.
Seris looked at him. "You were shaking in your sleep."
"I saw myself," Kiel muttered. "Versions of me. One of them... he ruled the Dominion."
Seris hesitated. "Is that what you want?"
Kiel stared into the darkness. "No."
He clenched his fist, mana flickering across his knuckles like wildfire.
"I want to end the game. Burn the rules. And give the prey their teeth back."
The next day, they encountered a patrol — five Dominion hunters and a psi-hound.
Before they could speak, Kiel vanished in a blur.
Seconds later, it was over. One hunter was still alive, crawling backward, gasping, "Mercy—please—"
Kiel knelt beside him. "Did the Dominion show mercy to the ones they experimented on? The kids you used as mana siphons? The elders you tossed into pits?"
The man sobbed. "I just followed orders..."
Kiel's eyes glowed.
"Exactly."
He sank his claws into the man's chest.
[Core Consumption Complete – Trait Acquired: Thermal Echo Tracking]
He stood, blood dripping from his fingertips.
Seris approached, disturbed. "You could've spared him."
"I could've," Kiel said flatly. "But I chose not to."
That night, as Kiel gazed at the stars above the canopy, Seris sat beside him in silence.
"You scare me," she admitted.
He looked at her. "Good. That means you're still human."
"And you?"
He didn't answer.
Because even he didn't know anymore.