The rain had stopped, but the air smelled like metal and ash. Kieran's body ached where the beast had struck, muscles screaming for relief he didn't have. Yet… he was alive. Somehow, impossibly alive.
The Ascension Protocol hummed in his mind, a cold, mechanical whisper. Survive. Survive. Survive.
Instinct—or something sharper—pulled him to his feet. Reflexes far beyond human, movements clean and precise. The world felt slower, heavier, every sound distinct: the drip of water from twisted beams, the scrape of rubble as rats skittered away.
He staggered forward, eyes scanning for threats, for anything that could tear him apart. And then he saw it: a faint glow under the collapsed arch of a ruined gatehouse.
He approached cautiously, every step measured. The glow pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat—or was it his heartbeat now synced to the Protocol? Kieran didn't know. All he knew was he had survived.
The sphere. Another sphere—or maybe the same one, broken but not inert. Runes etched into its glass shimmered faintly. He touched it.
[Protocol Status: Active]
[Directive: Survive]
[Leveling System: Engaged]
A surge shot through his veins, and Kieran fell to his knees. Memories, fragments of impossible knowledge, flickered in his mind. Combat techniques he had never learned, arcane symbols he had never studied.
Something shifted in him. A shadow in his vision, a tingle in his fingertips. The bruises and cuts seemed to fade as the Protocol reorganized his cells, repairing him faster than nature allowed.
He tested a flick of his hand. A pulse of kinetic force shot out, shattering a nearby slab of concrete. His eyes widened. He hadn't done that. The Protocol had done it.
But he wasn't alone.
Movement in the fog. Another figure. Smaller than the beasts, but faster. A Null—or maybe worse: a survivor who had gone feral. Its eyes glinted with the same desperation reflected in Kieran's own.
"Looking for the Protocol?" it hissed, voice jagged, broken.
Kieran didn't answer. He flexed his newly enhanced reflexes, feeling the difference immediately. A leap, a dodge, the world slowing around him. The figure lunged.
Time fractured. Kieran moved where he shouldn't have, faster than instinct. The rogue Null crashed into a ruined wall, dazed, vulnerable.
[First Combat Outcome: Survived]
[Experience Gained: 47 XP]
[Protocol Enhancement Available: Yes]
Kieran's mind raced. This wasn't just survival anymore—it was evolution. The Protocol didn't just keep him alive; it made him stronger, sharper.
But with strength came awareness. He could feel the city watching him. The ruins themselves seemed alive, every shadow a threat, every whisper a warning.
And above it all, the sky pulsed with crimson glyphs, a reminder of the world he hadn't chosen—and yet, maybe the world he was destined to change.
Kieran clenched his fists. He was Null. But no longer helpless. Not while the Protocol was awake.
He would survive. He would rise.