The Hunters Compact

Twenty years ago, an event known only as the God-Hand shook the world. The sky cracked. Time warped. And from the ruins came the Devils—monsters born from memory, guilt, and the deepest human emotions. To survive, humanity didn’t fight divine judgment… They licensed it. The Hunter’s Compact now rules the post-Gate world with military precision—classifying zones, regulating Devil Cores, and training elite Hunter Operants to suppress outbreaks. But some awaken outside the system. Some break the algorithm Kaelen Dremeir isn’t a licensed Hunter. He cleans up Devil corpses for pocket change. Survives quietly. Stays beneath the scanners. Until the night a Devil looks at him— And kneels. It offers him its Core. Unprovoked. Unexplained. Now the Compact wants him contained. His aura won’t stop glitching. And his shadow has started walking away without him. Worse? He hasn’t even flared yet.