He marks on Kael's arm flared up once more, worse than before.
He'd figured it out years back - tune out the hurt. Hurt never quit. It kept time like a prisoner's heartbeat: iron biting flesh, whips splitting skin, blood and sweat rotting in dirt. Yet this… this wasn't like that. This cut past muscle and bone. Felt like the marks burned into his spirit were being scraped away, remade from inside.
He clenched his fist, yet his fingers shook. From his wrist, a mark glowed red - much like a fading ember, still warm with leftover heat.
"Move, filth!"
The overseer cracked the whip over his back. Through the tight stone passage, that sharp noise bounced. Kael stayed still. It meant nothing to him anymore.
Three hundred slaves moved ahead near him, heads low, their marks barely shining in the shadows. The passage sloped down - each stretch lower than the last - heading into what no one could name. Thick air hung around them, soaked in decay and the tang of blood.
Beside him, Mira murmured - her tone faint, rough.
"Where are they taking us?"
Kael stayed quiet, gaze locked forward. Those blue eyes didn't flicker, just held steady. His face - narrow, angular - had a kind of beauty that seemed out of place on someone owned. Yet weariness dragged it down. Years of grueling work shaped his frame: dense muscle, sinew pulled taut like cables. Still, his motions lacked defiance - no arrogance there, just discipline.
Hope could get you hurt. Years back, he'd crushed it inside himself.
The passageway burst without warning into a huge cavern below ground.
It seemed like a church made for no person at all. The ground shifted like dark glass, twisting firelight into forms that couldn't exist. Bits of the floor hung in space, curving and warping in ways the brain just wouldn't accept.
A sound boomed out from up high.
"Behold! The Abyssal Gate!"
The speaker loomed atop a raised stage - Magister Voth. His garment flickered with enchanted thread, while his rings hummed softly with energy. He appeared swollen from wealth and authority. Kael had crossed paths with such men since childhood - ones who ended lives without lifting a hand.
"You have been chosen," Voth said, his voice amplified by an array of floating crystals. "The Fractured Domains awaken again. The Undercroft must be entered, explored, and stabilized. The ones to succeed will be rewarded beyond imagination."
"Got my reward," Kael mumbled low. His mouth curled into a lopsided grin, sharp with irony.
Voth spread his arms theatrically. "The first ten to return with Domain Cores will receive freedom! The brands on your wrists will be removed, and you will be given gold, food, and a home in the capital."
The slaves started grumbling. Freedom spread among them - fast, like fire across parched weeds. A few actually grinned. Fools.
Kael understood - this wasn't just danger. It was walking straight into the end.
Magister Voth's voice dropped, oily and amused. "Of course, the Undercroft is… unpredictable. Survival rate of the last expedition was approximately three percent. But I have faith in you."
Three percent. Nine from three hundred.
Kael stayed silent. His wrist flared up worse, brightness throbbing along with his pulse. The symbols writhed once more, bending into something different. This wasn't meant to go down this way - slave marks didn't change, carved by magic, locked in with blood.
His sight started to fuzz out. Pain crawled from his wrist, climbing upward through his arm, snaking through like hot metal threads.
"Kael… are you alright?" Mira's voice trembled.
He shifted a little, covering his wrist. "I'm okay."
"You're your arm—"
"I said I'm fine."
The red light burst out of nowhere, spilling over the room. Kael hit the floor on one knee, breath jagged. Everything slanted sideways. Blood hammered in his skull. After that, words seared themselves into his sight.
[System Awakening Detected]
[Analyzing Host...]
[Matches: 3%]
[Survival Probability: 2%]
[Forced Awakening Initiated]
Kael's breath caught. Not said out loud - the words showed up in his mind, etched straight into his head.
"What... is this…"
The ache got too much to handle. Not only was it bodily - it ripped through his spirit like a split seam. A door popped inside his head, one that had no right being there.
Then - out of nowhere - he spotted it.
Invisible strands, too many to count, fine like hair, tied him to something high above. One after another throbbed with red light. He sensed them - ropes of duty, dread, pressure - all linked to Magister Voth.
The brand stood firm his soul turned it loose.
Then again… something started to reveal how he could crack it.
[Aspect Identified: Devourer of Bonds]
[Core Ability: Sever and Consume Magical Connections]
The words glowed hot inside his gaze.
"Can't be..." Kael muttered.
The fire sparked up once more. His gut moved him. Toward a bright chain he reached - not the one linked to defiance - but yanked it free.
Reality split open.
The thread broke like glass. Pain shot through every nerve. Kael yelled, his body jerking back as the mark on his wrist shifted from red to blazing white. The scent of burnt skin hit the air.
Yet from the pain emerged a change. Inside his chest, an empty chill took root - where the link once hung. A quiet unlike anything he'd felt in years settled deep.
Freedom.
[Bond Severed: Compulsion]
[Caution: Some separation found. The boss will see it.]
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"
The voice boomed through the room.
Magister Voth popped back onto the stage, face flushed dark from fury. Magic crackled in his palms as glowing strands shot out wildly, hunting for something to dominate.
Kael sensed the leftover chains pull tighter, pushing him down to his knees. Yet the one forcing him to comply… had vanished.
Out of nowhere, his body wouldn't bend.
"You dare?" Voth's voice shook with disbelief. "A slave defying his brand? You—"
He paused. His eyes landed on Kael's bright wrist. Anger shifted into hunger. "One of the Awakened… a Devourer?"
The Magister's tone shifted. "Seize him. Carefully. He's mine now."
Six armored guards moved forward, weapons lit up with runes that hushed magic. Kael shook, worn out, yet his thoughts stayed clear. Then his sight shifted once more.
Threads. All of it came down to threads. Not just the magic woven through their chains, but also the ties holding their armor together, then those glowing marks flickering over their weapons.
He stretched forward, driven by that same urge mixing panic with need, then took hold of one.
[Severing Connection...]
The suppression chains broke apart in the sky. Yet metal pieces dropped as if weightless.
The guards tripped backward, dazed.
Kael was already moving when they started to react. Pain shot through him, yet fear pushed him ahead anyway. He ran for the gate, fast and low, every step shaky but sure.
"STOP THAT GUY!" Voth yelled.
Kael didn't respond. Ahead sat the Abyssal Gate, swirling with dark shapes and flickering brightness that didn't sit right. As he moved nearer, his thoughts shouted for him to flee instead. The atmosphere twisted oddly near it, as if the world was bending like hot wax.
He caught Mira yelling his name.
He just walked away without turning around.
Beside him, the guards rushed forward. In front, the gate flickered once - then again - before swinging wide.
[Warning: Entry into Fractured Domain Detected]
[Destination: The Undercroft]
[Corruption Level: Severe]
Kael didn't hesitate - just jumped straight into the glow.
The world faded away.
He dropped into a dark space that had stuff in it. Voices hissed across the nothingness. Forms shifted just outside sight - way too big, way too ancient to get.
Pain hit. After that, cold crept in. Then - nothing.
When Kael landed, the ground gave way beneath him, damp and spongy. Thick fumes of decay mixed with soot filled his lungs. Gradually, his sight sharpened, showing a wasteland with no end - shattered spires, streams of dark fog, and skies glowing crimson.
[You have entered: Fractured Domain - The Undercroft]
[Time until Corruption Breach: 47 minutes]
[Objective: Survive]
Kael pushed to his feet, gasping. His wrist hummed with a dull light. The mark wasn't the same anymore - instead of a ring of symbols, it now twisted into rough black coils.
He glanced sideways. Nothing stirred. Not a single breath nearby. Just a faint shift over yonder - some shape dragging itself over broken walls, way bigger than any person could be.
"Freedom…" he said soft, like it was something to chew on.
It seemed fake.
The wind howled. Shadows crept nearer.
Kael tightened his hand, while the light on his wrist flashed along with his pulse.
"If this is freedom," he said quietly, "then hell's as good a place to start as any."
He stepped inside where the shadows stretched.
[Aspect Awakening Complete]
[Name: Kael Varen]
[Aspect: Devourer of Bonds]
[Rank: Undefined]
[Core Ability: Consume and Sever Magical Connections]
[Warning: Instability Detected]
[Corruption Rising...]
End of Chapter 1