The Ruinfold lies beyond the sector wall — a wasteland of twisted metal and skeletal towers.
Once, it was a city. Now, it's where Novara's forgotten tech goes to die.
Aren moves through the wreckage with a scavenger's instinct, reading the ruins like scripture. Every broken circuit, every cracked drone shell tells a story.
His bag is light — too light. Nira's medicine will cost triple now. Inflation, they said.
Inflation in a world where people don't even have enough to breathe.
He stops by a fallen holo-sign that still flickers faintly:
"The Ascendancy — For Humanity's Evolution."
Aren laughs quietly. "Evolution? Maybe for them."
Far in the distance, beyond the mist, he can see Central Ascendancy — glowing towers of glass and silver. People say those who awaken their Evolution Nodes live there, free from decay.
But here, in Sector Eleven, evolution means survival.