The light hung in the sky for three full minutes.Then it was gone.
But that was enough.
Every major satellite, orbital observatory, and martial sensor array across Blue Star had caught it.A single beam rising from Base City 5 — cutting through clouds, atmosphere, and into space itself.It had no energy signature, no element, no trace of cosmic radiation.It simply was.
The world reacted immediately.
Inside the Martial Association headquarters, chaos reigned. Dozens of officers ran through corridors filled with flashing red alarms. The surveillance feeds were overflowing — one showing the spire's shadow stretching across the city, another showing the flickering dome field.
Captain Nyra Voss stood in the center of the command chamber, face pale under the flickering holo-screens.
"What's the damage report?" she demanded.
"None," a technician stammered. "No casualties, no structural breaches — but every energy sensor within a hundred kilometers overloaded for exactly one hundred and eighty-one seconds. After that, the signal vanished."
Nyra turned toward the main display, which now showed a frozen image of the beam.It looked simple — a clean pillar of white light. But her instincts screamed that it wasn't just light.
It was communication.
She spoke quietly. "Get me Central Command. Priority code black."
The technician froze. "Ma'am, that's reserved for—"
"I know what it's reserved for. Do it."
Across the city, people were still staring at the sky.
For most, it was a mystery — a beautiful, terrifying moment they would talk about for years. For others, it was an omen.Every religion, cult, and fringe belief immediately claimed it as theirs.
But in one quiet apartment, Aiden Cross sat on the floor, his breathing uneven.
The light had vanished.The pulse beneath the earth was silent now, as if nothing had happened.But the silence was wrong — heavy, deliberate, like a predator holding its breath.
His System had stopped responding entirely. The interface hovered before him, frozen mid-line.
[System Rebooting…][Synchronization protocols recalibrating.]
He exhaled shakily. His skin still burned faintly with residual energy, the echo of whatever had passed through him.
You carry our legacy… and our burden.
The voice from the vision repeated in his mind, clear as if it had been spoken seconds ago.Legacy. Burden.Those words carried weight he couldn't understand — not yet.
But one thing was clear: that light hadn't been an accident.The Core had called to something.And something had answered.
An hour later, Base City 5 was under partial lockdown.Civil traffic was rerouted, air patrols doubled, and the Martial Association had sealed the lower levels beneath their spire.
Unmarked black transports moved through the night. Soldiers and technicians carried crates of scanning gear and containment rigs toward the excavation site where the sphere still pulsed faintly underground.
"Radiation zero?" Nyra asked as they reached the platform.
"Zero," replied her lieutenant. "But the energy density is… insane. The deeper scanners couldn't penetrate it. It's like the core's cloaked behind dimensional distortion."
Nyra crouched beside the containment frame, staring at the sphere's surface.Her reflection stared back at her — warped, shifting slightly with the light.For a moment, she thought she saw another shape within it — a human outline. Then it was gone.
"Ma'am?" the lieutenant asked.
She straightened. "Pull the external cables. We're sealing it off. If this thing's transmitting, we don't want another flare."
"But, Captain, command wants data—"
"They can get data when we're alive."
Her voice brooked no argument. The soldiers moved quickly, disconnecting conduits and sealing the chamber behind a containment field.
The moment the energy feed cut, the pulse slowed — steady again, calm.Nyra exhaled slowly. But the dread didn't leave her.
That thing isn't done.
Meanwhile, Aiden's System finally rebooted.
[System Operational.][Host Status Updated.]Physique: 26,214.4Spirit: 26,214.4Realm: Martial Warrior — Gene Lock 1 (3/9)State: Stable. External interference neutralized.]
Aiden stared at the numbers. He hadn't trained. He hadn't even moved.Yet his attributes had doubled twice while the System was offline.
So even disconnected… it still grew.
He tested his hand — flexing his fingers slowly. The air trembled faintly, forming ripples that distorted the light around his skin.
His strength was getting harder to hide.
He stood, pacing slowly to the window. The dome's artificial night glow reflected faintly in his eyes.
"What are you trying to make me?"
No answer came — not from the System, not from the world. Only the whisper of wind brushing against the reinforced glass.
But far beyond the dome, past the stratosphere, past the blue glow of Blue Star's orbiting defense satellites — something stirred.
In the dark void between planets, a massive structure drifted silently — an ancient observation relay, forgotten by human hands for over forty years. Its systems had been dead since the Great Calamity.
Until now.
The moment the beam from Base City 5 reached space, the relay had awakened.
Faint glyphs glowed along its hull. Its long-dormant antenna rotated toward a distant point of light far beyond the system's edge.
The signal it sent wasn't human.It was ancient.And it was heard.
Across the stars, on a distant world lit by twin suns, a silver fortress floated in the upper atmosphere — the Central Verse Command of the Martial Alliance, the ruling power that governed hundreds of inhabited systems.
In the highest chamber, three figures stood before a massive projection of Blue Star.The central figure — tall, armored in silver, his aura like quiet gravity — spoke first.
"After fifty years of silence, the Primordial Node has reactivated," he said.
The woman beside him frowned. "Impossible. That sector was abandoned. The planet was barely stable after the Calamity."
"The readings don't lie," said the third — a scholar draped in dark robes. "The beacon's signature is exact. Sequence Alpha completed. Meaning the interface has bonded with a sentient host."
Silence followed.
Finally, the armored man turned his gaze toward the stars. "Then the cycle begins again."
He raised his hand, activating a holographic sigil. "Send a probe to the Blue Star sector. Quietly. If the Node has chosen a host…"His eyes hardened. "We cannot let another Dragon rise."
Back on Blue Star, Aiden sat at his desk, unaware of the ripples spreading far beyond his world.
He pulled up the System one last time before sleeping. The interface shimmered faintly, a new icon blinking at the corner.
[New Feature Unlocked: Celestial Gacha]Description: "Through resonance with the Primordial Node, the System has unlocked dimensional access to the Echo Archive. Spend accumulated points to summon random Skills, Weapons, or Entities."
Below it, a single unread message glowed softly.
[You have received: 1x Primordial Pull.]
Aiden blinked. "A gacha draw?"
It felt absurd — yet somehow inevitable.
What could it possibly pull from something like that?
He hesitated, then focused on the prompt.
"Use."
The interface shimmered, and for a moment, the world tilted. Symbols spiraled across the screen, spinning faster, faster—
A streak of light shot downward from somewhere beyond sight, slamming into the space before him. The air rippled.
When it cleared, an object hovered at chest height — a slender black blade, its surface etched with glowing runes that pulsed faintly with the same light as the Core.
Aiden reached out, his fingers brushing the hilt.
The System chimed.
[Congratulations.]You have acquired: "Obsidian Edge — Relic of the First Civilization."Type: WeaponRank: ???Status: Bound.**
The blade dissolved into motes of light and vanished — absorbed directly into his body. For a brief instant, he could feel its hunger, its resonance, its promise of power.
Aiden stood frozen, his reflection trembling faintly in the dark window.
He looked at his hands.At the faint shimmer of energy beneath his skin.
The Core had awoken.And now the heavens were answering.
He exhaled slowly, the faintest smile tugging at his lips.
"Then let's see what fate really has planned."