Chapter 2: The Iron Wastes and The Eater of Souls
To the east of Sector 7 lay the Iron Wastes. It was a sprawling, apocalyptic expanse of jagged metal mountains, toxic sludge rivers, and the rotting carcasses of discarded starships from the inner rings. It was the galaxy's garbage dump, a forsaken land where the planetary government turned a blind eye.
For the desperate, it was a place to scavenge scrap metal to sell for a few synthetic rations. For the Awakened, it was a low-level hunting ground. For the mutant beasts born from radiation and corrupted mana, it was home.
And tonight, for Leo, it was a buffet.
The twin moons of Aethelgard hung low in the smog-choked sky, casting a sickly, pale-green illumination over the rust-covered landscape. The air here was thick, smelling of sulfur, oxidized iron, and the coppery tang of dried blood.
Leo stood atop the rusted hull of a decommissioned atmospheric freighter, looking down into a sprawling canyon of metallic debris. He had wrapped a tattered black scarf around his lower face to filter out the worst of the toxic fumes. In his right hand, he held his weapon of choice: a three-foot-long, jagged piece of reinforced titanium rebar he had ripped from a collapsed scaffolding. It was crude, heavy, and perfectly balanced for cracking skulls.
Status, Leo thought.
The familiar blue interface projected onto his retinas.
[Akashic Singularity System]
Host: Leo
Rank: 0 (Novice - 0 Star)
Soul Essences: 0/1000
"Let's see how well this works," Leo whispered to the desolate wind.
He focused his mind on the 'Basic Void-Step Technique' the system had forcefully imprinted into his brain earlier that day. He channeled his physical stamina—since he had virtually no mana to speak of yet—into his calves and feet, following the complex, unnatural pathways the technique demanded.
He stepped off the edge of the freighter, a drop of at least fifty feet.
Normally, a Rank 0 human would shatter their legs upon impact. But as Leo fell, he executed the Void-Step.
Whoosh.
His body blurred. The space around him seemed to fold inward for a fraction of a second. Instead of plummeting like a stone, he reappeared twenty feet closer to the ground, his downward momentum completely reset. He chained a second step, blurring again, and landed on the jagged metal ground below without making a single sound. Not even the loose gravel shifted beneath his worn boots.
"Incredible," Leo muttered, his grey eyes widening slightly. "It consumes stamina at an alarming rate, but the spatial displacement is instantaneous. A true assassination art."
He couldn't use it continuously. With his current unawakened, Rank 0 body, three consecutive Void-Steps would tear his leg muscles to shreds. He needed to break through to Rank 1 soon to temper his flesh with ambient mana.
A low, guttural snarl interrupted his thoughts.
Leo's eyes darted to the shadows between two massive, rusted cogs. Four pairs of glowing, sickly yellow eyes pierced the darkness.
System, analyze.
[Analyzing...]
Target: Corrosive Rat-Wolves (Pack of 4).
Rank: 0 (8-Star to 10-Star Beasts).
Threat Level: Moderate (Due to Host's unawakened state).
Note: Their saliva contains potent acid capable of melting low-grade steel.
They stepped out of the shadows. They were hideous creatures, the size of large mastiffs, with patchy, diseased fur, exposed bone plating along their spines, and jaws dripping with a viscous, smoking green liquid. They smelled of rotting meat and battery acid.
They encircled him, clicking their claws against the metal floor, evaluating the skinny human who had dared to enter their territory. To them, Leo looked like an easy, unawakened meal.
Leo didn't draw the 21-colored baby. A Soul Weapon was supposed to be a cultivator's primary method of attack and defense. But his Anomaly, in its 'Seed' form, had zero combat capabilities. If he summoned it now, it would probably just giggle and try to play with the rabid mutant dogs.
He had to rely entirely on his ten years of brutal, limit-breaking physical training.
"Come on, then," Leo whispered, tightening his grip on the titanium rebar.
The largest Rat-Wolf, a 10-Star alpha with a missing ear, lunged. It crossed the distance in a heartbeat, its jaws opening impossibly wide to snap at Leo's throat, a spray of acidic saliva flying through the air.
Leo didn't retreat. His expression was as cold as the void.
He tilted his head mere inches, letting the beast's jaws snap shut on empty air, the acid sizzling against the collar of his coat. Simultaneously, Leo pivoted on his heel, using the beast's own momentum against it. He swung the heavy titanium rebar like a baseball bat, putting the full rotational force of his hips and shoulders into the strike.
CRACK!
The heavy metal collided directly with the Rat-Wolf's ribcage. The sound of bones shattering echoed sharply in the canyon. The beast was swatted out of the air, crashing violently into a pile of scrap metal with a whimper, its chest completely caved in. It didn't get up.
The remaining three hesitated for a microsecond, stunned by the sheer physical power of this seemingly fragile human.
That hesitation was their death sentence.
Leo surged forward. He didn't use Void-Step; he just sprinted with explosive, terrifying speed. Before the second beast could react, Leo drove the jagged end of the rebar straight down through the roof of its mouth, pinning its skull to the ground.
The third beast leaped at his back.
Void-Step.
Leo vanished. The beast crashed into the ground where Leo had been standing a millisecond prior. Before it could recover, Leo reappeared directly above it. He brought his boot down in a brutal axe-kick, snapping the creature's spine with a sickening crunch.
The final beast, realizing the terrifying nature of its prey, tucked its tail and tried to flee into the darkness.
Leo picked up a heavy, rusted gear from the ground and hurled it like a discus. It sailed through the air and struck the fleeing beast in the back of the head, dropping it instantly.
The fight had lasted less than ten seconds.
Leo stood amidst the four corpses, his breathing perfectly steady. He wiped a drop of black blood from his cheek. Physical combat against unranked beasts was trivial for him. He had spent years fighting in the illegal underground death matches of Sector 7 just to afford food.
"System," Leo said aloud. "How do I extract the Soul Essence?"
[Ding! Host must manifest the Genesis Legion (The Prismatic Nephilim) near the deceased entities within 10 minutes of their death, before their soul fragments dissipate into the atmospheric mana cycle.]
Leo opened his right hand.
A warm, gentle light illuminated the bloody, gruesome scene. The tiny, 21-colored translucent baby materialized, floating upward. It stretched its tiny arms, let out a cute "Goo?" and looked around.
When it noticed the four dead, mangled Rat-Wolves, it didn't cry. It didn't look scared.
Instead, the baby's colors shifted rapidly, finally settling on a deep, abyssal black hue with traces of blood-red. The cute, innocent expression on its face vanished, replaced by an unsettling, almost predatory hunger.
Leo watched in morbid fascination.
The baby floated over to the first corpse. It opened its tiny mouth.
Suddenly, the air pressure in the immediate vicinity dropped. A terrifying, microscopic vortex of dark energy formed inside the baby's mouth. From the bloody corpse of the Rat-Wolf, a pale, glowing wisp of grey energy—its soul—was violently ripped out. The soul struggled, emitting a faint, ethereal shriek that only Leo could hear, but the baby's suction force was absolute.
Slurp.
The baby swallowed the soul whole. It patted its glowing belly and let out a satisfied "Burp," a tiny puff of grey smoke escaping its lips.
It then zipped over to the next three corpses, repeating the process. Slurp. Slurp. Slurp.
The contrast was mind-bending. It was a cute, chubby infant casually devouring the immortal souls of the dead with the efficiency of a cosmic black hole.
[Ding! Host has harvested 4 Rank 0 Beast Souls.]
[Soul Quality: Extremely Low (Trash).]
[Conversion complete: +4 Soul Essences.]
[Current Progress: 4/1000]
The baby, having finished its meal, shifted back to its multi-colored, cheerful state. It floated over to Leo, nuzzled against his cheek affectionately, and vanished back into his soul space to digest.
"Four essences from four beasts," Leo calculated, his eyes narrowing. "At this rate, I'll have to slaughter two hundred and fifty packs of these mutants just to get the baby out of its seed form. That will take weeks. I need higher quality prey."
As if the universe was answering his dark ambition, a sound echoed from deeper within the Iron Wastes.
It wasn't the roar of a beast. It was a human scream. A young, terrified scream, abruptly cut short.
Leo's head snapped toward the sound. In the slums, hearing a scream meant you walked the other way if you wanted to live. But Leo wasn't a normal slum rat anymore. He was a hunter looking for premium currency.
He gripped his rebar, his eyes cold. He activated Void-Step, blurring into the shadows, moving rapidly toward the source of the noise.
Two miles deep into the Wastes, within the hollowed-out cargo bay of a crashed star-cruiser, a grim scene was unfolding.
Five men, wearing heavily modified, black tactical gear, stood in a circle. They were 'Harvesters'—scavengers of the worst kind. They didn't hunt beasts. They hunted newly Awakened children from the slums, killing them to harvest their nascent Soul Cores to sell to the corrupt alchemists in the inner cities.
In the center of the circle lay a boy, no older than twelve. He was sobbing, clutching a bleeding wound on his shoulder. Next to him floated a faint, flickering blue shield—his newly awakened, Rare-Category Soul Weapon. It was weak, unrefined, and currently failing to protect him.
"Stop crying, rat," the leader of the Harvesters spat. He was a tall, gaunt man holding a pair of glowing, crimson daggers—his own Soul Weapon. He was a Rank 1, 5-Star Assassin. "You should be honored. Your Rare-grade Soul Core is going to fetch us at least ten thousand credits. You'll be helping the economy."
The other four men laughed, their own crude weapons drawn. They were all Rank 1 cultivators, radiating a oppressive, murderous intent that made the air heavy.
"Please..." the boy begged, his voice cracking. "I just awakened today... my mother is waiting for me..."
"She can wait in hell," the leader sneered, raising his crimson dagger to plunge it into the boy's chest.
High above them, perched on a rusted steel beam in the shadows of the cargo bay's ceiling, Leo watched.
His heart didn't bleed for the boy. Empathy was a luxury he had discarded years ago to survive. But as he looked at the five Harvesters, he didn't see murderers.
He saw walking, breathing bags of high-quality Soul Essence.
System, Leo commanded silently. Analyze targets.
[Analyzing...]
Target 1 (Leader): Rank 1 (5-Star). Soul Weapon: Crimson Fangs (Rare Category - Weapon).
Targets 2-5: Rank 1 (1-Star to 3-Star). Assorted Normal Category Weapons.
Estimated Soul Essence Yield: High.
"Five Rank 1 Awakeners," Leo whispered to himself. "This is going to be dangerous. One mistake and my unawakened body will be sliced to ribbons."
He slowly unwrapped the tattered black scarf from his face, tying it tightly around his eyes to act as a makeshift blindfold, leaving only a thin slit to see through. He needed to limit his peripheral vision to focus entirely on his kinetic senses and the precise execution of Void-Step.
He tightened his grip on the titanium rebar.
Let the slaughter commence.
The Harvester leader thrust his dagger down toward the boy's heart.
Void-Step.
The sound of displaced air was the only warning.
Leo materialized directly behind the leader, mid-air, dropping from the ceiling. He didn't aim for a flashy strike. He aimed for absolute efficiency. As he fell, he wrapped his left arm around the leader's neck in a vice-like chokehold, simultaneously driving the jagged point of the titanium rebar into the small gap between the man's tactical armor at the base of his spine.
The leader's eyes bulged. A choked gasp escaped his lips as the rebar severed his spinal cord instantly. His crimson daggers shattered into particles of light as his connection to his Soul Weapon was violently severed.
Leo used the dead leader's body as a shield, landing heavily on the metal floor.
"Boss?!" one of the Harvesters yelled, turning around just in time to see their leader's lifeless body slump to the ground, revealing the cold, masked teenager behind him.
"What the—!"
They didn't get to finish their sentence.
Leo kicked the leader's corpse forward, throwing the group into momentary disarray. In that fraction of a second, Leo used Void-Step again.
He appeared on the left flank of the group. He swung the rebar in a brutal, low arc, smashing the kneecap of the second Harvester. As the man screamed and crumpled, Leo spun, using the momentum to drive his elbow straight into the temple of the third Harvester. The sickening crack of a fracturing skull echoed in the cavernous room.
Two down in three seconds.
The remaining two Harvesters finally reacted, pure terror replacing their arrogant cruelty.
"Kill him! He's a monster!" one screamed, summoning a fiery broadsword. He swung wildly, unleashing a wave of scorching heat.
Leo didn't have a Soul Weapon to block the flames. His coat caught fire, searing his skin. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the agonizing pain, and threw the titanium rebar like a spear.
The heavy metal rod flew through the flames and impaled the screaming Harvester right through the chest, pinning him to the rusted wall behind him.
Only one left.
The final Harvester, a 3-Star Warrior holding a heavy mace, was shaking uncontrollably. He looked at the carnage. Four of his comrades, all Rank 1 Awakeners, butchered in less than ten seconds by a boy who wasn't even projecting a Soul Weapon aura.
"W-Who are you?!" the man shrieked, taking a step back. "You're unranked! How is this possible?!"
Leo slowly walked toward him, patting out the fire on his coat with his bare hands. His grey eyes, visible through the slit in his scarf, were dead. He didn't bother picking up a weapon.
"I am the one who cleans up the garbage," Leo said softly.
The man swung his heavy mace in a desperate, wide arc.
Leo ducked smoothly under the swing. He stepped deeply into the man's guard, placing his hands on either side of the man's head. With a brutal, twisting motion, leveraging his entire body weight, Leo snapped the Harvester's neck.
The man dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.
Silence descended upon the cargo bay, save for the heavy, ragged breathing of Leo and the terrified sobbing of the twelve-year-old boy.
Leo stood amidst the five corpses. His body ached terribly. Using Void-Step that many times had torn micro-fibers in his leg muscles, and his left shoulder was severely burned. But he felt a dark, exhilarating rush of adrenaline.
He looked at the trembling boy. "Run," Leo commanded, his voice devoid of any warmth. "If you stay here, the beasts will smell the blood."
The boy didn't need to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet, gave Leo one terrified, awe-struck look, and sprinted out of the cargo bay into the night.
Leo was alone with his prey.
He opened his right hand. The 21-colored baby materialized.
This time, the baby didn't even wait for a command. It sensed the rich, potent souls of five Rank 1 Awakeners. Its colors shifted violently, swirling into a chaotic maelstrom of dark purple and gold.
It flew to the center of the corpses, opened its tiny mouth, and unleashed a massive, silent scream.
Five bright, pulsating orbs of human soul energy were violently ripped from the bodies. The souls twisted and distorted in agony, but the Anomaly was merciless. It inhaled deeply, sucking all five souls into its tiny mouth in one massive gulp.
The baby's stomach swelled slightly. It hiccupped, a spark of golden lightning escaping its lips, before shifting back to its normal, cute, multi-colored state. It floated over to Leo, rubbing its head affectionately against his bruised cheek.
[Ding! Host has harvested 5 Rank 1 Human Souls.]
[Soul Quality: High.]
[Conversion complete: +250 Soul Essences.]
[Current Progress: 254/1000]
Leo nodded, satisfied. Hunting humans was vastly more profitable than hunting beasts.
Suddenly, the system interface glitched, turning a deep, bloody red. A blinding pain shot through Leo's head, dropping him to his knees. He clutched his chest as his heart began to beat like a war drum.
[ALERT!]
[Host has absorbed a massive influx of pure spiritual energy through the Genesis Legion's digestion process.]
[Host's physical vessel can no longer contain the ambient pressure. The mortal limit has been breached.]
[Initiating Forced Awakening Process...]
[Ascending to Rank 1: 1-Star Novice Realm.]
Leo screamed as his blood felt like it was turning into liquid fire. The impurities in his body were being violently burned away. His torn muscles began to knit together, becoming denser, stronger, infused with the fundamental mana of the universe.
Above him, the 21-colored baby watched with wide, curious eyes. Slowly, the baby's colors stopped shifting. For the first time, one specific color became dominant, overwhelming the others.
A deep, abyssal crimson.
Deep within Leo's soul, one of the twenty sealed Mythical weapons rattled its chains, sensing the birth of a true monarch.
The slow burn was over. The Omnisoul Monarch was finally stepping onto the universal stage.