Chapter One: The Spark in the Ashes
The cold, gray rain poured relentlessly, turning the alleys of the "Lower Shade" into shallow swamps of mud and refuse. Each drop seemed to carry the weight of the despair that had settled over this forgotten part of the vast city of "Verhaven" in the land of Alloria. For Tian Heng, the rain was just another nuisance in a life filled with far worse and more deadly irritations.
His slender body, pressed against a crumbling, damp wall, shivered slightly—not just from the cold, but from the hunger gnawing at his insides for the past two days. The smell of the thin soup being cooked nearby was pure torture. He had no "copper chips," the currency circulating in this pit, and the last job he'd done—hauling rotting crates for a short-tempered gangster—had earned him a painful bruise on his ribs and nothing but a look of disdain.
"Survive," Tian Heng whispered to himself, the word sounding hollow in his dry throat. It wasn't just about surviving another day; it was a never-ending race against hunger, sickness, and the random violence that thrived in the Lower Shade like mushrooms. He was sixteen, but his eyes held a caution and weariness far beyond his years. He had seen enough to know that kindness was a luxury, and trust was a deadly folly. Here, the strong prey on the weak, and the clever exploit the fool. Tian Heng aspired to be clever, but he was still too weak.
A sharp pang of hunger pushed him to move. He had to find something, anything. He began to sneak through the winding alleys, his eyes scanning the ground for anything shiny or edible, skillfully avoiding groups of loafers and pairs of empty eyes that watched him from the darkened doorways.
His luck—or perhaps his desperation—led him to a recently collapsed area at the edge of the Lower Shade, where the old rubble of the lower city intertwined with the crumbling foundations of the "Upper" buildings. It was a dangerous place, unstable, usually avoided by everyone. But that also meant it might contain something unnoticed by others.
As he climbed over a pile of loose stones, his foot slipped. He fell, not far, but hard, landing squarely on his back, knocking the breath out of him. For a moment, he lay there, staring at the gray sky through a gap in the debris, feeling a wave of complete exhaustion wash over him. Why was he fighting?
Then, he felt something. Something solid and slightly sharp beneath his back. Not just another stone. He slowly pushed himself up, ignoring the pain, and brushed off the debris.
It was there. A dull metallic object, no larger than his fist, partially buried in the dirt. It wasn't shiny, but it was dark gray, covered in intricate, strange markings he had never seen before. This wasn't the language of Verhaven, nor the ancient scripts that adorned some of the better-preserved ruins. These markings seemed... alive in some way.
With an instinctive caution, Tian Heng looked around. No one. He picked up the metal object. It was surprisingly cold, but not dead. He felt a faint tremor, like a distant whisper, emanating from it.
The moment his fingers touched the markings, something happened. A flash of pure white light, not outside, but within his mind. It wasn't dazzling; it was clear and sharp. Information—images, symbols, concepts—flooded his mind at an incredible speed.
[Origin Vault - Start sequence activated.
Aetheric Resonance detected. User: Tian Heng, low affinity.
Core site beacon activated.
Status: Critical energy levels. Minimum shields active.
Objective: Survive. Stabilize. Grow.]
Tian Heng recoiled, his heart pounding in his chest. This wasn't ordinary magic, not like the simple spells some tricksters used in the market. This was something else. Something ancient and unimaginably powerful. Origin Vault... Aether... the words echoed in his mind, carrying a weight he didn't fully understand, but he felt their significance.
Then, he felt it again, that faint sensation he had sensed from the metal object, but now it was stronger, coming from a specific direction—deep inside the rubble. It wasn't just a feeling; it was a gentle pull, a beckoning.
The hunger and cold no longer mattered. Something fundamental had changed. For decades, or perhaps centuries, this thing had been waiting here, under the ruins of a forgotten world. And now, he had found it. Or perhaps, it had found him.
He quickly assessed his options. Return to the Lower Shade? There was nothing waiting for him there but more slow despair. Stay here? The risk of death under the rubble or at the hands of other thieves. Follow this mysterious call? An unknown risk, but it held the promise of something... different.
For someone like Tian Heng, who had learned to weigh every choice from the perspective of survival and potential gain, the decision was strikingly clear. The danger here was tangible and immediate, with the potential for an enormous reward. The danger in his old life was slow and certain, with no reward at all.
"Alright," he muttered, his eyes gleaming with a cold, determined light that hadn't been there just minutes ago. "Let's see where this leads."