A cold wind snaked through the abandoned subway tunnel where the Phantom Guild now held their secret base. Kairo leaned against a rusted column, watching sparks fly as other members reinforced the dungeon stabilizer buried in the stone wall.
He'd been with them for a week.
Seven days, three raids, and countless kills. Each dungeon, each monster, gave him new fragments of power—and the system kept evolving.
> [Devourer Sync: 12%] [Next threshold ability unlocks at 20%]
But he wasn't the only one growing stronger.
Vexa entered the tunnel, her presence still like a blade pressed against your throat. Behind her trailed a new figure—tall, hooded, radiating silent menace.
He walked like he owned the shadows.
Kairo's instincts prickled. He knew power when he felt it.
"Everyone," Vexa announced, "this is Riven. Our latest recruit. A former A-rank hunter from the Obsidian Pact."
Whispers erupted around them. Even the grizzled veterans reacted.
Obsidian Pact? That was an elite guild, known for ruthlessness. If Riven left them… it wasn't by choice.
His eyes met Kairo's.
And Kairo saw it.
The hunger. The same system. The same power.
He was a Devourer too.
---
Later that night, Kairo wandered into the armory to retrieve new gear when Riven stepped out of the shadows.
"You're like me," Riven said flatly.
Kairo didn't flinch. "You have the system too?"
Riven smirked, pulling his glove off. Along his arm were black veins glowing faintly violet—Essence scars, the same kind Kairo had noticed on his own skin days ago.
"I've had it longer than you," Riven said. "And I'm telling you this: the system will turn on you the moment you lose control."
Kairo raised a brow. "You sound like you've tried."
Riven's smirk faded. "I did lose control. I wiped out an entire dungeon party... then my guild tried to kill me. That's why I'm here."
Silence.
Kairo stepped closer, just a breath apart.
"Then don't get in my way," Kairo said. "Because I'll be the one who masters it."
They stared at each other—rivals bound by a cursed power.
Then Riven said something Kairo didn't expect.
"There's another one."
Kairo froze. "What?"
"A third Devourer. Stronger than both of us combined. The system calls them the Original."
---
Two days later, Phantom Guild entered a forgotten dungeon known as the "Crown Below"—a place so old it didn't even show up on VeilNet.
It was alive. The dungeon pulsed like a heartbeat. Walls were covered in writhing veins of stone and crystal.
And in its center?
A throne.
Empty… but stained with ancient blood.
Then—
> [Devourer Detection: Unknown Entity Present] [Warning: Threat Level—Catastrophic]
The air turned heavy.
Something emerged from the darkness behind the throne.
Not a monster.
A man.
Bare-chested, covered in Essence runes. Eyes pure white. Smiling like a god.
"You found my seat," he said.
> [Entity Identified: Devourer Prime - Rank: ???]
Kairo's blood turned cold. This was the Original Riven had warned him about.
"You're early," the man said to Kairo. "Much earlier than the others."
"What do you want?" Kairo asked.
The man's smile widened. "To watch you consume this world… or be consumed by it."
Then, without warning—he vanished.
Leaving behind nothing but a surge of Essence and a single whisper in Kairo's head:
> "Only one Devourer survives the final sync."
---
That night, Kairo sat alone atop a broken rooftop near the Phantom Guild's base.
The city lights flickered below like dying stars.
Riven approached quietly.
"He was real, wasn't he?"
Kairo nodded.
Riven looked up at the stars. "Then we'd better get stronger. Fast."
Kairo's hand clenched. The scars on his arm pulsed.
"I'm not going to wait to be consumed," he said.
"I'm going to kill him first."