Chapter 1
June 13, 2026
The sky burned with an unnatural violet-blue hue, streaked with jagged lightning that crackled in hues of gold and crimson. Below, the ruins of what was once a town lay buried under gargantuan ferns and skeletal trees, their roots clawing through asphalt like serpents.
Buildings leaned at impossible angles, half-consumed by moss and vines, while new mountains speared through the horizon—monuments to the cataclysm that had reshaped the world four years ago.
A guttural snarl echoed through the ruins. Three Corrupted emerged from the shadows of a collapsed bank, their bodies warped into grotesque parodies of humanity. Reddish skin glistened like raw meat, teeth jutted unevenly from distended jaws, and claws scraped against stone.
Jace Mercer watched from the roof of an abandoned bookstore, his gray-green eyes cold and assessing.
At 23, his face was all sharp angles and unyielding lines, softened only by a faint scar trailing from his left temple to his eyebrow—a relic of a life that felt centuries gone. He raised the mana gun, its hexagonal barrel humming as it siphoned energy from the crackling air.
Click. Boom.
The first Corrupted's head exploded in a burst of viscera and iridescent sparks. The creature crumpled mid-sprint, its body dropping to the ground. The second shot fizzled, the gun sputtering a weak blast that only grazed the next beast's shoulder.
"Useless," Jace muttered, slinging the weapon onto his back.
He leaped from the roof, boots crunching into debris as he sprinted toward the remaining Corrupted. They lunged, claws slashing air, but Jace pivoted, planting a palm against the ground.
Boom.
Purple-blue energy erupted from his fingertips, rippling outward in a shockwave that vaporized the Corrupted and tore a crater into the earth. When the smoke cleared, only scorched soil and faintly glowing embers remained.
The warehouse loomed ahead, its steel walls patched with salvaged metal and mana-infused plating. Two guards snapped to attention as Jace approached.
"Sir," one said, saluting.
"Elias is in the lab tent. And… your parents called again."
Jace's jaw tightened imperceptibly. "Tell them I'll respond when we secure the outpost."
Inside, the cavernous space buzzed with the clatter of tools and murmured voices. Two hundred survivors huddled in tents or hunched over makeshift workstations, their faces gaunt but determined. Jace's boots echoed on the concrete as he strode toward the center of the warehouse, where a large tent structure pulsed with mana-powered lights and drifting, floating tools.
Elias stood just outside the entrance, ducking into the tent as several trinkets floated around him—metal shards, glowing crystal fragments, even a wrench that spun lazily in the air. With a casual wave of his hand, he swept a few aside and stepped through the flaps.
The tent interior was organized chaos. Weapons, parts, and raw mana crystals hovered midair in a ballet of soft movement. At the center, Elias settled onto a rusted office chair, cross-legged like it was a throne.
He was distractingly handsome, with smooth brown skin, dyed cerulean dreadlocks, and a constellation of piercings—a lip ring, a nose ring, and a curved bar through his right eyebrow. When he smirked, it was with the ease of someone fully aware of the effect.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, your highness?"
Jace tossed his malfunctioning weapon onto the nearest hovering tray.
"Second shot failed. Again."
Elias sighed, flicking his fingers to summon the gun. "Progress, at least. Last prototype took my eyebrows off."
He poked at the wiring, holographic schematics flickering around him.
"Any mana crystals?"
"No." Jace's voice was flat.
"The explosion leaves nothing behind."
Elias groaned. "You're a walking resource drain, you know that? Can't you just… lightly explode things?"
Jace ignored him, gaze drifting to the survivors outside the lab tent. A child clung to her mother's leg, eyes wide as she watched engineers weld scrap metal into armor. The weight of their stares settled on his shoulders like stone.
"Mana storm's brewing," Elias added, nodding to a screen displaying swirling atmospheric data.
"Two days, tops. We need to move."
Jace nodded. "Prep the convoy. We leave at dawn."
*
That night, Jace climbed to the warehouse roof, where fractured moonlight poured over rows of makeshift tents and quiet fires. The horizon churned with nascent storms, distant clouds pulsing with unnatural color.
Somewhere out there was the stable zone Elias had theorized—a pocket of calm in the mana-choked hellscape. A way to finally breathe.
It might not exist, but it was something to hope for in this godforsaken world.
Below, laughter drifted up—brief and bright. A child giggled. Someone cursed cheerfully at a jammed generator.
Jace leaned back on his elbows, sparks crackling at his fingertips. They fizzled into the air.
He didn't know why, but it all felt... distant.
Like he was waiting for something. Or someone.
He just didn't know who.