Zeon knew what he was about to do was suicidal. Not only that, it was dumb and reckless. No one below Tier 3 had ever survived this. They burned out. Exploded. Turned inside out...
He was doing it anyway.
The Feral Lord's shadow blanketed the collapsed resonance chamber as it slammed into the transparent wall repeatedly. Cracks spread swiftly, there would be no wall soon.
Tier 1 trembled in his arms, her unfocused eyes reflecting the flickering red light from the broken scanner above. Her skin was cold and slick with blood, her breathing shallow, her limbs twitching from shock.
The bond could kill him. Or mutate him. Or worse, it could tie him to something so broken he'd unravel before he even hit Tier 4.
"System," Zeon whispered, voice hoarse.
[SYSTEM ALERT: BOND INITIATION REQUESTED]
› Target Identified: Tier-1 (Unnamed – Vital Signs Unstable)
› Host Trait: Cellular Regeneration (Advanced Healing Potential Detected)
› Resonance Risk: Critical – 87% Compatibility
› Warning: Permanent Link Possible. Resource Allocation Irreversible.
Proceed with bond? [YES] / [NO]
A sharp inhale rattled from the Tier 1. She moved. Just barely. Her eyes, cloudy and unfocused, found his face. Her lips cracked as they parted, and something like a whimper left her throat
"…don't want to die," she croaked.
Her hand, bloodied and shaking, brushed weakly against his chest. Not strong enough to pull. Just enough to ask.
Something ugly twisted in Zeon's chest. He hated this. The pity. The panic. The fact that she was looking at him like he was the last solid thing in a crumbling world.
But she was still alive. Still reaching. Still asking.
He clenched his jaw.
"Yeah," Zeon muttered, "Do it. Before I change my mind."
[INITIATING...]
A jolt of white-hot agony surged through his veins, like someone had laced his blood with glass. Tier 1 convulsed against him as their bodies synced. Symbols blazed across his vision. Ancient, arcane, and entirely wrong. His tier signature distorted, then settled with a flicker.
[SOUL LINK: SUCCESSFUL]
[Trait Synergy in Progress...]
[NEW ABILITY ACQUIRED: SHADOW VEIL]
– Temporarily obscures physical and metaphysical presence. Duration: 45 seconds. Cooldown: 8 hours.]
Tier 1 gasped. Her lips parted as if she were surfacing from drowning. Her limbs stopped twitching. Her color returned in degrees, slowly, steadily. Zeon barely had a second to savor the win before a screech split the air.
The Feral Lord had broken through.
The wall collapsed behind them in a spray of concrete and glass. The creature loomed through the dust, all malformed limbs and snapping bone. It didn't lumber, it slithered with hunger, its multiple jaws salivating as it inhaled their scent.
Zeon yanked Tier 1 up.
"System, activate Shadow Veil—NOW!"
[ACTIVATING...]
The world went soundless.
It wasn't the normal silence, it was absence. Like they'd dropped out of the timeline and slipped behind a curtain in reality. The Feral Lord froze. Its heads jerked in confusion. Snarls turned to confused growls.
Zeon didn't wait.
He half-carried, half-dragged the weak Tier 1 through the debris. Time was the last thing he could depend on. Dust hung in the air like glitter suspended in oil. Each step burned his thighs, but the urgency gnawed harder.
Down the stairwell. Through the crumbling corridors of the Ascension center. Walls collapsed around them. A chunk of ceiling missed them by inches. He skidded through the lobby or what was left of it, and there, a sight stopped him in his tracks.
The receptionist from earlier.
What was left of her was still seated, hands gripping the edges of the desk, mouth frozen mid-scream. Her eyes were gone. The front wall had blown inward, glass shards embedded in her torso.
Zeon didn't linger. Grief was a luxury. He kept moving.
[Shadow Veil DEACTIVATED.]
A primal roar echoed above.
"Shitshitshitshit!"
Zeon sprinted, dodging falling rubble, Tier 1 was clinging to his back now, arms wrapped tightly. The front doors had collapsed inward. Zeon charged anyway. Wood cracked and glass sliced across his shoulder. He stumbled out into the open, chaos torn street just as another tremor shook the earth behind him.
The Feral Lord didn't follow.
At least, not yet.
---
Zeon didn't remember reaching the outskirts of Zone 12 where he lived.
All he recalled were shadows, heat, the smell of his own blood, and the metallic tang of Tier 1's breath on his neck. When his caravan, if you could even call the rusted hunk that, finally came into view, he barely had the strength to curse at it.
"Home sweet hell," he murmured, collapsing through the hatch.
And then darkness.
---
He woke up to humming.
It wasn't cheerful. More like distracted, off-tune and barely audible, like someone wasn't used to using their voice. His body ached like he'd been chewed on by a Desire-beast and spat out. But his wounds… they were gone.
Not all. But the worst of them.
He sat up slowly.
The inside of the caravan was still pathetic. A mattress on crates. Broken tech scrap. A dead console screen. But now, there was also her.
Tier 1 sat near the open hatch, her back to him. The rays of sunset gave her purple hair a deeper shade. She was bandaging her own arm with focused precision. Her body was still bruised, but the deep wounds? Gone, like his were. Likely thanks to her own ability.
He had made the right choice, healing was a handy skill to keep around.
Tier 1 turned and their eyes met.
And she smiled.
"Hey." Her voice was soft, airy. "You didn't die."
"I try not to," Zeon croaked. "Bad for morale."
She tilted her head. "You're… different."
"So they tell me." Zeon murmured. "And they never mean it in a good way."
"I didn't think a low-tier would survive the bond."
Zeon blinked. "You knew I was low-tier?"
"No," she said with a shrug. "But I do now."
She didn't sound disappointed. Just surprised. She scooted closer, her movements feline. She reached out, then hesitated, as if remembering boundaries.
"Thank you," she said. "For not letting me die."
The bond pulsed between them. Not painfully. Just present.
Zeon scratched his head. "So, uh… Do you have a name? Or should I keep calling you 'Tier 1' like a weird pet?"
She smiled faintly. "...Lilith."
"Cool. I'm Zeon."
"I know. I saw it when we bonded."
"That's...creepy."
She chuckled.
Then fell quiet.
A long silence passed before she spoke again, voice barely audible. "Is it always like this?"
"What?"
"This… emptiness. Hunger. Needing to be close to your anchor. To feel the resonance."
He didn't answer immediately. Her eyes were too open. Too raw.
"…Yeah," he finally muttered. "I think it is."
Wasn't that why he had nearly starved to death before deciding to apply for the Bond Ascension Program?
Not that any of it mattered now. He had returned with more confusion, no lifelong luxury and one more mouth to feed.
Someone like him had become an anchor. Whoever wrote this script was high on something potent.
Zeon swallowed down a groan.
"I feel weird. Like I've been reassembled wrong, but also… not broken anymore." She murmured, more to herself than to Zeon.
They didn't say much else and fell into comfortable silence, until Lilith drifted off to sleep.
---
Later, when Lilith was sound asleep, her breathing light and even, Zeon slipped out.
The streets of Zone 12 were eerily silent. Ash and dust still lingered from the center collapse. The energy grid flickered with unstable pulses.
He needed food. He needed a plan. He needed...
"...wanted for crimes against Ascension," a crackling voice announced.
Zeon froze.
Above him, a holographic billboard flared to life. His face. His name. His designation.
ZEON DUSK.
EROS TIER: 0
WANTED FOR: Sabotage, Treason, Murder of High Anchor Aurelion.
Apprehend
ALIVE.
His gut dropped. Not just sabotage. Murder. And not just anyone...Aurelion. Before today, he hadn't even known a High Anchor could die.
"Son of a..."
Zeon turned and ran.