The containment chamber's alarms were the first thing I registered—a shrill, pulsing scream that matched the headache splitting my skull. Then came the smell: burning wires, molten steel, and something organic, like meat left too long in the sun.
"Kai! Don't touch the—!"
My father's voice cut off as the explosion hit. The world dissolved into white noise and searing heat. I remember flying backward, the sensation of my skin peeling away—then nothing. Until the void spoke.
[CHAMPIONS PROTOCOL INITIATED.]
Cold blue light flooded my vision. I gasped, clawing at my chest where the pain had been moments before. My fingers met smooth, unbroken skin. "What the hell...?"
[HOST DESIGNATION: KAI MENDEZ. AGE: 22. STATUS: CRITICAL.]
I wasn't in the lab anymore. The alley around me stank of piss and rotting garbage, neon signs flickering in a language I didn't recognize. My clothes were intact, but my arms... Thin, glowing veins pulsed under my skin, branching like circuitry. "System," I croaked, the word instinctive. "What did you do to me?"
[ADAPTATION NECESSARY. VOID KING PROXIMITY AT 89.7%. EMERGENCY JUMP IMMINENT.]
A countdown seared itself into the corner of my vision: 00:59:59.
---
The gunmen found me seven minutes later. Black SUVs screeched to a halt at the alley's mouth. Men in tactical gear poured out, rifles raised. "Target acquired," one barked. "Terminate the experiment."
I didn't have time to process that before the bullets came.
[KINETIC ENERGY DETECTED. ABSORB? Y/N]
"Fucking—YES!"
The first bullet grazed my shoulder. Pain flared—then vanished as blue light siphoned from the wound like liquid smoke. The System chimed: [ENERGY +5%. CORRUPTION RISK: 2%.]
"Corruption?!"
[DEFINITION: PROLONGED ENERGY USE ALTERS HOST BIOLOGY. SUGGESTION: DON'T DIE.]
The next bullet came. This time, I felt it before it fired—a strange pressure in the air. [PREDICTIVE DODGE ACTIVATED.] I twisted. The bullet missed by inches.
"He's adapting!" a gunman yelled.
I lunged, grabbing his rifle. The metal dissolved on contact, energy flooding my veins. [ENERGY +20%. SKILL LEARNED: FIREARM DISASSEMBLY (TEMPORARY).] The remaining men scrambled back. One whispered into his comms: "Subject is operational. Requesting—"
I didn't let him finish.
---
I escaped via subway, bleeding and dizzy. The System's warnings blinked relentlessly: [CORRUPTION: 4%. PHYSICAL CHANGES DETECTED.] My reflection in the train windows showed hair streaked with silver, eyes glowing faintly blue.
"You look like shit."
The voice came from a girl slouched across from me—early twenties, dark hair, a scar slicing through her left eyebrow. She tossed me a crumpled tissue. "Wipe the blood off your face before you scare the normies."
I dabbed at my nose. The tissue came away black. "What the—?"
"System corruption," she said casually. "You're leaking Void energy. Name's Lira."
"You know about the System?"
She rolled up her sleeve. Similar circuit-like tattoos crawled up her arm, but duller—inactive. "I was their first test subject. Got out before they turned me into a battery." Her eyes flicked to my glowing veins. "You're not so lucky."
[WARNING: COMPATIBLE ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED. MEDICAL PROTOCOLS AVAILABLE.]
"What's that mean?" I asked.
Lira's grin was razor-thin. "Means I can patch you up. For a price."
---
Her "clinic" was a ramshackle apartment lined with stolen tech. As she stitched my shoulder, I spotted a holographic map on her desk—dozens of red dots labeled VOID INCURSION SITES.
"They're everywhere now," she muttered. "The Void King's tendrils. Your dad's lab was just the latest breach."
"My dad...?"
She played a video from my System's memory. My father's face filled the screen, gaunt and exhausted: "Kai, if you're seeing this, the Champions Protocol wasn't designed to fight the Void King—it was meant to containit. But the Council got greedy. They want to weaponize the Void. Don't let them—"
Static. Then a voice that wasn't my father's: "Kaiii... Come find me..."
The screen shattered. Lira yanked me back as the System screeched: [VOID KING PROXIMITY CRITICAL. JUMP IMMINENT.]
"Wait—!"
Lira shoved a dagger into my hands. "Don't die out there, Glowstick."
The world tore open.
---
I landed in a desert of black glass, the sky choked with dying stars. [WORLD #1179: NULL ZONE. STATUS: CONSUMED.] Bones crunched underfoot—thousands of them, human and otherwise. At the horizon loomed a thing : a colossal, eyeless maw drinking the last light from the sky.
The Void King.
And it saw me.
[JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!]
Reality shattered again. The last thing I heard was Lira's voice, impossibly distant: "Find me when you're done saving worlds."
Then Kuoh Academy's courtyard rushed up to meet me. [WORLD #1: HIGH SCHOOL DxD. PRIMARY TARGET: RIAS GREMORY. VOID CORRUPTION DETECTED: 11%.]
A girl with crimson hair stepped into view, her devilish aura making my System scream.
"Another stray?" Rias Gremory mused. "How... peculiar."