RISE OF THE VOID SYSTEM

Rain and Blood

The rain in New Veyra didn’t wash the streets clean.

It only made the filth run faster.

Kael Ardan sprinted through the neon soaked alleys, lungs burning, boots slapping against puddles that reflected the city’s towering skyline. Behind him, the rhythmic thud of heavy boots echoed off the steel walls corporate enforcers, trained killers who didn’t stop until their target was dead or in chains.

A hollow thump rang out, followed by the hiss of something slicing the air past his cheek. A bullet? No an electrified dart. It embedded in the wall beside him, crackling blue before the current died.

“Target is moving west cut him off at Sector 9!”

A voice boomed from the comms behind him.

Kael’s mind raced. His body screamed for rest, but his instincts screamed louder: Keep moving. If they caught him now, he wouldn’t get a trial. Not in New Veyra. Not when you were a gutter rat accused of killing a corporate executive.

He skidded around a corner, almost colliding with a holographic billboard projecting a perfume ad a perfect woman with perfect skin, smiling down at a world rotting beneath her image. His boots splashed through another puddle. His reflection stared back: messy black hair plastered to his forehead, blood trickling from his split lip, eyes wild and searching.

He wasn’t running just to survive. He was running because he had no idea why this was happening.

Twelve Hours Earlier

It started with the smell of fried synth meat.

Kael had been in Drix’s Diner, a greasy hole in the wall tucked between a pawn shop and a cybernetics repair shack. The kind of place where no one asked questions and the coffee was so bad it might actually be poison.

Across from him sat Jace Marrin his only friend in this city. Blond hair, easy grin, a guy who could talk his way out of almost anything. They’d grown up together in the Gutter District, surviving the gangs, the hunger, the cold. Jace had been like a brother.

Which was why Kael didn’t question it when Jace slid a sealed package across the table and said, “Run this to the docks. Quick job. Big payout.”

Kael never saw what was inside. He didn’t know it was an encrypted data shard stolen from Novacore Industries one of the biggest corporations in the city. He didn’t know a corporate vice president had been murdered for it. He didn’t know that by the time he reached the docks, someone had tipped off security that he was the killer.

And he sure as hell didn’t know Jace wouldn’t be there to back him up when the enforcers came.

Steel and Shadows

Back in the present, Kael burst out of the alley into a broader street, skidding to a halt as a black armored van screeched to block his path. The side door slid open, revealing two enforcers in matte armor, visors glowing a cold, merciless blue.

One of them leveled a shock rifle.

“Kael Ardan. By order of Novacore, you are detained for”

Kael didn’t wait for the rest. He bolted left right into the grip of another enforcer stepping out of the shadows. A fist like a sledgehammer slammed into his stomach, doubling him over. A second blow cracked across his jaw, and the world went white.

They didn’t read him his rights. They didn’t cuff him. They just dragged him, half conscious, into the van and slammed the door.

No Trial

The trip was a blur of pain and flickering neon through the van’s tinted windows. When the door opened again, Kael expected a holding cell. Instead, a wall of heat and the stink of sweat, blood, and rust hit him.

They had brought him to The Pit.

The Pit wasn’t an official prison. It was an underground complex where the city’s worst or most inconvenient criminals were dumped. No guards. No laws. Just an arena in the center, and the unspoken rule: fight or be eaten alive, sometimes literally.

Kael was shoved through a rusted gate into a circular chamber with concrete walls streaked in old blood. Around the edges, inmates lounged or watched, eyes tracking him like predators spotting fresh meat.

“New blood,” someone muttered.

“Bet he lasts an hour.”

Kael straightened, forcing himself not to flinch. He’d survived the Gutter District. He’d survived worse. He could survive this.

First Blood

A booming voice echoed from unseen speakers.

“Entertainment time, scum. New boy wants to eat? Prove you deserve it.”

Three men stepped forward from the crowd. Big, scarred, armed with makeshift weapons. The leader a bald brute with a jagged scar over his left eye grinned. “Name’s Rusk. I’m gonna enjoy breaking you.”

The fight wasn’t fair. It wasn’t meant to be. Rusk came at him swinging a length of chain. Kael ducked, but another fist caught his ribs. Pain exploded through his side. He kicked out, catching one thug in the knee, but the chain wrapped around his neck, yanking him backward.

The crowd roared. Blood pounded in his ears. He clawed at the chain, but Rusk’s grip tightened, cutting off his air.

Not like this, Kael thought. I can’t die like this.

The Voice

Something shifted in the air.

It wasn’t sound, exactly. More like a vibration in his skull. A whisper, deep and resonant, curling through the edges of his consciousness.

[The Void has chosen you.]

His vision blurred. Strange symbols flickered in the air before him, ghostly lines of text only he could see.

[Initialize Host? Y/N]

Kael didn’t understand. His hands were still scrabbling at the chain, lungs burning, but the whisper pressed in, demanding an answer.

[Warning: Host life signs critical. Initialize now?]

Somewhere deep inside, past the fear and the pain, something primal answered: Yes.

Devour or Die

The world snapped into sharp clarity. The pain faded, replaced by a cold rush of power flooding his veins. The chain around his neck seemed to loosen no, it was dissolving, crumbling into black ash that flowed into his skin.

Rusk staggered back, eyes wide. “What the?!”

Kael straightened slowly. The ash burned like ice in his chest, and with it came knowledge, impossible and alien.

[Skill Acquired: Steelbind Control over constricting weapons and restraints.]

The crowd went silent. Kael’s gaze locked on Rusk, and for the first time in his life, he felt something he had never truly known.

Power.

The whisper returned, colder now.

[Devour or Die.]

Kael stepped forward.