The morning after his evolution arrived slow, heavy, and eerily quiet. The usual buzz of Citadel J's inner ring felt distant—like a song played underwater. Raiden stood by the open window of his rented Hub quarters, shirtless, the cold dawn light tracing over muscles that hadn't existed a day ago. His reflection in the glass almost didn't look like him anymore.
His body had changed—leaner, denser, and carrying an unfamiliar calm beneath the skin. His senses, too, were sharper. He could feel the pulse of the city through the ground, the hum of the tower generators blocks away, and the faint rhythm of his own heartbeat like distant thunder.
For a moment, he flexed his hand, watching the faint golden shimmer ripple under his skin. The pain of the transformation still lingered like echoes in his bones. He'd felt them break, reform, and forge themselves anew under invisible fire. The memory made him grit his teeth.
> [System Recalibration: Complete]
[Host Condition: Stable]
[Evolution Phase 1—Hybrid Initiation: Successful]
[Species: Human (???) → Phoenix Hybrid]
[Trait Gained: Ember Regeneration – Low-tier passive regeneration when HP < 30%]
Raiden exhaled slowly. The words burned into his vision, dissolving with faint embers before fading away.
A phoenix hybrid. The term alone made him uneasy. He'd heard of races—mutants, humans, cyborg variants—but this? This was new even in the chaos of their evolving world.
Still, one thought lingered in his mind: power came at a cost. And he was willing to pay it.
The system wasn't done. Another prompt shimmered to life, glowing with a deep, pulsing gold that felt… ancient.
> [Hidden Quest Unlocked]
"Echoes of the Black Sun"
Objective: Investigate Dr. Voss's research trail and identify the source of the corrupted anomalies.
Recommended Level: 10+
Quest Type: Investigative / Combat
Location: Abandoned Research Facility – Eastern Expanse, Outer Perimeter of Citadel J
Reward: Unknown
Failure Penalty: Loss of system integrity (???)
The room's light dimmed briefly as the message burned itself into his interface.
He remembered the name—Dr. Voss—the scientist rumored to have created the corrupted anomalies under Black Halo's control. The same group responsible for Silva's death. His chest tightened at the thought, not from grief anymore, but something colder.
"Black Sun…" Raiden muttered, tasting the words like venom.
Alya stirred from the couch nearby, still half-wrapped in a thin blanket. Her pale hair caught the morning light, eyes half-open, drowsy but aware. "You're up early," she murmured, sitting upright. "Don't tell me the system's giving you another suicide mission already."
Raiden didn't answer immediately. Instead, he tossed her a ration bar and looked back out toward the skyline. "Something's happening in the Eastern Expanse. Another anomaly. Same signature as the forest."
That made her expression shift instantly—half alarm, half curiosity. "Then it's them again… Black Halo."
"Probably," he said quietly. "This time, I'm not walking away until I burn through whoever's behind it."
Alya stood, stretching her arms. The bruises from their last mission had faded, but her resolve hadn't. "Then I'm coming with you. If they're tied to what my father was forced to build, I deserve to see how deep this rot goes."
Raiden's lips twitched, just slightly—almost a smile. "You don't take no for an answer, do you?"
"Not when it comes to ghosts like these."
The conversation ended there, but the air between them carried a mutual understanding. Both had wounds that hadn't healed; both were hunting the same shadow.
---
By midmorning, the pair stood at the Eastern checkpoint. The Expanse stretched out before them—a ruined industrial wasteland filled with abandoned silos, cracked data towers, and half-collapsed domes. The ground was blackened, scorched as though lightning had once carved through the soil.
Raiden adjusted the strap of his new armor, the faint hum of the forged plating resonating against his chest. Beside him, Alya checked her weapon—a compact plasma glaive with folding edges, a blend of her father's designs and her own skill.
They were a strange pair—one carrying the weight of a secret system, the other the legacy of a lost genius—but they walked in step, silent but aligned.
Then, the air changed.
A pulse rippled through the area, faint at first but strong enough to shake dust from nearby metal ruins. The smell of ozone hit immediately.
> [System Alert: Corruption Signature Detected]
[Distance: 120 meters – Multiple entities approaching]
Raiden drew his blade—Stormrend, its name etched faintly in blue across the spine.
Alya spun her glaive, eyes narrowing. "Movement, left ridge."
The creatures emerged seconds later—wolf-like beasts, twisted with crimson lines running beneath their skin. Eyes glowing with that same black light they'd seen in the forest.
> [Corrupted Beast – Level 8 | Tier: Advanced]
[Corrupted Beast – Level 9 | Tier: Elite]
Five of them. All fast. All hungry.
Raiden dashed forward, Flow Step activating under his boots with a burst of air and light. His movements blurred, a flash of sparks across the ground. The first beast lunged—he sidestepped, twisting midair, slicing downward. Sparks exploded as lightning arced through the blade's path.
The second beast came from behind. He dropped low, thrust his sword backward, the edge crackling with power—Lightning Slash!
The hit connected, a bright line splitting through shadow and flesh. The creature convulsed, body burning from within before collapsing into black ash.
Alya covered the flank, glaive spinning in tight arcs, slicing two beasts apart in quick succession. Her form was fluid—each motion efficient, calculated.
But the last beast—the elite—charged straight at Raiden. Its claws slammed down, leaving molten trails where they struck the earth.
Raiden blocked—but the impact sent him skidding backward, boots gouging the dirt. The creature roared, its breath carrying dark smoke that burned the air.
He gritted his teeth, muscles tensing. "Fine. Let's see what this new body can really do."
[Flow Step + Lightning Slash – Chain Mode Engaged]
Raiden vanished from sight. The creature froze—then lightning carved through the air in three brutal arcs. A second later, the beast's body split apart in a blaze of light, its corruption fading into vapor.
The silence afterward was sharp. Only the distant hum of energy filled the ruins.
> [+850 EXP]
[+940 EXP]
[+1,200 EXP]
[EXP: 7,930 / 10,000]
Raiden exhaled, wiping his blade clean on his armguard. "Still not enough."
Alya leaned on her glaive, eyes scanning the area. "Whatever's causing this, it's deeper in. You can feel it too, can't you?"
He nodded. The pulse beneath the ground, steady and wrong. "Yeah. Like the forest's heartbeat all over again."
They moved forward through the debris, each step pulling them closer to the center of the disturbance—and to answers buried in the ashes of the past.
---
As they reached the edge of a half-collapsed data bunker, Raiden's system pinged again.
> [Quest Progress: 37% Complete]
[Warning: Unidentified Lifeform Detected – Power Signature exceeds current threshold]
A cold wind blew through the cracked dome ahead. Somewhere inside, something stirred—mechanical breathing, heavy, deliberate.
Alya tightened her grip. Raiden's expression darkened. Whatever waited within wasn't a simple beast.
And for the first time since his evolution, he felt a flicker of something old—something like fear, sharp and clear as lightning before the storm.
---