The city of New Bastion was built atop the ruins of what was once Chicago—a crumbling fortress surrounded by walls of reinforced steel and scorched stone. It stood as one of the last remnants of human civilization, housing the rich in gleaming towers at its center, and pushing the poor to the outer slums like dust swept beneath a rug.
Rain fell in greasy sheets, turning the alleys of Sector 9 into rivers of sludge. It was here, in the stench and shadows, that Kael Rynor lived.
He had no parents. No family. Only a tattered jacket, half a loaf of moldy bread in his pocket, and a name that meant nothing in a world that valued power and pedigree. The other kids called him Rust Rat—a cruel nickname earned from his daily scavenging trips through piles of discarded tech and refuse.
At seventeen, Kael was small for his age—skinny, pale, with hollow eyes that rarely looked up. His hair was a wild, greasy mess, and his boots were held together by electrical tape. But worse than his appearance was his status: a "Nullborn."
Unlike the gifted children—the Radiants—Kael had no powers. No spark of Garmon energy in his blood. No future.
And in New Bastion, that made him less than nothing.
---
"Move, Rust Rat," a voice sneered behind him.
Kael turned just in time to catch a boot to his stomach. He doubled over with a grunt, collapsing onto the muddy pavement.
Three figures stood over him—Derrin Voss and his two lackeys, boys from the upper tiers of the slum academy. Derrin's father was a mid-level Warden, which made him practically royalty in a place like this.
Kael didn't bother fighting back. He knew the routine.
"You were seen near the recycling yard again," Derrin said, crouching down to Kael's level. "You find anything valuable?"
Kael didn't answer.
Wrong move.
A fist slammed into his cheek, splitting the skin.
"You think you're better than us, huh? Too good to answer?" Derrin's voice curled with disgust. "Maybe we should toss you into the Rift Zone, see if one of the creatures wants a snack."
Kael lay there in the dirt, tasting blood and bile. His ribs ached, but what hurt more was the laughter. The sound of others passing by, watching the beating—and doing nothing.
That was life in Sector 9.
---
That night, Kael limped back to the abandoned transit station he called home. He curled up in the corner beside a burnt-out terminal and stared at the hole in the ceiling, watching rain drip onto the cracked tiles.
Above him, beyond the city walls, the sky was alive with rift-light.
Colors twisted in the air like bruised flames—pulses of Garmon Radiation leaking from the dimensional scars in the atmosphere. It was beautiful. Terrifying. Deadly.
He thought of the Radiants.
Children born under the light of the rift—glowing skin, burning eyes, able to conjure energy, fly, manipulate gravity, and more. They were called humanity's salvation.
They were treated like gods.
Kael curled tighter into himself, a ghost of bitterness flickering in his chest.
"Why wasn't I one of them?"
He had asked that question for as long as he could remember.
The only answer was silence.
---
The next morning, Kael woke early. He had a plan—risky, desperate, maybe even suicidal—but it was all he had left.
There was a rumor.
Out near the old breach site, past the quarantine fence, there was a cache of untouched tech from the early war days—pre-rift machines, uncorrupted, maybe even salvageable. If he could retrieve something functional, maybe he could sell it. Maybe he could eat. Maybe—just maybe—he could buy his way into the inner city.
So he went.
He slipped past the patrol drones near dawn, crawling through tunnels and half-buried sewer lines. The closer he got to the breach, the more the air changed—dense, thick with static and invisible heat. Strange lights danced on the edge of his vision. His skin tingled.
But he didn't stop.
Kael found the wreckage half-buried under charred rubble: a broken mech frame, its limbs twisted, its chest cavity open. Among the debris was a strange black sphere—smooth, humming softly. It pulsed with dim red light, warm to the touch.
He had no idea what it was.
He took it anyway.
---
By the time he returned to Sector 9, it was evening—and the city was in chaos.
A breach had opened. Again.
The sirens wailed, echoing across the sectors. Citizens were herded into bunkers. The sky boiled with energy. A new rift had appeared over the city's eastern wall—blistering violet light pouring into the clouds.
And from it… they came.
Creatures of nightmare—taller than buildings, eyes glowing like molten gold. Their shrieks shattered glass and twisted metal. The Wardens mobilized, Radiants launched into the air like comets, but the invaders were relentless.
Kael should've run.
But he saw someone—a child, no more than six—frozen near a collapsed rail line, staring up at a creature descending from the sky. No one moved to help her.
Something in Kael snapped.
Without thinking, he ran.
He dropped the sphere, scooped up the girl, and turned—but the beast had seen him.
It landed with a roar that shook the ground. Its face was a grotesque mass of fangs and jagged bone. Clawed arms raised. The wind screamed.
Kael shielded the girl with his body—
—and the world went white.
---
He didn't feel the pain.
Not at first.
Only heat. Light. A sound like thunder ripping through water.
Then—darkness.
He heard voices. Echoes. Felt the weight of his body being lifted, or dragged. The girl screaming. Someone shouting for help. The sound of engines.
And then…
Nothing.
---
Kael's eyes fluttered open.
But he wasn't in New Bastion.
He wasn't in Sector 9.
He wasn't anywhere he recognized.
He lay on his back beneath a black sky veined with crimson light. He sat up slowly, confused, breath ragged. His body—was whole. No pain. No wounds.
The ground beneath him was glassy and smooth, like obsidian. The air shimmered with energy. Shapes moved in the distance—ghostly outlines of otherworldly towers, floating islands, rivers of glowing crystal.
"What… is this?" he whispered.
The orb—the sphere he had taken—now hovered before him, pulsing brighter than ever. It vibrated, then melted into light, sinking into his chest.
He screamed as power surged through him.
His veins lit up like fire.
His body lifted from the ground, suspended in the air.
And then, a voice—deep, ancient, echoing from everywhere and nowhere.
> "Chosen... reborn... Radiant."
Kael's eyes burned.
A halo of crackling energy burst from his back like wings of flame.
He remembered the moment he died—sacrificing himself to save a life no one else would.
And now…
He had awakened.