The air vibrated with a low, ominous hum, like the growl of a waking beast. The sterile white walls of Lab Z-5 trembled violently, their seamless surfaces fracturing under the strain of an unseen force. A deafening mechanical whirr crescendoed, drowning out all other sounds, as if the facility itself were screaming in protest. Slowly, with a grinding screech of metal on metal, the walls parted, revealing a hidden chamber cloaked in swirling tendrils of smoke. From the haze stepped a Mechanoid, its towering frame a grotesque parody of human engineering. Its sleek, obsidian exoskeleton gleamed under the flickering fluorescent lights, and its crimson eyes burned with a malevolent intelligence. This was no mere machine—it was a predator, a creation born of cold precision and unrelenting purpose. Its presence filled the room with an oppressive weight, as though the air itself recoiled from its existence.
In the control room, a labyrinth of glowing monitors and blinking consoles, chaos reigned. Screens flickered erratically, some displaying jagged static, others going dark entirely, as if the facility's digital heart were seizing. Bodies littered the floor—operators sprawled in awkward heaps, unconscious, their faces pale and sweat-slicked. The acrid scent of burnt circuits hung heavy in the air. Into this scene stepped Nyx, her boots clicking sharply against the polished floor. She paused at the threshold, her sharp green eyes scanning the devastation with a predator's calm. Her black leather jacket clung to her frame, and her dark blue hair was pulled back tightly, accentuating the hard lines of her face. She was a woman forged in fire, her instincts honed to a razor's edge by years of surviving in shadows.
The moment Nyx had stepped out of the unmarked van parked outside the facility, she'd felt it—a prickle at the base of her neck, a whisper of danger that set her nerves alight. The air had carried a metallic tang, the kind that preceded bloodshed or betrayal. She'd known something was wrong before she even entered the building. Now, as she surveyed the control room, her lips curled into a faint, wicked smile. Trouble had found her, and she was ready to meet it head-on.
The elevator ride to the control room had been a brief detour into chaos. As the doors slid open, she'd found a man crumpled on the floor, groaning in pain, one hand clutching his abdomen. Blood seeped through his mouth, staining the pristine tiles. His eyes, wide with fear, met hers for a fleeting moment before she stepped over him without a word. "An intruder," she thought, her mind racing with possibilities. She didn't bother questioning the man—he was irrelevant now, a casualty of whatever storm had swept through the facility. Her focus was singular: find the source of this breach and crush it. "Let's greet our guest," she murmured to herself, her voice laced with dark amusement.
But the control room was a new kind of battlefield. The glitchy screens painted a picture of sabotage, precise and deliberate. Nyx's smile widened as she muttered, "A professional." She pulled a chair from one of the fallen operators, its wheels squeaking faintly, and sat with the casual confidence of someone who thrived in chaos. Her fingers danced across the keyboard with surgical precision, overriding the virus that had crippled the system. Lines of code scrolled past, her eyes flicking between them with the speed of a hawk tracking prey. Within moments, the monitors flickered back to life, revealing grainy feeds from the facility's security cameras.
Nyx's gaze locked onto one screen in particular. Lab Z-5. Her breath caught for a fraction of a second, a rare crack in her composure. That lab—she knew it too well. It was where they'd conducted her last experiment, the one that had left her with scars both physical and otherwise. The one where she'd failed to fully possess the shard. Her lips twitched, a shadow of old anger flaring in her chest. On the screen, a young man stood alone in the lab, his dark hair falling messily over his eyes. He looked barely nineteen, lanky and out of place in the sterile environment, yet there was something about him—an intensity in his stance, a defiance in his posture—that made Nyx pause.
"Interesting," she whispered, leaning closer to the monitor. Her fingers hovered over the controls, then decisively activated the lab's defense protocol. A low electric alarm blared, and the Mechanoid in Lab Z-5 snapped its head toward the boy, its crimson eyes narrowing to slits. Nyx leaned back, her smile returning. "Let's see what you're made of, kid."
In Lab Z-5, Rex Blake felt the world closing in. The Mechanoid's gaze pinned him in place, its eyes like twin lasers burning into his soul. His heart pounded so loudly he could barely hear his own thoughts. This wasn't supposed to happen. He'd infiltrated the facility on a whim, driven by the Mysterious system's mission of a hidden project, a shard of power that could change everything. He'd expected security, maybe a few guards—not this. Not a machine that looked like it could tear through steel as easily as paper.
Rex staggered back, his sneakers squeaking against the polished floor. His mind raced, searching for a plan, but fear clouded his thoughts. Before he could move, a blinding blue light erupted from the glass containment unit at the center of the lab. The glow was so intense it seared his retinas, forcing him to shield his eyes with one arm. A sharp crack echoed through the room as the glass shattered, shards exploding outward in a glittering cascade. From the heart of the light came the shard—a pulsating, crystalline fragment no larger than his fist, radiating an otherworldly energy.
It moved with purpose, streaking toward Rex at hypersonic speed, a comet of blue fire. He had no time to react. The shard slammed into his chest with a force that knocked the air from his lungs, embedding itself in his flesh. Pain exploded through his body, sharp and electric, as he was hurled backward. His back crashed against the metallic steel door with a resounding clang, the impact reverberating through his bones. The blue glow pulsed once, then vanished, absorbed into his body as if it had always belonged there.
Rex's vision swam. His veins began to glow, a network of luminescent blue lines snaking beneath his skin. He gasped, clutching his chest, where the shard had struck. It didn't hurt anymore—not exactly. It was something deeper, a thrumming energy that felt alive, ancient, and impossibly vast. His body moved without his command, rising from the floor as if pulled by invisible strings. He floated, weightless, his sneakers dangling inches above the ground. His eyes snapped open, glowing with the same eerie blue as his veins. Data flooded his mind—images, voices, fragments of memories that weren't his own. It was too much, too fast. His skull felt like it would split apart.
In the control room, Nyx's jaw dropped, her usual composure shattered. "What the hell…" she whispered, her eyes glued to the screen. The boy—Rex—was no longer just a boy. He was something else, something more. The system interface flickered to life in the air before him, visible only to Rex, its holographic display piecing itself together like a puzzle of light.
SYSTEM INTERFACE INITIALIZATION…
Linking host: [Rex Blake]
Status: SHARD-ACCEPTED
Soul-Binding Process: COMPLETE
WELCOME, USER: REX BLAKE
[Designation: Soulborne Initiate]
"You are no longer alone in your body. Echoes now walk beside you," a voice intoned, ancient and resonant, echoing in Rex's mind like a chorus from another world.
[SYSTEM INITIATED]
[Name]: Rex Blake
[Age]: 19
[Level]: 0
[XP]: 0 / 100
[Ability]: SoulBind
[Shard]: Linked - [ZOE : ECHO CORE]
[Codename]: N/A (Assigns @ Lv.5)
[Coins]: 50 [NeoCredits]
[HP]: 100 / 100
[MP]: 0 / 100 (Locked)
[Soul Sync]: 6%
[Corruption]: 0% [Stable]
[Mood]: Confused | Glowing | On Fire (Internally)
[SKILLS UNLOCKED]
• Soul Flicker [Lv.1] – Short-range blink, leaves echo clone (CD: 15s)
• Ghostsense (Passive) – Detects nearby spiritual data
• Echomind (Passive) – AI Zoe may override or alert in danger
[LOCKED ABILITIES]
• Emotion Surge – (Trust Level Required)
• Soulcrafting – (Lv.4)
• Echo Link – (Mission-Based)
• ??? – Hidden
[WARNING]
Other shards have detected your awakening.
The Order is watching.
Proceed with evolution... or be consumed.
A new voice, lighter but edged with mischief, cut through the chaos in Rex's mind.
[ZOE]: "Welcome to the grid, Rex. Try not to die in the tutorial."
Rex's knees buckled as he dropped back to the floor, the glow in his veins fading but not disappearing entirely. He clutched his head, trying to process the flood of information. The Mechanoid, momentarily still, whirred back to life, its crimson eyes locking onto him again. Its arm extended, a sleek blade sliding out from its wrist with a metallic hiss.
Nyx, still watching from the control room, leaned forward, her fingers tightening on the arms of her chair. "This just got interesting," she said, her voice a mix of awe and anticipation. She didn't know who this kid was, but one thing was clear: the shard had chosen him. And that made him a threat—or an opportunity.
Rex, unaware of the eyes on him, stumbled to his feet, his heart racing. The system interface hovered in his vision, a constant reminder of the power now coursing through him. He didn't understand it, didn't want it, but one thing was certain: he wasn't getting out of this lab without a fight. The Mechanoid took a step forward, its blade gleaming under the harsh lights. Rex's hand twitched, instinct taking over as the interface pulsed with a single word: SURVIVE.