The city was dying.
Every step Adrian took echoed through the hollow carcass of New Haven — streets split open, lights flickering like dying stars, the air thick with static and smoke.
Somewhere far above, the rift pulsed again. Each time it did, the world twitched — a blink of unreality that made buildings stretch and twist, their shapes momentarily wrong.
Adrian didn't stop running until his lungs burned. He leaned against a crumbling wall, trying to catch his breath. The glow under his skin had faded to a dim pulse, but it was still there — like a heartbeat that didn't belong to him.
[Synchronization Locked: 13%]
[Core Instability — Contained]
[Objective: Reach the Hollow Spire]
He looked east.
Through the storm, the beam of light still burned against the clouds — golden, distant, impossible to ignore.
He had no idea what waited for him there.
Only that it was the first thing in this nightmare that felt like direction.
Adrian adjusted his hood and started walking.
The farther he went, the quieter the city became.
No sirens. No screams. Just the hiss of rain and the low hum of power lines still trying to live.
The System's influence was everywhere — black rifts cutting through buildings, static rippling in the air. Some doorways opened into places that didn't belong: alien jungles, burning oceans, a cathedral floating upside down in mist.
Each time he passed one, the voice in his head murmured warnings.
[Reality Layer Unstable]
[Dimensional Leakage: Increasing]
[Proximity Alert — Entity Signatures Unknown]
He didn't need the warning. He could feel it — the way the air trembled before the world bled through again.
Adrian turned a corner and froze.
Bodies lined the street — soldiers in black armor, the same broken-circle insignia burned into their chests. Whatever killed them hadn't used bullets. Their armor was peeled open, edges melted like wax.
He crouched beside one, trying not to look too closely. A faint hum buzzed from the corpse's wrist console — a holographic display blinking in and out.
The message was fragmented, glitching.
"...Containment failed. The Veilborn is—"
static swallowed the rest.
Adrian's pulse jumped. Veilborn.
That word again.
He stood quickly and kept moving.
The storm broke halfway across the industrial district.
Lightning crawled across the clouds, revealing the eastern skyline — or what was left of it.
The Hollow Spire loomed in the distance now, piercing the storm like a needle of glass.
It didn't look manmade. The structure shimmered — half there, half reflection — twisting light around itself in ways that made Adrian's stomach turn.
Something inside him responded to it.
A low vibration in his bones. Like recognition.
[Proximity Alert: The Hollow Spire — 8.2 km]
[Warning: Veil Entities Detected]
The ground beneath him trembled.
Then came the howling.
He spun — too late.
The hounds from before surged from the shadows, their bodies flickering like corrupted data. He saw at least six — maybe more — sprinting through the smoke, claws sparking on wet asphalt.
Adrian clenched his fists. "Not this time."
[Combat Protocol Re-engaged]
[Synchronization Rising — 15%]
[Power Output Stable]
The blue light flared beneath his skin again, brighter than before. The world slowed. Every droplet of rain froze midair, every heartbeat stretched thin.
He moved.
The first hound leapt — he met it with a punch that shattered its skull into light. The second swept low; he twisted aside, kicking its chest hard enough to crater the pavement.
Energy burned through him — wild, perfect.
He didn't know what he was doing. But something inside him did.
[Instinct Override Detected]
[Source: Unknown]
A chain of glowing runes spiraled from his hands, wrapping around the remaining beasts. They shrieked — and imploded into shards of light that poured into his chest.
[Experience Acquired]
[Trait Amplification in Progress]
[Hidden Path Unlocked — Fragment 2: The Veilbreaker]
Adrian dropped to one knee, panting. The glow dimmed again, retreating beneath his skin. The rain returned to motion, washing blood and ash from the street.
"What… the hell is happening to me?"
The System didn't answer.
Instead, another voice — faint, distant — whispered through the static.
"You're remembering."
Adrian looked up sharply. No one there. Only the storm.
But the voice wasn't gone. It was coming from inside the Spire — echoing through him, calling him forward.
"Come home."
He stared at the golden beam cutting through the clouds. For the first time, it didn't look alien. It looked familiar.
He tightened his grip on the rusted pipe still in his hand and started walking again — toward the light, toward the Spire, toward the truth that refused to stay buried.
Behind him, the city continued to burn.
Above, the rift widened, revealing stars that weren't supposed to exist.
And deep within him, the Veil stirred —
awake and waiting.