Kael Aureli learned early that pain was honest.
It never pretended.
Never lied.
Never disappeared when things got ugly.
Pain stayed.
The underground ring smelled like sweat, rust, and desperation. Cheap lights flickered overhead while men screamed for blood they didn't care whose it was.
Kael wiped his mouth with the back of his glove, tasting iron.
Across the cage, his opponent staggered, ribs already cracked, eyes glassy but stubborn. The crowd roared anyway. They always did.
Kael didn't fight for glory.
He fought because violence made the noise inside him stop.
The bell rang.
The man rushed him.
Kael moved on instinct—duck, pivot, elbow—
CRACK.
Bone gave way beneath his strike. The man collapsed in a heap.
The crowd went feral.
Kael barely heard them.
Because his chest burned.
Not exertion.
Not adrenaline.
Something deeper.
Something wrong.
His heartbeat lurched—skipped—then slammed hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs.
Kael staggered back, clutching his chest.
"What the—"
The world froze.
Not slowed.
Stopped.
The crowd locked in place mid-cheer. Sweat hung in the air. Blood droplets floated inches from the canvas, unmoving.
Kael's breath echoed far too loudly.
His phone—cracked, half-dead, forgotten in his pocket—buzzed.
He pulled it out with shaking hands.
The screen glowed white.
A spiral pulsed softly.
Then words appeared.
CHAOSBORN NODE 3: ONLINE.
Kael's stomach dropped.
"Yeah," he muttered hoarsely, "figures."
The spiral pulsed harder.
Pain ripped through his chest, violent and consuming. He dropped to one knee, gasping as images slammed into his mind—
A boy screaming in a dark room.
A girl choking on air, eyes wide with terror.
White light. Endless white.
Kael snarled, teeth bared. "Get out of my head!"
The pain answered.
His heartbeat synced.
Not with the ring.
With them.
Two pulses.
Two strangers.
Connected.
The frozen world cracked.
Time snapped back into place.
The crowd screamed again—louder, wilder.
But now they were screaming at him.
Kael looked down.
His opponent lay unconscious.
And Kael's hands—
Were covered in blood.
Too much blood.
The referee stared at him in horror.
"You—what did you do?!"
Kael stumbled back.
"I didn't—"
Sirens wailed outside.
Someone shouted about police.
Kael bolted.
He vaulted the cage, shoving past bodies, adrenaline screaming through his veins. He burst into the alley behind the warehouse, lungs burning, heart still pounding in that unnatural rhythm.
His phone buzzed again.
He didn't want to look.
He did anyway.
REPORT TO SITE: 00.07.
Kael laughed—a sharp, broken sound.
"Join the club."
The alley lights flickered.
The air collapsed inward.
Kael spun just as the space behind him tore open, reality peeling apart like flesh.
Three figures stepped through.
Black coats.
Reflective masks.
The same unnatural stillness he'd seen in the white place.
One of them spoke.
"Kael Aureli."
Kael's hands clenched.
"Yeah," he said coldly, blood dripping from his knuckles. "And you're about to explain yourselves."
"You are an anchor," the figure replied.
"Your emotional output stabilizes the Trinity."
Kael's jaw tightened. "I don't stabilize anything."
"You will."
The spiral burned into his phone, glowing red-hot.
Pain detonated in his skull.
The alley vanished.
He was back in the white nowhere.
The void.
Endless.
Two figures stood before him now.
The boy—shaking, eyes sharp with fury and fear.
The girl—pale, clutching herself like the world was crushing her.
Kael sucked in a breath.
He recognized them.
Not their faces.
Their pain.
"You too?" he rasped.
The girl looked at him, tears slipping free.
"I can feel you," she whispered.
The boy clenched his fists. "Why do you feel like me?"
Kael swallowed hard.
Because they were him.
Or parts of him.
A voice thundered through the void.
TRINITY INTERLOCK: COMPLETE.
ANCHOR STABILIZED.
The white space collapsed.
Kael slammed back into the alley, gasping.
The figures were gone.
The sirens were closer now.
His phone vibrated one last time.
WELCOME, ANCHOR.
THE CASCADE CANNOT BE STOPPED.
Kael leaned against the wall, sliding down until he hit the ground.
His heartbeat finally slowed.
But it didn't return to normal.
It stayed synced.
With two strangers.
With two lives now tangled in his.
Kael laughed quietly, blood drying on his hands.
"Guess I'm not alone anymore."
Somewhere across the world, two people felt a sudden, terrifying sense of weight lift off their chests.
And the Spiral, finally complete, turned its attention forward.
Toward chaos.