The journey back to the surface was a blur of damp walls and the rhythmic pulsing of Kael's own blood in his ears. Every step felt like wading through knee-deep molasses. The medical nanites he had scavenged from the Enforcer were doing their work—hissing as they stitched together the torn fibers of his bicep—but they couldn't replace the calories he had burned or the soul-crushing fatigue of the Aries Overdrive.
By the time he reached the hidden floor-grate behind the General Store, the violet sky had deepened into a bruised, terrifying black. The air had changed. The humid, ozone-heavy scent of Z Town was being replaced by a needle-sharp chill that made the moisture in the back of Kael's throat crystallize.
The Frost-Weaver was coming. The Second Calamity didn't just walk; it lowered the temperature of reality itself.
Kael dragged himself through the back entrance, his boots scraping against the metal. The store was dark, save for the single, flickering amber glow of Bhy Khay's workbench. The old man didn't look up, but the snub-nosed revolver was already resting on the counter, pointed directly at the doorway.
"You're dripping sludge on my floor again," Bhy Khay said, his voice a low rumble that felt like a tectonic plate shifting. "And you smell like Azure friction-burn. I told you not to bring the heat here, kid. I didn't say anything about bringing an entire Bloodline's wrath."
Kael collapsed onto a stool, his head hanging low. "I didn't have a choice. They found the resonance."
Bhy Khay finally put down his tools and turned around. His golden, predatory eyes swept over Kael, lingering on the blackened runes and the silver canister of nanites. He let out a sharp, short whistle. "You survived an Azure retrieval unit. Not many people in the lower end can say that and still have their skin attached. What did you do? Hide in a sewer pipe for three hours?"
"I fought," Kael rasped. He reached into his pocket and slammed the Azure Memory Core and the vial of Genetic Essence onto the dragon-glass counter. The blue light of the core illuminated Bhy Khay's scarred face, casting long, jagged shadows.
Bhy Khay's expression didn't change, but his pupils dilated—a tell-tale sign of his Tier-3 Genetic enhancement. He reached out a thick, calloused finger and touched the Memory Core. "A Third-Circle Core. This has the encryption of a noble house. If you try to sell this on the open market, the Azure scouts will have your head on a pike before the credits even hit your account."
"I'm not selling it to the market," Kael said, meeting Bhy Khay's gaze. "I'm selling it to you. I need an upgrade. The Protocol says the Frost-Weaver is six hours out. My Level 1 Runes won't survive a Calamity-grade freeze."
Bhy Khay went silent. He picked up the vial of Genetic Essence, rotating it in the light. The swirling blue liquid looked like a trapped storm. "Genetic Essence from a friction-user. This is raw power, Kael. Most people would inject this and hope they don't explode. But you... you're using it as fuel for that 'Star' thing in your head, aren't you?"
Kael nodded slowly.
[SOVEREIGN STAR PROTOCOL: ANALYSIS] [MERCHANT "BHY KHAY" DETECTS HIGH-VALUE ASSETS] [COMMERCIAL RATIO: FAVORABLE] [ADVICE: TRADE THE MEMORY CORE FOR 'THERMAL-CONDUCTIVE WEAVING' AND 'AETHER-GRADE INK']
"I need Aether-grade ink," Kael said, repeating the Protocol's advice. "And my cloak is shredded. I need thermal-conductive weaving. Something that can handle the Aries output without melting into my skin."
Bhy Khay sighed, a sound like steam escaping a pipe. He walked to the back of the shop, disappearing into a vault reinforced with lead and Runic dampeners. Kael heard the heavy clank of a safe opening. A few minutes later, Bhy Khay returned with a small, obsidian jar and a roll of shimmering, charcoal-colored fabric.
"This ink is harvested from the gallbladders of Void-Stalkers," Bhy Khay muttered, opening the jar. A faint, silver mist drifted out. "It doesn't just hold energy; it breathes it. If I tattoo this over your Aries marks, you won't just 'Force-Bash.' You'll be able to project the resonance. But it's going to hurt like hell."
"I'm used to it," Kael said, baring his arm.
The next three hours were a descent into a different kind of battlefield. Bhy Khay didn't use a needle; he used a Runic stylus powered by the shop's main generator. Every time the stylus touched Kael's skin, the Aries runes reacted, screaming in protest as the silver Aether-ink forced its way into the existing patterns.
Kael's vision blurred. The "Sovereign Ego" trait struggled to keep the pain at bay. He saw flashes of the stars—the twelve constellations of the old world—spinning in a void of perfect silence. He saw the "Sovereign Star Protocol" as it was intended: not just an app, but a planetary defense network, a legacy meant to protect humanity from the very things that were now hunting him.
[ZODIAC SYNC: 18%... 19%... 21%] [NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: ARIES VEIL] [ABILITY DESCRIPTION: CREATES A HIGH-PRESSURE THERMAL BUBBLE THAT NEUTRALIZES EXTERNAL COLD AND FRICTION]
"Done," Bhy Khay grunted, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.
Kael looked at his arm. The runes were no longer just green or red. They were interlaced with silver veins that seemed to move beneath his skin like liquid mercury. When he flexed his hand, the silver glowed with a steady, calm light.
Bhy Khay tossed the charcoal fabric to him. "That's 'Shadow-Thread.' It's woven with thermal-regulators. It'll keep you warm when the Frost-Weaver turns Z Town into a morgue. I've also wiped the Memory Core and transferred the 5,000 credits to an anonymous burner-chip. Consider the rest of the data in that core my 'tax' for the risk I'm taking."
"Fair enough," Kael said, standing up. He felt lighter. The energy depletion was still there, but the "leaking" had stopped. The Aether-ink acted as a seal, keeping his power contained.
Bhy Khay looked toward the front window. The glass was beginning to frost over from the outside—not in patterns, but in jagged, aggressive spikes. The streetlights outside flickered and died, one by one.
"It's here," Bhy Khay whispered. He reached for his revolver and checked the cylinder. "The Second Calamity. The Weaver of Frost. It's early."
Kael felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature. His haptic screen flared a violent, warning red.
[DEAD MAN'S SWITCH: 18:12:05] [CRITICAL THREAT DETECTED: THE FROST-WEAVER HAS ENTERED THE SECTOR] [BATTLEFIELD RADIUS: 500 METERS]
A massive, crystalline leg—thin as a spear and thirty feet long—slammed into the pavement outside the shop. Then another. The sound was like a glacier cracking open. Through the frosted window, Kael saw a nightmare: a spindly, translucent horror made of ice and ancient bone, its "head" a cluster of a thousand frozen eyes.
"Bhy Khay," Kael said, his voice steady as the silver runes on his arm began to glow. "Get behind the counter."
"Kid," Bhy Khay replied, his golden eyes shining in the dark. "Don't just survive. Kill that thing. I want to see what its heart looks like under my microscope."
Kael stepped toward the door. The Aries Veil began to shimmer around him, a sphere of intense, defiant heat. He didn't look like a scavenger anymore. He looked like the first spark of a new sun.
___'