The wind carried the scent of decay, ozone, and something… unfamiliar.
Arion Crow walked along the cracked asphalt of what had once been a city street. Concrete skeletons towered above him, draped in vines and bio-luminescent fungi that pulsed faintly in the dim light. Every step made the ground tremble slightly, as though the city itself were breathing.
He didn't linger. He never lingered.
A guttural roar tore through the sky, shaking nearby rubble. A massive evolved predator — three times the size of a bus, covered in hardened crystalline plates — leapt from the broken skyline toward him. Its jaws were lined with black, fused teeth that clicked as it moved.
Arion stopped. His eyes narrowed.
Energy crackled beneath his skin. Not his doing yet. The predator carried raw cosmic energy from the radiation belt — something it had absorbed from decades of hunting smaller evolved beings. He felt it in the air. In the currents of the storm above.
He flexed his hands.
With a single motion, he absorbed the kinetic force of the creature's leap as it slammed into the ground. The impact's energy coursed through his body. Veins glowed faint blue. Muscles bulged slightly — not because he needed strength — because he was accumulating.
The predator recovered mid-roll. Its eyes locked on him, luminescent with hunger.
Arion grinned faintly.
"You're fast," he muttered. "But I'm faster."
He sprinted. Not away. Around it. Over it.
The predator lunged again. This time, he let its momentum carry him forward. He absorbed the air's pressure, the kinetic shock, even the predator's core energy.
When he landed, he slammed both fists into its crystalline back. Energy erupted outward like a miniature storm. The predator screeched, fractured plates shattering, before collapsing in a heap of twitching, glowing shards.
Arion crouched, letting the energy settle into him. It was intoxicating. He could feel every pulse, every thrum of cosmic radiation, every fragment of life energy. He could get stronger forever.
And yet…
Every burst left a hollowness inside him. A quiet he could not name. Emotions dulled slightly, memories faded into the background, and empathy became a distant echo.
He shook his head. A reminder. Do not stay. Do not care. Do not linger.
He walked through the city ruins, past the shattered skeletons of human habitation, past mutated plants that had grown into skyscrapers themselves. The Wild Zones were alive, unpredictable, dangerous — and yet, he thrived here. Here, he was untouchable.
Until she appeared.
A squad of soldiers, clearly from Aegis Cradle, emerged from the mist. Armor plates glinting, weapons humming with energy. She led them.
Stella Starfire.
Arion recognized her immediately. Not because of the uniform — anyone could wear that. Not because of the weapon — soldiers were trained, yes, but that didn't matter.
It was how she moved. Precision. Discipline. Command. Every gesture calculated, yet graceful. And she wasn't afraid.
He slowed. Not out of caution. Curiosity.
She scanned the ruins, eyes flicking across the shadows, and then she spoke to her team.
"Cores detected. Target is absorbing. Approach with caution. Do not provoke unnecessarily."
Her voice was calm. Controlled. It carried authority, but there was… something else. Something that made him stop and feel a spark of something he hadn't felt in years: notice.
Arion crouched behind a crumbled wall.
Good. They didn't see him yet.
He didn't want them to. Not fully. Not yet.
He flexed his hands. The predator's energy still thrummed through his veins. And somewhere deep inside, where his emotions used to exist, he felt the faintest pull.
Not fear. Not anger. Curiosity. A challenge.
A soldier who wouldn't flee. Who might even… stand beside him.
No. That was impossible.
Impossible.
And yet… he couldn't walk away.
Not yet.
The Wild Zones were alive.
The predator was dead.
And the man who absorbed everything still could not absorb what he did not understand.