The sky over Sector 9 was the color of a bruised lung.
Kaelen sat on the edge of a crumbling skyscraper, dangling his feet over a three-hundred-floor drop. In his hand, he fiddled with a "Spark"—a tiny, glowing shard of Ichor used to power lamps.
To anyone else, it was a battery. To Kaelen, it was a reminder of everything he lacked.
Ten years ago, the "Resonance" had swept the globe, granting everyone a Gear. His sister had gained a Silver Gear, becoming a celebrated Valkyrie in the Upper Citadels. Kaelen? He had stayed a Hollow.
"Still staring at the Grave-Sky?"
A girl with a prosthetic metal arm and grease-stained goggles climbed up behind him. This was Sloane, the only person in the Sump who didn't treat Kaelen like a ghost.
"It's not a sky, Sloane," Kaelen muttered, his eyes tracing the faint, hexagonal patterns visible in the clouds. "It's a cage. Can't you feel the bars?"
"I feel the hunger in my gut and the rust in my joints," Sloane sighed, sitting beside him. "The Null Authority is increasing the Ichor tax again. If we don't find a Core remnant in the Scrapyard tonight, we won't have enough to pay for the sector's oxygen."
Kaelen tightened his grip on the Spark. The Scrapyard. It was a death trap—a dumping ground for failed experiments from the Upper Heavens. But it was the only place a Hollow could dream of finding a future.
"Let's go," Kaelen said, standing up. "I have a feeling tonight the cage might rattle."
The Scrapyard was a mountain of twisted titanium and glowing waste. As they picked through the debris, a sudden, high-pitched ringing filled Kaelen's ears. It was a sound he'd heard in his dreams since he was a child—a rhythmic, metallic ticking.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
"Sloane, do you hear that?"
"Hear what? The wind?"
Kaelen ignored her, moving toward a pile of black obsidian shards. At the center lay an object that defied logic. It was a mechanical heart, constructed of gears that moved in opposite directions simultaneously. It didn't glow with the familiar blue Ichor. It was a void—a hole in reality.
As Kaelen reached out, his vision blurred. Symbols, ancient and terrifying, flooded his mind.
[ Fated Requirement Met: The One Who Inherits the End. ]
[ Initiating The Eclipse Protocol... ]
"Kaelen, get away from there!" Sloane yelled, pointing toward the horizon.
Three shadows were streaking across the sky. Shroud Enforcers. Their Silver Gears burned like miniature suns, illuminating the Scrapyard. They weren't here for scrap; they were hunting the very object Kaelen was holding.
"Target sighted," a voice boomed from above, cold and mechanical. "Execute the Hollow. Retrieve the Artifact."
A bolt of pressurized light slammed into the ground inches from Kaelen. The shockwave threw him back, his hand slamming into the mechanical heart.
The jagged gears tore into his palm. But instead of blood flowing out, the black void flowed in.
[ Warning: Soul-Core not found. ]
[ Solution: Constructing "Null Gear" using Host's Malice and Void Essence. ]
[ Process is... Agonizing. ]
Kaelen's scream was drowned out by a thunderclap. His body arched as his bones were rewritten. Inside his chest, where a human heart should beat, a black gear began to turn.
[ The First Gear has Rotated. ]
[ Skill Unlocked: Perception of the End (Passive). ]
[ You can now see the 'Points of Failure' in all things. ]
Kaelen looked up. The world was different. The Shroud Enforcers didn't look like gods anymore.
He saw the flickering lines of their power, the cracks in their Silver Gears, and the "timer" hovering above their heads—the exact second they would die.
"Sloane," Kaelen whispered, his voice vibrating with a dark resonance. "Don't run."
He stood up, the black wind swirling around his feet. One of the Enforcers dived, a blade of solid light aimed at Kaelen's throat.
Kaelen didn't dodge. He reached out and touched the middle of the blade—the Point of Failure.
Crunch.
The Silver weapon shattered like cheap glass. The Enforcer's eyes widened behind his mask.
"A Hollow... broke a Silver Echo?"
"I'm not a Hollow," Kaelen said, his eyes turning a lightless, abyssal black. "I'm the one who grinds the gears."
[ Quest Triggered: The First Sacrifice. ]
[ Reward: Level 2. ]
[ Penalty: Total Erasure. ]