The rusted pipe caught Reed across the ribs, and he tasted copper. Three scavengers circled him in the half collapsed building, their faces wrapped in dust filters, eyes hungry above the stained cloth.
"Council coin," the largest one said, voice muffled.
"We know you found one. Hand it over."
Reed's fingers instinctively moved to his pocket where the blackened metallic disc pressed against his thigh. A week's worth of food, maybe two if he rationed. His grey eyes tracked each attacker, calculating odds he didn't like.
"I Don't have it," he lied.
The pipe came again. Reed dodged left, but a second scavenger grabbed his arm. The world tilted as they shoved him against a concrete pillar, ancient rebar jutting from its crumbling surface. Pain lanced through his shoulder blade.
"Search him!" the leader ordered.
Reed's vision blurred at the edges. Eighteen years in the Grey Wastes had taught him when a fight was lost. But something else stirred in that moment of desperation, something that had been sleeping in his chest since he'd crawled into that restricted zone three days ago. Since he'd touched the obsidian sphere half buried in radioactive dust. Since it had dissolved into black smoke and poured down his throat.
The hands rifling through his pockets felt distant suddenly. A pressure built behind his eyes, and the world fractured.
Text materialized in his vision, glowing violet against the grey reality of the Wastes.
[VOID CORE: ACTIVE]
[LEVEL: 0]
[EXPERIENCE: 0/100]
[AVAILABLE SKILLS: LOCKED]
[PASSIVE ABILITY: MOLECULAR SIGHT]
Reed's breath caught. The three scavengers had frozen in his perception, and he could see them differently now. Not flesh and bone, but patterns. Clusters of matter held together by invisible forces. Fragile. Temporary. Erasable.
"What the" The leader's voice sounded underwater.
[Do it] something whispered from the depths of his mind. Not his thought. Older. Hungrier.
[Subtract them. Make them nothing]
Reed's hand moved without conscious decision, fingers spread toward the closest scavenger's chest. The violet black ink he'd seen in his reflection that morning swirled across his irises. The air between his palm and the scavenger's body seemed to collapse inward, creating an absence that hurt to perceive.
The scavenger screamed and stumbled backward, clutching at his sternum where his shirt had simply ceased to exist in a perfect handprint. Skin beneath showed red and raw, as though scraped by something that shouldn't exist.
"Elemental! " someone shouted.
"He's a damn Elemental!"
The three scattered like roaches before light, disappearing through gaps in the rubble. Reed collapsed against the pillar, his hand trembling. The display in his vision pulsed.
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: +5]
[VOID SOVEREIGNTY ACCESSED: FIRST ERASURE]
[WARNING: POWER SIGNATURE DETECTED]
The last line sent ice through his veins. In the Wastes, being noticed meant being claimed. The factions that controlled the academies sent recruiters into the grey zones constantly, hunting for anyone who manifested abilities. Fire. Lightning. Earth. Wind. Any trace of elemental power meant conscription, meant becoming a weapon in their endless territorial struggles.
Reed pushed himself upright, every muscle screaming protest. He'd heard the stories, academies were cages dressed as opportunity. But refusing meant execution. The factions didn't leave loose ends.
He made it two blocks before the woman appeared.
She materialized from the shadows between two collapsed buildings, her movements liquid and precise. Violet eyes locked onto him with predatory focus. Her clothing seemed to drink the dim light, a suit that shifted from charcoal to midnight as she moved. Two translucent daggers hung at her hips, humming at a frequency that made Reed's teeth ache.
"Reed Blackwell," she said. Not a question. Her voice carried the refined accent of someone raised far from the Wastes.
"My name is Nyx. You triggered a resonance alert approximately ninety seconds ago. Void-spectrum."
Reed's hand drifted toward the shard of metal in his belt.
"Don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do" She tilted her head, studying him with unsettling intensity.
"The High Council has sensors throughout the Wastes. Your signature is already logged. Within an hour, every faction will know something ancient just awakened here."
The display flickered in Reed's vision.
[HOSTILE PRESENCE DETECTED]
[THREAT ASSESSMENT: UNKNOWN]
[RECOMMENDATION: INSUFFICIENT DATA]
Nyx stepped closer, her expression unreadable.
" You have two choices. Come with me to the Obsidian Academy, or wait for the Council's purge teams. They don't ask questions, Blackwell. They burn first."
"And your academy is different?" Reed's jaw clenched.
"No," Nyx admitted.
"But you'll live long enough to regret it. That's more than you'll get here."
The ancient voice stirred again in his skull.
[She reeks of lies. Erase her. Erase them all.]
Reed looked at his hands, at the violet black traces still fading from his fingertips. At the impossible display promising him power. At the grey world that had given him nothing but hunger and pain.
"Fine," he said quietly.
"But I'm keeping my coin."