The sky wasn't blue; it was the color of dried blood and dragon scale.
Cain stood atop the scorched ruins of the Holy Capital, his lungs burning with every ragged breath. Around him lay the remains of the 'Vanguard'—the last of humanity's elite. They hadn't died as heroes; they had died as snacks for the Golden-Winged Wyverns circling above.
"Is this the end of the script?" Cain whispered, coughing up a mouthful of copper-tasting blood.
Before him stood a creature that defied the laws of physics. The Solar Sovereign, a dragon whose scales burned with the intensity of a thousand suns, looked down at him with eyes full of cosmic indifference. It didn't hate Cain. One does not hate an ant before stepping on it.
[Warning: Heart Function at 4%]
[Warning: Mana Veins Ruptured]
The holographic interface flickered before his eyes—a crude, basic System provided by the World Will that had failed to save them.
"If I had one more chance," Cain snarled, clutching a cracked obsidian orb in his hand. It was the Heart of the Origin, an artifact stolen from the deepest vault of the Dragon God. "I wouldn't just fight you. I would eat you."
The Solar Sovereign opened its maw. A white-hot glow gathered in its throat.
Cain didn't wait for the flames. He crushed the obsidian orb.
CRACK.
The world didn't explode. It folded. Space-time buckled like wet paper, and Cain felt his soul being pulled through a needle-eye of pure agony. His skin peeled away, his bones turned to dust, and for a moment, he existed only as a scream in the void.
Then, silence.
"Cain! If you fail the Bloodline Awakening today, the clan elders will exile you to the mines! Wake up!"
A sharp, stinging slap landed on Cain's cheek.
His eyes snapped open. He wasn't on a scorched battlefield. He was sitting on a wooden bench in a courtyard that smelled of blooming jasmine and morning dew. Beside him stood a girl with silver hair and eyes full of worry.
Elena?
Cain's heart hammered against his ribs. Elena had died three years before the Fall, sacrificed to appease a local drake. He looked at his hands. They were small, calloused but not scarred, and lacked the rough texture of a man who had spent a decade holding a sword.
"What... what year is it?" he rasped.
Elena sighed, placing a hand on his forehead. "Did you hit your head? It's the year 402 of the Azure Era. It's the Day of Awakening. You've been spacing out for twenty minutes."
402.
He was sixteen again. He was ten years back in the past.
Before he could process the shock, a cold, mechanical chime echoed directly in his brain. This wasn't the flickering, weak System he remembered. This voice sounded like grinding stone and ancient power.
[Initializing Primordial Devourer System...]
[Host: Cain Thorne]
[Status: Rebirth Confirmed]
[Analyzing Bloodline: Rank F (Trash-Grade Human)]
Cain's lips curled into a predatory smile. In his previous life, he was a Rank F warrior who clawed his way to the top through sheer desperation. But the "Primordial Devourer" was a legend—the only power capable of overturning the hierarchy of the heavens.
[First Mission Triggered: The Path of the Predator]
[Objective: Awaken a bloodline in the top 1% during the ceremony.]
[Reward: Skill 'Gluttony's Touch' (Rank SSS)]
[Failure: Permanent loss of mana sensitivity.]
"Cain! Move it!" a booming voice shouted.
At the center of the courtyard stood a massive crystalline pillar—the Awakening Stone. Around it, the youths of the Thorne Clan were lining up. The Clan Head, a man with a stern face and a cloak trimmed with blue scales, watched with a judgmental gaze.
"Next: Cain Thorne," the Elder announced.
The crowd began to whisper.
"The talentless orphan? Why even bother? He'll be lucky if he awakens a 'House Cat' bloodline."
"I heard the Elders already have his exile papers signed."
Cain stood up, his gaze ignoring the jeers. He walked toward the stone, each step feeling heavier than the last. He remembered this day. In his original timeline, he had awakened a "Stone Mouse" bloodline—the weakest of the weak. It had defined his life of misery.
As he reached the pillar, he didn't pray to the gods or the ancestors. He reached inward, touching that cold, dark void the System had planted in his soul.
You want a bloodline? Cain thought, placing his palm on the freezing surface of the crystal. I'll take the one that belongs to the heavens.
The stone began to glow. Usually, the light was blue or green. But as Cain closed his eyes, the light turned a violent, abyssal violet.
Suddenly, a phantom roar erupted from the crystal—not the sound of a beast, but the sound of the universe screaming. The sky above the courtyard darkened as if an eclipse had begun.
[Warning: Host is forcefully drawing 'Primordial Essence' from the atmosphere!]
[System stabilizing... Extraction successful.]
The Awakening Stone cracked. A spiderweb of fractures raced up the pillar, and a pillar of black light shot into the heavens, visible for hundreds of miles.
The Elder fell to his knees, his face pale. "This... this isn't an Awakening. This is a Manifestation!"
When the light faded, Cain stood still, his eyes glowing with a faint, predatory gold. The holographic screen hovered before him, visible only to his eyes.
[Mission Complete: 'Path of the Predator' Successful.]
[Hidden Condition Met: Shatter the Awakening Stone.]
[Bloodline Registered: Forbidden Tier - 'The Void-Eater Dragon'.]
[Skill Unlocked: Gluttony's Touch (SSS).]
Cain looked at his trembling hands. The power coursing through him was unlike anything he had felt in his thirty years of combat. He looked up at the shocked faces of his clansmen, and then further up, toward the mountain peaks where the dragons lived.
"The hunt," Cain whispered to himself, "starts today."