The sound of thunder echoed in the distance, even with the clear sky above the base. Daz walked alone through the concrete corridors, his bare feet touching the ground as if trying to feel something beyond matter — as if searching for an invisible connection.
He stopped in front of a metal wall and rested his hand on it. Small cracks formed on his fingers, but not from damage — they were lines that pulsed with earthy energy, alive, like roots sprouting from the cold surface.
His gaze was lost there, diving into memories that only he carried.
---
The sound of heavy rain. The smell of wet earth. Screams. Explosions.
Daz was just a boy when his village was buried during a dig by HelionTech itself. They were searching for an ancient energy source deep in the forest, and when they found it… the ground reacted.
The earth roared, opened, and swallowed everything.
He survived, trapped under the rubble for days. Every second, he heard the voice of the earth. Not in words, but in impulses, pulsations… as if something ancient recognized him and protected him.
When he finally emerged, covered in mud and pain, his veins glowed with telluric energy. He didn't walk—he floated, propelled by controlled tremors. Wherever he stepped, fissures appeared. His body had become a conduit for the world's power.
But HelionTech wouldn't let him escape. They captured him and tried to extract his "mineral connection," as they called it. They didn't understand that he wasn't just manipulating the earth… he was part of it.
He fled like a walking earthquake. And he swore never again to allow anyone to use nature as a weapon.
---
Daz smiled bitterly, his golden eyes shining with contained energy.
— "Roots don't break. They only adapt."
It was a phrase his grandfather used to say. And now it made more sense than ever.
Returning to the barracks, he saw the group gathered up ahead, laughing, training, living. But he didn't approach them yet. He just watched, silently, his bare feet connected to the ground as if they drew strength, firmness, purpose from it.
Because while some needed solid ground to walk
on, Daz was the ground itself.