Chapter 3 : The Weak Die Quietly
The mist swallowed Brune's boat before I could say more.
I stood there for a long moment, the sound of waves brushing the rusted dock behind me. The ring was still pulsing faintly against my chest—quiet, like a heartbeat in deep water.
Home wasn't far.
I followed the narrow walkway down into the southern ward of Ocean Blue City. The air here smelled stronger—brine, rust, the metallic tinge of old tech that hadn't been replaced in decades. Unlike the inner zones, nothing here shimmered or moved on its own. The lights buzzed with age. Streetboards flickered out halfway through sentences. It was all worn, forgotten. Just like the people who lived here.
The edge of the city curved around the ocean, and nestled right near the cliffs was our home—a smooth-stone structure with algae-proof shutters and thick fiberstone walls. Solar spines lined the roof like dorsal fins. My mom built it to survive anything. My dad wired it to think like it could, too.
The door hissed open when I stepped close.
I walked in, salt drying on my clothes, bruises blooming across my ribs, and a new weight in my bones that wasn't just exhaustion.
"Dev?" My mom's voice hit instantly. She appeared from the hallway like she'd been waiting there for hours. "Sam—he's here! He's alive!"
Before I could speak, her arms wrapped around me.
Then my dad was there too. Taller, broader, protective like the tide—he just looked at me and let out a breath.
"I'm okay," I said softly.
We didn't say much after that. Just stayed close. We didn't need words.
Later, after they'd checked my injuries, fed me, and reluctantly gone to sleep, I sat alone in my room—lights dimmed, the sound of waves crashing just outside the glass.
The ring sat in my palm now, glowing faintly.
It hadn't stopped since the river. Whatever had happened… it wasn't over.
My mind drifted to the storm. The fish. The water pulling me inward, not outward. The moment of awakening—not mechanical, not digital, not from the labs like everyone else. No, this had been alive. Wild. Ancient.
I'd never heard of that before.
Everyone awakened their genetic affinity through analysis scanners at eighteen. The machines read the code and labeled your place in the system. It was clean. Predictable. Ranked.
I never got mine.
And because of that—because I didn't awaken like the rest—I was thrown out, ignored, spat on.
Beaten.
Dian Len.
That perfect monster in uniform. He didn't just hit me. He humiliated me. In front of others. Because in a world that worships power, weakness is a death sentence.
But I wasn't weak.
Not anymore.
I leaned back in my chair and stared at the city glowing beyond the cliffside. Towers rose like alien coral, runes flickering with neural circuits. Airships drifted between the higher zones. Somewhere out there, the top ten families were planning another gala. Another war. Another deal. All of it above people like me.
And beyond even that?
Stars. Galaxies. Worlds beyond our system. The Spiral Colonies. The Outer Arms. Places where even the elite of Earth could barely reach.
Out there, things weren't just about gene affinity. They were about will. Survival. Exploration. Power that bent physics and tore through dimensions.
In the galactic registry, there were five known tiers of awakened genetic power:
Tier I: Minor enhancements.
Tier II: Elemental and energy resonance.
Tier III: Bio-symbiosis, transformation.
Tier IV: Dimensional interfacing, quantum cognition.
Tier V: Transcendents. Recorded only once. No proof.
People trained their whole lives just to climb one tier. They killed for it. Built empires on it.
I wasn't even Tier I on paper.
But I'd survived a death that should've ended me—and something answered.
I looked down at the ring.
Its glow had deepened. It wasn't just blue now. It was… shifting. Oceanic, yes, but almost black. Like the trenches. And the symbol on it—the one shaped like an endless whirlpool—was moving.
Not glowing. Moving. Like it was breathing with me.
I whispered to the dark, "Whatever you are… I'll find out. And I'll make them pay."
My breath fogged the window as I leaned closer to the glass.
There were things I didn't understand yet. About my past. My body. This ring. And whatever was lurking in the silence of the stars.
But I swore on the ocean, on the blood in my veins, and on every bruise across my body—
They'll re
member the name Dev Noctis.
Even if I had to tear across galaxies to make it happen.
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