Silence.
Not peace. Not stillness. Just the suffocating void where even your heartbeat feels like it doesn't belong.
That was Kael's world.
He stood at the center of the academy's underground combat coliseum—stone-gray walls towering above like the jaws of some ancient beast—and wished, not for victory, not for vengeance, but simply for the ground to swallow him whole.
The dirt at his feet trembled as his opponent, Garen Voss, strode forward. The other boy moved with the arrogant weight of power, his bronze training armor shimmering with an internal mana flow Kael could never hope to replicate. A chain of scarlet light wrapped around Garen's gauntlets, his Gift—a manifestation of the Voss bloodline's ancient Ascension Code.
"Still breathing, Nullborn?" Garen's voice echoed across the coliseum, amplified by the arena's arcane acoustics. "Impressive. I figured you'd pass out after the first strike."
Kael didn't respond. He didn't need to. Everyone already knew how this match would end.
High above, the spectator stands were filled with students, instructors, and enforcers—most watching with a mix of amusement and disdain. Whispers fluttered like dry leaves:
"Why even let him train?"
"He doesn't even have a Code."
"A Nullborn? In the Combat Division? What a joke."
He had heard it all before. Every day, every hour.
But this time, something in Kael had gone numb.
The match had started less than a minute ago. Kael had attempted to dodge the first blow, tripping over his own bootlace in the process. The second strike hadn't even landed—Garen had simply shoved him with a burst of mana, sending him sprawling into the dirt.
That was the thing. Kael didn't bleed.
Not because he was tough.
But because he was weak.
Too weak for his skin to even tear properly under the force of Ascended blows. His body had never resonated with the Cradle—the cosmic system that granted powers to the chosen. And without resonance, there was no Gift. No evolution. No hope.
He was, as the records cruelly stated, "Nullborn: permanently disconnected from the Ascension Code."
Kael pushed himself to one knee, ignoring the bruised ribs, the mocking laughter.
He'd endured worse.
He always had.
But the shame burned deeper today. Not because of the pain, but because of what he had hoped. Just once, he'd wished for a different outcome. That maybe this time he would surprise them. Maybe something would click.
Instead, all that clicked was Garen's boot against his temple.
The world spun. Kael collapsed face-first into the dust.
A single thought echoed:
Why am I still trying?
And the silence answered.
[System Error Detected.]
[Null Compatibility: 0.0001%]
[Override Requested.]
[Proceed? Y/N]
Kael's breath caught.
This wasn't a hallucination.
It wasn't a voice.
It was inside him. Like a code etched into the marrow of his bones.
[WARNING: Subject is not compatible.]
[Ashborn Protocol is unstable.]
[Proceed anyway?]
His vision blurred. The crowd's laughter, the heat of the coliseum—none of it mattered. For the first time in his life, something… called to him.
A broken system.
A forbidden path.
He didn't understand it.
But something deep within him did.
Y.
Pain.
Not the pain of broken ribs or bruised flesh. This was existential. A tearing at the seams of identity, like being burned and frozen from the inside simultaneously. As if the universe itself objected to his existence.
And still—it accepted him.
[Override Confirmed.]
[Initiating Ashborn Protocol.]
[Protocol Class: Non-Origin // Forbidden Node Accessed.]
[User: Kael.]
[Welcome.]
Something cracked in the air around him. A ripple—a distortion. Mana flared outward in chaotic spirals, disrupting even the artificial flows woven into the arena.
Garen took a step back. "What the hell…?"
Kael's body lifted an inch off the ground as black wisps curled around his limbs like smoke being pulled in reverse. His heartbeat was thunder. His skin shimmered with lines of silver.
Then his eyes opened.
White light blazed from them. Not like flame. More like the absence of light—like stars buried in snow.
[Skill Acquired: Null Step.]
[Effect: Negates immediate presence in linear space for 0.5 seconds. Cooldown: 1 hour.]
[System Status: Unstable. User Existence Temporarily Tethered.]
Kael didn't understand the words.
But he felt them.
He stood.
The pain was still there.
But now, it felt distant.
"Stupid tricks!" Garen yelled, charging.
A whip of mana unfurled from his wrist, crackling with destructive force. The Gift of the Voss—Chain Dominion—could pull enemies apart from the inside.
Kael didn't move.
Until he did.
And when he did, he vanished.
The world blinked.
Kael was behind Garen before the chain struck. The motion wasn't conscious. His feet simply stepped beyond the rules of the world for a half-second.
Garen whipped around, too slow.
Kael's fist struck—not with strength, but precision.
The blow landed under Garen's chin. It wasn't enough to knock him out. But it sent the larger boy staggering.
The crowd went silent.
Not because Kael had won.
But because he had hit back.
"What is that aura?" a student murmured. "It's not registered… It's not even from a known protocol!"
Above, Magister Rhun rose from his seat, his brows furrowed in alarm. The elderly Ascendant murmured something into a comm-bead.
Kael didn't notice.
Everything was soundless again.
Not like before.
This silence was alive.
Like the calm between two heartbeats, waiting for the drop.
[WARNING: Presence Detected.]
[External Systems Notified.]
[Ashborn Node is attracting attention.]
[Suggestion: Flee.]
Kael turned his gaze upward.
A distant shimmer in the coliseum ceiling—one no one else seemed to notice—split like a cracked mirror. A fissure in reality.
Something—no, someone—looked down through it.
And Kael looked back.
Eyes like hollow suns. Skin of obsidian glass. A being half-there, half-not. A Watcher.
Then it was gone.
Kael staggered back. The system buzzed inside his skull.
[System Status: Compromised. Termination Likely. Escape advised.]
He didn't wait.
Without another thought, Kael ran.
The coliseum guards shouted, but no one dared get too close. The dark aura pulsing from Kael warped their tracking glyphs. He sprinted through the side gate, mana lamps bursting as he passed, and into the academy's lower corridors.
His breath burned in his throat.
His legs felt like they belonged to someone else.
But he didn't stop.
Because the system hadn't stopped.
It was talking to him.
[Synchronization in progress: 1.2%.]
[Warning: Full activation will trigger systemic rejection.]
[Stabilize Node or face annihilation.]
He found a maintenance hatch behind the training barracks. The academy rarely checked them—they were reserved for relic engineers and sanitation drones.
Kael collapsed inside.
In the darkness, only the whispering system remained.
[You were never meant to live.]
[So we gave you something that shouldn't exist.]
[Ashborn is the Code of the Broken. The Protocol of the Refused.]
[You are no longer part of the Cradle.]
[…You are its end.]
Kael wanted to scream.
But he couldn't.
He didn't even know how to feel.
Minutes passed. Maybe hours.
Eventually, the pain dulled.
His breathing slowed.
The white glow in his eyes dimmed, flickering like a dying ember before finally snuffing out.
[System Dormant.]
[Next Catalyst Required for Reactivation.]
[Objective: Survive.]
Kael laughed.
It wasn't a happy laugh.
It was the kind of laugh you make when the world finally breaks in just the right way.
He had power now.
Or something like it.
He was still weak.
Still alone.
But for the first time in his life, he wasn't empty.
And that made all the difference.
Above, in the Magisterium Tower, Rhun stood in front of a crystal terminal, speaking with someone whose voice came not through speakers, but through pressure in the air.
"The Nullborn activated something," Rhun said, face pale. "A non-registered Ascension Node. No known classification."
Silence.
Then a reply: female, cold, distant.
"Ashborn."
Rhun stiffened. "You… recognize it?"
"Purge the boy. Now."
"But—"
"If you do not, the system will. And it will not be clean."
In the shadows of the world, they began to move.
The boy who could not bleed had finally bled light into the cracks of the universe.
And the cracks would answer back.
END OF CHAPTER ONE