Awakening: Chronicles of Astra Prime

Leo found himself drifting through a void of nothingness. Fragments of memories floated past like shattered glass—each shard reflecting moments he couldn't quite grasp. A flash of his father's stern face during combat training, eyes fierce as he demonstrated the proper way to channel core energy. The echo of his mother's laughter , the smell of synthesized coffee still sharp in his memory. Strange symbols carved into ancient walls he'd never seen before, yet felt familiar, their edges glowing with that same pulsing blue light that haunted his dreams.

Glimpses of massive creatures moving through star-filled depths, their forms too vast to comprehend, leaving trails of darkness in their wake. These visions felt both new and ancient, as if they'd always been buried in his mind, waiting to surface.

Among these fragments, one memory burned brighter—Styx's smile the day she showed him her first successful energy manipulation. The blue glow had danced around her fingers like living water, her eyes bright with achievement. The image twisted, distorted, merging with visions of floating crystals and pulsing light. Shadows danced at the edges of his consciousness, taking shapes that his mind refused to process, forms that shouldn't exist in any sane reality.

Then he saw her. Styx stood motionless in the distance, her back turned to him, hair gently swaying as if caught in an invisible breeze. Behind her, impossible geometries formed and dissolved, creating patterns that hurt to look at, shapes that seemed to fold in on themselves endlessly.

"Styx?" His voice felt hollow in the emptiness, echoing strangely as if bouncing off walls that weren't there.

She remained still, her presence both familiar and alien. Something about her felt wrong—different from his memories. The air around her rippled like heat waves, distorting reality itself. As he approached, the air grew thick, almost suffocating, tasting of metal and ozone. The space around them began to shift, crystalline walls materializing from darkness, their surface black as void but scattered with points of pulsing blue light.

Between the pulses, he caught glimpses of other places—vast chambers filled with humming machinery, ancient ruins floating in space, and creatures of pure energy dancing through the void. Each flash revealed something his mind struggled to comprehend, yet somehow felt important.

The wall before him started to pulse with an unusual rhythm, its scattered points of blue light beginning to sync with something distant. Through the crystalline depths, he glimpsed a shadowy figure, its form wrapped in living darkness, approaching the wall from the other side. Reality seemed to bend around it, colors inverting where its presence touched the world.

Then Styx began to turn, slowly, too slowly. Her movements were fluid yet unnatural, like watching water flow upward. As her face came into view, Leo's breath caught. It was Styx, but not as he remembered. Her features were sharper, almost ethereal, touched by something beyond human understanding. Marks like constellations seemed to shift beneath her skin, forming and reforming in patterns that spoke of impossible knowledge.

"Brother..." Her voice echoed with layers of sound that shouldn't exist, each syllable carrying whispers of ancient tongues and forgotten songs. "The walls are thinning..."

Her eyes snapped open—revealing depths that seemed to contain entire galaxies, swirling with power and purpose he couldn't comprehend. The shadowy figure's words echoed through the void: "The gears of fate are turning..." Each word rippled through space like stones dropped in a cosmic pond.

Leo jerked awake with a violent gasp, his body drenched in cold sweat. The necklace beneath his shirt pulsed against his chest, its warmth nearly burning. Dawn's pale light filtered through the patched window of his room, casting long shadows across the worn floor. For a moment, those shadows seemed to move in ways that shadows shouldn't, reaching and twisting before settling into normal patterns.

Mike's sharp knock made him jump. "Leo! You awake? We need to move if we're making that meet with Ruddy."

The morning light painted Sector 7's ruins in shades of rust and gray. As they made their way toward Sector 9, they passed rows of people slumped against crumbling walls—survivors of yesterday's Tier 1 Abyss beast attack. Their faces were blank, eyes vacant, some still bearing the residual glow of Abyss energy around their pupils. The medical units hadn't reached them yet. Probably never would.

A makeshift morgue stretched along one street, the stench of death barely masked by burning incense. Bodies lay covered with whatever scraps of cloth people could spare, some still showing signs of corruption—black veins spider-webbing across exposed skin, crystalline growths sprouting from wounds. A child stood motionless before one of the covered forms, their small hand clutching a torn piece of fabric. Nobody approached to comfort them. Out here, grief was a luxury few could afford.

"Nasty business," Mike muttered, stepping carefully around a pool of blackened blood. "They say this one was different. Smarter. Like it knew where to hit."

Leo's necklace pulsed warmly at Mike's words, as if in recognition. He pressed a hand against his chest, forcing the sensation down. "Since when do Abyss beasts think?"

At Ruddy's base, a man was on his knees, pleading before two enhanced guards. His clothes were torn, face bloodied, desperation rolling off him in waves. "Please! I can get the payment! Just three more days—" His plea cut off with a kick to his stomach.

"Ruddy doesn't do extensions," the guard's augmented voice carried the arrogant undertone of someone who'd consumed too many low-grade cores. "You knew the terms."

The facility descended into darkness, illuminated by strips of flickering blue-white light. The air grew thick with the metallic tang of processed Abyss cores, making Leo's teeth ache. Each breath felt heavy with potential energy. Security scanners hummed as they passed, their beams searching for contraband or unauthorized cores. Leo held his breath as they swept over his necklace, but somehow it remained undetected.

Ruddy's "office" dominated the center—a raised platform surrounded by holographic displays and security barriers. The man himself stood watching a processing demonstration, his augmented arms gleaming with fresh modifications. Something about him seemed different today, more artificial than usual.

"Ah, my favorite suppliers...," Ruddy's artificially pleasant voice carried across the chamber. His face bore that too-perfect smoothness of premium high level pills users, like a mask stretched over something inhuman. "You're just in time to witness the future."

The processing unit before him hummed with an unfamiliar pitch, bearing Crimson Dawn Industries' sleek logo—a blood-red sun emerging from darkness. Inside its transparent chamber, an Abyss core floated, suspended in energy fields that made Leo's eyes hurt. The air around it bent strangely, like reality itself was being warped.

"Triple the yield, half the processing time," Ruddy explained, his augmented fingers dancing across holographic controls. "Crimson Dawn's technology is... revolutionary." The core in the chamber pulsed, its blue energy condensing into something darker, more concentrated. Leo's necklace responded with a sharp cold pulse, making him suppress a shiver.

"Of course," Ruddy continued, moving toward a secured section of his platform, "this means our standards have evolved. Earth Realm Cores tier 2 or higher only." He pressed his palm against a scanner, revealing a display case of crystalline vials. Their contents shifted like liquid starlight, each one worth more than most outer circle residents would see in a lifetime.

"Dawn's Blessing," Ruddy lifted one reverently. "Their flagship product. One vial equals twenty standard cores. And that's just their public merchandise." His augmented eyes gleamed with artificial hunger. "Bring me something truly special, and we could discuss their experimental line."

Leo laid out their cores for scanning—twelve in total. The scanner's pale light created dancing patterns across their surfaces, displaying purity levels and energy signatures in flowing holographic script.

Ruddy's eyes narrowed as he examined their haul. With a dismissive gesture, he swept six of the cores aside. They clattered onto the metal floor, their faint glow already fading. "These are barely mortal tier 1-grade. Not worth the processing power."

Mike stepped forward, his face flushing with anger. "Those cores nearly cost us our—" Leo's hand shot out, gripping Mike's arm firmly. A small shake of his head silenced him. They both understood they couldn't afford to argue—not here, not with Ruddy's enhanced guards watching their every move.

Ruddy continued as if nothing had happened, moving towards the rest of the pills, expression shifted as he reached the smallest core, the one they'd found deep in Sector 12's ruins.

"This signature..." His fingers traced the air above it. "Where exactly did you find this?"

Before Mike could answer, a new presence entered the room. The temperature seemed to drop as a woman in a pristine black suit emerged from the shadows. Her movements were too precise, her features too symmetrical. The Crimson Dawn logo on her collar seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.

"I believe," her voice carried an unnatural resonance that made Leo's necklace pulse violently, "that's exactly what we'd like to know." She moved closer, each step deliberately measured. "I'm Ms. Frost, Acquisition Specialist for Crimson Dawn Industries. That particular energy signature... we've only seen it in very specific locations. Old World research facilities, to be precise."

The processing chamber behind them hummed louder, its core turning almost black. Ms. Frost's unnatural gaze fixed on Leo, and for a moment, he could have sworn her eyes held the same galaxy-deep darkness he'd seen in his dream.

"Perhaps," she said, her smile never reaching those impossible eyes, "we should continue this discussion somewhere more... private. After all, we have so many questions about your salvaging operations in restricted zones."

The necklace under Leo's shirt went from cold to burning, its pulse matching the swirling patterns of dark energy in the processing chamber. As Ms. Frost stepped closer, the air itself seemed to bend around her, and Leo realized with growing dread that some nightmares didn't end when you woke up.