Kruger

The inside of Outpost Spires was built like a bunker for gods.

Steel and Riftstone wove through the walls, designed to channel and repel Void energy. Energy shield pylons buzzed overhead, fighting back the bleeding edge of the Voidstorm outside. Every Kruger inside moved fast—no wasted motion. Recruits were sorted by rank and scanned for corruption markers.

Nova Index candidates were led deeper. Underground.

Kaiell followed the hallway past Subdeck Four, then Five.Past the chatter.Past the light.Until there was only hum, pulse, and breath.

He stood now before Subdeck Seven, heart beating with quiet anticipation. Joran had been forced to stay behind, locked out for not having an awakened Index.

Two Kruger techs in heavy black visors scanned him head-to-toe before waving him through. Inside, a ringed chamber waited—circular, humming with quiet energy.

"Candidate 1179. Nova Index: Active.Status: Unrefined.Risk Level: Volatile."

Kaiell stepped into the Viora Calibration Sphere—a black obelisk chamber with glass walls and internal suspension fields. His weapons were stripped. His pulse rate tracked. The door sealed behind him.

"Breathe normally," came a voice over comms. "We will lower the chamber's psychic noise. When we do, your Viora will seek resonance with your Inner World. Maintain focus."

He closed his eyes.

Darkness folded in.

Inside, he fell again—into the inward sea.

But this time, the path was different.

There was no calm platform. No silver mist.Only storm.

His Inner World was cracking. Lightning split the skies. Black rain fell from above—rain that moved up instead of down. And across the shattered landscape, in the distance, a figure stood at the center of his world.

Not him.

Not a memory.

Something else.

It turned its head.

And saw him.

The Mage.

Its shape flickered—cloak, wings, tendrils, horns, all shifting—like reality couldn't decide what it was. But its face was steady. A perfect, unblinking void of eyes. Dozens of them. None made for looking. All made for seeing.

"You opened the gate," it said."And now you've left it ajar."

Kaiell's knees buckled. His Viora screamed. The Mage took a step toward him—and in that moment, he felt every voice in its mind screaming in unison. Memories not his. Futures unwritten. Deaths not yet happened.

"You cannot purify what was forged in rot.""You cannot break what chose to become.""But you can… inherit."

Its hand reached out.

Kaiell reached back—

And then—

The chamber exploded with alarm sirens.

Kaiell gasped awake, heart hammering. Sparks flew from the calibration rig. Kruger techs slammed override commands. A containment field surged into place around him.

"Candidate 1179, your Nova Index linked to an outside entity. We lost stability. What did you connect to?"

Kaiell couldn't speak at first.

When he finally did, his voice was raw. Quiet.

"I saw… it. The Mage. It saw me."

Silence.

Then the voice over comms replied, tense:

"You weren't supposed to see it.We didn't think it was capable of reaching inward."

Kaiell stared at the scanner as a new line of code burned across his status feed:

Viora Thread: CrosslinkedInterference Level: Phase 2 CorruptionStatus: Aberrant

He stumbled from the chamber. Joran was waiting outside, wide-eyed.

"You okay?" he asked.

Kaiell nodded once. "I saw its mind."

"Yours or its?"

"I… I don't know anymore."

Outside, the storm intensified.

The Mage hadn't just brought chaos.It had brought connection.A psychic net cast wide across the planet.

And now, Kaiell wasn't just surviving it.

He was tethered to it.