### Chapter One: The Boy Who Ate Death
Bullet trains blasted through the railways, their screams bouncing off rusted skyscrapers. Drones hummed overhead in lazy circles—releasing bullets . Human heads burst like overripe fruit, blood spraying across sidewalks. The evening sky was a bruise: purple, yellow, and weeping. Neon signs flickered, their glowing face filling the wet roads
A boy walked alone.
Kael. Twelve years old. Hands buried in the pockets of an oversized coat that swallowed his frame. A bag sagged off one shoulder. Black hair, slicked back and damp. He was brown skinned. Average in height. A headset was cupped to his ears, pumping funk music straight into his skull. He nodded with every bassline, boots cracking against the broken pavement.
Then he stopped.
Reached up.
Turned the music off.
Silence rushed in like water.
He tilted his head back. The sky was dying above him—slow, painful, spectacular. Tears slid down his face without warning. No sobbing. No sound. Just wet trails carving paths down cold cheeks.
"In Tequar, we die every day. Hunters too. The portal just sits there, licking its lips, waiting to feed."
The faint sun—touched his skin. He let out a long breath, watched it fog in the cold air, then dropped his head, and kept walking. With no hopes, no right for speech, there was nothing he could do.
And that day—
The sky shook.
BOOM!
The explosive noise caused him to jerk abruptly
He blinked.
White light. Everywhere. In his eyes, in his bones, in the spaces between his thoughts.
Wind slammed through the city like a god’s fist. Buildings collapsed. Glass rained. Blasts of raw light stabbed from every direction.
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The planet Tequar cracked open—deep fissures splitting concrete and bedrock. Portals swelled to the size of black holes, screamed, then detonated into supernovas. Galaxies flinched a thousand light-years away.
Then darkness.
Absolute. Cold. Silent.
Minutes passed or suppose hours, no one could tell.....
He floated.
A metal pole jutted from his chest, straight through his heart. He stared down at it, numb. Arms spread wide. Body limp as laundry.
A cross drifted nearby. Giant. Ancient. Made of twisted shadow.
On it stood a child. Not human. Shadow made flesh. Black hoodie draped over a small frame. No face he could understand—just two voids where eyes should be.
And those voids looked at him.
Kael tried to speak. His throat made no sound.
The shadow giggled. High and sweet and wrong.
His forehead burned white.
Then nothing.
"You were mean."
A voice. Small. Younger. His sister.
"You never play with me."
She was sobbing now. Each breath a wet gasp.
"You don't even smile at me."
The void listened. Hungry and patient.
*Smile at me. Smile at me. Smile at me.*
The words wrapped around his throat and squeezed.
His eyes ripped open.
He was flat on his back. Alien ground pressing into his spine. Sweat poured from his face—hot, stinging, dripping into his ears. His sister’s voice still crawled through his skull like maggots. His brain throbbed, a knife twisting slow between his temples. His chest felt caved in.
He sat up.
Giant trees loomed above him, their bark black as charcoal. Thorns the size of swords jutted from every branch. Roots slithered across the earth like buried snakes. Nothing was familiar. Nothing was home.
He tried to stand. His bones felt welded together—stiff, rusted, wrong.
A screen bloomed in the air.
Black. Holographic. Letters burned cold and green.
[Age: 16. New Individual Hunter]
[Status: None]
[Biogenes: N/A]
[Portal Type: Blue Portal]
[Mutated Beast Habitat]
"What the—"
His body cracked. Loud. Dry. Like ice breaking.
[Danger Nearby]
The screen beeped. Fast. Mean. Urgent.
Kael froze. The sky above was wrong too—dark, no stars, smothered in blue-green auroras that pulsed like a dying heartbeat. He looked down at his body.
His trousers stopped at his knees.
His legs were longer. Thinner. Stronger.
What the—
White light exploded behind his eyes.
He grabbed his head. The pain drilled. Deeper this time.
**ARGHHH!**
Above him: a scream. Real. Loud. Getting louder.
He looked up.
Dragon head. Bird body. White scales gleaming like wet bone. An iron beak, sharp enough to split steel. Massive—blotting out the sky.
Shadow swallowed him whole.
*Holy shit.*
He stepped back. Once. Twice.
Then turned and ran.
Bare feet pounding the alien earth. Muscles screaming. Heart slamming against his ribs like a fist on a door.
[Quest: Escape the White Feathered Dragon. Exit the Blue Portal.]
"What the hell IS this?!" he spat, breath already ragged.
The dragon boosted forward. Air cracked around it. Wings flapped once—a hurricane slammed into his back. He stumbled. Caught himself. Kept running.
Rock caught his ankle.
He went down hard. Knees hit dirt. Blood welled up.
*No.*
*No point.*
He whispered it into the soil. Taste of iron on his tongue