If one said that Damian was currently dazed and unfocused, they would be entirely right.
In the darkness of the night, he walked away from the graveyard and stepped onto the streets of Ebonreach Metropolis- a vast behemoth of a city that stretched for hundreds of miles.
On Vael'nir, no other metropolis matched its size. It was a continent disguised as a city.
All the sidewalks were moving walkways as one didn't have to lift a foot, just step on and be carried to your destination.
Cars whizzed about on the other side as if they all had important places to be, with some not even bothering with the traffic below as their engines hummed with blue waves of light before they shot into the skies.
He cradled the tiny fox-like creature he had somehow bonded with under his dark shirt, shielding it from the chill air and booming sounds of chaos all around him.
He stood on a green-lit walkway that carried him straight across the Guardian's Road- one of the longest roads in this district. Follow it long enough, and you'd reach the city's heart, where government buildings and the powerful Interstellar Beast Master Corporations resided.
Other people on skateboards, modified electric bikes, and even the elderly fused to their Implanted Wheelchairs moved on these wide walkways.
But Damian's trip was brief as he did not stay on it for too long.
He stepped off the walkway and entered the darkly lit complexes of the Hollow Stacks.
High-rise towers buried in the underbelly of Ebonreach Metropolis, home to the forgotten and the poor.
Cradled between rusted railroads and gleaming Maglev Lines, the Hollow Stacks were a chaotic labyrinth of tight packed apartments, their rents cheap enough for anyone to afford if they didn't mind the occasional flicker in gravity or heat.
Damian passed through the automatic doors of his complex that only had the building number 108 and headed straight to the Aethercore Elevators as he pressed the button for the fortieth floor of the seventy-seven-floor structure.
On the side wall of the elevator, beneath a flickering neon light that seemed seconds from dying out, but never quite did, hung a handwritten sign.
"Do not trust the elevator past floor thirty-nine."
"..."
It was unclear if it was a joke, but those ominous notes had become routine in this building as someone clearly had a flair for drama.
Damian ignored it.
He listened to the soft beeping hums of the elevator ascending floor by floor until it arrived at his own.
He stepped out quickly, turned right, and after less than a minute of walking, stopped in front of a steel door. A panel slid open as he leaned down and let it scan his right eye. A quiet beep. A green flash, and the door opened.
He stepped inside and shut it behind him quickly, breathing out as his eyes swept over his small, worn-down apartment.
This had been home.
He and Ilyana had already planned for something more. A two-bedroom apartment. Two bathrooms, at least, with one just for guests. That was important to his future wife. She wanted a place they could grow into, not just survive in.
But he never got that place.
The thought simmered with rage as he gently pulled the beast from beneath his shirt and stepped deeper inside.
His apartment was little more than a series of cubicles. A cramped living room with an outdated wide-screen TV where Damian had spent hours sinking into the cracked leather couch.
The bathroom, suffocating to most, suited him just fine.
And the bedroom, if it could even be called that, barely fit a twin-sized bed. The remaining floor space was just enough to walk around the bed, nothing more.
He carried the soft, six-tailed fox onto the mattress, laying it gently down. It remained asleep, rising and falling with even breaths.
He watched it as he was curious, cautious, and a bit careful as if the little beast would suddenly grow terrifying jaws and eat him whole.
"What are you?" he whispered.
A creature that fell from the skies, striking him like a comet. The ground had cratered beneath it. And yet he was untouched.
No, more than untouched, he was changed.
Irreversibly bound.
The more he looked at it, the stronger the sense of connection grew. And as he focused on that bond, his vision shimmered.
Words began to appear in front of him.
Kitsuul (Beast Partner)
Species: Umbra-Kitsune
Basal Form: Small, fox-like creature of the Umbra-Kitsune species with six glowing tails, soft gray fur, and silver eyes
Unlocked Unique Trait: Veilshift- Undetectable by other Beasts and Beast Masters. Can make the Beast Master completely invisible and undetectable by any senses.
...!
The words hovered in front of him like glowing truths, confirming everything.
Damian stood frozen momentarily.
When he finally moved again, it was stiff, his brain buzzing.
He left Kitsuul sleeping and walked to the tiny bathroom, staring into the cracked mirror above the sink.
There he was.
And yet...not really.
Damian Light, twenty-five years old in the Vael'nir Sacred Calendar of Year 9095.
He should've been scrawny, pale, and sunken of a man after weeks of rage and depression.
Instead, his frame looked more athletic. His dark hair had silver streaks that weren't there before.
A bit of the depression still seemed to be there, and the rage seemed endless.
And his eyes, dark and steady, now shimmered with a quiet, unfamiliar light.
He looked at his hands that now felt like they contained a lot of force.
He flexed his fingers and reached for the broken pipe protruding from the wall. It hadn't worked in years.
He gripped it.
And bent it.
CREAK!
The metal folded like softened wax in his hands. No resistance. No effort.
...!
It was real!
Beast Masters were whispered to be monsters in human skin. Stronger, faster, and untouchable as even bullets struggled to pierce their skin.
Some could fly.
Some could survive in space.
And now...he was one of them?
The fire in his eyes blazed brighter.
That rage he always buried so deeply...it rose now, free and wild.
All he ever wanted was the chance.
A thread of possibility.
A sliver of hope to take justice for the one he'd lost.
To make the one who killed her pay.
He never had a chance before.
But now?
CREAK!
The pipe collapsed in his grip, mangled beyond recognition.
He had a thread of hope.
And he'd use it all.
Every drop of it!
Because somehow, some way, a fluffy little Interstellar Beast had chosen him.
And he was going to use it to spill a whole, fucking, lot of blood.