The underground laboratory of NESIS was drowned in silence, broken only by the faint clicks of control panels and the anxious breaths of scientists staring at the holographic monitors before them.
A replay from the security feed showed a horrifying scene: Yeon, alone, annihilating the NESIS headquarters. Strange symbols floated behind him—black chains coiling like serpents binding the world, and an inverted crown emanating oppressive pressure.
"This energy… it's not registered in the Fragment catalog," one scientist muttered, his trembling finger pointing at an empty graph.
"What kind of power is this? In over 20 years of research, I've never seen anything like this…"
No one answered. No one knew. And none of them could leave the room. NESIS's auto-isolation protocol was active. They were pawns, locked in place until the experiment reached its end.
___
Inside one of the cylindrical tanks, Kael's small body lay still. But his consciousness was not completely dormant. A resonance, subtle yet foreign, echoed through his soul.
Suddenly, his mind was pulled into the past.
Five years ago.
Griteul City.
Kael had been only two years old then. His memories were long buried… until now. But through the temporal currents rippling from his Fragment, he saw it again.
The sky over Griteul burned.
Hundreds of intercontinental monsters surged through a dimensional rift. The townspeople fought back with desperation—futilely. Screams, explosions, and the roar of destruction filled the air.
A man and woman—his father and mother—bloodied but standing, fought to protect their children.
"Caius! Take your brother and run! NOW!"
Caius, then only sixteen, bit his lip hard, trying to hold back tears. He cradled the small two-year-old Kael tightly in his arms.
"Father, Mother—!"
"Go!! Protect him! You must survive…!"
Caius ran.
Through a city crumbling into dust. Behind him, their home exploded into flame. Young Kael cried endlessly in his arms, terrified.
Now seven years old, Kael watched the scene through the lens of his matured consciousness. He wanted to scream, to move, to help—but he couldn't.
Rage swelled. A quiet fire sparked deep within his soul. Kael's Fragment began to resonate violently.
The events of the past… had become the catalyst of his awakening.
___
In the tank beside him, Caius abruptly opened his eyes.
His body remained suspended, but in his mind, something felt off.
A pulse. Unfamiliar, yet not entirely foreign. It felt like it belonged to him… yet it didn't. Deeper, wilder, and not fully awakened.
"What… is this?" he thought. He sensed a second current of power inside him, flowing as if fused with his first Fragment—but far more primal, and untamed.
Caius didn't understand what it was. There was no vision, no voice. Only the overwhelming feeling that…
He was stronger.
Much stronger.
From the observation panel, the scientists saw both graphs spike. One of them gasped.
"Kael's undergoing unstable fluctuations! And Caius…! God…! This is insane. Two Fragment patterns active at once!"
___
Meanwhile, in the ruined main control room, the NESIS leader was trying to contact the upper command, his voice trembling.
"Headquarters is gone… The Hexa Core was wiped out by… something we can't classify. This isn't a normal Fragment user. This is… something else."
Panic spread through the receivers on the other end. But suddenly, the commander's voice twisted into a painful cry.
"G-GAARGH—!!"
His body began to glow, then turned to ash. He collapsed, his very existence eroded into dust.
And within seconds, the entire communication network shut down. On the other end of the line, the NESIS executives also dropped dead—each one of them killed instantly by an unknown cause.
___
Kael and Caius's tanks exploded.
A thunderous blast echoed through the lab. Steam and light burst from the crystal cylinders. Two bodies flew out, landing steadily on the lab floor.
Kael stood first. His eyes were quiet—but deep. As if a void had awakened within him. His Fragment had stirred in complete silence.
Caius followed. Energy enveloped his form—a swirl of dark red and deep blue crashing into each other. Yet he had no idea what it meant.
"My body… feels light," he muttered. "And… what is this?"
One of the scientists stared at the biometric graph and collapsed in fear.
"They… succeeded… Perfect resonance… and… no, this even surpasses our theoretical models!"
Kael looked at them, then turned to his brother.
"Let's go."
They walked out. No deaths. No threats.
The scientists watched in stunned silence. Why hadn't the two taken revenge? Why not strike them down?
Caius paused and said coldly:
"Don't look at us like that… We don't care about your fate. Wallow in your sins."
___
At the ruined entrance of NESIS, Yeon stood with arms crossed, watching two silhouettes emerge from the shadows.
Kael and Caius, their bodies still faintly glowing with residual energy.
Yeon smiled faintly.
"Ah, finally awake," he murmured. "Two diamonds in a heap of gravel."
Caius frowned.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Yeon simply smiled. "You'll find out soon enough." Then, he snapped his fingers.
In an instant, light swirled around them. The world around them shifted.
In a blink—they were elsewhere.
Their homeland.
Griteul.
They now stood in the heart of the dead city.
___
Not long after their departure, a group of cloaked figures arrived at the ruined NESIS facility.
Seven of them. Each wore a blank white mask.
Their leader, Velhart, stood at the front.
"…What the hell is this?" he muttered.
One of the masked figures knelt by a NESIS soldier's corpse.
"No visible wounds… but completely dead. Others were shattered, but there's no sign of a conventional battle."
Velhart clenched his jaw, pacing slowly as he scanned the ruins with a scowl.
Who dared move before I could?! I've waited two years for this—to rise in fame and be acknowledged as an official successor to the Celestial Seven…
His eyes narrowed.
I won't let whoever did this go unpunished. I'll crush them with my own hands!!
___
At the top of the ruined cliffs of Griteul, Yeon stood beside Caius and Kael. The two brothers stared out over their destroyed city—now nothing but ash and char.
"Why… did you bring us here?" Caius asked quietly.
Yeon looked back at them.
"Because your answers lie here."
Kael gently held his brother's hand. Though he was only seven, there was no longer anything childish in his gaze.
In the distance, hidden within the shadows of the rubble, a pair of glowing red eyes watched them.
The figure made no sound. No movement. And in the next moment—vanished.
"W-what was that?" Caius asked, a hint of fear in his voice.
"The creature that destroyed your city five years ago," Yeon replied. "Or rather… the monster controlled by the Vessels who orchestrated Griteul's fall."
The brothers froze in disbelief.
It was the first time they had heard of Vessels being able to control monsters. If it was true…
Their eyes filled with rage, hatred, and a burning need for revenge.