VoidBorn Rising

The wind howled through the skeletal remains of Old Denver, kicking up clouds of ash that stung Kael's eyes. They crouched behind a rusted hover-skiff, its lumium core long gutted, and scanned the rubble-strewn street. The outpost of Dusthaven clung to life on the city's edge, a patchwork of corrugated shacks and flickering holo-signs bartering tech scraps and rift crystals. Kael's tattered cloak, patched with synth-leather, flapped against their wiry frame. At eighteen, they were just another scavenger, invisible to the warlord's enforcers—until today.Kael's fingers tightened around a jagged lumium shard they'd pried from a collapsed drone. It wasn't much, but it'd trade for a week's rations if they could slip past the checkpoint. The distant hum of a rift zone pulsed through the air, a tear in reality glowing violet on the horizon. Locals whispered of creatures spilling from it, born of the void that shattered the world during the Collapse. Kael didn't believe in ghost stories. They believed in survival.Footsteps crunched nearby. Kael froze, heart hammering. An enforcer in a patched exosuit, plasma rifle slung across his chest, patrolled the street. His visor scanned the ruins, likely tracking heat signatures. Kael's breath hitched. They'd dodged Varkas's goons before, but the warlord's grip on Dusthaven was tightening. No lumium, no food. No food, no tomorrow.Kael slipped the shard into their satchel and darted toward a crumbled alley, keeping low. The outpost's edge was close—just past the old comms tower. Then something moved in the shadows. Not human. Not tech. A low growl vibrated through the ground, prickling Kael's skin. They froze, eyes locked on a shape coalescing from the dust.The creature was sleek, panther-like, its fur shimmering with void-black tendrils that seemed to drink the light. A shadeclaw. Kael had heard tales—rift-born predators that phased through solid objects, tearing through scavengers like paper. Its eyes glowed like twin rift zones, violet and unblinking, and its claws, edged with corrosive mist, scraped the concrete. Each step left a faint, sizzling scar. It was beautiful. It was deadly.Kael's pulse roared. They backed against a shattered wall, clutching their satchel. No weapon, no tech, just a rusty knife strapped to their thigh. The shadeclaw's head tilted, sniffing the air, as if it sensed something beyond Kael's flesh. The rift's hum grew louder, syncing with Kael's racing heart. Run, their mind screamed, but their legs wouldn't move.The shadeclaw lunged, phasing through a pile of rubble like smoke. Kael dove, rolling across jagged debris, pain spiking through their ribs. The beast's claws swiped, missing by inches, and the air hissed where corrosive mist grazed the ground. Kael scrambled behind a steel beam, breath ragged. Think, Kael. You've outrun worse.But this wasn't worse. This was something else. The shadeclaw circled, its form flickering between solid and shadow, as if it existed in two places at once. Kael's hand brushed their satchel, the lumium shard's faint glow seeping through. The creature's eyes locked onto it, a hungry snarl curling its lips. Did it want the lumium? Or something else?Kael's chest tightened, not from fear but something deeper, like a string pulling taut inside them. The rift's hum was in their bones now, vibrating, calling. The shadeclaw lunged again, claws aimed for Kael's throat. Instinct took over. Kael thrust their hand forward, not knowing why, and a pulse of darkness erupted from their palm—a shadow burst, raw and uncontrolled, slamming the shadeclaw back.The beast hit the ground, skidding, its fur rippling like liquid night. Kael stared at their hand, trembling. What was that? No time to think. The shadeclaw recovered, eyes blazing brighter, and charged. Kael ducked, grabbing their knife, and slashed wildly. The blade passed through the creature's phasing form, useless. It swiped back, claws grazing Kael's arm. Pain seared, the wound sizzling with corrosive residue.Kael stumbled, vision blurring. The rift's hum was deafening now, and that inner string snapped. Darkness surged through them, not just from their hand but their entire being. They screamed, and the shadows obeyed, coiling like tendrils around the shadeclaw. The beast thrashed, its phasing faltering, as the shadows tightened, crushing its form. With a final, unearthly wail, it collapsed, its body dissolving into ash, leaving only a faint, glowing symbol etched into the ground—a spiral with jagged edges, pulsing faintly.Kael dropped to their knees, gasping, the knife clattering beside them. Their arm burned, but the wound was shallow, already clotting. The shadows were gone, but their body hummed with something new, something alive. They stared at the symbol. It wasn't random. It felt… familiar, like a memory they couldn't place.Boots thudded in the distance. Enforcers. Someone must've seen the fight—or felt the void's pulse. Kael grabbed their satchel, the lumium shard still inside, and glanced at the symbol one last time. It was a clue, a piece of something bigger. The Collapse. The void. Their power. They didn't know how, but they knew it was connected.Kael ran, slipping into the ruins as enforcer lights swept the alley. Dusthaven wasn't safe anymore. Not for them. Not with this power. They'd always been a survivor, but now they were something else—a voidborn, maybe, like the old stories. And if the void was waking, Kael needed answers. Who were they? What was this power? And what did that symbol mean?The wasteland stretched ahead, rift zones glowing on the horizon. Kael's journey had begun.