The word [Survive] pulsed on the translucent screen, a silent, rhythmic heartbeat in the vast, dead chamber. Caiden pushed himself to his feet, his new body a strange mix of wiry strength and aching exhaustion. The memories of the Warhound were a raw, open wound in his mind—not just images, but the phantom pains of a life lived under the lash and the sword. He could feel the ghost of a training master’s boot connecting with his ribs, the searing heat of a plasma blade cauterizing a wound on his arm.

He forced the echoes down. A forty-year-old mind in a teenager’s body. He had the advantage of experience, but the vessel was an unknown quantity. He walked toward the dais, his movements fluid and predatory, a gait he had never possessed. The dead soldier on the stone slab was his mirror image, down to the last scar. A discarded shell.

“System,” Caiden said, his voice a low rasp. “Explain. What happened to him?”

The screen before him flickered.

[Vessel experienced catastrophic soul-fade due to neural implant rejection. A compatible Host was sourced via the Starlight Protocol to prevent total loss.]

So, the boy’s mind had simply… given out. Caiden reached back, his fingers tracing the faint, raised bump at the base of his neck. The neural implant. It felt like a parasite latched onto his spine. He could feel it, a cold, foreign node in the warm, living system of his new body. It hummed with a dormant energy, a leash waiting for a master.

His eyes drifted back to the glowing silver lines on the walls. With his Instinctive Mastery, he wasn’t just seeing patterns; he was seeing a circuit. The entire chamber was a massive piece of bio-circuitry, and the light from the ceiling was its power source. And he, with this implant, was now a component plugged directly into it.

Suddenly, a low grinding sound echoed from the chamber’s edge. A section of the obsidian wall slid away, revealing a dark, narrow corridor. From the shadows, a shape emerged. It was vaguely humanoid, cobbled together from the same dark stone as the walls, but its joints were a grotesque fusion of crystalline lattice and pulsing, bio-luminescent sinew. It moved with a jerky, unnatural gait, its single, glowing red eye fixed on Caiden.

[Nexus Security Protocol Activated: Errant bio-construct detected. Threat Level: Minimal.]
[Objective Updated: Neutralize the target.]

Caiden didn’t need the System to tell him he was in danger. The Warhound’s instincts screamed at him. The construct was slow, but powerful. Its stone fists could crush bone.

He dropped into a low crouch, his mind racing. The construct lumbered forward, its heavy footfalls shaking the floor. There were no weapons here, nothing but stone. But the Warhound had been trained to see a weapon in everything.

As the construct swung a massive stone arm, Caiden darted to the side. The blow smashed into the floor where he’d been standing, sending shards of rock flying. He saw it then—a momentary flare of silver energy along the construct’s arm, the same energy that lined the walls. It wasn’t just a mindless golem; it was powered by the Nexus itself.

Resonance, he thought, the word bubbling up from his newfound intuition.

He didn’t run away. He ran towards the creature. It was a suicidal move by any sane measure, but the Warhound’s mind knew close combat. It was the only place an expendable soldier had a chance. He slid under another clumsy swing, his hand brushing against the construct’s leg.

The moment he made contact, he felt a jolt. The energy within the construct, the magic, surged towards the neural implant in his neck. It was a raw, chaotic force, but his Instinctive Mastery saw the structure within the chaos. He didn’t fight it. He guided it. He found the resonance, the one pure frequency in the noise, and pushed back with his own will.

For a split second, the silver lines in the construct’s body flickered and died. The creature froze mid-swing, its red eye dimming.

It was all the time he needed.

Caiden exploded upwards, his hand forming a rigid spear. He drove his fingers into the glowing sinew at the construct’s neck, the one vulnerable point his instincts had identified. He didn’t just sever it; he poured the chaotic energy he had momentarily tamed directly into the creature’s core.

The construct shuddered violently. The red eye went dark. With a final, grating groan, it collapsed into a heap of lifeless stone and faded bio-luminescence.

Caiden stumbled back, breathing heavily, his hand tingling with residual energy. The screen reappeared before him.

[Target Neutralized. Aetheric Resonance Acquired: 0.01%]
[Archetype: Luminary – Awakening progress initiated.]
[Objective: Survive.]

He looked from the dead construct to the dark, open corridor. The silence had returned, but it was different now. It was no longer empty. It was waiting. Surviving here wasn’t going to be a passive act. It was a hunt. And in this strange new world, he was no longer just the hunted.