CHAPTER 2 — The First Core

  The Forceborn lunged.

  Aiden didn’t think—he threw himself sideways, hitting the pavement hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs. Claws scraped asphalt where his ribs had been a heartbeat earlier. The creature skidded, snarled, and pivoted with unnatural sharpness.

  It was still locked on him.

  Aiden scrambled backward on hands and heels, heart hammering, mind blank with panic. The Forceborn crouched low, muscles coiling beneath cracked stone skin.

  It leapt—

  —and something slammed into it from the side.

  A blur of motion. A flash of blue. A shockwave of compressed air.

  The Forceborn hit a parked car with a crunch of metal and bone. The vehicle rocked violently. The creature twitched once, then went still.

  Aiden blinked, stunned.

  A hunter stood where the Forceborn had been—armor glowing faintly, weapon humming with Force energy. He scanned the street, eyes sharp behind his visor.

  Aiden opened his mouth to call out.

  The hunter’s gaze swept over him.

  And slid past.

  “Area clear,” the hunter said into his comm. “One down. Moving to next sector.”

  He sprinted away without hesitation.

  Aiden stared after him, chest tight.

  Even now—especially now—no one saw him.

  He pushed himself upright slowly, wincing as his palms scraped against broken glass. His breath came in ragged bursts. His legs trembled.

  He turned toward the dead Forceborn.

  Its body was already beginning to crumble, stone skin flaking away into dust. Aiden took a cautious step closer, rebar clutched in his hand.

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  Then he saw it.

  A glow.

  Faint at first, then brighter—pulsing from within the creature’s chest cavity. The dust shifted as something inside pushed upward.

  A sphere of swirling blue light rolled free.

  A Core.

  Aiden froze.

  He’d seen them on broadcasts—hunters holding them up triumphantly, guild analysts explaining Force classifications. But seeing one in person was different. Wrong. Alive.

  The Core bumped against a piece of broken asphalt.

  Then it rolled toward him.

  Aiden stepped back.

  The Core followed.

  “No,” he whispered. “No, no, no—stay away.”

  The Core pulsed.

  The air around it warped slightly, bending light. Dust and tiny fragments of debris shifted toward it, drawn by an invisible pull.

  Aiden felt it.

  Not on his skin.

  In his bones.

  The Core reacted to him like a magnet to metal.

  His pulse spiked.

  He turned to run—

  —but his foot slipped on loose gravel, and he stumbled backward.

  The Core surged forward.

  Aiden threw up his hands on instinct.

  The Core hit his chest.

  The world imploded.

  Aiden’s scream was swallowed by the collapsing air. His vision folded inward, crushed into a single point of blue light. His bones felt like they were being pulled through a hole too small to exist. His thoughts scattered like dust in a storm.

  Then everything snapped back.

  A pressure—ancient, heavy, impossible—echoed inside his skull.

  [GRAVITY FORCE ACQUIRED — Level 1]

  Aiden collapsed onto his hands and knees, gasping. The pavement felt too solid beneath him. The air felt too thin. His heartbeat thundered against his ribs like it was trying to escape.

  A translucent screen flickered into existence in front of him.

  [STATUS]

  Name: Aiden Voss

  Power Rating: 1

  Special Forces:

  Gravity — Lv. 1

  Basic Forces:

  Strength — Lv. 0

  Agility — Lv. 0

  Endurance — Lv. 0

  Vitality — Lv. 0

  Perception — Lv. 0

  Willpower — Lv. 0

  Aiden stared at it, chest heaving.

  He reached out with a trembling hand.

  His fingers passed through the screen like mist.

  It rippled.

  Then faded.

  Aiden sat back against the wall of the alley, breathing hard. His hands shook. His vision swam. His chest felt… wrong. Heavy. Dense. Like something enormous had curled up behind his sternum.

  He pressed a hand to his chest.

  The weight pulsed once.

  Aiden flinched.

  “What did you do to me…?”

  The Core was gone.

  But its presence remained—coiled, silent, waiting.

  A distant explosion shook the street. Aiden looked toward the intersection. Hunters clashed with Forceborn in bursts of color and sound. The Rift pulsed overhead, spilling violet light across the city.

  No one looked his way.

  No one saw the Core vanish into him.

  No one saw the screen.

  No one saw the way the air bent slightly around him when he moved.

  The world still didn’t acknowledge him.

  But something else did.

  The Rift had reacted to him.

  The Forceborn had targeted him.

  The Gravity Core had chosen him.

  Aiden pushed himself unsteadily to his feet.

  His legs felt heavier.

  His hands felt denser.

  His entire body felt like it belonged to someone else.

  He swallowed hard.

  “Okay,” he whispered. “You wanted me.”

  He looked up at the swirling wound in the sky.

  “Now what?”