Augment: 2370

Chapter 1

Axel Vain never knew his mother. The first breath he drew came as hers slipped away, a tragic farewell to a world poisoned by greed and excess. Eda Vain's body went limp on the cold, steel table, her veins burning with a fatal dose of 'Zoom', a high that had promised release but delivered only death. Axel was born into a world that cared little for his existence, a place where the rich built towers of glass and steel while the rest clawed through the filth below.

The Lower City was a labyrinth of broken dreams, neon lights, and shadowy alleys-where the sun never reached. For as long as Axel could remember, he'd been a part of that grime, raised by a man who didn't want him, in a world that barely tolerated him. Doctor Kent Michaels, an outlaw medic hiding from the corporate health system, had patched Axel up more times than he could count. The man wasn't cruel-he'd kept Axel alive-but he wasn't loving either. Just another soul, scraping by in the cracks of a society that had long since crumbled into chaos.

Axel's world was one of constant survival. He'd learned early that the only thing separating him from death was his fists and his mind. The gangs-Darkfangs, Tempest, and countless others-ran the Lower City like roving packs of wolves, fighting over scraps the corporations didn't bother picking clean. But Axel didn't run with them. He fought them. And when he wasn't fighting, he was hacking tech-overriding security grids, slicing drones, and building devices to survive. A street-brawler with a knack for making machines dance.

Tonight was no different. Axel hunched over a broken drone, the neon lights from above casting shadows over his hands as he worked. The Gravitas Hover Board-his prized possession-rested beside him, its sleek form glistening under the dim streetlights. His jacket hung loosely on his shoulders, the neon dragon on its back pulsing faintly, almost in rhythm with the distant hum of the city's power grids.

He was almost done when the distant sound of gunfire snapped him to attention. His hands froze, every muscle tensing as his head turned toward the noise. The streets were never quiet, but this... this was different. A firefight, close by. Not the random violence he was used to. Something bigger.

Axel stood, grabbing his board in one swift motion, and ran toward the chaos. The slums of the Lower City twisted around him as he darted through back alleys and forgotten roads, the sounds of gunfire and shouting growing louder with every step. He didn't know what he was running toward-just that something was happening, and in this part of town, that usually meant opportunity. Or danger. Often both.

When he reached the clearing, he found a scene straight out of a nightmare. Two gangs-Darkfangs and Tempest-were tearing each other apart in the middle of a trade deal gone horribly wrong. Bullets sprayed across the street, ricocheting off crumbling walls and shattered windows. In the center of it all, a small group of men, not gang members, huddled over a sleek, black case.

A black-market trade. And judging by the carnage, it wasn't going well.

Axel's instincts told him to turn back, to melt into the shadows and disappear. But his eyes caught something-a flash of movement. One of the traders was bleeding out, slumped against a wall, struggling to breathe. The man's hand reached out, desperate, as his life drained away.

"Damn it," Axel muttered, cursing his own bleeding heart. He launched himself forward, weaving through the firefight with the agility of someone who had done this a thousand times. The Gravitas Hover Board hummed beneath his feet as he slid between cover, narrowly avoiding the chaos.

He reached the trader and knelt beside him, but as Axel tried to pull him to safety, the man's hand weakly pointed to the case instead. "Take... it," the man rasped, his voice barely a whisper. Axel hesitated for a moment before reaching out to grab the case.

And that's when everything changed.

A stray bullet hit the case, shattering the locks in an instant. The top popped open, revealing something that seemed to pulse with life-a faint blue glow, swirling like liquid light. Kilronomia. Axel didn't know the name then, but he felt its presence, felt it *call* to him.