Chapter 0 The World of Neon Gates

The first Gate didn't *open*. 

It **screamed**. 

A jagged wound in the New Avalon sky, bleeding shadows and cold light. From it poured nightmares—things of bone and black fire, hungers that swallowed cities whole. 

In the first days, we fell. 

Millions died. 

Humanity clung to the edge by bloody fingernails. 

Then the runes came. 

Not gifts. **Curses.** 

Ancient symbols burning themselves into the minds of those too angry or too desperate to die. They learned to carve these marks into the world itself. To twist reality. To fight back. 

They called themselves **Hunters**. 

A hundred years. 

New Avalon still stands—a corpse city rebuilt in neon and rune-tech, stinking of ozone and old blood. The Gates still rip open. The monsters still crawl through. 

But now? 

We bite back. 

Kids dream of the **Hunter Academies**. Of power. Of rank. Of armor that makes you feel like a god. 

*Power determines your worth.* 

*Runes determine your power.* 

But in the city's underbelly, where the neon sputters… 

They whisper of things no Academy teaches. 

Of **Voidborne**. 

Of runes that *choose* you. 

Of Gates that don't just let monsters in… 

**They call.** 

End of chapter 0