A New Dawn
Xero walked with purposeful steps through Moonshire, maneuvering through the crowded streets on his way to the Adventurers' Guild. His recent growth had given him confidence. But as his foot crossed the edge of the plaza beyond the merchant quarter, a thought pierced his focus—the tent. The mysterious one with the veiled seer and secrets folded between layers of incense and illusion. Compelled by the mystery that gnawed at the edge of his mind, he made a sharp turn and slipped into the alleys.
What he found stopped him cold.
The tent was gone. Not collapsed or packed away. Gone, as if it had never existed. The cobblestones beneath were undisturbed. No scuffed dust, no shadow where there should've been one—just silent normalcy.
Confused, Xero narrowed his eyes and activated the All-Seeing Eye.
The world shifted, revealing faint strands of residual mana hanging in the air like ghost smoke. It was old, detached from time, and fading fast. Whatever had been here was beyond ordinary.
He stepped deeper into the alley, hoping to trace the mana. Then came the chill. A creeping silence that swallowed sound and a rustling like fabric in the wind—except there was no wind.
Figures emerged from the walls of shadow. Cloaked, masked, flowing as though cut from reality itself. He spun, Morpheus Blade forming in his hand, but a sigil flared from one attacker's palm—a red and black rune, jagged and ancient, pulsating with dreadful cadence.
"Divine rune—!" Xero started, but it lashed toward him, forming a web over his chest.
Agony erupted.
[WARNING: Host is experiencing mana nullification and cultivation suppression.]
His knees hit the ground. The blade clattered from his hand, vanishing back into his inventory. His limbs froze, breath choked in his lungs.
"You've got to be kidding me," he spat through clenched teeth. "A divine-grade rune?"
[Heavenly Fiend Bloodline and Dragon Bloodline are working to counteract the effects. Estimated time, 1 hour.]
"I better hug my ancestors when I wake up…"
Darkness swallowed him.
He opened his eyes to cold stone, his body sluggish but functional. Groaning, Xero slowly sat up.
A tight cell. Just big enough to crouch. Barely lit by arcane fire flickering in a crystal fixture overhead. No mana in the air. His cultivation was suffocating, stifled to the point of helplessness. No movement outside the bars. No noise. Just silence and stone.
"Whoever did this didn't just want to imprison me—they wanted me to rot," he muttered, forcing himself upright inside the claustrophobic box.
Who were they? Divine runes didn't come standard. And he was barely a known entity in this world yet. This kind of overkill?
They came prepared for a target with divine potential
He exhaled slowly and summoned the system screen, checking what limited options he still had. The First Step Inventory—his only hope. It was a pocket dimension accessible even in suppression zones, provided the user had sufficient talent. Fortunately, he had more than enough.
His eyes landed immediately on the Divine Summoning Card. It pulsed faintly, held safely in the timeless fold of the inventory alongside the Morpheus Blade.
He drew the card into the physical world.
It was long, with silver runes running around a shimmering blue border. The central image was arresting—a swirl of mythic creatures, locked in battle and flight. A serpentine dragon, a horned demon, a golden-crowned angel—themes of duality echoed through its design.
"This is either madness or brilliance," Xero muttered as he pushed raw willpower through his hands. "Come on…"
The card drank in his suppressed mana like a starving beast, glowing brighter with each passing second. Then, the world ignited.
Light flooded the room, a radiance not from this plane. The divine weight of an uninvited force bent reality inward, and mana pooled unnaturally around the floor before rising into a cyclone of creation.
From that vortex, a form assembled: tall and nearly ethereal, feathered with dual-toned wings—white on one side, black on the other. Hair of ash and coal, eyes blazing gold with crimson spirals. Muscle and elegance harmonized in her posture. Divine, yes, but corrupted at the seams.
Xero didn't need the system this time—the All-Seeing Eye peeled away her essence on instinct.
[Name: Shizue
Race: Fallen Angel (5th Step Cultivator)
Angels tainted by the Abyssal Beast during the Primordial Era. Supposedly wiped out in the conclusion of the Great War.]
The figure knelt instantly.
"I answer your summons, master. My blade is yours."
"Shizue," he said, still stunned, "we've got a lot of work to do."
She turned toward the rune-covered bars and raised a hand. Divine and corrupted mana weaved together, and a sigil flash countered the red and black cursebrand holding him captive. The onyx seal shattered with a hiss of pressure. Immediately, mana surged back into his body.
The Morpheus Blade warped into his palm without command. He stood.
"Impressive," he whispered.
But he was already evaluating the hall.
"What's the plan?" Shizue asked softly.
"Escape. Then breathing room. Answers after."
Just as they prepared to move, a figure appeared at the far end of the narrow corridor. Still, silent, watching.
A veil covered the intruder's form—their outline indistinct, neither male nor female, but frozen with a strange poise. Though they made no move to attack, something about their presence unsettled the space itself.
"We're not alone," Shizue said calmly. "Get behind me."
Xero complied.
For a moment, the veil rippled.
Then, gone. Dissolved into nothing, like a shadow swallowed by firelight.
Xero remained frozen. The All-Seeing Eye was still active. And for the briefest second, it had flickered with recognition.
Celestia Devereaux Dawnstone.
Just the name. No title. No stats. Not even a species tag.
His breath caught in awe or fear—or both.
"Let's move," he finally said.
They uncloaked their powers just long enough to blast through the remaining cells. But there was no resistance waiting for them.
Only bodies.
Dozens. Twisted, broken, eyes still wide with terror. Most had died without pulling weapons. Some bore half-cast spells frozen mid-air, others collapsed in impossible positions.
Xero crouched and scanned several with flickering pulses from the All-Seeing Eye.
[Step: Seventh.
Status: Deceased.
He grimaced. These weren't fodder. These were apex hunters. And yet, something—or someone—had ended them without a sound. Most likely her.
Who was Celestia?
They reached the surface after winding up a spiral stairwell and pushing into a rusted metal hatch. A breeze swept over them. Green plains stretched beyond the horizon, sunlight pure and golden.
Shizue stepped ahead and scanned the land. "There is a settlement to the east, toward the rising sun. I can feel the soul density thickening in that direction."
Xero laughed. "Then that's where we'll go. We've got time to get to know each other on the way."
Shizue raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
As they walked, the warmth of sunlight couldn't quite banish the weight in Xero's chest. He tried to laugh it off, make banter, but his thoughts remained buried beneath something else.
In my old life, I never got close to women like her, he thought, eyeing Shizue from the corner of his vision. Maybe this life will be different.
But more than anything, a single name echoed in his mind like etched runes behind his eyes.
Celestia Devereaux Dawnstone.