She pulled her hood down low, navigating the narrow, neon-lit alleyways of the

t of a rusted iron

etics, stepped into her path. One of them grabbed her chin rough

r click

focating stench of cheap cigars and old blood. A man named Viper sat on a

her body, lingering on her chest and hips like

n her gut. She stepped forward. "I

s wet and grating. He tapped a button on his table,

ered. "Collateral is your org

her hand through the air, shatteri

apons. The hum of charging plasma filled the ro

al. It was the core fragment of the academy's premier talent-measuring monolith-the one that had mysteriously shattered during her fresh

t crystal onto the table r

nergy signatur

ked in a high-pitched alarm. The raw, violent S-tier energy fluctuations bleeding from the crystal bathed his face in a blindin

r confirmed the impossibl

oice ice-cold. "When I succeed tonight, th

greed. He waved the guards down. He typed furiously on his console,

rint onto the digital pad

llion credits

he moved like a machine, buying vials of Void Stardust, the heart-blood o

rm in the slums, she was shivering viole

ved a broken chair out of the way, clearin

the silver sand with the thick, foul-smelling beast blood. She crawled on he

s closed, she pulled a c

l to her left palm and sliced deep. The skin pa

the center of the matrix. Drops

ed with a blinding, v

. She closed her eyes and forced the

ntire pool of 100

ched violently as a scream tore its way up her throat, but she clam

n on her face. Her skin

the tiny room began to warp and twist. A sou

Papers flew, the desk flipped over, and the s

er soul, trying to rip her consciousness

rboards with her bloody hands and

smashed through the dimensional barrier