Chapter 4
I moved through the forest like something born to it.
No longer cautious. No longer afraid.
I could feel it—the change. The System didn't just sit inside me like tech. It wasn't some implant. It lived. Every breath I took felt sharper. Every scent in the air separated cleanly—sweat, blood, ozone, moss. I could hear the trees sighing as the wind passed through their twisted branches. I could hear my own heartbeat.
And something else.
A second heartbeat, faint but steady, echoing just behind mine.
The Blood God.
It was like standing next to a furnace that hadn't been lit—silent, cold, but waiting. Always waiting.
I found the hunter near the ravine.
He was alone, sweeping the area in a wide arc. Tall. Kargali elite. His mesh cloak flickered with active camouflage. He carried a neuro-lance and an arcblade at his waist, both charged. His collar glowed blue—not a slave, but a noble combatant.
I should have run.
Even armed, even with this power pulsing beneath my skin, I was nothing compared to him.