Somewhere beyond time, beyond dimensions as mortals know them, a chamber floated in a vacuum of shifting stars and silent storms. No walls. No floor. Only an endless black expanse carved by golden lines, glowing like constellations drawn by divine hands.
At the center stood a figure cloaked in obsidian black. Masked. Elegant. Unmoving.
Not human. Not entirely.
His voice cut through the void like a scalpel."He stagnates."
Another voice answered, formless, distorted by layers of whispers. "His power grows. But to slow. The Vessel of Vengeance has not yet chosen. He teeters on the brink of justice... or destruction."
The masked figure tilted his head, contemplative."Then let us… encourage him to destruct."
Silence. Agreement in the form of nothingness.
He raised a single hand. A flicker of blue fire danced across his palm, then exploded into a sigil — an arcane brand older than language. It pulsed once… then vanished.
Far below, somewhere in the fabric of Earth, the order was received.
Tokyo. 3:53 a.m.
A narrow alley behind a shuttered fish market trembled — reality cracked. Air bent inward, twisting like liquid glass.
With a soundless snap, the bounty hunter appeared on earth for the first time.
He stood tall, inhumanly lean. Skin pale grey, almost translucent. No face. Just a black void beneath a hood. His long coat billowed, though there was no wind.
Metal claws clicked as his boots touched the ground. Twin katanas hung from his back, blades faintly glowing with a sickly green venom that shimmered in the dark. A fire-launcher hung on his hip, and from his back unfolded six spider-like appendages with built-in plasma guns and spatial disruptors.
No voice. No breath. Only a single directive burned in his mind, etched by the Council:
"Kill the Vessel or Shape the Vessel."
Drones launched from his shoulders. A pack of mechanical hounds emerged from the shadows, noses twitching, scanning every trace of scent and spirit. Biometric pulses, heartbeat detectors, divine residue sensors — all activated.
Tokyo was asleep. But the hunt had begun.
Lucien Notices the Shift
Lucien crouched behind a vending machine under a rusted overpass in Tokyo, chewing on a half-eaten rice ball he'd scavenged from a trash bin. His ribs ached, his hoodie warm and damp, and the rain hadn't stopped in hours. His telekinesis had helped him fend off a few level 5 Crawlers earlier, but his body was deteriorating rapidly — each use of power felt like it scraped marrow from his bones.
Still… something felt off.
He paused mid-bite.
Watched. Like something ancient had turned its eyes upon him.
He stood slowly. Reached with his mind — a sweep across his surroundings.
Nothing. But too much of nothing.
Even the rats had stopped moving now. No distant traffic. No footsteps. Just silence wrapped in tension.
He turned toward the darkness behind him… and for the briefest second, thought he saw a shimmer — like the distortion of heat.
Invisibility powers?
Lucien's eyes narrowed. He backed away slowly. Not a monster. Not a human. Something… else. Something out of this world
By dawn, Lucien had moved deeper into an abandoned rail yard in the outskirts of Tokyo. He needed distance. Space. Somewhere civilians wouldn't get caught in the crossfire of all this.
The air shifted. Drones buzzed above like steel wasps. Then the dogs came — not barking, but clicking, limbs sharp, eyes glowing blue.
Lucien sighed and stood. "Alright. You found me, Happy?"
With a thought, his telekinesis pulsed outward — a shockwave flinging the drones into the nearby rails. The dogs leapt, but he caught them mid-air and crushed them like tin cans.
He turned—
And there it was.
The bounty hunter landed on the rusted platform with grace that defied gravity. No sound. No heartbeat. Just its presence.
Lucien stepped back. "You're not from here are you?."
The hunter unsheathed both katanas. They screamed as they slid free — the venom on their edge vibrating with a frequency Lucien's mind instinctively rejected.
Lucien read his thoughts.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Must eliminate the Vessel or shape him. Must obey. For the Council.
Lucien's eyes widened. "You're not even sentient, are you?"
The hunter lunged — faster than anything Lucien had fought before. Even faster then the near level 1 monster. A blur of steel and shadow.
Lucien barely dodged the attack, summoning Purgeflame in one hand. He slashed— but the hunter teleported a few meters to the left mid-strike.
Spatial manipulation.
Lucien shot into the air, flying now. The bounty hunter followed him, almost gliding — two plasma cannons emerging from his shoulders, firing rapid shots.
Lucien activated Invulnerability — It went right through him without doing any damage. He tumbled, unharmed, and retaliated with a spear of flame.
The hunter was burned but unfazed.
They crashed into a abandoned, half-destroyed office tower. Glass shattered. Steel bent. Two gods in a storm.
Lucien fought like he had never before.
He used telekinesis to rip elevator shafts free and hurl them like missiles. He conjured Purgeflame in wild arcs, bathing the bounty hunter in divine fire. Used his X-Ray eyes to penetrate through the hunters body with lasers. But it wasn't enough. The hunter didn't feel pain. Every hit only delayed him.
Lucien used Regeneration to heal a deep slice across his ribs that was caused because of the katana. He blocked a plasma bolt with his forearm — it melted skin, but he forced his bones to knit midair.
The bounty hunter activated spatial folding — warping behind Lucien, striking with both blades in an X-shaped slash. Lucien screamed as the venom carved through muscle.
He dropped onto the fground. Crashed through two floors. Dust and glass rained down on Lucien.
His vision blurred for a second.
The hunter descended like an executioner, one katana raised — the other glowing with an unknown curse.
Lucien screamd and vanished.
He'd triggered Invisibility just in time. The hunter stopped mid-swing, scanning, twitching.
Lucien held his breath, reappearing behind him five seconds later. He grabbed the bounty hunter's head and slammed him into the floor hard enough to crater concrete.
"STAY—DOWN YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" Lucien shouted, fists glowing with kinetic energy.
He was charging his Cosmic Punch.
25 minutes remained until he could use it.
The hunter activated a time-dilation field.
Everything slowed down.
Lucien moved like molasses as the hunter rose, one blade dragging a trail of sparks. Their eyes met.
Lucien focused. Deep breath. He whispered, "I am not your prey, you are mine."
He summoned every ounce of power into his limbs and broke through the slowed timeline — his body shredding at the cellular level from the strain.
He struck.
The blow cracked the hunter's mask. Finally, he staggered and fell.
Lucien stood panting, blood dripping from his chin. His aura burned violet, unstable, wild.
"Tell your council," he growled.
But the hunter rose again.
And the fight was far from over.
The shattered rooftop glowed with flickers of crimson dawn. Smoke curled from twisted steel. Lucien floated mid-air, shoulders heaving, one arm hanging limp, skin scorched and torn. He used regeneration to heal those wounds. The bounty hunter stood across from him — mask cracked, sparks bleeding from the gaps in its armor.
They stared eachother down.
No words. Only the whine of charging plasma cannons and the rising heat of Purgeflame.
Lucien reached inward. One invulnerability left. Two regenerations. Four invisibility triggers.
But none of that mattered now right now.
"I didn't ask for this you know," he muttered. "I didn't ask to be your damn vessel of vengeance."
He surged forward like a meteor — fists glowing with raw vengeance, a scream erupting from his soul.
The hunter met him midair. Blades flashed — venom laced, whistling through the wind. One sliced across Lucien's chest. The other embedded in his thigh.
He didn't stop. He grabbed the hunter's arm and twisted — bones crunched like wet gravel.
The bounty hunter teleported away— but Lucien already anticipated it. He read the distorted flicker in time-space and struck blind.
The punch landed square on the hunter its mask.
It shattered completely.
Behind it, there was no face — only a void, swirling with black fog and pulsing veins of white light. A construct. A puppet. But one that bled something ancient.
Lucien hovered, panting. "You're not even real. Just a weapon for destruction."
The hunter paused, disoriented. Then raised a shaking katana.
Lucien vanished. Invisibility — used again.
The hunter got confused.
A blast of Purgeflame from behind engulfed him. The scream he let out was static, distortion, feedback like a radio losing signal. His body flickered — spatial integrity failing.
The tower was on its last legs.
Lucien dove, grabbing the hunter mid-fall. They crashed through floor after floor. Concrete exploded, girders snapped.
They landed in a sunken abandoned metro tunnel.
Lucien crawled up to his knees, coughing blood. He activated Regeneration — fourth use — and his ribs slowly pulled themselves back into place with sickening crunches.
The bounty hunter lay broken, twitching, unable to stand up.
Lucien approached it.
The air trembled around him. His aura lit up the tunnel like wildfire — eyes glowing white and purple, every heartbeat a tremor.
"You came to kill me or shape me. Why?"
The hunter turned its head. Static again. Glitches.
Kill... Vessel... Shape… Vessel... obedience… for the Council…
Lucien closed his eyes. "You're not even alive. Just a dog for the council."
He raised his hand. One blast. One command, and this thing would be ash.
But his hand shook.
This wasn't a monster. Not in the same way. It wasn't evil. It was doing what it was made for.
He clenched his jaw. "You said you serve the Council. Then listen carefully."
He lowered his hand.
"I'm still standing as you can see. I'm still choosing. And if they want to push me—"He stepped closer, leaning down. "—then tell them to send something stronger the next time."
The hunter blinked — a flicker of recognition? Of programming adjusting?
Then it vanished. Dispersed in a wave of light particles and glitching static.
Lucien stood alone in the metro tunnel.
Outside, the city stirred — unaware that, below their feet, a battle between realms had just started.
He leaned against a wall and slid down slowly, breath shallow.
The pain was nothing new. But the questions were louder than ever.
Why me? Why now? Why do they care? Who even are they?
He looked up at the grey sky.
For the first time in days, he felt... seen by something. Not just by his friends — but by forces beyond comprehension.
And they had chosen to test him today.
Elsewhere — far from Tokyo — the Council chamber shimmered again.
The masked figure watched in silence as fragments of the bounty hunter's memory fed back into the system. He observed the fire, the hesitation, the statement Lucien had made.
A third voice emerged from the dark.
"Emotion. Mercy. Interesting."
Another replied, low and amused. "He defies the mold."
The masked figure turned away. "Good."
A pause.
"He's beginning to choose his side."
And as the chamber dimmed, another sigil ignited in the air — this one far more complex than the last.
Back beneath the city, Lucien stood on trembling legs.
His clothes were more ruined the they already were. His heart was heavy. But his spirit?
Burning with justice and rage.
He walked toward the rising sun — no destination, no plan. Only resolve.
He touched the blinking tracker on his wrist — still active, still linked to Rylen and the others.
His lips curled into a grim smile.
"I'm not running away anymore."