Pain.
It came before the breath. Before the thoughts. Before the understanding that he was still—somehow—alive.
Calder Draco's first sensation was fire in his veins. Not burning on the skin, but beneath it—like something old and monstrous had lit a torch inside his bone marrow. He couldn't scream. Couldn't even twitch. His body convulsed in silence, the bathroom floor sticky beneath him, blood pooled like ink on broken porcelain.
Then came the voice.
> [THREAD TYPE: HYBRID – DRACONIC / DEMONIC / VAMPIRIC / DIVINE]
[STATUS: VEIL-REJECTED – ACCESS GRANTED]
[SYSTEM CALIBRATING…]
His eyes fluttered open.
The world shimmered.
A screen floated above him, glowing like starlight caught in fractured glass. It wasn't part of the government scans. It felt ancient. Wrong. And yet—it pulsed in rhythm with his heart.
> [NIGHTBORN SOVEREIGN SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
[TIER 1 UNLOCKED – NIGHTBORN INHERITOR]
[NEW TRAITS: Blood Sigil | Predator's Archive | Breath of Dominion]
"W-what... is this?" he croaked, surprised he could speak at all.
His limbs twitched. Pain flared, then began to dull—replaced by an eerie sensation of shifting. His muscles cramped, then expanded. Bone cracked, then reknit. His skin flushed, and the glow under it faded to a faint, pulsing hum. The System had become him, and he—
He wasn't the same.
Staggering, Calder pulled himself to the mirror. The cheap plastic was cracked, warped by humidity and time, but it still reflected something he barely recognized.
His eyes, once dull gray, now burned a deep crimson with flickers of gold at the edge. His frame—previously gangly—had begun to broaden, muscles tightening under the skin like coils of wire. His skin looked healthier, subtly pale but unnaturally smooth. The curve of his jaw was more defined.
He wasn't handsome yet.
But he wasn't ugly anymore.
And that was terrifying.
> [Restructuring Incomplete. 3% Bloodline Assimilation. Next Milestone: 10%. Appearance and Attribute Boosts Will Progress with Rank.]
A groan escaped his lips. "This... isn't normal."
No system gave you traits outside your Class. No Thread allowed you to access four lineages at once. He remembered the stories—of Legendary Awakened with Class S Echoes, of Veil Knights and Rogue Sovereigns. But this... This wasn't a Class. This was a crown.
And Calder Draco had just put it on.
---
The next hour was spent trying not to scream. His body surged with energy in cycles—like waves crashing through a broken dam. He dry-heaved bile into the toilet. His senses flared randomly—one moment deaf to the world, the next hearing the electricity hum inside the wall.
But when it passed, he could stand.
Walk.
Think.
> [Sovereign Class Active – Thread Integration Stable] [Your Existence No Longer Matches Global Awakening Protocols] [Warning: Detection by State Agents May Result in Termination]
"Great," he muttered. "I'm a walking death warrant."
But another part of him—the one that had lived in darkness, eaten lies, and swallowed the world's indifference—smiled.
The System hadn't just awakened him.
It had chosen him.
---
He dressed slowly, noting how his shirt fit tighter across the shoulders. The mirror whispered transformation. His movements felt smoother. Balanced.
He checked his phone.
Zero messages.
Zero alerts.
No one had noticed he'd been dead.
Outside, the city choked on its own light. Neon ads for Awakener battle tournaments glowed against graffiti-covered transit cars. Drones buzzed past his window, scanning IDs, ignoring anyone without the glow of Veillight.
And down in the streets, gangs fought over rift-blood trade and sponsorship money like modern warlords.
Calder Draco walked into the chaos with a Sovereign's heart beating in his chest.
And for the first time in years—
He wasn't afraid.
He was awake.
He was chosen.
He was going to burn this world down and build something better from its ashes.
---