Prologue: Surge

  Darkness

  The Outlands were a scarred wasteland of jagged stone and brittle grass. In the center of the desolation stood a demonic monolith, its obsidian face cold and malevolent.

  The ground groaned. A colossal, segmented worm erupted from the earth, crushing ruins into powder. But before it could strike, a thick, luminous fog boiled from the fissures. The creature shrieked and burrowed back into the dark, terrified. Then, the silence returned.

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  Thousands of miles away, the morning sun hit the glass towers of Seoul. To the world above, the war was a fading headline—a tragedy that happened somewhere else. The city hummed with the mundane sounds of traffic and peace, a comfort bought at a price the citizens would never understand.

  The view sweeps south, past green hills and over the cold expanse of the sea, until it reaches Mainland City. This hyper-futuristic metropolis rose from the ashes of the old world, a beacon of civilization. Hidden deep within its bedrock lay Flux HQ, a fortress of technology shielding the heart of humanity’s last bastion.

  Deep inside the base, a spark of cerulean light pulsed through veins meant for innocence. A demon growled in the dark—a creature from across the divide that had found a new sanctuary in a lost soul.

  The battle between Hope, Scarlet, and Chaos continues.