The world was never meant for the powerless.
In a city where Sigil Users dominated everything — from schools to the highest ranks of government — those born without a Sigil were nothing more than insects.
And Kai Arashi was the weakest of them all.
Battered. Bloodied. Broken.
Kai lay in the academy courtyard, surrounded by the mocking laughter of students wearing glittering, glowing sigils on their arms.
Above him, Riku Kanzaki — the golden boy of the elite — spat on his face.
"Trash like you should've died the day you were born without a Sigil," Riku sneered, tightening his glove lined with amplification runes. "Remember this, Arashi: the strong take everything. The weak lose everything."
Another brutal kick slammed into Kai's ribs.
He coughed blood, barely breathing, his vision swimming.
[SYSTEM INSTALLATION: 97%…]
A whisper — no, a mechanical voice — flickered at the edge of his shattered consciousness.
Kai blinked weakly.
Had he gone insane from the pain?
Rough hands dragged him across the concrete, toward the outer district — the Forbidden Zone.
A place where failed experiments and discarded relics of the old world lay abandoned.
Left for dead.
Alone.
Forgotten.
The world faded into blackness.
And then… something ancient stared back at him from the void.
[SYSTEM INSTALLATION COMPLETE.]
[CANDIDATE DETECTED: KAI ARASHI.]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCEPT THE ABYSS? Y/N]
A screen — glitched, broken, surrounded by swirling black rune scripts — floated above him.
Blood dripped from Kai's split lip as he raised his trembling hand.
The choice was simple.
Stay broken… or embrace the thing the world feared most.
Through bloodied teeth, Kai whispered:
"Yes."
[ABYSS CONTRACT INITIATED.]
The ground cracked beneath him.
Darkness flooded his veins.
His body spasmed violently as a thousand unseen tendrils tore through his soul.
Pain unlike anything he had ever known — and yet, it felt right.
It felt good.
He was no longer powerless.
He was no longer human.
He was becoming something else entirely.
From the ashes of betrayal, a new force was born.
Its name… would be Asura.