The rain fell in thick, heavy sheets, soaking through Alana's black trench coat. She pulled her hood down low, navigating the narrow, neon-lit alleyways of the lower city. The smell of ozone, rotting garbage, and wet asphalt filled her nose.

She stopped in front of a rusted iron door with no handle.

Two massive bouncers, their arms replaced by heavy chrome cybernetics, stepped into her path. One of them grabbed her chin roughly and forced her eye open, scanning her pupil with a red laser.

The door clicked open.

She was shoved into a dimly lit back room. The air was thick with the suffocating stench of cheap cigars and old blood. A man named Viper sat on a stained velvet sofa, slowly polishing a plasma pistol with a greasy rag.

Viper looked up. His eyes crawled up and down her body, lingering on her chest and hips like she was a piece of meat on a butcher's block.

Alana ignored the nausea twisting in her gut. She stepped forward. "I need a loan. 1.22 million credits."

Viper threw his head back and laughed. The sound was wet and grating. He tapped a button on his table, projecting a holographic contract in front of her.

"Sure, sweetheart," Viper sneered. "Collateral is your organs. And your womb. Sign here."

Alana didn't even blink. She swiped her hand through the air, shattering the projection into pixels. "No."

The two cyborg bouncers instantly drew their weapons. The hum of charging plasma filled the room. The temperature seemed to drop ten degrees.

Alana didn't move. She reached deep into the inner pocket of her trench coat. Her fingers closed around a jagged, glowing shard of crystal. It was the core fragment of the academy's premier talent-measuring monolith-the one that had mysteriously shattered during her freshman evaluation. She had kept it hidden for three years, terrified of being caught. But now, with nothing left to lose, she pulled it out.

She slammed the broken test crystal onto the table right next to Viper's hand.

"Look at the energy signature," she ordered.

Viper frowned, glancing at the shard. The moment his desk's security sensors picked up the residual aura, his instruments shrieked in a high-pitched alarm. The raw, violent S-tier energy fluctuations bleeding from the crystal bathed his face in a blinding, terrifying light. His eyes widened. The cigar dropped from his lips, burning a hole straight through his expensive silk pants.

The readout on his scanner confirmed the impossible truth. Potential: Tier-S.

"That is my collateral," Alana said, her voice ice-cold. "When I succeed tonight, this loan will bring you a ten-fold return."

The lust in Viper's eyes vanished, instantly replaced by raw, naked greed. He waved the guards down. He typed furiously on his console, drafting a new contract with an astronomical, predatory interest rate.

Alana pressed her thumbprint onto the digital pad without a second thought.

Ding. 1.22 million credits transferred.

She left the loan shark's den and plunged into the black market bazaar. She moved like a machine, buying vials of Void Stardust, the heart-blood of an Abyssal beast, and a heavy pouch of high-grade conductive silver sand.

By the time she reached her temporary dorm in the slums, she was shivering violently, her clothes plastered to her skin.

She didn't bother drying her hair. She shoved a broken chair out of the way, clearing a small space on the rotting wooden floor.

She tore open the bags. Her fingers, stained with dirt and rain, began mixing the silver sand with the thick, foul-smelling beast blood. She crawled on her knees, drawing the jagged, complex geometric lines of the forbidden matrix.

When the final circle was closed, she pulled a combat knife from her boot.

She didn't hesitate. She pressed the sharp steel to her left palm and sliced deep. The skin parted, and bright red blood welled up instantly.

She held her bleeding hand over the center of the matrix. Drops of her blood hit the silver sand.

The entire array flared with a blinding, violent crimson light.

Alana sat cross-legged in the center. She closed her eyes and forced the energy in her body to flow backward.

She ignited her entire pool of 100 resonance points.

Agony hit her like a physical blow. Her muscles seized. Her back arched violently as a scream tore its way up her throat, but she clamped her teeth together, biting her own lip until she tasted copper.

Sweat mixed with the rain on her face. Her skin turned the color of ash.

The crimson light grew blinding. The air in the tiny room began to warp and twist. A sound like shattering glass echoed in her ears.

A localized hurricane erupted inside the room. Papers flew, the desk flipped over, and the single lightbulb exploded in a shower of sparks.

Alana felt invisible claws sinking into her soul, trying to rip her consciousness out of her body and drag it into the void.

She held on. She gripped the floorboards with her bloody hands and screamed in her mind. Answer me!

A pillar of pure, blinding silver light smashed through the dimensional barrier of the ceiling, engulfing her completely.

Alana's consciousness was ripped through the crimson tear. She plummeted into a chaotic dimension of shattered stars and raging cosmic storms-the Expanse.

Winds made of pure energy sliced across her astral form, bringing a tearing, burning pain that made her want to vomit.

Deep within the eye of the storm, she forced her eyes open.

A mountain of silver fur loomed before her. It was a wolf of impossible proportions, its body etched with glowing, star-forged runes. Its eyes burned like dying supernovas, radiating a pressure that threatened to crush Alana's soul into dust.

The giant wolf, Evertt, lowered his massive head. His icy gaze locked onto the tiny, fragile human soul floating before him.

Fighting against the god-like gravity, Alana raised her hand. She offered him her soul-mark, burning with the dark, heavy weight of her blood and her absolute need for vengeance.

Evertt paused. He sensed the unyielding, violent fire in her spirit. A flicker of genuine amusement sparked in his supernova eyes.

He let out a roar that shook the very fabric of the dimension. He leaned forward and pressed his colossal, wet nose against her glowing soul-mark.

The pact snapped into place.

Instantly, Evertt's massive body began to violently compress. To force himself through the tiny dimensional crack Alana had opened, he sealed away ninety-nine percent of his mass and power.

Back in the real world, the crimson light of the matrix in the slum dorm suddenly shifted to a blinding, holy silver.

CRACK.

A shockwave blasted outward from the center of the room. The mattress flipped over. Alana was thrown backward, her spine slamming hard against the peeling wallpaper. She coughed, a splatter of blood hitting her chin.

The silver light slowly faded. Dust motes danced in the air.

Alana blinked, trying to clear her vision, expecting to see a terrifying monster.

Instead, sitting perfectly in the center of the scorched floorboards, was a puppy.

It was the size of a house cat, its body made of flowing silver radiance, solid yet with a hint of translucence, like an ethereal ghost woven from starlight. It was covered in an illusion of fluffy, impossibly soft silver fur that shimmered with cosmic dust. The pup shook its head, its oversized ears flopping. It let out a tiny sneeze, and a small puff of silver sparks drifted from its nose.

Alana clutched her aching chest. She stared at the harmless little furball, her brain completely short-circuiting.

The pup trotted over to her, its paws making soft tapping sounds. It sniffed the deep, bleeding gash on her palm.

Then, it stuck out a small pink tongue and gently licked the wound.

A cool, soothing sensation washed over her skin. Alana watched in absolute shock as the torn flesh knitted itself back together in seconds, leaving smooth, unblemished skin behind.

Suddenly, her comm-link let out an ear-piercing shriek. The screen flashed a violent, strobing red.

System Alert: Unidentified High-Dimensional Entity Detected!

The red text vanished, replaced by glowing gold letters that seemed to burn into the screen.

Pact Confirmed: Evertt.

Classification: Apex-Tier (Exceeds System Parameters).

Alana stopped breathing. Her eyes locked onto the words Apex-Tier. A massive, overwhelming wave of euphoria crashed into her, washing away the pain and the cold.

Evertt seemed annoyed by the loud beeping. He raised a tiny silver paw and smacked the holographic screen.

The comm-link instantly went black. Silence returned to the room.

The pup climbed into Alana's lap, circled twice, and curled up into a warm ball, closing its eyes to sleep.

Alana's hands shook as she reached out and buried her fingers in his soft fur. The moment she touched him, a massive surge of pure, raw energy rushed up her arm, flooding her empty resonance pool. The power was intoxicating, shattering her previous limits in a heartbeat.

She pulled the little wolf closer to her chest. Her eyes narrowed, the silver light reflecting in her pupils.

She whispered the names of Cash, Dallin, Jered, and Charmaine into the dark room, a smile of pure, lethal promise curving her lips.

A sleek, black hover-limousine pulled up to the curb outside the most exclusive, corporate-sponsored safehouse on the Aegis Academy campus.

Cash Patterson rushed forward, his face stretched into a wide, sycophantic smile. He pulled the heavy car door open and bowed his head slightly.

Briar Thorne stepped out. She wore a custom-tailored, high-fashion combat suit that cost more than most students made in a year. Her stiletto boots clicked sharply against the pavement. She looked at the safehouse with an expression of mild boredom.

Cash punched a new override code into the keypad. The heavy alloy doors slid apart with a soft hiss.

The squad filed inside. Dallin immediately let out a loud whistle, his eyes wide as he stared at the massive, genuine leather sectional sofa and the state-of-the-art holographic entertainment system.

Briar, however, wrinkled her nose. She reached out with a white-gloved finger and swiped it along the edge of the doorframe. She inspected her fingertip, her lips curling in disgust.

"The air circulation system in here smells like poverty," Briar complained, her voice sharp and nasal.

Cash's smile faltered for a second before he recovered. "I apologize, Briar. The previous occupant was a commoner. She had no class. I'll have the cleaning drones run a full chemical scrub immediately."

Briar ignored him and walked straight into the master bedroom. It was the largest room, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a private training pod. This used to be Alana's room back in her old dormitory — now converted as part of the new corporate suite.

Briar opened the closet. A few of Alana's cheap, faded cotton t-shirts were still hanging there. Briar let out a loud scoff of pure revulsion.

Dallin saw his chance to impress. He pushed past Cash, grabbed the t-shirts off the hangers, and marched over to the wall-mounted incinerator chute. He shoved the clothes inside and hit the button.

A flash of bright orange fire illuminated the room, reducing Alana's belongings to ash in seconds. Dallin puffed out his chest, looking at Briar for approval.

He swirled the amber liquid in his glass, a nasty grin spreading across his face. "You know, I almost feel bad for the bitch. Almost. Because her first summoning ritual freshman year? It wasn't a failure. I made it fail."

Charmaine gasped, her hand flying to the silver cross at her neck. "Dallin! You tampered with a resonance circle? The backlash could have destroyed her mind!"

Dallin rolled his eyes. "Oh, shut up, Charmaine. I just sprinkled a little anti-magic dust on the outer rune line. If she actually summoned a strong Eidolon, she would have left us. Who would have done our tactical analysis for free?"

Cash didn't look shocked. He walked over and clapped a heavy hand onto Dallin's shoulder, squeezing approvingly. "Smart move. A Conduit with a brain like hers is dangerous. You have to pull their teeth so they have no choice but to rely on you."

Jered leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed. "If Alana had just signed Chet's contract, we could have squeezed two platinum-grade armor sets out of him before kicking her out. Brilliant sabotage or not, she was stubborn till the end."

Charmaine waved her hand, casting a minor holy purification spell that smelled like artificial lavender. "Let us pray she finds a warm bridge to sleep under tonight."

At the mention of Chet Wolfe, a dark, calculating gleam appeared in Cash's eyes.

"Don't worry," Cash said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "I'm not done squeezing value out of her."

Dallin leaned in, his eyes hungry for gossip.

"Chet has a specific... appetite," Cash explained, a nasty smirk on his face. "He loves breaking arrogant women. Seeing them dragged through the mud. I'm going to sell him the details of Alana's current pathetic situation."

The squad listened intently.

"I'll tell Chet exactly which slum she's hiding in," Cash continued. "He can send his thugs to rough her up, and then step in to play the hero. Once she's desperate enough, she'll crawl into his bed."

Dallin barked out a laugh. "And when she does, we ask Chet for VIP black cards to his club."

The room filled with the sound of their shared, cruel laughter.

Briar emerged from the bathroom, having changed into a sheer silk robe, holding a glass of expensive red wine. She looked down her nose at them.

"I want all of you in the advanced simulation room at zero-six-hundred tomorrow," she ordered, her tone leaving no room for argument.

Cash, Dallin, Jered, and Charmaine instantly stopped laughing. They nodded eagerly, their spines bending like obedient dogs.

Briar turned and slammed the bedroom door shut.

Outside the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, the storm raged on, lightning flashing across the sky. Inside, the squad poured more champagne, completely blind to the absolute destruction heading their way.