Vast Hyperion Universe, Domirian World, year 5743 of The Eternal Rift.

  In the last remaining fortress of a once powerful organization, a young woman ran staggering down a corridor. If one looked closely, it would be possible to realize a big, bloody gash that cut her torso. At the edges of the wound, there seemed to be a dark and corrosive energy, cutting short all of her body's attempts at healing.

  “Who would think that the mighty Darkstone Kingdom would one day be like this?” thought Alba, “We had technologies sufficient to dominate our entire celestial sector…” she paused, “But maybe this is what caused our doom — such power brought arrogance and fearlessness among us, until eventually Lord Balgan provoked this final calamity”.

  In this universe and the many ones linked by the Eternal Rift, strength was the law above all others. Every sentient being wanted to progress in True Essence Refinement and rise over the constraints of nature itself.

  With time, the difference of power between people became enormous. Because of this, technology development was mostly stagnated in the majority of worlds. There was no need to bother to invent things if strength could make anything possible. For example, when the weak used carts to barely move from one place to another, the powerful could use flying mounts, enchanted wagons or even fly directly to it.

  But, of course, to almost every rule, there are exceptions.

  Darkstone Kingdom was a supreme organization that came to rule myriad worlds in its region. It specialized in the discovery and production of groundbreaking technology. The kingdom had so many powerful inventions that made it almost invincible in this side of the realm.

  One of the most recent ones, before the group's abrupt fall, was the Auxiliary Consciousness Unit or ACU, a surgically implanted device on the brain that created a complementary consciousness to the user. It helped with the processing and storing of data, analysis of the owner's body and surroundings, and much more. It basically could learn and improve its capabilities over time. A true and terrifying magnum opus of the organization researchers.

  As the ACU was still a prototype, it was not known yet what it could become after a long time with the user. And now, with Darkstone’s downfall, it would be lost forever in this vast universe. Or so it should be, if a certain young Star Mistress of the group, its last survivor, didn't try against all odds to save at least a relic from her decaying home.

  “The experimental Particle Bending reactor should be in this room”, thought the frantic young woman as she opened a door, “If I am right, should I invert its circuits, it can cause a small amount of matter to enter a spacetime rift and escape far away”.

  Alba entered the dark room and saw that the machine, like everything in the crumbling fortress, didn't have any more power. Then, she managed to take out a crystal from her space ring with a little of her remaining essence. Her time was running short — let alone flying or teleporting, she couldn’t even sustain her cloaking technique for much longer.

  “A Sun Crystal”, thought her while looking at the beautiful orange stone, “A common acolyte from the organization could not even dream to get their hands on this massive concentration of energy. Fortunately, it shall be enough to power this machine and save this last little piece of us”.

  The young woman held another object in her hand, one so small it seemed like a grain of rice. “I hope this gamble works out in the end”, anticipated her, “If I had presented this idea before the downfall, I would be locked in Blackfrost Prison for a whole year”, remembered the woman with a nostalgic and sad smile.

  The Mind-Bane parasite was one of the most terrifying plagues of this celestial sector and the surrounding ones. It was a small egg, that close to a suitable host, in stable conditions, hatched a creature similar to an insect. This one would then rapidly find its way to the host and manage to get to their brain. From then on, death was already certain. It would quickly connect with the host’s neurons and disintegrate. Then, the mind and the body would already be in control of the creature, becoming a forge for many new parasites. This infection could spread so quickly that it might bring down a small city in a week. Fortunately, due to the efforts of many organizations and kingdoms, this plague had been exterminated almost a millennium ago.

  But, as human nature is forever greedy, of course some groups would still have hid a few samples — Darkstone included.

  So it happened that the young mistress remembered this fact and made a final gamble to integrate the last remaining ACU to an egg of the parasite. For this, the device would have to be made much simpler, with almost no data stored. But it would have its basic abilities, and most importantly, the capacity to evolve. If everything worked out, the parasite would seamlessly integrate the auxiliary consciousness with the host’s, without any trace or need for surgical procedures. Thankfully, she had found and used a Weaving Construct a while before and the fusion was perfect.

  Alba quickly put the crystal in the machine to power it, corrected the circuits and inserted the egg in the small interior space. Then, she activated it. In less than a second, the parasite was already no longer there.

  At this moment, an Abomination blasted the door and looked at the woman. Before she could even mutter anything, it flickered and was already gripping her heart in its hands.

  “This is how it ends then… but my job is done, the egg has already entered a spatial rift”, the dying woman thought, “If it brings calamity or splendor, it is not my karma anymore, at least a small part of us will live”. And so, the evil creature exploded the whole room.

  Darkstone was no more.

  ~~~

  Profound Blue Universe, Algenis World, year 5791.

  In the country of Marelion, there existed a city called Eloria. It was not too big nor too small, just average. The place was divided into the inner city, with the rich and the powerful, and the outskirts, with the poor and common people. Beyond the outskirts, there was the vast and dangerous countryside, with scarce human life. But, there were still some small farms, very close to the city, where some people just tried their luck to make enough to barely live.

  Due to the proximity to the city and its powerful guardians, the most dangerous beasts were sensed and exterminated before they could become a problem. Despite this, as the powerful people didn’t consider them a threat, many smaller ones still attacked the population and sometimes killed two or three families from beyond the outskirts before being stopped.

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  At one of those small farms, left to him by his parents, lived the thirteen-year-old Loen Redwood, orphaned some time ago.

  Loen was a common child, quite frail and sickly ever since he was little, a testament to his harsh living conditions. He had a small and skinny build, and his fair skin was weathered enough from the sun to hint at his outdoor life. The boy’s hair was a messy mop of light brown. His hazel eyes, though, carried a spark of intelligence and defiance, somewhat out of place for people such as the peasants of the outskirts.

  Despite having already cried alone so many nights because of the death of his parents, the youngster still woke up early everyday and worked at the farm, taking care of all that was necessary with utmost caution. He raised some chickens and grew some vegetables that together were just sufficient for his survival.

  The Time Dragon Church was said to be an enormous organization with presence in many countries. In Eloria, too, there was a branch of the church. Once a year, they would select random citizens to receive a copy of an Essence Refinement manual. Doing so, they had a chance, albeit minimal, to discover some talents among the common people. Besides, it raised their already high prestige in the minds of the people, powerful or not.

  The truth, though, was that maybe less than one in ten thousand common people, if given this chance, would manage to start practicing it. To talk about some success in it, was even more impossible.

  It came to pass five months ago, when Loen was at a square of the outskirts:

  “You, boy, come here” pointed the church representative to him with a smirk, “rejoice, for the great Time Dragon will give you an opportunity to rise above the masses”.

  It’s true that at the moment many looked at this with greedy eyes, but even the most idiotic ones knew better than to take by force something given by the church. So the lad quickly took the book, said his thanks and went to keep it at home.

  At least, Loen was lucky that his mother had taught him how to read and write. So since then, he has been trying to understand the manual daily, practicing the exercises he understands.

  [… True Essence is the energy of the universe. It is present in everything: the air, the natural elements, the living beings… the objective of Essence Refinement is to store and use this energy to temper the body and the soul, making it increasingly powerful and capable of all kinds of feats…] read the youngster in the manual.

  Day after day he tried, without giving up. In the beginning, he couldn’t even sense this so-called essence in the surroundings, but with persistence, he eventually started perceiving it. A month ago, he felt a small improvement, increasing his stamina and strength for activities, but he never progressed beyond that. From what he can understand from the manual, he thinks he has barely entered the Novice Stage of the Physical Tempering realm.

  Today, Loen had to go to an outskirts market to buy some rice for the chickens and a new whetstone for his tools. So he woke up earlier than normal, checked everything in the farm, and went out.

  “Good morning, lad, still living alone at that house out there?” asked Rollo, the old merchant that the boy was used to visiting, “I’ve told you many times already and you don’t listen. Come live here in town and get a job out here in the markets. You won’t get much, but at least one doesn’t have to live in fear of a sudden beast attack”

  “I’m alright, uncle Rollo, thanks for your concern” laughed the boy, “if I feel that I can’t live there any longer, I’ll count on uncle to help me find a job here”

  “Fine, you blockhead. Maybe one day you’ll listen to what's better for you. Here is what you asked for: a sack of rice and a small whetstone” said the old man.

  Loen paid with some of the scarce money he had with him. He got it mainly by selling some excess vegetables over time. It was few, but he managed to live with it.

  Then, he went back home with the goods. It should be said that calling this a house was maybe far too stretched. It was basically a single big chamber with all the things together. He placed the goods in the humble corner where he stored everything: food, tools, blankets, and whatever little possessions he had left. Afterward, he sat down and ate the leftovers from lunch — barely enough to fill him up, but it was all he had. Once finished, he didn’t linger. There was no time to waste. He had training to do.

  He spent the next two hours practicing relentlessly. The book said it should be divided in both quiet meditation and hard physical training.

  His movements were sharp and focused, but after each session, he couldn’t shake the feeling of stagnation. “Again... I can’t seem to notice any improvement. But I won’t give up,” he thought to himself, determination burning in his chest. Despite the frustration, he pressed on, sweat dripping down his face, his muscles aching and his mind weary. But he continued—he had to continue. Eventually, exhaustion overtook him, and he finally allowed himself to rest, sinking into his makeshift bed.

  He fell asleep quickly, unaware that, for the briefest moment, fate had already begun to stir.

  What Loen couldn’t possibly have imagined was that, by the most infinitesimal of chances, one of the grains in the sack he had bought from the market would change his life forever.

  Who would have guessed that an ancient parasitic organism that thrived on human essence, grafted with a miraculous construct from Darkstone Kingdom, had drifted through the winds of time and space until it found itself resting in this remote, quiet place. The small, solitary room with just one sleeping occupant, and no one else close by, coupled with the faint stirrings of essence in the air, were all it needed to awaken.

  The creature, lying dormant in the egg, began to stir. A tiny, almost ethereal shrimp-like being, translucent and frail, broke free from its shell. It moved silently, guided by the faint signatures of life in the room. It flew in the air, its tiny limbs skittering along the space, heading straight for Loen.

  As it reached him, it found its way into his ear. It entered silently, slipping through the ear canal and making its way toward the brain.

  “Ouch, what was that? Did an insect bite me?” Loen awoke with a sharp, painful sting in his ear.

  He groggily touched the spot and noticed a small drop of blood staining the pillow. His vision blurred for a moment, and the discomfort made it hard for him to focus. He lit a candle and searched the bed, finding nothing. Afterwards, he tried to clean his ear, but the irritation was already fading, so he decided to lie back down. His body was heavy with fatigue, and sleep overtook him again.

  When he awoke a few hours later, the world seemed different — distant, almost unreal. His head throbbed painfully, and he felt feverish and unresponsive, as if his limbs were made of lead. Every movement was sluggish, a struggle. He blinked rapidly, trying to shake the fog in his mind, but it wouldn’t clear.

  “What… What’s happening? Am I sick?” Loen guessed, though his thoughts were clouded and slow. His body didn’t feel like his own anymore.

  “How ironic… Two years after losing my parents, barely surviving the plague, and now… the pestilence has come for me.” He reminisced with a mix of anger and resignation. “If only I had made it to the next stage of training, maybe I could have escaped all this.”

  But those ideas drifted away as quickly as they came. He was on fire with fever and his mind overwhelmed by the strange sensation of growing paralysis. He barely moved, lying in his bed, reflecting on the short life he had lived, and the endless disappointments that had followed him.

  And then, as he lay there in his suffering, he began to hear a faint buzzing sound — a low hum at first, just on the edge of his awareness. Slowly, that buzzing became clearer. It was no longer a random noise. It started to form words, strange and unsettling.

  [ Assimilation Complete... Host brain has fully integrated with the Auxiliar Consciousness Unit... System initializing. ]

  And so began a journey miraculously changed by fate.