Chapter 2 — Ash to Salt
The throne still echoed.
Long after Kael Sorrén had risen from its jagged seat, ash clung to his skin like memory. Behind him, the battlefield smoldered—a graveyard of hybrids, steel, and men. The air smelled of burnt marrow and broken futures.
He did not look back.
Vyrmclaw limped beside him, still recovering. The hybrid's sides heaved with shallow breaths, its scales marred by blackened gashes and half-healed wounds. They had not spoken since dawn. Neither needed to. The bond ran deeper now.
Kael walked.
Southward, toward the ghost-ridden coast. Toward a place once called Saltspire.
Saltspire.
What remained of a drowned coastal city, now little more than a network of scavenger ports and merc-posts built atop rusting flood barriers and collapsed arcologies. If the Ash Throne marked the end of Kael's last war, Saltspire was the gateway to the next one.
It lay weeks away by land. Kael aimed to reach it in days.
The map in his Codex flickered every hour, showing static-riddled terrain scans. The path was choked with hazards—fractured roads, scorched plains, and regions where hybrid rot had overtaken forests. He avoided the worst of it. Most of the time.
By the second night, Kael's leg wound reopened. Blood soaked through the wrap he'd tied earlier. Vyrmclaw whimpered, still dragging one forelimb.
"You still with me?" Kael whispered.
The hybrid didn't respond. Just nudged closer, protective despite the pain.
They camped beneath the shattered overhang of an old expressway pylon. Cold winds howled through concrete bones. Kael sat cross-legged, pulling up a flickering Codex scan of nearby movement. Nothing for now.
He stared into the night. The weight of the throne still clung to him.
Not the power. The burden.
He woke to screams.
The Bonecriers came at dawn.
They struck fast—a hit-squad of cyber-hybrids rigged with Codex suppressors. Kael rolled from sleep just as a blast scorched the concrete beside him. Vyrmclaw roared, slamming one attacker into a support pillar with enough force to break stone.
Kael moved like instinct.
Steel out. Codex humming. No hesitation.
The first Bonecrier lunged. Kael ducked, drove his blade through his gut, twisted. Another came from behind. Vyrmclaw took him down.
He dropped two more before the last circled him—a woman with metal grafts along her jaw and a cracked visor blinking red.
"You... You're one of them," she gasped, bleeding from the side.
Kael leveled his sword. "One of what?"
She grinned through blood. "The marked. The ones they'll hunt."
She dropped dead.
Their camp was nothing but scorched earth and scattered supplies. But beneath it Kael found a sealed hatch—their hideout.
He descended slowly.
Inside was a makeshift bunker: shelves of hybrid fangs, injector kits, stolen Codex gear. Dead consoles blinked blue. A corner contained rare relics wrapped in lead foil. He looted only what mattered: medical stims, clean water, tactical pods, and a black cube the size of his palm.
When he touched it, the Codex shivered.
[Codex Notification: Data Signature Detected. Category: Currency Access Node. Status: Active.]
Blue glyphs unfolded before his eyes.
[Codex Lorefile Accessed: GENMARK (GMK)]
Currency Name: Genetic Market Credit (GENMARK)
Symbol: ⧻
Slang: marks, gene-chips, black tokens
Controlled by: The Central Hybrid Consortium
Function:
Fully integrated into Codex systems
Bio-verification required for all transactions
Used in mission payouts, hybrid trades, gear markets, and genetic auctions
Notes:
GMK balances determine access to high-tier missions and resurrection privileges
Black Tokens are untraceable GMK variants used in rogue markets
Fractured Hosts often trade bio-fragments for GMK to stay alive
Kael stared at the cube.
So this is how the new world ran. Not on loyalty. Not on force.
On blood. And marks.
He pocketed the cube. Vyrmclaw sniffed the air, tense.
Outside, the wind had shifted.
Kael looked to the east.
Far on the horizon, where sea met broken earth, lights flickered. Towers. Smoke. The jagged silhouette of Saltspire.
His Codex pinged. A faint transmission signal bled into his vision—too corrupted to decode.
But one phrase repeated:
"Ash-Crowned King... approaching... auction begins soon."
Kael frowned.
He had never announced his title. But someone was watching.
As he stepped out of the hideout and the cold wind hit his face, Vyrmclaw growled low.
Saltspire was close.
And someone already wanted him dead.
To be continued...
CODEX FILE UPDATES
[Codex Entry: XENOVORAX]
Classification: Hybrid Entity
Designation: Class Omega
Genetic Lineage: Spinosaurus aegyptiacus × Mosasaurus hoffmanni × Unknown Origin (Black Cell Fragmentation)
Role: Symbiotic Parasite-Host Entity
Status: Semi-Dormant | Echo-Bonded with Host: Kael Sorrén
Profile:
A sentient hybrid with partial control over Codex energy streams. XENOVORAX is not a weapon—it is a will. Forged in vats not listed on any official registry, it predates most GenSys hybrid sequences. The fusion with Kael was unintended, irreversible, and potentially catastrophic. Intelligence: High. Loyalty: Unstable. Evolutionary Path: Incomplete.
Abilities:
Partial Codex Override
Mutation Acceleration
Biomechanical Regeneration
Shared Consciousness (Limited)
"It speaks in hunger. It dreams in teeth. And it waits." — Classified Codex Memo
[Codex Entry: JIRUUN]
Classification: Warden Entity
Designation: Prime Warden | Alpha-Protocol Unit #7
Genetic Lineage: Spinosaurus aegyptiacus × Mosasaurus maximus × Abyssal Deep Gene Markers
Role: Global Codex Anchor | Ancient Sentinel
Status: Dormant (Suspected Reactivation Imminent)
Profile:
One of the original Wardens created during the Pre-Fall Epoch, JIRUUN slumbers beneath the remnants of the Equatorial Rift. Unlike other hybrids, it operates independently of most Codex chains. Its awakening coincides with the rise of a new Ash-Crowned King. JIRUUN is bound to no throne, yet obeys a code older than the Codex itself.
Abilities:
Tectonic Displacement
Aquatic Domination
Rift Pulse Manipulation
Anti-Codex Nullification Field
"If the world had guardians, JIRUUN was the first. And perhaps the last." — Fragmented Oracle, Host X03