Kade didn't remember standing up.
One moment he was on his knees in the crater, lungs burning, ears ringing—
the next, the world felt closer, tighter, like it was leaning into him.
The man with the glowing red eyes hovered several meters above the cracked ground, arms folded casually, as if gravity were optional.
"Relax," the stranger said, voice smooth and amused. "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be scattered across this pit."
Commander Nyx stepped forward sharply. "Raze. You're not supposed to be here."
The man—Raze—tilted his head. "And yet, here I am. Funny how the Web works."
Kade swallowed. Every nerve in his body was screaming. Not fear—something else. A tension, like invisible threads pulling at his muscles, begging to be used.
Nyx didn't take her eyes off Raze. "Soldiers, form a perimeter. No one engages unless I give the order."
They obeyed instantly.
Raze's gaze slid back to Kade. "You feel it, don't you? The pull. The pressure behind your ribs."
Kade clenched his teeth. "I feel like you're talking too much."
Raze laughed. "Oh, I like him."
Without warning, Raze vanished.
The air snapped.
Kade barely had time to react before a fist slammed into his stomach.
The impact lifted him off the ground.
Pain exploded through his core, but his body didn't fold the way it should have. Instead, something caught the blow—threads of energy snapping tight inside him, dispersing the force.
Kade skidded across the crater floor, coughing, boots carving trenches in the glassed earth.
Nyx shouted, "RAZE!"
"Testing him," Raze replied, already back in the air. "You don't mind, do you?"
Kade pushed himself upright, shaking. His vision swam—but he was still standing.
That… wasn't normal.
Raze's smile widened. "See? He didn't break."
Kade wiped blood from his lip. His heart pounded—not with panic, but with heat. The pressure inside him was building fast now, coiling tighter with every breath.
"Stop looking at me like that," Kade snapped. "What did that ball do to me?"
Nyx finally turned to him. "It bonded with you."
Kade shot her a look. "That's not an answer."
"The Spiderball is a relic," she said evenly. "A catalyst. It awakens something already present in the human body—latent energy that most people never access."
Raze snorted. "She's underselling it."
Nyx ignored him. "The process is called Binding. Very few survive it."
Kade stared at his hands. They looked normal—human. But when he clenched his fists, faint crimson lines flickered beneath his skin, vanishing as quickly as they appeared.
"How many?" he asked quietly.
Nyx hesitated. "How many what?"
"How many don't survive?"
Raze answered for her. "Most."
Silence settled heavy over the crater.
Kade exhaled slowly.
"Okay," he said. "Then why am I still alive?"
Raze's eyes gleamed. "That's the interesting part."
Before anyone could react, Raze dropped straight down—landing inches in front of Kade, the impact cracking the ground again. His presence was suffocating now, pressure rolling off him like heat from a furnace.
"Hit me," Raze said.
Kade blinked. "What?"
"You heard me," Raze replied, spreading his arms. "Let's see how strong the Web made you."
Nyx barked, "Stand down, Raze!"
Raze didn't even look at her. "If he can't throw a punch, he's dead anyway."
Kade's jaw tightened.
Every rational thought told him this was a bad idea. But the pressure inside him surged, responding to Raze's challenge like a provocation.
His body wanted to move.
Kade stepped forward.
Nyx's eyes widened. "Kade, don't—"
Too late.
Kade threw a punch.
The moment his fist moved, the world slowed.
Energy surged from his core, racing down his arm in snapping, thread-like currents. The air warped around his knuckles as he connected.
The shockwave ripped outward.
Raze slid back several meters, boots gouging deep lines into the crater floor.
Then he stopped.
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
Raze looked down at his chest. A faint bruise bloomed where Kade's fist had landed.
Slowly, impossibly, he smiled.
"…You felt that, didn't you?" Kade asked, breath ragged.
Raze laughed—loud, unrestrained. "Oh, this is excellent."
Nyx's expression hardened. "Enough. This ends now."
She raised her hand again—but before she could give the order, the ground trembled violently.
A deep, resonant hum rolled through the air.
Kade staggered as the pressure inside him spiked—sharper this time, painful.
"What's happening?" he gasped.
Nyx's eyes snapped toward the sky.
"No," she whispered. "It's too soon."
Above them, the clouds twisted again—but this time, not one crack formed.
Three did.
Raze looked up, grin fading into something darker. "Well," he said, "looks like the Web's calling in company."
From the裂 in the sky, shadows began to descend—human silhouettes wrapped in violent, unstable energy.
Kade's chest burned as the crimson lines flared across his arms.
Something inside him pulled tight.
And then—
One of the figures looked directly at him and smiled.