White.
Not light—white.
A devouring, clinical absence of space and shape. Sykaion's senses were peeled open. His ears rang with subharmonics, like a million gears turning inside a vault behind his brain. Time fractured. His breath stuttered in his lungs like a failing algorithm.
> [System Shock: Initiated]
Neural Threads Disrupted
Attempting Conscious Stabilization…
He gasped, clawing at the air. There was no floor beneath him. No walls. Just a void of shifting financial constructs: interest chains writhing like serpents, transaction sigils glimmering across a sky that wasn't real.
And there, hovering above him like a deity etched in audit code, was the Revenant.
The ChronoBank Revenant.
His suit shimmered with moving decimal points, his face a smooth sheet of mirrored gold. Behind him, a crown of numbers spiraled like a halo: rates, losses, dates of default. Some of them… were Sykaion's.
"You carry what was forgotten," the Revenant intoned, voice shaped from a thousand whispered IOUs. "You wield capital that does not belong to this present."
"I didn't choose it!" Sykaion shouted. "I didn't even know what the Coin was!"
The Revenant didn't blink. Couldn't.
"No choice. No permission. Debt remains."
Suddenly, chains of glowing credit scores lashed outward, streaking through the air. Sykaion twisted, dodging the first—barely. It sliced through where his neck had been, leaving a trail of flickering error symbols.
He ran—or tried to. But every step forward folded space sideways. He collapsed back onto the same point.
> [Spatial Loop Detected]
Location: Audit Cell ∅
Escape Chance: 0.9%
Solution: Wealth Invocation - Emergency Tier Only
Activation Word: "Inherit"
His heart thundered.
Do it or die.
"Inherit!"
The Phantom Feather on his chest ignited, searing through his ribcage like molten gold.
The space shattered.
A beam of iridescent light erupted from his sternum. It struck the Revenant mid-sentence, interrupting the next incantation of penalty clauses. He staggered backward for the first time, his faceplate fracturing with a thundercrack.
> [Asset Unsealed: Inherited Instrument – Fledgling Bondshard]
Function: Redirect Debt | Break Contract Chains | Issue Counter-Invoice
Charges: 1 (Expendable)
A weapon materialized in Sykaion's hand. Not a sword. Not a gun.
A ledger spike—a stylus forged from pure liquidity, humming with frozen debt.
He lunged. The Revenant raised his arm to counter, but Sykaion spun low and jammed the spike directly through the mirror-mask.
There was no scream. Only a static howl.
The world collapsed again.
---
He hit real ground with a jolt—hard, cold tile under his back.
The penthouse was gone.
He was on the floor of a metro station, empty and flickering with yellowed fluorescent light. Graffiti scrawled across ticket booths. Dead screens blinked code like broken prayers.
The spike was gone. The Coin was still embedded in his hand. And the Phantom Feather glowed dim, as if smoldering.
> [Emergency Ejection Successful]
Temporal Hostile Repelled (Not Destroyed)
Debt Chain Fragment Acquired: Year 2114 → Unpaid Time Dividend
Sykaion sat up, shaking.
That wasn't a hallucination. That wasn't just some virtual danger.
Something—or someone—had noticed his activation of the Wealth System.
And they'd tried to erase him for it.
A hissing sound made him whirl around.
A girl stepped out from behind a rusted maintenance pillar.
She looked young—fifteen maybe—but her eyes were old. Ice blue. One hand held a broken umbrella. The other held a gleaming coin identical to his own.
"You survived your first audit," she said calmly.
Sykaion stared.
"Who—"
She bowed her head slightly.
"Arlyss Veil. Tier-3 Featherholder. Debt Indexor. You weren't supposed to get a Coin."
"I've been hearing that a lot."
She tossed him something. He caught it—a silver paper token shaped like a credit slip.
"Spend that. Right now."
He hesitated.
> [Spend Token Detected]
Function: Summon Safehouse (Urban Tier I)
Cost: 1 Fate Credit
Fate Credit Pool: 0 (Override Permission Active)
He whispered, "Spend."
The token burned. Space tore sideways.
And the world vanished again—replaced by polished glass, warm lighting, shelves stacked with rare tomes and glowing scrolls.
Sykaion stood in the center of a personal vault-library, impossibly vast.
> [Welcome to System Refuge: Vault 01 // Kairo]
Status: Temporary Refuge
Duration: 48 hours
Upkeep: Requires Wealthflow
Arlyss stepped through the rift behind him, hands in her coat pockets.
"You're in," she said softly.
"In what?"
She turned, eyes glinting.
"In the economy of gods."