Three days had passed since the awakening ceremony.
Shen Ye learned quickly what it meant to be Null. The job they assigned him was simple: waste processing on Level 39, eight hours a shift, sorting organic refuse from recyclable materials. The pay was twelve survival hours per day—enough to keep him alive, not enough to afford anything beyond the bare minimum.
The other workers avoided him. Not out of cruelty, but out of fear. A Null was considered bad luck, a reminder that the system could fail anyone. Some of the older workers crossed themselves when he walked by, a superstitious gesture left over from before the apocalypse.
He didn't mind the solitude. It gave him time to think.
Every night, back in his four-square-meter room, he would close his eyes and reach for that hidden pulse beneath his skin. The flicker of words would appear, always the same:
[Class: Vowkeeper]
[Status: Hidden]
[Bonded Souls: 0/3]
[Awakening incomplete. Conditions not met.]
Conditions. What conditions? The system gave him nothing—no explanation, no guidance, no hint of what he needed to do. It was as if the class itself was waiting for something. Or someone.
On the fourth night, something changed.
He was lying on his bunk, listening to the distant hum of the spire's life support systems, when a notification appeared unbidden:
[Alert: Calamity Breach in progress. Level 47. Threat rating: C.]
[All available combat personnel report to staging area. Non-combatants: shelter in place.]
Shen Ye sat up. Level 47 was eight levels above him. A C-rank breach meant a moderate incursion—dangerous, but not catastrophic. The Defense Corps would handle it.
But then his palm began to burn.
He looked down. The skin on his right palm was glowing—faint lines of pale gold tracing patterns he didn't recognize, like a map of veins beneath the skin. The glow pulsed in rhythm with something far away. Something on Level 47.
And in his vision, new words appeared:
[Bonded Soul detected within range.]
[Proximity: 8 levels above. Distance: 412 meters.]
[Condition 1 of 3: Locate a compatible soul.]
Shen Ye's breath caught.
He was out of bed before he finished reading, pulling on his worn jacket, shoving his feet into boots. The corridor outside was chaos—people running, shouting, parents herding children toward the lower levels. No one looked at him. No one noticed a Null heading in the wrong direction.
He took the maintenance shafts. The elevators would be crowded with evacuees, but the shafts—narrow, dark, used only by repair crews—were empty. He climbed, hand over hand, his palm burning brighter with each level he ascended.
Level 42. The glow intensified.
Level 44. He could hear the sounds of battle now—distant crashes, the sharp crack of abilities, the guttural roars of Calamity Beasts.
Level 46. The maintenance shaft ended. He pushed open an access hatch and stepped into a corridor that smelled of smoke and blood.
The breach was one level above. But here, on Level 46, the fighting had already spilled over. The corridor was wrecked—walls torn open, ceiling panels hanging loose, emergency lights flickering red. Bodies lay in the shadows. Not all of them were moving.
Shen Ye moved forward, stepping over debris, following the pull in his palm. The glow was so bright now it lit the corridor ahead of him, casting strange shadows on the walls.
He found her at the end of the corridor.
A girl—no, a young woman, maybe his age, maybe younger—pinned beneath a collapsed support beam. Her left leg was twisted at an unnatural angle, blood pooling beneath her. Her face was pale, slick with sweat, but her eyes were open and aware.
She was wearing the gray uniform of a sanitation worker. A Null. Like him.
And above her head, flickering like a dying bulb, were her system stats:
[Wei Mingxi]
[Class: Null]
[Status: Critical. Severe internal bleeding. Compound fracture, left femur. Estimated survival: 14 minutes.]
Her eyes found his. "Get back," she rasped. "It's still here."
He heard it then—a wet, clicking sound from the darkness beyond the collapsed beam. Something moved in the shadows. Something large.
Shen Ye's palm blazed.
The Calamity Beast emerged from the darkness, and Shen Ye saw it fully for the first time. It was the size of a small car, its body a mass of black chitin and pulsing red veins, its head a nightmare of too many eyes and too many teeth. A C-rank Skittering Devourer. Fast. Strong. Hungry.
It turned its many eyes toward Shen Ye and screeched.
The sound hit him like a physical force, slamming him back against the wall. His ears rang. Blood trickled from his nose. The beast charged—
And Shen Ye's body moved before his mind could catch up.
He didn't think. He stepped forward, right hand extended, palm blazing with that pale gold light. The light erupted from his hand in a torrent, not as an attack, but as something else. A command. A claim. A vow.
The light struck the Skittering Devourer mid-charge, and the beast stopped.
It didn't just stop moving. It stopped existing in the way a predator exists—its hunger, its fury, its killing intent, all of it frozen mid-motion. The beast hung in the air, suspended, its many eyes tracking Shen Ye with something that might have been fear.
And then Shen Ye's palm burned so bright it was blinding, and he felt something tear loose from inside him—some thread of his own life, his own essence—and wrap around the beast like a chain.
The beast screamed.
But the scream wasn't rage. It was pain. The light was eating into it, burning away the black chitin, searing the red veins, unraveling the thing at a molecular level. In three seconds, the Skittering Devourer was gone—reduced to ash that scattered in the corridor's draft.
Shen Ye collapsed to his knees.
His entire body was shaking. His right hand—the skin was cracked, bleeding, a web of fine lines spreading from his palm to his wrist. But even as he watched, the wounds began to close, leaving behind pale white scars that glowed faintly before fading to normal.
And a notification appeared:
[Vowkeeper ability activated: Life Anchor]
[Target: Calamity Beast (Skittering Devourer)]
[Effect: Life force exchanged. Calamity Beast neutralized.]
[Cost: 7 days of survival time. 1 permanent scar.]
[New scar recorded. Current count: 1]
[Effect: +3% damage resistance against Calamity Beasts.]
Shen Ye stared at the notification, then at his hand, then at the pile of ash that had been a C-rank beast.
Seven days of survival time. He had just burned a week of his life.
"Hey."
The voice was weak, barely a whisper. He turned.
Wei Mingxi was still pinned beneath the beam, but her eyes were fixed on him with an intensity that belied her condition. "That… that wasn't a Null ability."
"No," Shen Ye said. His voice came out hoarse. "It wasn't."
She watched him for a long moment, her breathing shallow, her face growing paler. Then she smiled—a small, crooked thing that didn't reach her eyes. "You're going to die if you don't get help. Both of us are."
Shen Ye looked at the beam. It was massive—three hundred kilos at least. No ordinary human could lift it. And his ability had cost him a week of life and left his hand a web of fresh scars.
But his palm was still glowing.
He reached out and placed his hand on the beam.
[Life Anchor can be applied to inanimate objects.]
[Cost: 1 day of survival time per 100 kg.]
[Warning: Applying Life Anchor to objects will create a permanent bond. The object will become an extension of the Vowkeeper's life force. Destruction of the object will result in severe damage to the Vowkeeper.]
Shen Ye didn't hesitate. He pushed.
The light surged, and the beam moved. Not lifting—flowing. It reshaped itself, the metal groaning as it bent away from Wei Mingxi's leg, curling back into the wall like a living thing. And in that moment, Shen Ye felt a new connection form—a thin thread linking him to the beam, to this corridor, to this place. If the beam was destroyed, he would feel it.
Wei Mingxi's leg was free. But the damage was done—the bone protruded through her skin, the blood still flowing, her pulse weakening by the second.
He knelt beside her. "I can try—"
"Don't." Her hand shot out, grabbing his wrist. Her grip was surprisingly strong. "You just burned seven days and change. How much do you have left?"
Shen Ye checked his system status for the first time since the ceremony.
[Shen Ye]
[Class: Vowkeeper (Hidden)]
[Current survival time: 1 year, 243 days, 4 hours]
[Note: Survival time decreases when abilities are used. Survival time can be replenished through standard spire employment, monster hunting, or…]
He didn't finish reading. A year and change. Not much, by spire standards. Most combat personnel had decades stored up. But it was something.
"I have enough," he said.
"You don't even know what you're doing." Her voice was weakening. "That ability—you're trading your life for whatever you use it on. If you try to heal me, you might…"
She trailed off, her eyes fluttering.
Shen Ye looked at her stats again:
[Estimated survival: 9 minutes]
He made a choice.
He placed his glowing palm on her chest, directly over her heart.
[Warning: Healing another living being with Life Anchor will create a permanent bond.]
[Bonded Soul: 1/3]
[Cost: 30 days of survival time per major injury. Current injuries: 2 major (internal bleeding, compound fracture). Estimated cost: 60 days.]
[Proceed?]
He pushed.
The light poured into her, and he felt it—his own life draining away, days bleeding out of him like water from a cracked vessel. His survival time counter ticked down: 1 year, 243 days… 1 year, 242 days… the numbers falling faster than he could track.
But Wei Mingxi's wounds began to close.
The bone in her leg slid back beneath the skin. The blood stopped flowing. The pallor faded from her face, replaced by the flush of returning circulation. Her breathing steadied. Her pulse strengthened.
And in his vision, new words appeared:
[Bonded Soul established: Wei Mingxi]
[Bond type: Life Anchor]
[Effects shared: Wei Mingxi gains access to Vowkeeper damage resistance. Shen Ye can sense Wei Mingxi's location and status at all times.]
[Warning: If Shen Ye dies, bonded souls will lose all shared benefits. If a bonded soul dies, Shen Ye will suffer permanent soul damage.]
The light faded. Shen Ye's palm stopped glowing. He looked at his hand—more scars now, crisscrossing his palm and fingers like the lines on a map.
[Current scar count: 3]
[Effects: +9% damage resistance against Calamity Beasts. Bonded souls receive +3% damage resistance.]
Wei Mingxi sat up slowly, touching her leg, her chest, her face. She looked at Shen Ye with an expression he couldn't read.
"You idiot," she said softly. "Sixty days. That's two months of your life."
"They were your life," Shen Ye said. "Seemed like a fair trade."
She stared at him for a long moment. Then she laughed—a real laugh, raw and surprised and somehow bright in the darkness of the ruined corridor.
"You're insane," she said. "You're absolutely insane."
"So I've been told."
The emergency alarms suddenly changed pitch—a long, steady tone that meant the breach was contained. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of Defense Corps units moving in, securing the area, checking for survivors.
Shen Ye stood, swaying slightly. The cost of healing her had been heavier than he expected. His survival time had dropped to 1 year, 183 days. Still enough to live, but the loss was noticeable—a hollow feeling in his chest, like something essential had been scooped out.
He offered Wei Mingxi his hand. She took it, and he pulled her to her feet. She tested her leg, her eyes widening when it held without pain.
"You really did heal me," she murmured. "A Null healed me."
"We're not Null," Shen Ye said quietly. "Not anymore."
He looked down at his scarred palm, then at the bond that now linked him to this stranger. A thread of light, invisible to anyone but him, stretched from his chest to hers—thin, fragile, but real.
*Bonded Souls: 1/3.*
He had found the first.