Jack shot up throwing the thin covers to the ground. His breathing came in ragged gasps and his flesh was covered with sweat. He quickly glanced around the dimly lit room for threats as sound washed over him. A train pulled into the nearby station, people talked in the street in front of the shop, Eidbots passing overhead spewed Eidos Corp. advertisements, and someone choked on their own blood in the alley below his bedroom window.

Taking a deep breath, Jack pushed away the extraneous noise until he could only hear the sound of Alindal tinkering in the workshop on the first floor. He ran a hand through his sweat-dampened hair as he sat up swinging his feet off the bed and onto the floor. Out of habit, his left hand reached out toward the nightstand by his bed and grasped a glass bottle by the neck. Sadly, only dry glass tinged with the faint echo of alcohol greeted his lips when he brought the bottle up to drink.

“Figures,” he said under his breath. Jack let the bottle slide from his hands and clatter to the stone floor. It didn’t break which annoyed him because if it broke, he could be angry about it. Since it didn’t, he just got to his feet and made his way over to the sink and mirror opposite his bed.

Unlike a normal living space, his room lacked much decoration or furniture, featuring only his bed, a table and chair, and the old sink mounted on the wall with the mirror overtop it. The sound of running water filled his ears as he activated the sigil on the faucet releasing a stream of cold water. Unceremoniously, he ducked his head under the stream and let the shock of the chilling water wash through his murky thoughts. He stayed there for a few moments contemplating the dream that had roused him from his slumber.

That damn dream again, he thought. He hated it because it was more than a dream and he knew it. It was a memory. A memory of right before he woke up in this hell. That had been almost five years ago. He’d woken up in a world that was alien to him with memories he couldn’t explain and no recollection of who he was other than a name. “Jack” had been what the World Keeper had called him. The image of the vague silhouette flashed hung loosely in his thoughts. How many times had he cursed the World Keeper since waking up in Fracture? He’d lost count. He just wanted to forget. Not just the dream, but everything that had happened in the last five years. Fracture held nothing but suffering, hopelessness, and death for those trapped in it. Yet no matter what he did, the dream always came back along with the nagging feeling of urgency as though there was something he had to do.

He sighed and raised his head to look himself in the mirror. Dark bags rested under his eyes while his silver hair hung like a mop over his head and shoulders. When added to the greyish pallor of his skin, He looked about as good as he felt. Inadvertently, his eyes were drawn to his chest. In its center embedded between both pectoral muscles, a power core emitted soft blue light. It was surrounded by a bluish amalgamation of flesh and metal that melded perfectly with the skin around it. The metallic flesh didn’t stop there though. It spread from the core to the left side of his body encompassing his entire left arm and leg as well as part of his back and neck.

It hadn’t always been like this. When he’d first arrived in Fracture, the strange core had simply been fused into the center of his chest resting overtop his heart. However, after his first few weeks in Fracture, the metallic casing of the core had begun to spread along the left side of his body. At first, he’d been too preoccupied with surviving to notice the slow progression of the metallic flesh. That changed when it covered the entirety of his heart. The transformation affected far more than his skin. The core was slowly changing him on the inside and out. Once the core had overtaken his heart, he’d experienced increased stamina and his wounds had begun healing slightly faster than normal. Those weren’t the changes that caught his attention though. It had been the change in his blood color from red to blue that clued him in on what was going on even amidst the chaos of his first few weeks. As the alteration of his flesh continued, so did the changes to his body. Increased strength, durability, and stamina were the only things he gained. Each advantage came with a drawback that made his life harder in one way or another.

The increased strength applied mostly to his left side which made his coordination clumsy on the good days and disastrous on the bad. On the same token, his increased durability only applied to his left side and came at the cost of his sense of touch. His entire left side felt like it was constantly numb though on most days he could still feel enough to get by. Then, there was his changed heart. Despite granting increased stamina and recovery, the drawback for it was, by far, the worst. Whenever his heart rate rose to seventy beats per minute or higher, his veins began to dark to almost black. He would then experience dizziness, cold sweats, and muscle spasms throughout his body. If he didn’t lower his heart rate, the pain would start. The first time he experienced the pain, it had been unlike anything he could’ve ever imagined and every consecutive time had been just as bad as the first. The closest thing he could liken it to was having one’s veins filled with acid instead of blood. The comparison wasn’t too far from the truth either, or so he suspected. He’d once been injured while experiencing that pain and his blood had hissed when it made contact with the ground.

Jack ran a hand through his wet hair until he reached the base of his skull. There, his fingers brushed against the smooth surface of newly formed metal. He couldn’t tell if it was his imagination or not, but the metallic flesh seemed to have progressed farther up since he checked it yesterday. Below him, he heard Alindal finish his tinkering and move into the kitchen, most likely to make tea. He even heard the pilot ignite under the kettle as his friend activated the ignition sigil on the stove. This was the newest change to his body after the metallic flesh had reached the base of his skull a month ago. His hearing had become unnaturally pervasive which allowed him to hear everything within several hundred feet— even through stone and metal walls. Unfortunately, the sensory overload fried his senses and gave him an instant migraine. The last few weeks had been hell as he’d learned to tune out the extraneous noise so he could function. He turned to the table by the window and let his arm fall to his side. There was no use dwelling on it since nothing he did stopped the metallic flesh’s advance over his body. If he ended up dead because of it, he wouldn’t have to live on Fracture anymore at least.

The hazy light from the window spilled over his gear as he grabbed his undershirt from the table. The shirt was still damp from when he’d washed it the previous day. He thumbed the dark bloodstain that had failed to wash out before pulling the shirt over his head. Next, he slipped on his pants and boots paying no mind to their rough appearance. Then, donned his tactical vest with practiced efficiency; meticulously checking each of the protective plates and securing the hooks and straps. With that, he grabbed his worn blue trench coat from the table and made his way downstairs to the shop proper.

***

“Va’fael da lan, my friend,” Alindal said in greeting as Jack lumbered into the workshop. The elf was sitting at the largest workbench which had been cleared off to make room for a tea set. Alindal had his silver hair pulled into a loose ponytail and the sleeves of his indigo robes were rolled up to his elbows. The telltale smudges of eidust covered his forearms and apron, but his hands were clean. He sipped tea from a chipped mug whose twin sat on the table releasing a lazy plume of steam. Alindal gestured to the unattended mug and added, “That’s your cup though I’m afraid we didn’t have any sugar so you’ll have to make do with just the brew.”

Jack grunted in acknowledgment. He walked over to the table and snatched up the mug without a word, downing its contents in one go. It tasted awful but he was parched so he drank it anyway.

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“Thanks,” he said to his friend who was eying him. Alindal looked like he was about to comment, so Jack preempted the remark by saying, “I’m fine. My hearing is fine. No, I don’t want to join you in meditation.”

Alindal’s piercing silver eyes studied Jack as he took another sip of tea. In the bright white light of the workshop, Alindal’s pale skin and silver hair contrasted with his own. Where Jack appeared dusky and worn, the elf was practically lustrous despite the fact that they both had pale skin and silver hair. It always annoyed him when he was in a bad mood but he couldn’t be mad at his long-time friend. After all, Alindal was a star elf, so there was nothing he could do about his looks.

For his part, the tea-sipping elf had adopted a pensive expression and asked, “You had that dream again, didn’t you?”

Damn elven intuition, Jack thought before quickly dismissing the matter. “Yeah, but it’s nothing we need to talk about.” He glanced around the shop and noticed a black gauntlet resting within a sigil circle on one of the smaller workbenches. The sigils projected translucent crackling energy that suspended the gauntlet a few inches above the table’s surface. Not wanting to speak anymore on his dream, he pointed at the sigil circle and changed the subject. “Is that a charging array?”

Alindal smiled and nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, I’ve been playing with the sigil configuration on the standard charging array to increase the speed and potency of the charge.”

Jack walked over to the gauntlet. The array was stable as far as he could tell though, the configuration seemed unorthodox. He reached his metallic hand into the array and grabbed the gauntlet ignoring the tingling sensation that shot up his arm. The array went dark as the gauntlet left its confines. Without any ceremony, he slipped it onto his normal arm. A quick glance at sigils lining the side of the gauntlet told Jack that it had been fully charged. The black metal was still hot from charging but that didn’t bother him overmuch. Once the gauntlet was secured, a familiar sensation slipped through his mind followed by a message that appeared at the corner of his vision.

[You have equipped the Shadowtitan’s Fist!]

Relic Grade: D

+5 Might

+3 Dexterity

[This item has a Skill! Would you like to view this Relic’s Skill?]

Jack denied the prompt since he already knew what the gauntlet’s Skill did and opened his Status. The information flooded his vision which was mildly disorienting but Jack was used to it and quickly recovered.

Name: Jack

Designation: None

Ethos: 200

[Attributes]

[Attribute]

Might

19 (24)

Stamina

20

Dexterity

5 (8)

Agility

8

Intellect

16

Willpower

12

Focus

8

Resonance

-

[Abilities]

View Skills? (You currently have 0 Skills)

View Traits?

View Relic Skills?

A knot in his stomach untied itself when he saw that none of his attributes had gone down. The progression of the metallic flesh from the power core in his chest sometimes reduced his physical attributes like how his Dexterity and Agility had tanked once his arm and leg had been overtaken. A combination of practice and the bonus provided by the Shadowtitan’s Fist allowed him to function with near average speed and coordination. Ever since the metallic flesh had arrived at the base of his skull, Jack had been secretly worried that his mental attributes would be changed for the worse. While the transformation had boosted his Might and Stamina to almost double the average, he had no idea how it would change his mind.

Instead of confronting the issue, he chose to go through a few stretches to test his maneuverability. The motions were awkward but he managed to get through most of them.

While he stretched and twisted his body, he tried to brood by putting his uncertain future out of his mind; however, his thoughts simply moved to a different matter. The sight of his Status always came with a painful reminder of his misfortune. Jack had no designation.

Designations were everything in Fracture. They provided attribute bonuses, skills, and special objectives to those who had them and, as far as Jack knew, he was the only individual in Fracture who didn’t have one. His lack of designation had been the start of his suffering in Fracture. Without a designation, he couldn’t increase his attributes or gain any skills. The strange progression of his power core and Alindal were the only reasons he had survived thus far.

Unlike Jack, Alindal had a designation and a powerful one at that. He was a Sorcerer, a mage class designation that specialized in offensive and rapid casting. His offensive capabilities weren’t what made him truly indispensable to Jack though. As a mage, Alindal had a mana pool which meant that he could imbue and craft eidust into sigils. By putting their heads together, they had managed to settle down and eke out some semblance of stability a few years ago which had allowed Jack to start his current occupation.

“Your movements are getting better,” Alindal commented. The elf had finished his tea and was watching Jack go through the motions. It wasn’t true, but Jack appreciated the sentiment.

“Thanks,” he replied before making his way over teapot sitting on the table. He poured himself another mug of the disgusting brew and downed it just as quickly. He looked at the large grandfather clock nestled in the corner of the workshop. He still had more than an hour before they needed to leave for Jack’s latest job. Normally, he left Alindal at the shop when he worked but the elf had asked to come along. He turned to Alindal. “Did you finish that project you were working on?”

His friend perked up and hustled over to the wire rack next to the kitchen. From its middle shelf, he pulled a metal rod measuring about twenty inches and waved Jack over. Curious how Alindal’s pet project had turned out, Jack complied.

“Behold!” he said excitedly as he pressed a button on the grip on the rod. The top portion of the rod emitted a staccato of mechanical clicks as its surface began to shift to reveal a clear opaque crystal.

“An eidos stone?” Jack asked raising an eyebrow. Eidos stones were an essential part of life in Fracture. Eidos, the strange material that comprised the stones, was a physical manifestation of the Logos, the mysterious power behind the Statuses, designations, and almost everything strange in Fracture. Individuals with designations could absorb eidos stones which allowed them to increase their power. They could also be ground into eidust which had a variety of uses from sigilcrafting to industrial manufacturing and energy production. The only way to get eidos stones was to scour the Broken Lands for an eidos deposit or by killing the creatures that spawned in and around Remnant Gates. Altogether, even the lowest quality eidos stone went for a decent chunk of credits. He was curious about what his friend had cooked up.

“I’m using it as a focusing crystal for the array. Look,” he said before offering the rod to him. After taking a closer look, Jack whistled in admiration. Above the grip at about halfway up, intricate sigils had been engraved into the metal. The sigils were carved in an intricate pattern that spiraled up the rod until it ended in four separate lines that connected to the eidos stone at the top. Based on his knowledge of sigils, the rod was meant to act as some sort of casting apparatus that modified the user’s skills if they threaded mana through the sigils. That being said, he couldn’t discern exactly what effect the rod would have unless he took some time to study the sigil configuration of the array. He handed the rod back to Alindal.

“No wonder that took you so long to finish,” he said. The elf smile in response. He had been working on that rod for the past two months. Despite his destructive capabilities, Alindal preferred creating and fixing things as opposed to breaking them. He patted his friend on the shoulder and directed him back to the workshop to have a seat. “We still have some time before we have to leave so why don’t you tell me what that thing does so there aren’t any surprises on the job.”

“Of course, I’d be happy to explain it. We can also finish the tea while I do so,” he said, smiling brightly. Jack suppressed the urge to scowl and prepared himself for another mug of disgusting tea.