"Light was born a boy this dawn."
That's how the chapter opens—no preamble, no logic. A single sentence torn from the storm's throat.
And then: the fist-sized spark tore itself loose from the Forge's vent, hissing like a birth-cry in reverse.
---
Porcelain fog veiled the Forge at dawn, like breath trapped in bone.
Click—click.
The mist shifted. Faint cracking echoed from the crystal rims—heartbeat, but not his.
The hero scanned the system's diagnostic.
Residual Spark: 0.72 % … 4.3 % … 11.0 %
The ozone hit his throat.
Like glass drawn across a lung.
You smell it. You feel it. Even your teeth know.
Then the silence cracked.
---
It wasn't born—it spilled.
A small child made of threads of neon. No eyes. No face. Just fingers of crackling blue reaching toward the earth.
The Life-Sense hissed:
Lightning-Sprite • Age: 17 sec • Hunger: Light-Memories
Where its feet touched the ground, the stone fused into molten glass.
---
The Sprite darted. Sparks trailed like laughter scraped over metal.
Through Forge vents, behind heat coils, along the walls—click. buzz. zing.
He launched into Pulse-Dash.
Each motion slashed through him like skating on his own nerves.
-8 QP
-8 QP
-8 QP
His heart wasn't pumping—it was pinging.
---
A flick of Soul-Seed, silver strand, butterfly lure.
The Sprite stilled—touched the thread.
FLASH:
A stone amphitheater. Lightning dances across forgotten statues.
Then—
> The explosion.
---
The Sprite split.
Three arcs of plasma uncoiled like shattered wings.
One bolt struck the wall—
*krckkkk-
Crack Detected: Core Panel 3
Chaos Impurity: ↑ 6 %
The wall pulsed hot; the system rerouted thermal overflow. But the chaos climbed. Slowly.
---
With Echo-Crystal map in hand, he sketched six loops of cold mist.
Mist + ozone = ionized nectar.
The bolts hovered. Humming.
He pulled the vapor strings, tightened them—trapped them in a fog-orb, anchored it atop the Forge.
Lightning-Sprite Contained
Offer: 150 QP/day
Cost: 1 Memory-Crystal/day
A trade. Not a prison.
---
One Sprite leaned forward—its core pulsed.
FLASH:
A woman's hand pulling his wrist through a thunderstorm. The scent of wet soil. A voice—his mother?
A single drop formed.
Not water.
Mist. From his eye.
---
Blood Pulse: Early II
Perk Unlocked → Auto-Regen +10 %
Chaos Impurity: Stable at ≤ 3 %
The system warned:
> "Unlinked sprites pose volatility risk."
He rose. Walked to the Forge's roof. Held the fog-orb high.
One thread of lightning leapt—connected Sprite to cloud.
The first bridled storm-line.
> "For once, lightning wasn't death shouting from above. It was an infant's breath, learning to live inside me."
---