Zeon Dusk hadn't been noticed in three years.
Not by accident. Not by choice. Just… statistically.
He worked in Distribution Zone Twelve, where the ration crates were heavier than the laws and the guards had itchy trigger fingers and more steroids than empathy. A place where dreams were a luxury and names were unnecessary. Everyone had an ID chip. That was enough.
The scanners barely blinked when Zeon passed.
Sometimes, he wondered if the system forgot to log him at all. Sometimes, he hoped it did.
He wore the standard piss-yellow jumpsuit like everyone else. His was a bit baggier, a bit more stained. Not by much. Just enough to remind everyone he wasn't worth shoving in line for. His boots didn't match, but no one looked down long enough to notice. Or care.
But all of that was about to change.
Because today, Zeon Dusk was done surviving.
Today, he was giving up.
The Bonded Ascension Program had a slot open. Tier 5 High Anchor of Zone Twelve, known only as Aurelion, was seeking a new Bondmate; preferably compliant, biologically compatible, and broken just enough to be grateful.
Zeon fit the profile.
The application form had asked a hundred invasive questions:
Do you consent to soul-link integration?
Are you willing to forgo personal ambition in service of a Higher Tier?
Would you offer your Desire without reservation?
He answered yes to all of them. Not because he wanted to.
But because wanting had never gotten him anywhere.
The payout?
Lifetime luxury. Warm beds. Immunity tags. Credits for days. No more Distribution Zone. No more scraping for relevance.
All he had to do was show up to the Ascension Center and hope someone important liked the smell of his desperation.
Funny. Zeon always thought selling your soul would feel more dramatic.
The screen embedded in the checkpoint wall sputtered to life as he passed.
A woman's voice sweetened with synth-resonance and warped just enough to unsettle spilled from the static.
> "Bond with Power. Live with Purpose."
Zeon slowed. He'd seen the ads before. Everyone had. But it still made his gut twist.
> "Welcome to the Bonded Ascension Program; your chance to rewrite your destiny."
"As a Pledge, you'll receive guaranteed Tier Protection, biotech optimization, and the eternal privilege of serving beside a High Anchor."
The voice paused, just long enough to feel rehearsed.
> "Why survive, when you can serve?"
A flickering image of Tier 5 Aurelion hovered above the words, a six-winged silhouette, faceless under a porcelain helm, draped in flowing gold.
Zeon exhaled through his nose.
They called it "Bonding." Like it was a blessing.
But everybody knew what it really was.
Desire-feeding. Will-leeching. A tethering of the broken to the powerful, because the powerful refused to hunger alone.
He kept walking.
***
Three years ago, the world collapsed.
They called it The Hunger.
It started with a sound; a low, pulsing vibration, felt more than heard. Like desire tuning itself into the human skull.
People started craving things. Touch. Attention. Worship. Flesh. Not just craving...needing. Consuming.
The stronger your wants, the more wanted you became. And the more people wanted you, the stronger you grew.
Humans had manifested the Eros Tier System. A classification based on how much pleasure, desire, and connection they can generate.
Some called it evolution. Others called it a curse.
Zeon? He called it Tuesday.
A girl named Marna once told him he had "a nice silence." That was before she got to Tier 2 by live streaming bath-time whispers into the dark.
A guy he knew ran a cuddle tent. Tier 3. He was dead now...loved too many, too fast and got devoured by a desire-beast made of hands.
Zeon?
He was Tier 0.
No resonance. No glow. No energy feedback. His last reading came back as "Null." The technician didn't even hide her laughter.
He stacked crates, kept his head down, and didn't want anything.
Not really.
Not anymore.
But sadly, that wasn't enough to put food on the table.
***
The Ascension Center was built like a temple and sterilized like a morgue. It smelled like ozone and crushed orchids.
"ID?" the receptionist asked. Her voice didn't match her face. Too melodic, too polished. Probably a Tier 2 Vocalist hitched into the front desk system.
"Zeon Dusk," he muttered, lifting his wrist.
The scan blinked red.
Her eyes flicked to him. Not with concern. With pity.
"Tier 0. Null. Huh."
She didn't say you won't get picked, but she might as well have.
Still, she handed him a slate.
"Wait in Chamber Eight. Your essence will be sampled for Resonance Potential. If you're not summoned within the hour…you can assume you weren't selected."
"Right." He took the slate and walked past the glass partitions, through halls lit with synthetic skylight and lined with silent figures in white coats. None of them looked at him.
Why would they?
He sat alone in Chamber Eight.
The walls pulsed faintly, reading his vitals, mapping his psyche, cataloguing his pain like it was an inventory to be sold. On the far side of the chamber was a thin, glass door. Behind it, a chamber labeled: Tier Interface Bay – Authorized Pledges Only.
Zeon didn't think he'd make it that far.
He didn't know what he expected: some ceremony? A robe? A collar?
Instead, a siren wailed.
A voice blared overhead.
> "Emergency in Interface Bay. Tier collapse in progress. Medicals to Sector Three."
He blinked. The air changed, and then the door unlocked.
He wasn't supposed to move. But something, perhaps instinct—told him to walk through.
He entered Interface Bay Seven.
And there, collapsed on a plinth of tangled wires was Aurelion.
Or what was left of her.
Six wings flickered with glitching light, folding and unfolding spasmodically. Her porcelain helm had cracked down the middle, and pale light spilled from the seams of her body. She looked like divinity dying in real time.
Zeon stood frozen.
Aurelion turned her head, barely. Her voice was static, like thunder wrapped in silk.
"…you came."
Zeon didn't know what to say. He hadn't come for this. He'd come for safety. Comfort. Not a front-row seat to a god bleeding out.
"…they'll come," Aurelion rasped. "To take… what I sealed."
Zeon stood frozen. "I...I'm just here for Resonance Scan, I didn't..."
Aurelion's hand snapped up and caught his wrist. Too fast for someone dying.
Too strong.
Zeon choked.
"You're empty," Aurelion breathed, voice warping. "No Tier. No pull. A perfect host."
A cold spike of terror lanced Zeon's spine.
"What?"
Aurelion's eyes bled light. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "It's already in you."
And then, before Zeon could move, she kissed him.
Not on the lips. Not tenderly.
A cracked-lipped press to the center of his mouth, like a curse sealed with blood and breath.
Zeon gasped and struggled to break away...too late.
[System Awakening: EROS PARASITE DETECTED]
[Power Source: Attention. Desire. Intimacy.]
[WARNING: Forbidden Class. Tier Governance Violation.]
[Skill Unlocked: TIER LEECH – Hijack powers through emotional resonance.]
His vision blurred.