SILENT RESONANCE

7:18 PM — Hito City

Rain fell steadily over Hito City. Not heavily enough to stop the city—just enough to turn the streets into mirrors. Neon signs reflected across the wet asphalt while cars moved through the evening traffic and trains passed between towers in the distance. Umbrellas filled the sidewalks, the constant sound of rain mixing with horns, engines, footsteps, and distant announcements.

For most people, it was an ordinary evening. For Ben D Pedro, it was supposed to be one too.

"I'm going to be late."

Ben glanced at his phone as he walked beneath the narrow roof of a convenience store. One missed message from Mom. He sighed and typed a quick reply: "I'm coming home."

He put the phone back into his pocket when a cold drop of rain landed on his cheek. "Great." He wiped it away and looked at the street.

He was nineteen years old, neither particularly tall nor intimidating. His black hair was slightly messy from the rain, and his dark-brown eyes moved constantly, taking in small details around him. He had a lean, athletic build—nothing extraordinary, or at least, that was what he believed.

His clothes were simple: dark pants, a black jacket, and comfortable shoes. On his right hand were four metal rings. They looked almost identical at first glance—simple, circular, with slightly sharpened outer edges. Ben had owned them for years, but never remembered where they had originally come from. His family had simply told him they were old heirlooms passed down. They had never seemed important.

Ben lifted his hand and looked at them. "Still ugly." He smiled faintly, lowered his hand, and continued walking.

A few meters ahead, two teenagers suddenly ran across the sidewalk. "Move!" One of them nearly crashed into Ben.

Ben stepped aside at the last moment. The teenager stopped, "Sorry!"

"Watch where you're going," Ben said.

"Yeah, yeah." The two continued running, disappearing into the crowd. Ben shook his head. "Everyone's in a hurry."

He turned toward the main road. And then—

CRACK.

A metallic sound echoed through the street. Ben stopped. A parked car trembled. At first, nobody reacted. Then the car's side mirror bent inward.

Someone screamed. "What the hell?"

Another vehicle suddenly jerked sideways, its metal frame twisting with a horrible grinding sound. People began backing away as panic spread faster than the rain.

A young man stood in the middle of the road, looking terrified with shaking hands. "I didn't—" A street sign behind him violently bent toward his body. "I didn't do anything!"

The sign tore free. People screamed and ran.

Ben immediately understood one thing: an awakened—a person with a Dominion. The young man's Metal Dominion was completely out of control. Metal objects around him began moving—cars, road barriers, signs, construction material. Everything metallic seemed to respond to his panic.

A vehicle suddenly lifted several centimeters from the ground. "RUN!"

Ben turned. A group of civilians was trapped near a stalled bus where a metal barrier had fallen across the sidewalk. "Get back!" Ben ran toward them. A woman was holding a small child. "Please!"

Ben grabbed the barrier. It was too heavy. He pulled harder, but his shoes slipped against the wet ground. The metal barrier suddenly shook.

"Move!" He pushed the woman and child toward the open side of the sidewalk just as the barrier slammed down behind them.

The woman stared at him. "Thank you…"

Ben didn't answer. He was watching the young awakened man whose breathing was getting faster as more metal moved. "This is getting worse."

Sirens echoed through the city. Several black-and-white Authority vehicles entered the street. People began shouting, "Dominion Authority! Get out of the area! Everyone evacuate!"

Armored field agents moved into position. One agent raised a suppression device. "Metal Dominion detected! Output is increasing! Containment team, move!"

Ben stepped backward, realizing how dangerous the situation actually was. The awakened man looked like he was about to collapse. "Please… make it stop…"

A nearby vehicle suddenly lifted into the air. The Authority agents moved. "GET DOWN!"

The vehicle slammed sideways. People scattered. Ben ducked as the vehicle crashed into a barrier, sending metal fragments flying through the air.

Then he heard someone scream. A second vehicle had lost control, sliding directly toward a group of civilians. One person was frozen in the middle of the road.

Ben's eyes widened. "MOVE!"

The person didn't. The vehicle was too close. Ben ran, knowing he wouldn't reach the vehicle in time or stop it, but he kept running anyway. His heart hammered against his chest. Three meters. Two. One—

Ben grabbed the person's arm and pulled. They fell away, but the vehicle changed direction—now coming directly toward Ben.

There was no time. His right hand clenched, and one of the four rings suddenly felt warm.

"What…?"

A sharp piece of metal struck Ben's palm. Blood appeared, and a single drop fell onto the ring.

Everything stopped—not the world, just Ben's perception of it. For a fraction of a second, the rain seemed silent, the noise disappeared, and the city became distant.

Ben stared at his hand. The ring was glowing faintly. Then, something moved beneath his skin. His blood. He felt it—not as a liquid, but as something connected to him, responding to his will.

His eyes widened. "What is this…?"

The blood from his wounded palm stretched outward. A thin crimson strand formed between his hand and the incoming vehicle. Ben simply reacted, pulling his hand sideways. The blood strand tightened, forcing the vehicle to change direction.

CRASH! It slammed into a concrete barrier instead of the civilians.

Silence. For one second, nobody moved.

Ben stared at his hand as the crimson strand disappeared. His vision suddenly blurred, his knees weakened, and his breathing became heavy. His entire body felt strangely empty.

An Authority agent ran toward him. "Civilian! Stay down!"

"I…" Ben's voice was barely audible. "I did that?"

The agent looked at Ben's bleeding palm, then at the destroyed vehicle. "What did you just use?"

Ben couldn't answer. His vision darkened, and the last thing he saw was one of the four rings glowing with a faint red line before everything went black.

***

Dominion Authority Medical Facility

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Ben slowly opened his eyes to a white ceiling, bright lights, and a medical monitor beside him.

"Don't," a doctor said, placing a hand near his shoulder as Ben tried to sit up. "You're awake."

"Where am I?"

"Dominion Authority medical facility. You collapsed after using your Dominion—a Blood Dominion."

Ben stared. "Blood?"

"Yes." The doctor picked up a small sterile container holding a tiny sample of Ben's blood. "You can manipulate existing blood. You cannot generate it; your body still has to provide the material. Your first activation caused severe physical stress—dizziness, tremors, temporary visual disturbance, and weakness."

Ben looked at his hand; the four rings were still there. "Those."

The doctor became quiet. "What about them?"

"They reacted when I awakened. You know something."

"I know that the scanner detected an unusual interaction," the doctor hesitated. "Artifact resonance. Don't use your Dominion again tonight because your body hasn't adapted to it yet."

Later that night, while Ben was unconscious, an Authority technician stood beside the scanner as a diagnostic window flickered onto the screen:

DOMINION: BLOOD

OUTPUT: UNSTABLE

CONTROL: UNCONFIRMED

ARTIFACT INTERACTION: DETECTED

CRIMSON RESONANCE

4 SOURCES DETECTED

The technician's expression changed. He immediately locked the screen. "Impossible…"

***

11:42 PM — Ben's Home

The rain had stopped. Ben sat alone at his desk, staring at the four rings lying in front of him.

"So you were never ordinary."

He touched them one by one. Nothing happened. He sighed and leaned back. "Of course. Maybe the scanner was wrong…"

A faint red line suddenly appeared across the first ring. Ben froze.

The light disappeared, then a faint pulse came from the second ring. The third ring vibrated, and the fourth followed. All four rings began responding in sequence.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Outside the window, the city lights continued glowing. Inside the room, four ancient-looking rings pulsed together.

Far away inside a hidden monitoring facility, a screen activated with a single message:

4-POINT RESONANCE DETECTED

CRIMSON — ARRAY

Ben continued staring at the pulsing rings. His ordinary life had already ended—and somewhere beneath the world he knew, something had just begun to respond.