Retired Captain Konstantin Volkov is used to the fact that war takes everything. First, it took his left leg. Then his wife, who didn’t want to live with a disabled man. Friends, his career, the point of waking up in the mornings. Now he is a night watchman in an industrial zone. In front of him there is only silence and oblivion.
Everything changes with someone else’s battle. After witnessing a magical clash between the adepts of two secret cults, Volkov receives a “gift” from a dying man. At dawn, Konstantin is in shock: his left leg is in place, and on his forearm there is a burnt brand that turns any object he holds into an indestructible monolith.
But healing turns into a nightmare. The door is already being battered by those who are supposed to uphold the law. Only instead of a search warrant, police officers kindle crimson flame in their fists. The order is simple: hand over the gift or die.
But there’s one problem. Volkov owes this world too much anger—and surrender was never something he was taught. And fighting, he knows how to do better than living.