Grayhaven's lanterns burned late, but the city's glow was uneasy, like a fire that couldn't decide if it wanted to warm or consume. Adrian barely stepped off the rooftop before the Heart convulsed with urgent warnings.
[System: Simultaneous Energy Spikes Detected – Five Districts. Threat Level: Maximum. Immediate Response Required.]
This wasn't testing. This was war.
Every shard under his command pulsed out of sync, as if foreign hands were tugging them in opposite directions. Hybrid charms brightened and dimmed unpredictably, blades quivered in midair displays, and merchants felt it—something wrong, everywhere at once.
Kael's voice snapped through the comm. "Adrian, this isn't interference. They've planted more of those hybrids, and they're broadcasting now. If you don't cut them off—"
"I'm not cutting them off," Adrian said, already sprinting through the eastern district. "I'm trapping them."
The Heart expanded its awareness, mapping Grayhaven like veins on a living creature. Five distinct infection points, pulsing red. The rival hadn't bothered to hide them—they wanted chaos, visibility, panic.
[System: Hybrid Network Compromise Detected – 12% Integrity Loss and Rising.]
Adrian's fingers flew across the control lattice. First move: isolate every shard from the main grid without shutting them down completely. The Heart fractured its control, creating hundreds of micro-nets. Buyers blinked as individual charms dimmed for a second, then flared steady again—localized, quarantined, safe.
[System: Adaptive Micro-Net Protocols Activated – Containment Level Rising.]
The rival shards fought back. In the northern district, a stall exploded in sparks as a counterfeit charm overloaded, sending merchants scattering. In the south, blades clashed midair like dueling hawks, no longer under control. The infection wasn't random—it was coordinated.
Adrian's pulse stayed steady. He fed new commands to the Heart, adjusting frequencies district by district. If the rival thought he'd run himself ragged chasing fires, they hadn't accounted for autonomous countermeasures. Each quarantined zone began pushing energy back along the infection lines, tracing the signals to their source.
Kael's voice came low and sharp: "They're moving people into the crowds—mercenaries, saboteurs. This isn't just shards, Adrian. You've got boots in your streets."
"Good," Adrian murmured. "Easier to catch."
The first saboteur lunged at him near the spice market, brandishing a false hybrid charm like a blade. Adrian sidestepped, not breaking stride, and pulsed the Heart directly. The charm shattered in the man's hand, inert before it touched him.
[System: Rival Hybrid Neutralized – Data Absorbed.]
Four more signals extinguished in quick succession as the Heart learned, adapted, and countered automatically. Every failed strike made the network sharper, faster.
But the rival wasn't done. In the central plaza, three counterfeit hybrids linked together, forcing a massive energy spike. The crowd screamed as displays buckled and cracked, shards raining like glass. Adrian arrived just in time to see them overloading.
He didn't disable them. He absorbed them.
The Heart flared white-hot as his system wrapped around the hostile signals, stripping them apart in real time and feeding their architecture into his own designs.
[System: Rival Hybrid Structure Assimilated – Efficiency +11. Adaptive Defense Upgraded.][System: Market Stability Restored. Audience Confidence +7.]
By midnight, the streets were quiet again. Dozens of saboteurs captured, every counterfeit shard destroyed or absorbed, every district humming in perfect rhythm.
Kael joined Adrian on the rooftop, breathing hard. "That was their big play. They threw everything they had tonight."
Adrian looked over Grayhaven, calm but cold. "Then tomorrow, we throw it back—cleaner, sharper, and impossible to stop."
The Heart pulsed steadily in his chest, no longer just defending the city, but evolving in real time. The rival had come inside his walls. Now Adrian knew exactly how to hunt them outside theirs.
[System: Strategic Milestone Achieved – Rival Sabotage Repelled, Hybrid Assimilation Protocols Active, Offensive Capability Unlocked.]