The battlefield reeked of static and scorched metal. The ground where Nullifiers had fallen was etched with blackened glyphs, faintly pulsing like wounds that refused to heal. Smoke curled in the firelight, carrying the acrid tang of burnt circuitry and the metallic sting of blood. Shadows stretched long across the scorched earth, restless, twisting as if the world itself remembered the violence that had passed.
Erevan slumped against a half-charred tree, chest heaving, each ragged breath a stubborn echo of the fight just survived. His shard throbbed painfully in his chest, pulsing in rhythm with Vega's unstable code—a constant, unrelenting tug that left muscles tense and raw. Every pulse whispered a cruel truth: they were never truly alone, and danger was never far behind.
Kaelith crouched beside him, hands precise as she wrapped a gash along his forearm. Her jaw was tight, green eyes scanning the perimeter, sharp and watchful as if expecting the system to strike again at any moment.
"You keep bleeding like this, Erevan," she said, voice clipped but carrying a careful weight, "and you'll dry out before the system even has a chance to patch you."
Erevan let out a crooked smile, trying to sound lighter than he felt. "Well, at least then I'd save it the trouble."
Her glare sliced through him sharper than any blade. "That's not funny."
Sir Quacksalot waddled over then, dragging a mangled Nullifier core behind him like a prize. Feathers ruffling like a tiny, feathered storm, he dropped it at Erevan's feet and quacked violently, as if daring the world to question his pride.
Erevan reached down, patting the duck's head weakly. "Yeah, yeah. MVP as always."
The smirk didn't last. He shifted, feeling the shard pulse violently, a reminder of the cost they'd all paid.
Vega remained apart, trembling. Their body flickered, textures glitching between human skin and static gray, symbols half-erased from reality. One moment entirely human, the next a blur of corrupted code, the firelight catching the shifts like a strobe. Erevan's chest tightened as he watched.
"I could feel you," Vega whispered finally, voice glitching like overlapping signals. "When you linked us… it was like someone stitching my broken pieces back together with their own thread. You almost tore yourself apart."
Erevan tilted his head, voice rough but teasing. "That's kinda my thing."
Kaelith snapped, tone sharp. "It's not a thing. It's suicide."
A faint ping echoed in the back of Erevan's mind. Stability dropping. He felt his chest tighten, shard thrumming violently. [System Alert: Stability reduced. Current: 42%]
Erevan let out a faint chuckle. "See? Even the system agrees with you. You two should start a fan club."
Kaelith rolled her eyes, adjusting the bandage. "One more reckless link like that, and you'll be a memory. I hope you realize that."
Vega's flickering features softened, almost human despite the glitches. "No… he'll be more than that. He'll be the first of us who proved the system wrong."
Caught off guard, Erevan muttered, quieter than intended, "That's a lot of pressure."
Vega tilted their head, glitching features stabilizing for a fleeting moment. "You carry it anyway. I can see it."
Erevan leaned back against the rough bark, letting the firelight wash over him. Exhaustion weighed his bones down. The residual ache of battle hummed in his chest along with Vega's unstable code, a fragile, chaotic resonance that made the world feel beautiful and terrifying at once.
Before he could speak, the ground trembled. A low, unnatural hum threaded through the air, resonating in his teeth. The shadows along the clearing's edges stretched, clawed, defying the firelight.
Kaelith's bow was nocked before the shapes fully formed. Her stance was taut, coiled and ready. "Not again," she muttered, voice tight.
Vega froze mid-step, body glitching violently. "No… these aren't Nullifiers," they whispered, voice trembling with awe and fear.
The shadows peeled from the ground, coalescing into half-formed, semi-real figures. Like echoes of the Nullifiers they had destroyed, their forms were smeared and fluid, as if drawn with charcoal on water. Their eyes glowed a dull crimson, hungry, focused. The air around them pulsed with a strange, almost tangible desire for Erevan's shard.
Erevan's stomach tightened. His shard throbbed violently, every pulse a warning drumbeat. Kaelith's words rang in his head. They won't stop until you're gone.
He clenched his jaw, gripping Pathbreaker tight. Vega trembled nearby, glyph-fire flickering like a fragile heartbeat. Kaelith's arrows readied but powerless against incorporeal foes. He exhaled, forcing his mind to focus despite the panic climbing his spine.
He wasn't just fighting for himself. Not anymore. He was fighting for Vega, for Kaelith, for the fragile spark of resistance they were building.
The first Shade lunged with a screech that rattled Erevan's teeth. He swung Pathbreaker instinctively, the blade slicing through the smoky form—but it passed harmlessly, leaving only a streak of static across his chest. The shard throbbed violently, protesting the contact, sending shocks of pain up his arms.
"Okay… they literally eat me. Fantastic," he muttered, grit and exasperation lining his voice.
Kaelith's arrows cut the air, but phased right through the Shade. "Not physical," she hissed, eyes narrowing with frustration.
Vega stepped forward, hands igniting with glyph-fire. The swirling runes hovered, spinning with radiant energy. "Then we'll fight shadow with code," they said, voice firmer now, flickers of stability settling across their body.
Sir Quacksalot, of course, had no time for subtlety. With a flurry of wings and reckless determination, he dove at a Shade mid-flight, biting its smoky leg. The shadow shrieked, writhing violently before collapsing into a harmless puddle of static.
Erevan barked a laugh, pain and adrenaline coiling together. "That duck is officially scarier than half of these things!"
Kaelith snapped, shouting over the chaos. "Don't even encourage him!"
The Shadows weren't fooled. Each pulse from Erevan's shard made them stronger, sharper, more coherent. Their smoky claws sliced through the air, streaks of static burning against his flesh. He staggered back, teeth gritted, every heartbeat sending jolts through his chest. Literally eating me alive. Perfect.
The shard screamed in his chest, urging him, demanding an impossible solution. Then, clarity struck. Overload it. Burn the instability outward. Destroy them with the raw, unfiltered chaos of my shard.
Pain flared as he braced, gripping Pathbreaker like a lifeline. The shard pulsed, white-hot, a living thing inside him. Each second stretched into eternity. Shadows lunged, claws stretching, eyes glowing with a predatory hunger. Then he let go.
A wave of chaotic glitch energy exploded from him, searing outward in all directions. The Shades shrieked as their smoky forms twisted and tore, feeding on instability only to be consumed by it. The air smelled of ozone and scorched code, lungs burning with each ragged breath.
Vega's glyph-fire flared alongside him, stabilizing, rising into a coherent storm of blazing runes. Runes sliced through lingering Shadows with surgical precision, arcs of radiant code searing the remnants into nothingness. Kaelith's final arrow struck a residual form, hissing as it dissipated like steam over metal.
Erevan collapsed to one knee, chest heaving, shards of pain lancing through his body. The shard hummed faintly, raw and exhausted. Sir Quacksalot perched triumphantly on his shoulder, feathers bristling like a tiny, victorious storm.
"Yeah… MVP," Erevan wheezed, managing a weak laugh. "Don't let it go to your head."
Kaelith shook him firmly, relief and fury warring in her gaze. "You absolute lunatic! You're killing yourself for everyone else!"
Erevan coughed, a thin smear of blood tracing his jawline. "Technically… killing shadows. There's a difference."
Vega approached, body still flickering with residual instability. Their wide eyes glowed with awe. "No one else could have done that. You're more than an anomaly, Erevan. You're… a catalyst."
Erevan blinked, chest still burning. "Catalyst? Sounds like a fancy word for walking bug report."
Kaelith chuckled faintly, tension easing slightly from her shoulders. "Or maybe it means you're the first step. The one who forces the rest of us to act. Without you, we'd all just be waiting to be erased."
He leaned back against the charred tree, shards of pain and adrenaline still thrumming, muscles trembling. Chest heaving, he let a small, stubborn spark of hope flicker. They had survived. They had fought back.
The firelight danced over three battered, burnt, but alive figures. Sir Quacksalot quacked once more, flaring wings like a tiny guardian perched atop chaos. Vega's glitching form stabilized slightly, a faint, flickering smile on their features. Kaelith allowed herself a weary, almost imperceptible smile.
Even in victory, the battlefield bore its scars. The shadows of Nullifiers' echoes twitched faintly at the periphery, restless. The rift may have closed, but the system's gaze lingered. Erevan felt it, a faint hum through the code in his chest—a reminder that survival was temporary. The real fight, the one that demanded everything, was still ahead.
Somewhere deep in the code, a chilling ripple traveled, like laughter. Kyros. He was still out there, still watching.
Erevan let the thought linger, shard throbbing painfully. He glanced at Vega and Kaelith, alive, defiant, breathing. "Fine," he muttered, voice hoarse, "guess we're officially recruiting. Let's just hope the next anomaly isn't allergic to ducks."
Sir Quacksalot flapped his wings, quacking approval with dramatic ferocity. For a heartbeat, even under the shadow of danger, the world felt impossibly theirs.