Months of living in the shadows had honed Yin Lie into something new. The terrified rookie who bled power uncontrollably at the docks was gone, buried under layers of discipline, scar tissue, and ice. He now perched atop the spire of the old Zenith Tower, a gargoyle of flesh and blood observing the city's glittering nervous system below. The cacophony of Nocturnal Shadows was no longer a torment; it was a tapestry. He could pluck a single thread from the noise—a whispered deal in a back alley, the anxious heartbeat of a lookout—and follow it.
The cold was no longer just an enemy within. It was a tool, sharp and precise. A thin, invisible film of rime coated the soles of his boots, anchoring him to the slick metal of the spire against the high-altitude winds.
"Target is on the move," Chen Gu's voice crackled in his ear, a low rasp filtered through a secure comms link. "He's entering The Atrium. This is a neutral zone, Lie. No loud noises. We need what he's carrying: intel on the Keystone's last known location. In and out. Clean."
"Clean," Yin Lie repeated, the word turning to a wisp of vapor in the cold night. He pushed off the spire, falling into the abyss between buildings. He didn't plummet. His Lupine strength allowed him to leap the impossible gap to the next rooftop, his landing barely making a sound. He moved like this, a phantom across the city's skyline, until he was looking down through the armored skylight of The Atrium.
The Atrium was a black market for the city's elite, a place where priceless artifacts, illegal tech, and variant DNA were traded under a fragile truce. It was a multi-story coliseum of chrome and holographic light, the air humming with quiet ambition and the clink of glasses. Men and women in tailored suits and shimmering gowns moved with the predatory grace of sharks in a tank, their smiles as sharp and empty as their eyes.
Yin Lie slipped in through a maintenance corridor, his black tactical gear a stark contrast to the opulence. He kept to the upper gantries, a shadow among shadows. He spotted the target instantly: a nervous, sweating man in an ill-fitting suit, clutching a briefcase as if it were a life raft. The man was making his way toward a private transaction booth.
Too easy.
His senses screamed a warning a second before it happened. The wolf smelled ozone and rage. The ice felt a spike of uncontrolled heat.
A mountain of a man stepped out of the crowd, blocking the courier's path. His face was a roadmap of scar tissue, and his fists were wrapped in metallic braces that glowed with dull orange heat. This was Scab, Qi Yan's top enforcer, a man known for leaving only ashes behind.
"Lost, little man?" Scab's voice was a low growl. He wasn't trying to be subtle. He was a statement. Qi Yan's statement.
The courier paled, stammering. Scab didn't wait for an answer. His fist swung, not at the man, but at the floor. A wave of concussive fire erupted, sending panicked guests scattering. The truce was broken.
Yin Lie dropped from the gantry. He landed between Scab and the terrified courier, the duracrete floor cracking under his feet, a web of frost instantly spreading from the impact.
"Silver Pupil," Scab grinned, his teeth like broken fence posts. "The boss wants a word. Said to bring you back warm. Or in pieces."
He lunged. Yin Lie didn't meet the charge. He slammed his palm on the ground. A sheet of black ice shot across the polished floor. Scab, for all his bulk, roared in frustration as his feet slid out from under him. Yin Lie was already moving, grabbing the courier and pulling him toward the exit.
He didn't make it five steps.
Two figures dropped from the level above, landing with impossible silence. They were twins, a man and a woman, dressed in immaculate white, their movements a mirror of each other. Su Li's Guardians.
"The asset is with us, Silver Pupil," the woman, Lin, said, her voice like chimes of ice.
"No resistance is required," her brother, Feng, finished, his tone devoid of all emotion.
They moved together, a whirlwind of precise strikes. They didn't use brute force or elemental power; they manipulated kinetic energy, turning the air itself into invisible blades and battering rams.
Yin Lie shoved the courier behind a thick pillar and met their assault. It was like fighting the wind itself. He twisted, dodged, the air shimmering where their blows passed. He lashed out, not with his fists, but with daggers of ice that shot from his palms. They shattered them mid-air with focused blasts of force.
Behind them, Scab had recovered, roaring as he melted the ice with waves of heat. A three-way battle erupted in the heart of The Atrium, a chaotic dance of fire, ice, and invisible force.
"You don't understand!" the courier screamed from behind the pillar, his voice shrill with terror. "It's not a weapon! The Keystone isn't a power source!"
All three fighters paused for a fraction of a second, their attention drawn by the desperate cry.
"It's a key!" the man shrieked, clutching his head. "It's a resonance key, tuned to a unique genetic signature! It won't give you power—it will unlock her!"
Before anyone could process the words, the massive skylight above them exploded inward. Dozens of figures in matte-black armor rappelled down, their helmets glowing with the ominous red sensor lights of the Special Affairs Directorate.
"All variants, stand down! Surrender for processing!" a synthesized voice boomed through the chaos.
The fragile alliance of the standoff shattered. It was every faction for itself.
Scab unleashed a torrent of fire at the SAD troopers, buying himself a moment to retreat into the panicked crowds. The twins, Feng and Lin, exchanged a look, made a calculated decision, and vanished into the pandemonium.
Yin Lie was left with the courier and a closing ring of Purge Squad troopers. His mind raced. The mission was to get the intel. But the intel wasn't in the case. It was the man himself.
The Curse… Each use pulls you deeper…
He ignored the whisper of doubt. He grabbed the courier by the collar. "Hold on. And don't breathe."
He didn't run. He turned to face the advancing troopers and drew on everything he had. The wolf's furnace roared to life, not as heat, but as fuel. He plunged that inferno into the absolute zero of his core.
The grand ornamental fountain in the center of The Atrium instantly froze solid. The water FLASH-crystallized into a mountain of jagged, razor-sharp ice that erupted upward, shattering the remaining glass and blocking the SAD's advance. The sudden, violent temperature drop created a massive cloud of vapor, plunging the entire floor into a blinding white fog.
Under the cover of the chaos he had created, Yin Lie smashed through a side window and leaped into the night, the terrified scientist slung over his shoulder.
He landed on a lower rooftop, the scientist trembling uncontrollably. His comm crackled to life. It was Chen Gu, his voice no longer calm, but shot through with an urgency Yin Lie had never heard before.
"Report! What happened? An energy spike just lit up half the city grid! That was you!"
"The mission changed," Yin Lie gasped, his lungs burning from the exertion. "The intel… it's a person. A scientist. He says the Keystone is a key."
There was a dead, chilling silence on the other end of the line.
"Lie…" Chen Gu's voice was low, strained. "What have you done? You didn't bring intel back to the safe house. You just brought a beacon. You just put a target on our entire network."
Yin Lie looked down at the cowering man, then back at the city, now alive with the wail of sirens closing in from all directions. He had escaped the cage, only to find himself dragging its most precious secret with him into an even deadlier hunt.