Looking back over the three that had been with Dara, Caelin could see that one had fallen within the blast radius, limbs twisted unnaturally. The last was the one who had stumbled into Caelin while he searched for Dara… Caelin shook his head, images from his journey after fighting the Warhound were jumbled up, time wasn't syncing correctly. Looking down again he heard the young Original’s voice.
“Sorry mate! Gotta go, I’d get off the street. The Reapers are coming.”
He had tried to warn him. Tried to help, something Caelin knew he’d needed at the time. If the three Reapers, even referring to them as that, turned his stomach, had found him there was no way he would’ve survived.
The Original that had warned him hadn’t drawn a weapon, he had run straight into their blades. He had been a distraction, someone who would give his allies time. Caelin didn’t speak. He didn’t kneel. He simply reached out.
Absorption triggered.
Their Souls were fracturing, he had almost left this for too long, but they hadn’t scattered. Their disparate parts were still within reach, pushing harder he found the gates to each Soul and relaxed as the energy flooded into him. Each Soul adding weight to the fractured foundation inside himself. Stability. A slow restitching of threads that had been pulled too far apart.
Soul Stability: 55%
Caelin had returned to his Life-given baseline, something he had thought he couldn’t fall below. He must’ve spent his own stability during his torturous march along the train track. Flicking back over his HUD notifications he staggered at one of the last entries before the healing had started.
Soul Stability - 7%
That could never happen again.
Dara stepped into view. She was quiet. No lecture. No blame. But her eyes drifted toward the fallen Originals.
“I made a call. You were dying. They needed me, but I chose to save you.”
Caelin didn’t reply. He moved to the next corpse, fingers brushing against the blood-soaked earth. Another burst of quiet heat rolled through him. No conflict. No hesitation. It was clinical. Necessary. His Stability ticked up another 5%, the clenched fist around his Soul relaxed slightly.
“I knew them for three days,” Dara added. “Doesn’t matter. They were allies.”
Still no answer.
“I didn’t ask if you were worth it. I just acted.”
Caelin stood and looked straight at Dara.
.
“You healed the strongest person you could. Ensuring your survival and mine. Never blame yourself for choosing to live.” His tone was flat, not unkind, but devoid of anything she could reach. Tactical. Cold.
Dara looked away.
Two more bodies waited nearby, the false Reapers. Their armor was cleaner, sleeker, System-issued, unlike anything true Reapers had ever worn. Caelin’s eyes narrowed. These weren’t wild Echoes. These had fought like him. Abilities like his. But wrong. Twisted.
He knelt by the first. Extended a hand. Absorption surged.
The change was instant.
Something reacted deep within his Soul. Threads tangled. A spike of heat pierced his spine and exploded outward, rattling his senses. His knees buckled.
Warning: Ability Evolution in Progress… Extract more Silent Reaper remnants to complete Evoltion
Silent Reaping – Evolved
Core Ability Enhanced. Conjures an ethereal Reaper’s Scythe to strike undetected, dealing critical damage to unaware targets. Now passively emits a Reaper Aura that instils fear in lower-tier enemies and disorients stronger foes.
Soul Rend: Strikes may stagger or paralyse, disrupting instincts even in soulless creatures.
Draconic Soul Detriment – Critical Instability: Scythe use inflicts delayed nerve pain, risks spectral lashback, and may cause hallucinations or misjudged attacks as ghost memories overlay reality.
Caelin groaned, the notifications distorting as if layered over each other. His vision split. One world real. One just behind it. He forced a hand into the dirt, bracing himself, then hurried to the last of the false Reapers to complete the process.
The final remnants of Silent Reaper settled on his Soul and the Evolution locked into place, again driving him to his knees. Blood from the Reapers soaked into the soil beneath him.
Dara’s voice was sharper now. “Caelin, your Ability just changed. I can see it.”
He didn’t answer, he couldn’t. His breath came in short, measured bursts, each one dragging him back to the present.
“You need to stabilize. That surge, what did it do to you?”
Caelin grit his teeth. “It made me stronger, but it also made everything worse.”
Dara hesitated, then flicked open a shared interface.
Party Request: Dara Valkerys has invited you to join a group
He accepted without comment, barely aware that a System notification had appeared on his HUD..
“I’m going ahead,” she said, already moving toward the far stairwell. “Scan the area, find a route out. I’ll ping you if anything moves.”
Party Buff Active - Silent Nature
Immune to System interference. Undetectable by System sensors. Gains power through Absorption and Adaptation.
Party Effect: While in an active party, Silenced Nature extends its concealment to all members. Party allies cannot be detected by standard System scans or environmental sensors. This effect is passive, does not require Caelin’s awareness, and fades if the party disbands.
Draconic Soul Detriment:The intense Void energy absorbed during battle has deepened the strain on this trait. Caelin now risks brief lapses in detection shielding during moments of System volatility. Hallucinations, flickering visibility, and sensory distortion may occur. These symptoms do not affect party members.
Caelin nodded once. He stayed low, letting the tremor in his fingers subside. His perception showed Dara faltering slightly as the notification settled in her own HUD.
Then a whisper crawled in at the edge of his perception. Not sound. Not thought. Just a suggestion. Movement. Shapes. Too many legs.
Party Chat: Movement ahead. Sounds heavy. Not human.
Then gunfire.
Then her voice. Sharper. “Engaged. Multiple. Don’t take your time.”
LOCATION IDENTIFIED: RUINS OF LIVERPOOL
CITY STATUS: STRUCTURAL COLLAPSE – 89%
MAJOR LANDMARK CONCENTRATIONS DETECTED – QUERY NETWORK FOR ADDITIONAL DATA?
Yes / No
Input Registered: No
SILENCED NETWORK SYNC DECLINED – TERRAIN REMAINS SHROUDED
COMBAT OVERLAY: MINIMAL – GENERATING LOCAL MAP ESTIMATE…
ABRIDGED TACTICAL MAP UPLOADED – VISIBILITY REDUCED
QUERY PARTY LINK FOR REGIONAL DATA?
Yes / No
Input Registered: Yes
PARTY SYNC ACTIVE – DARA VALKERYS | TACTICAL SYNC IN PROGRESS…
NEW POINTS OF INTEREST IDENTIFIED – LOADED VIA PARTY LINK
SHROUDED COMBAT MAP PARTIALLY REVEALED – TACTICAL OVERLAY UPDATED
Caelin moved. Fast. Low. Every step controlled, nothing wasted. He flowed through the ruin like he’d already cleared it.
He blurred through a broken stairwell, not up it but through the twisted remnants of what had once been steps. Then he leapt, clearing a shattered floorframe, rising through layers of dust and ash as ghost-flickers bled across the edge of his vision.
The combat lattice aligned, layered from scent trails, spatial pressure, vibration, and Dara’s pinpoint uplinks. His prey lit up, but so did something else. An after-image. A soldier not from Earth. Serrakian. Burned. Broken. Mouth open in a scream.
He blinked it away, his breaths coming faster, the silent scream ringing in his ears.
Predatory Perception (Evolved)
Type: Passive/Active Hybrid
Passive: Continuous lattice awareness via scent, motion, threat resonance
Active – Combat Pulse: Full sensory acceleration, melee auto-counters, projectile tracking
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Draconic Soul Detriment – Instability Surge
Hallucinations, phantom threats, hostile Soul fragment bleed possible
Sensory distortion may escalate to full projections
His blades formed mid-run, light flaring off the ruins as he dropped through a collapsed floor.
For a single heart beat, the light twisted.
The Ethereal Blade, now pulsing brighter with etheral light than it ever had, at least in his current memories, caught a warped fragment of wall, and the reflection didn’t mirror reality.
Through the blade’s glow, he saw the Soulspire. It was frosted, bleeding, as if viewed through fractured ice beneath a battlefield. But it was silent, lifeless. Dead.
He blinked, and the scene vanished, as suddenly as it had appeared.
But the blade still pulsed. The blade had changed, as had the Soulspire, it no longer functioned. Without Its master it was a dead bastion within the Void.
Then something massive struck the far wall.
Stone exploded. Void-slick mandibles slammed against a broken column, chipping the concrete in half. Six limbs. Bone-carved carapace. Mandibles webbed in old, clotted blood.
He moved before his brain caught up, while above him, golden flame surged, repositioning to provide covering fire.
Dara rose into the air, her wings a fractal arc of radiant vengeance. The trailing flames streamed like a comet’s tail. She raised a hand and a shimmering barrier snapped into place. It hit the ground around him like a dropped guillotine just as the creature slammed into him from above.
The barrier cracked but held.
“Don’t fall apart on me now,” Dara said, voice through comms. Sharp. Dry. Strained.
Caelin didn’t answer.
He surged forward, shattering a concrete tile beneath his boot. His HUD screamed red. Movement. Dozens. A tsunami of hostility pouring down the street. Dara's uplink painted the swarm as a blood tide.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
MICRO-ECLIPSE DETECTED
CLASSIFICATION: Aberrant – Tier II
SWARM SIGNATURE: Confirmed
VOID SATURATION: 63%
WARNING: Aberrant Response Escalating
HYBRID NETWORK/SYSTEM POP-UP – SILENCED NETWORK BREACH
Name: Hollowgnashers
Type: Tier II Aberration
Behavior: Swarm Predators
Tactics: Rapid, overwhelming assault. Multi-angle rush. Prioritizes dismemberment.
Summary: Void-choked insectoid aberrations. Weak alone. Deadly in packs. Carapace hardened by failed absorption sequences. Coordination degrades with Fear stimuli.
Caelin frowned, the Network was finally acknowledging the System’s intrusion.
They poured out of a broken tunnel like fluid nightmares.
Twisting limbs. Bone-striated hides. Dozens scrambled over one another, shrieking, skittering. Some limped, seemingly born crippled on some Void dominated backwater planet. Some bled from old wounds. None slowed.
Caelin’s pulse dropped. The world narrowed and time around him shattered.
Predatory Perception - Active
The lattice pulsed. Pressure vectors, motion echoes, reflex nodes. It all snapped into place.
A Hollowgnasher lunged, but Caelin was already there. His blade severed its neck mid-air. The next twitched and he pivoted slightly, caught the leg at the joint, split it apart like snapping timber. The third tried to flank…
It was too slow, far too slow.
He stepped into it, shattered its chest with a knee, and tore the Soulblade upward in a spinal cleave, filleting the beast until the spine came free, he swept it across.
Above, Dara fired.
No wasted rounds. Her rifle, Judgement, roared on rhythm with his movements. Every shot a punctuation mark. Every shot a kill.
Caelin threw his Ethereal Blade. It carved through one, buried in a second. He clenched his fistl and the blade shimmered, light screeched then it reappeared in his hand. A spurt of blood from the second beasts eye was the only reminder that his blade had damaged it.
Silent Reaping – Evolved
Soul Rend: Destabilises targets
Aura of Dread: Panic induction on prolonged exposure
Draconic Soul Detriment – Critical Instability
Phantom Pain accumulates
Unstable Projection arcs possible
Ghost Layers may overlay past targets
The Aura hit like a psychic bomb. Hollowgnashers convulsed. One shrieked and turned on its own. Two collided, foaming at their mandibles. Another froze entirely, its head low, limbs shaking, mewling piteously.
The Aura broke them, but Caelin kept going. He wasn’t finished. Dropping his blades he extended his right arm and the Spectral Scythe, the weapon that, when wielded by a Silenced One, birthed the Reaper mythos across a thousand worlds, appeared, shimmering with otherworldly power. He tapped the hilt on the shattered ground, registering the weight of the newly evolved weapon. A smirk, both excited and terrible stretched across his face. Then he moved through them like death given shape.
Dara flared her wings. A shield snapped into place behind Caelin just before another beast slammed into it. The creature bounced, legs flailing.
Suppressive Beacon
She launched the Beacon into the heart of the swarm. It pulsed once then ruptured.
The wave of force shattered five Hollowgnashers in an instant. The others reeled, howling. Some began gnashing at the air.
The previously quiet battlefield wasn’t quiet anymore.
Their screams broke the sky. Distorted insectoid howls, twisted through Void-choked throats. A chorus of madness mixed with wet gurgles, ultrasonic whines, snarls that made teeth hurt. They shrieked to each other in fractured harmony, like a swarm whispering death through ruptured vocal cords.
The cacophony slammed into Caelin’s lattice. For a second, the signals blurred. The swarm didn’t attack in lines, instead they surged as one fractured scream, each kill pushing another forward.
He dropped low. His HUD cracked again.
Adaptation Engine Triggered
Scenario: Melee pressure + sustained healing
Adaptation Unlocked: Soulshock Pulse
Effect: Stored healing detonates at melee range
Duration: 10 seconds
He tore into the next cluster, but wasnt fast enough. Claws penetrated then raked across his front leaving his ribs grinding with each breath. With a snarl he let another pulse erupt.
Three Hollowgnashers lit up from the inside. Their veins bulged with power, gifted by the System and marked by the Void. Their carapaces were pockmarked and fissured, a testament to battles fought and endured. One tried to scream, but its throat split clean along a glowing seam, spraying a geyser of black ichor. The closest beasts dropped, spasming and clawing at air.
“Seventeen,” Dara called out, but her voice was strained. Not tired, in pain.
He didn’t answer.
He seized a corpse by the spine, hurled it like a weapon, and it struck a Hollowgnasher mid-leap. The impact was brutal, but the wall it hit cracked louder. Too loud.
His HUD flared crimson, distracting him at the wrong moment. He missed the second one. Then a shield flared to life around him, violet and gold, folding in like an impact cocoon.
Lifeline Protocol – Reactive Activation
Military-Tier Combat Triage Shield: Active
The Hollowgnasher struck and bounced off. The shield cracked, detonated in a pulse of healing that lanced up his arm. His wounds sealed just enough to move.
Dara’s voice crackled through the link, “You’re not dying here.”
Caelin kicked out, catching a Hallowgnasher in the chest, sending it glying back to slam into a wall. Everything seemed to pause for a moment as the wall teetered.
Then the entire section collapsed inward, dragging part of the hallway ceiling with it.
Beyond the breach were bodies.
Dozens. Mangled, dismembered, stacked like meat. And among them was a pack of Hollowgnashers, all feasting. Limbs twitching in their mandibles. One tore off a human child’s arm and began to gnaw the bone. Dara saw it too. She was already turning mid-air, eyes wide. Her voice broke through the comms like a gunshot:
“Fucking monsters-”
Her wings flared. Radiance surged. She dove from above, pulling the trigger as she descended. Judgement kicked in her hands, one shot after another. Each blast carved through carapace and muscle. No hesitation. No mercy.
Caelin didn’t wait. He Shadow Stepped into the carnage, phasing through blood and broken bodies. The Reaper’s Scythe tore into reality, gripped in one hand. The sound of its shaft striking broken ground had echoed across the Multiverse. For countless Souls, it had been the last sound they ever heard.
Silent Reaping.
Not just a blade. Not just a construct.
It was a goddamn execution sentence.
The scythe, made of spectral metal, dragged fractures through the air. Shadows bent around it. The very atmosphere recoiled. The ground below his feet cracked.
Aura of Dread – Intensified
Tier II sync exceeded – Suppressing lower-tier instinct loops
The Hollowgnashers froze.
Not metaphorically.
Their limbs locked. Their jaws opened. One shrieked, then kept shrieking as its brain refused to command retreat. It howled until its voice cracked. Until it tore its own throat trying to scream louder.
Caelin advanced.
The first cleave ripped through four creatures in one arc, bisecting them diagonally. Viscera hit the walls. The second swing never landed clean.The moment the scythe arced, the world cracked. A throne room below a ring of shattered planets. A king begging for mercy as Caelin tore the Soul from his chest.
His Soul remembered. His mind didn’t.
A Hollowgnasher clipped him across the chin. His jaw cracked. Teeth broke. Blood spattered.
The memory didn’t fade.
It retreated, waiting for the next swing.
A Hollowgnasher behind him whimpered and began to chew its own mandibles.
He pivoted. Drove the scythe through its face.
Then he turned toward the bodies, the human corpses, and he felt them.
Souls.
Not Originals. Not Silenced. Just dead Echoes. But enough.
Soulstorm Surge
Source: Human corpses, radius 15m
Boost: +40% movement, +30% reflexes, aggression surge (35s)
Then came a voice. “Caelin.”
The voice bled through the link. Familiar cadence. Wrong tone. It wasn’t Dara. It wasn’t the System.
“You left Serrakia burning. You’ll leave this one in ruins.”
He jerked violently, his hand twitched on the hilt.
No one else heard it.
He exhaled.
And then he let go. He submitted to the anger.
His body surged with energy. Movements too fast for thought. Blood ran from his nose. His ribs cracked again as muscles overextended.
Below, a Hollowgnasher lunged from the newly made breach in the building.
He caught it by the skull, pivoted, and threw it through the floor. It dropped into the building’s basement, snapping through concrete like wet paper.
Dara shifted overhead. Her wings strained. She landed on a half-collapsed traffic light pole and sniped three flankers trying to circle Caelin. One hit the ground still twitching, trailing flame from a ricochet shot.
“Twenty-one,” she breathed. “Caelin, your Soul Stability’s bleeding. I can feel it.”
He didn’t answer. His HUD warped. The names flickered.
LOCATION: SERRAKIA – FINAL BASTION TOWER
His HUD warped as a Hallowgnashed screeched. The location details disappereaed then reappereared, showing something that could never be real.
SOULSPIRE PERIMETER – BREACH DETECTED
Not real. Not real. Not-
He staggered.
The Hollowgnashers didn’t wait.
Three surged toward him. He slashed once but missed the real one. One of the phantoms had worn Logan’s armor. Another had Dara’s face. The third was one of the officers from the massacre at Black Hollow.
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Ghost Layers – Escalated
Threat Perception: Unstable
Source Overlay: Harbinger’s Archive – Disrupted
One landed a strike. Hard. His chest armor cracked, he'd need Souls to fix it, something that didnt exist inside the Hollowgnashers.
He dropped to one knee, vision spinning.
Something hit him from behind, not a strike, a weight. Claws. Teeth. A shriek right into his ear.
He didn’t see the hole until it swallowed him.
Concrete gave way. The Hollowgnasher dragged him down into a ruptured sublevel, the floor crumbling beneath them. The world inverted.
Stone fractured. Rebar tore past his face, through his shoulder, then he was past, leaving blood and broken metal in his wake.
They hit hard. Dust and darkness swallowed everything. The air stank of rot and ash.
The beast was on him, snapping at his throat. His HUD flared and flickered.
It had a face. A human one. Serrakian. Reaped, unncesassarily, years ago.
He punched it. No give. His arm felt like glass. The blade didn’t reform.
Then, the area exploded in impossible light.
Wings of Succor
Ward of the Vanguard
Dara’s wings broke through the rubble like a divine intrusion, spectral feathers cracking through the ceiling above. They folded around him just long enough to take the next hit.
The Hollowgnasher lunged, its strike rebounded off the glowing barrier.
The wings flickered. Strained. Her pain bled through the link like heat.
“Get. Up.”
The wings folded inward and detonated.
The blast wasn’t explosive, but forceful. A rippling shove of radiant momentum.
Caelin’s body was flung upward through the ruined floor. He didn’t land clean.
He slammed back onto the upper level, glass and dirt grinding into his skin. His lungs screamed.
The scythe formed before he could think. A groan ripped from his throat.
He rose.
Not with purpose. Not with vengeance.
Because more creatures had to die before he did.
“Caelin!” Dara’s voice hit the link like a blade. “I need to know you’re in control.”
He wasn’t.
And sith the Scythe in his hand, pulsing with phantom pain, he didnt need to be. It screamed through his nerves like burning wire.
Then came another scream. One of the Hollowgnashers behind his as it bit into the corpse of a dead ally.
Caelin stood.
He Shadow Stepped forward.
Behind him, the echo trail exploded.
His HUD flickered, once, twice. Then broke.
TARGET IDENTIFIED: Dara Valkerys – Hostile
He stopped.
She was airborne. Healing him.
The overlay didn't care.
“Override. Override override override-”
His delay almost cost him his throat.
Spectral Aftershock – Randomized Detonation: SUCCESS
Targets hit: 2
Secondary effects: Bone fragmentation. Environmental rupture.
Stone collapsed under the explosion. Rubble dragged another four Hollowgnashers off balance. He caught one mid-fall, drove its face into the ground, and crushed its skull with a stomp that shook his fractured armor loose.
More came.
And he was laughing now.
Broken. Silent. A choked sound, buried in blood and static and rage.
Dara flared overhead, Valkyr Aflame active once more. Her wings left golden scars in the air as she dropped shields on him, even as her aim began to slow.
“I’m burning through Aether,” she warned. “If you keep this up-”
“Then don’t stop,” he muttered. “Just don’t stop.”
Another group charged.
He threw the Scythe.
It curved, spectral energy sparking off it until it hit nothing.
Unstable Projection – Arc Divergence Triggered
The blade ripped through the side of a building.
And from within Hollowgnashers.
Five. Ten. Fifteen.
All feasting. A lot of Natives had perished in these ruins. Terrified and ignorant of the reality they found themselves in.
These creatures hadn’t even joined the fight yet. These ones had been set loose to feast.
Dara froze. Then fired again, rage guiding her shots. Her perch cracked under the recoil.
Caelin felt her anger across their party link and suddenly saw red.
“Enough.”
He Shadow Stepped into the nest.
Blood had sprayed up the walls, based on the state of the bodies, some had died messy. He didn’t wait for threat vectors. He didn’t use Perception. His Aura didn't activate. He just killed them before they could react. Echoes of his past flared with every cut, after each kill a Soul was available for absorption, not from the Hollowgnashers, but from what remained of their food.
Soulstorm Surge – Extended Duration (Stacked Absorption)
Soul Stability: 61%
Warning: Core Threshold Approaching
The building shook. And something responded.
A howl..
It echoed through the ruin. Louder than before. No words. No intelligence.
Just hunger.
Dara flared again. Her voice ragged.
“Thirty-nine.”
Caelin’s hands were soaked in Void ichor. His blade pulsed.
He didn’t look at her.
“Still not enough.”
Something moved.
Not part of the swarm. Not Void-choked. Not living.
A silhouette.
A hooded figure, just standing on the broken lip of Macquarie Tower.
Watching him.
He blinked and it was gone.
His blade still pulsed.
He turned as a window on a wrecked tower reflected something that he never expected to see again, at least, not outside of his worst memories.
Not the skyline.
The Soulspire.
Distant. Fractured. Tilted sideways, as if falling across worlds.
A heartbeat passed and the reflection was suddenly glass.
His HUD flickered.
Then the light changed.
Not flame. Not Void. Something older. Something that felt… holier.
Aegis of the Fallen – Activated
Reverent Pulse initiated – Proximity Soul Load Detected
Dara landed hard nearby. Her wings spread wide and the battlefield went still.
The pulse didn’t just heal. It radiated with echoes of sacrifice.
Caelin felt them.
But unlike Dara’s Echoes, friends, allies, comrades, his were different.
Souls he had reaped. Kings. Titans. Planet-breakers. Ancient beings who begged for death.
And for a moment they answered back.
Not forgiveness. Not warmth.
Recognition.
The light surged through him and for ten seconds, he was whole.
Not saved. Not redeemed. But unbroken.
Caelin’s HUD cracked.
Adaptation Engine Triggered
Scenario: Melee pressure + sustained healing
Adaptation Unlocked: Soulshock Pulse
Effect: Stored healing detonates at melee range
Duration: 10 seconds
He stepped into the next cluster, his wounds still glowing faintly.
The pulse burst.
Three Hollowgnashers erupted from within, fluid boiling, spines cracking outward.
“Seventeen,” Dara reported. She sounded… harried. like the weight of his wounds that had flowed through their link were taking a toll.
He said nothing.
He grabbed a corpse by its torn arm, hurled it like a hammer into a charging beast. It toppled. He Shadow Stepped through the air and reappeared mid-spin.
The blade reformed mid-motion, seamless and like Caelin, burning with a singular intent.
The Hollowgnashers in front of him didn’t even scream. They just disintegrated.
Below, they were eating each other now. Desperate to reach him. Climbing over the dead. One tore off its own leg and kept coming.
He ducked and twisted erratically until a claw raked across his ribs. Only pausing for a moment when he heard them crunch.
Soul Stability: 63%
Dara’s wings burned lower. She fired another blast. It missed. Then she vanished.
Spectral Breach
She reappeared ten meters forward. The blink ruptured the air, her trail a burning crescent. Three Hollowgnashers dropped, twitching.
Caelin hurled his blade again.
Two heads.
But this time his grip trembled.
UNSTABLE PROJECTION – TRIGGERED
The arc veered.
It slammed through a wall, detonated the scaffold Dara was perched on, she leapt, her wings were on cooldown. Caelin watched as she looked in his direction. There was no annoyance, not hatred, no… she was smiling. She landed in a roll, Judgement disappeared into her inventory, and a sword he hadn't seen took its place. A sword that glowed with a golden light. Caelin caught a glimpse of the weapon.
Weapon Identified
F91-V Tactical Combat Sword – Covenant (System-Reforged - Unique)
Class-Sync: Seraphic Vanguard
Dara tore through them, each wound in her wake left golden flames burning on the dying Hollowgnashers. Then she crouched, activated Lifeline Protocol as the remaining beasts piled on top of her.
As he watched her voice came across their comms, “I didn’t expect to enjoy that as much as I did.”
Then without warning her wings extended, obliterating the beasts as she took to the skies. They didn’t have a chance to react. Caelin could only watch on.
Screams. Not Hollowgnashers. Soldiers. Serrakian. One of them looked up, what remained if his face looke horrible. His eyes melted, skin boiled, yet their was a terrible resignation, like he knew nothing he did would change his fate.
It wasn’t real.
“Watch the arcs,” Dara snapped. “You’re burning too hot.”
“We push on, or we die.”
She didn’t argue.
Another cluster emerged from the ruins.
He adjusted, vaulted a bus carcass stabbed into a building frame, and scaled a cracked wall using a warped metal sign - Macquarie To-
Location Updated: Macquarie Tower Ruins
A memory surged.
It wasn’t Liverpool. It was the Soulspire. No, no it was Serrakia. Blood on the walls. Screams echoing through smoke. Soldiers dragging one another. A captain begging him to stop-
He blinked.
A Hollowgnasher was in front of him. It wasn’t. It was Logan. It was one of the women from Serrakia. It-
He reacted too late. Took a slash across the shoulder.
Ghost Layers – Escalated
Visual overlays bleeding into reality
Threat prioritisation disrupted
Projection contamination increasing
He hissed.
Dara’s barrier flared and barely caught the follow-up.
“You’re leaking damage,” she said, sounding like her words were coming through clenched teeth. “Every projection is burning Aether through our link. It’s costing me double to heal you.”
“Can you sever it?”
“The link? You want me to?”
He paused.
Another beacon exploded below, this one dismembering a charging Hollowgnasher mid-leap.
He dropped into another swarm.
Blade. Flesh. Screams. Blood coated his face and upper body.
Then the buildings began to shake.
Void lightning flashed overhead, they felt it, a weight against their bodies and minds. After the pressure wave hit, static laced the skyline like the System was struggling to maintain control. A howl answered the lightning. More lightning pulsed with the primal sound, like a storm was building.
Then the second wave hit.
LOCATION IDENTIFIED: RUINS OF LIVERPOOL
CITY STATUS: STRUCTURAL COLLAPSE – 93%
VOID ANOMALY INTENSITY: CRITICAL
QUERY NETWORK FOR STABILITY DATA?
Yes / No
Input Registered: Yes
SILENCED NETWORK SYNC DEGRADED – VOID INTERFERENCE PRESENT
COMBAT OVERLAY: SEVERE CORRUPTION
TACTICAL MAP LOADING…
WARNING: HOSTILE SIGNATURES EXCEEDING DISPLAY PARAMETERS
QUERY PARTY LINK FOR OVERLAY DATA?
Yes / No
Input Registered: Yes
PARTY SYNC ACTIVE – DARA VALKERYS | FIELD COMMAND UPLINK STABLE
TACTICAL DATA STREAMING – REGIONAL CONTACTS IDENTIFIED
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS: UNSUSTAINABLE ENGAGEMENT
RECOMMENDED: ESCALATED RESPONSE
A new ripple tore across the ruined city block. Static-laced wind screamed through the remains of what had once been a towering structure, now reduced to skeletal fragments and charred foundations. Both Caelin and Dara's HUDS warped under the strain, throwing warnings up for Dara about the growing Void Storm and unintelligible gibberish for Caelin.
The Eclipse overhead pulsed like an infected wound, deepening its crimson glow. From its dark core spilled forth shapes more grotesque and purposeful than before.
They arrived as a tide of limbs and need.
Twisting voidbone. Spined carapaces. Mandibles clacking in no known rhythm. Black forms swarming over rubble like rot through flesh. Some crawled. Some ran. Others glided, limbs stretched in impossible configurations, trailing strands of spatial static.
And all of them moved with purpose.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
MICRO-ECLIPSE DETECTED
CLASSIFICATION: Aberrant – Tier III
SWARM SIGNATURE: Confirmed
VOID SATURATION: 86%
WARNING: SEVERE PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRUPTION IMMINENT
HYBRID NETWORK/SYSTEM POP-UP – SILENCED NETWORK BREACH
Name: Hunter Hollowgnashers
Type: Tier III Aberration
Behavior: Coordinated Swarm Assassins
Tactics: Adaptive camouflage, precise ambush, psychological warfare
Summary: Void-evolved insectoid nightmares. Carapace exudes psychic horror, causing severe psychological distress. Exceptional coordination; lethal ambush capabilities.
Caelin’s HUD split into overlapping warnings. Then again. Then again. It couldn’t process the numbers.
Too many.
The swarm didn’t charge.
It flowed.
A wave of hate with teeth. Not rushing into combat, instead folding inward on itself, tightening formation with every meter gained. It learned as it approached.
Predatory Perception – Critical Overload
Threat Vectors: Exceeding Lattice Limits
Instability Surge: Active
Phantom Echoes Manifesting
Shapes flickered through the corners of his vision, past kills. Serrakian officers. Black Hollow survivors. Dara. Then not Dara. Then someone else again.
One lunged. He recognized it just before it struck. Logan, mouth sewn shut, dragging the Hollowgnasher’s carapace behind him like a cape.
Caelin didn’t hesitate.
He split the vision in half with the Ethereal Blade and moved into the swarm.
The next moments weren’t thought. They were reaction.
The blade carved silent arcs of light. Two creatures fell. Then five. Then eight. He didn’t count, there wasn't time..
Then silence detonated.
Silent Reaping – Aura of Dread Intensified
Effect Radius: Expanded
Target Reaction: Panic Cascade
Draconic Soul Detriment – Critical Instability
Residual Pain Accumulating
Ghost Layers Manifesting
The Hollowgnashers convulsed. One staggered. Another turned on its packmate and tore its mandible out. Two more froze mid-charge, jaws vibrating.
Then the hallucinations surged.
Everything he killed looked familiar.
One had Dara’s voice, begging.
One had Serrakian banners stitched into its wings.
One wept.
He killed them all.
Above him, golden flame tore a line through the darkness.
Dara dropped from above like a warhead.
She landed in a slide, Covenant bisecting two Hunters with golden steel.
"Collapse vector," she said over comms. "North sector compromised. I’m cutting east."
Then she was gone again, using Shadow Blink to get across the battlefield. A trail of scorched stone and dismembered limbs marked her path.
Caelin didn’t blink. He activated his Scythe.
Spectral Aftershock – Chain Arc Initiated
Primary Targets: 14
Residual Detonations: 3
The Scythe arced,lightless and jagged. It severed limbs, ruptured bone, ignited Void residue like dry grass. Screams and hollows followed in his wake, a rough counterpoint to the sound of Dara going to work with Judgement.
He stepped forward into the next cluster and his HUD collapsed.
WARNING: CRITICAL PSYCHIC INSTABILITY
NETWORK FEEDBACK – SYSTEM OVERRIDE FAILED
A city screaming without sound.
Dara’s voice cut in like a blade.
"Status."
He didn’t answer.
"Caelin. Status."
Still nothing, so she forced one.
Suppressive Beacon – Emergency Override
Effect Radius: 20m
Cognitive Anchor: Applied
Residual Stability Surge: Temporary
The pulse hit him like a slap.
He blinked.
Everything re-aligned. Not fully. Just enough.
He exhaled.
"Thirty-six," he said.
"Thirty-six what?"
"Still breathing."
She didn’t respond straight away, then, "More incoming."
He looked up.
The rooftops were alive. Chitin scraping metal. Creatures leaping between broken frames like wolves, only smarter. Coordinated. He felt them tracking his timing.
They had learned his rhythm.
Adaptation Engine Triggered
Scenario: Multi-Angle Coordinated Assault
Adaptation Unlocked: Soulshock Pulse – Disruptive Field
Effect: Reactive Detonation on Contact
Duration: 10 seconds
For Caelin the next part of the battle was a blur, a bloody, acidic blur. The pain he felt when he almost lost a hand shone through, the pain he felt as Dara's healing stitched him back together.
One struck.
It never landed.
The pulse ignited, tearing its ribcage out through its back.
Four more hesitated.
He charged.
The last of the Hunter Hollowgnashers fell.
One burned alive in golden flame, its scream a stolen echo, sounding like the voices of those lost within the tuins.
Another had its spine crushed beneath Caelin’s boot as the Scythe carved a ragged arc through two more, severing them mid-lunge. The final body landed in a heap beside its kin, twitching once, then going still.
Tension twisted. Caelin exhaled slowly. The Scythe flickered, arcs of static crawling across its length.
"That was all of them," he muttered. “I counted more when the wave started."
Dara landed beside him in a crouch, her blade angled down, eyes scanning. Her voice was clipped, controlled.
"This was too clean. The numbers don’t add up."
Then the Eclipse pulsed.
Not visually.
Not even physically.
It was spatial recoil.
The air convulsed.
The sky cracked then the Eclipse tore.
Bodies ejected.
Violently.
Dozens.
They launched from the Eclipse like artillery, striking rooftops, walls, broken stone. Several detonated on impact, their limbs and ichor splashing across steel and concrete. Others struck walls, spasmed, staggered upright, then dropped dead.
These new Hollowgnashers were wrong.
Their shapes were more erratic. Their carapaces shimmered unpredictably. One howled and vomited black static. Another ripped its own mandibles free before charging again, just to collapse q few steps later.
System Notification
Micro-Eclipse Detected
Classification: Aberrant – Tier IV
Swarm Signature: Partial – Destabilized
Void Saturation: 94%
Warning: Hostile Mutation Cycle Complete
Hybrid Network/System Pop-Up – Silenced Network Breach
Name: Hollowgnashers (Fractured)
Type: Tier IV Aberration
Behavior: Rogue Swarm Aberrants
Tactics: Erratic propulsion, berserker charge, terminal detonation
Summary: Eclipse-birthed evolution. Intelligence ruptured by System conflict. Movement chaotic. Coordination null. Corpses remain partially reactive. Carapace exudes Void-stain heat signatures inconsistent with known logic patterns. Mutation irreversible.
Caelin narrowed his eyes.
"They’re hitting harder."
Dara didn’t look at him. Her voice was flat.
"System tried to override the Eclipse. Couldn’t. Burned its own minions doing it."
The Eclipse above them rippled again then began to glow.
Not light. Heat.
The temperature rose in slow, deliberate waves. The air berween them and the Eclipse shimmered with a heat haze. Movement on both sides dragged.
“This isn't just the System. All of them, the Tier IV's at least, came out… broken. Something tore through them on the other side. Raid team?” Caelin shook his head. “No, this damage is too consistent. If it was a team, there would be multiple types of damage.”
Caelin’s HUD stuttered.
He tried to move but his body didnt follow instructions.
Dara landed at his side and slammed a palm against his back. Energy pulsed from her like a shockwave.
Wings of Succor - Ward of the Vanguard
Healing surge deployed
Detriment purge in progress
Residual instability: Mitigated
His limbs loosened. Vision cleared. The Scythe steadied.
Then the Eclipse tore wide.
Not slowly.
Not cleanly.
A System notification lit up the sky above them, Dara also waved a HUD notification away that contained the same information.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
ECLIPSE SIGNATURE BREACHED
CONTROL AUTHORITY: RELINQUISHED
USER STATUS: OBSERVER
Dara’s voice was cold. "Relinquished. Not lost. The System just let go?"
“The System can't appear to show weakness. Announcing that It relinquished control, after losing it, sounds better.”
Then the Tyrant came through.
It didn’t step out. It tore its way into the world.
Stone fractured. Buildings cracked. The ground warped inward as the creature forced its mass through a wound in space that didn’t want it.
The Eclipse tore open. Its perimeter pulsed like torn muscle, fighting to stay closed. The air vibrated with low, sick resonance. Space twisted. Angles buckled where no angles should be. Light flickered inside the breach, but nothing shone. Then something began to force its way through. It scraped against reality. The world tried to hold shape and failed.
Energy erupted. It was uncontrolled. Violent. Bolts of pure kinetic distortion lanced out into the ruins. One hit a bus carcass and vaporized it. Another sheared a rooftop in half.
Caelin stepped back. Dara’s wings flared wide.
And then it was there.
Watching them.
Breathing.
Void pulsed off its giant body, warping space around it.
Caelin exhaled. “One of them.”
His voice was low. “This is going to hurt.”
System Notification
Void-Dominion Anomaly Detected
Classification: Aberrant – Tier V
Swarm Signature: Singular Entity
Void Saturation: 99.4%
Warning: Control Authority Relinquished – User Observation Mode Only
Hybrid Network/System Pop-Up – Forced System Breach
Name: Tyrant Hollowgnasher
Type: Tier V Apex Aberration
Behavior: Eclipse-Born Alpha Predator
Tactics: Dimensional rupture, soul destabilization, tactical atmospheric distortion
Summary: Result of full Void-Sync corruption. Controlled by no known swarm protocol. Emerged via breach rupture; Entity classified as rogue Tier V. Physical parameters exceed recorded Aberrant mass. Capable of semi-intelligent observation mimicry. System relinquished Eclipse control upon emergence. Intelligence: Variable.
Threat Level: Apocalyptic.
“One of them? You've fought a… Tyrant before?”
Caelin grimaced then noticed the other Hollowgnashers coming through the broken Eclipse behind the Tyrant and sighed.
“Once. A long time ago. I can't remember the fight… yet. All I know is that it happened,” Caelin paused, almost like his memory was struggling to come to terms with what his Soul knew to be true, “and the Harbinger had to put me back together.”
Dara tore her eyes away from the advancing horde.
“Put you back together? Your mind,” it was Dara's turn to pause, “that tracks.”
Caelin flashed Dara a quick smile, then reached up to touch his face.
“Haven't done that in a long time. I can't remember if I've always had memory issues, but I doubt it. I think… I think that has something to do with the Harbinger and…” Caelin clenched his fists then saw Life appeared at the edge of his vision. “I don't know. There's something, right there!”
“It'll come back.”
Two voices had replied, Dara sounded encouraging. Life. Life had sounded hungry.
“Did you win?”
Caelin looked at the Tyrant and frowned.
Dara eventually turned away, eyes scanning the growing horde.
“Neither of us won. I don't remember the fight. I do remember the… re-education I received for failing to put a creation of the Harbinger of Void in its place.”
Caeling shuddered and neither spoke again until Dara continued, the moment had passed.
“I’ll take the dregs. You get-” She paused, eyes narrowing. “Fuck. It’s bigger than I thought.” She paused, then looked over at Caelin. “You really aren't Earth military, that was a lay-up.” Again Caelin didn't react and Dara just sighed then seemed to think about it. “Actually, I don't think this is worse.”
She took to the air. Five shots rang out. Five Hollowgnashers dropped. None got back up.
---------------------------
Silent Reaping – Evolved
Core Ability – Silent Reaper Class
Base Effect (Original):
Conjure an ethereal Reaper’s Scythe to deal critical damage to an unaware target, bypassing all defences. The strike is silent, leaving no sound or sensory trace.
New Passive Effects (Gained via Evolution):
Soul Rend:
Each successful strike has a chance to destabilise the target.
- Against Soul-bearing enemies: may trigger paralysis, stuttering movement, or collapse.
- Against soulless creatures: disrupts instinctual functions—causing hesitation, misfires, or brief pack confusion. May collapse a weakened target outright if damage is severe enough.
Aura of Dread:
When the Scythe manifests, a passive Reaper Aura expands around Caelin.
- Lesser enemies suffer Fear, halting or retreating.
- Mid-tier enemies experience growing unease and disrupted coordination.
- Extended exposure leads to panic, irrational behaviour, or fleeing.
Draconic Soul Detriment – Critical Instability
The Reaper’s Scythe is bound directly to Caelin’s fractured Soul. The more often it is used, the greater the cost.
- Phantom Pain: Each use leaves residual nerve pain suppressed only while under active healing. Once healing stops, the pain returns in full, often all at once.
- Unstable Projection: If overused or held too long, the Scythe may discharge violently—arcing spectral damage in a radius, harming enemies and potentially Caelin.
- Ghost Layers: Caelin’s perception may fracture during use, overlapping past kills onto current targets. This can cause momentary confusion, hesitation, or mistimed attacks.
Valkyr Aflame (Active – Support/Movement)
Manifest radiant, angular wings that keep the user airborne for 90 seconds. While active, the wings emit a passive healing field across the battlefield. Grants tactical awareness, extended healing/shield range, and real-time enemy tracking.
- Heals all nearby allies over time.
- Enhances all healing and shields by 40%.
- Grants temporary immunity to melee attacks while airborne.
- Cooldown: 3 minutes
F91-V Tactical Combat Sword – “Covenant” Class-Sync: Seraphic Vanguard
Originally issued as a high-performance tactical blade for 2CO Special Forces, Covenant was re-engineered upon Dara’s Ascension to complement her Seraphic Vanguard role. Crafted from military-grade alloy, it was once a tool for rapid combat and extraction, optimized for close-quarters engagements. Upon receiving her class, the sword was enhanced to channel radiant energy, transforming it from a simple blade into a sword of purpose.
Its precision edge, reinforced with vibration-damping technology, allows Dara to strike with deadly efficiency while providing minor radiant pulses that stabilize and heal nearby allies. When in combat sync with Judgement, Covenant amplifies Dara's healing output and boosts the effectiveness of her radiant aura. Designed for close-quarters defense and swift extractions, Covenant is now a symbol of her unwavering commitment to her role as protector on the frontline.