"N-no, I will not let you!" the voice of Light Henry screamed from the cage in his mind.
Dark Henry scoffed. "Stop speaking, you—"
His words were cut short by a howl that scraped the inside of his skull. From the dark woods on either side of the road, shapes emerged. They were canine, but twisted. Too many joints in their legs, skin stretched tight over bone, and their eyes glowed with the same hungry, red light as his own.
"Grave-hounds," Tsukuyomi's voice echoed in his mind, her tone shifting from playful to interested. "They're drawn to strong sources of dark energy. And darling, you're practically a lighthouse."
Three of them. Then five. They stalked forward, saliva dripping from their jaws, their growls harmonizing into a deathly hum.
"We should run, Henry!" the voice pleaded.
He ignored it. A wide, terrifying grin split his face. "Good," he whispered. "I'm hungry."
He didn't wait for them to pounce. He moved, and the world became a blur of motion and violence. He didn't just use the katana. He let the darkness bleed out, forming jagged spikes from the ground that impaled the first hound. He ducked under the lunge of a second, the katana singing as it sliced clean through its midsection.
"Stop! You're being reckless! You'll get us killed!"
This is what it feels like to be alive, he thought back, a wave of pure, savage joy washing over him as he spun, driving his elbow into the snout of a third beast with a sickening crunch.
The last two hounds, seeing the carnage, hesitated. It was all the opening he needed. He pointed the katana at them, and two tendrils of pure shadow shot from the blade, wrapping around their necks and choking the life from them in seconds.
Silence returned. He stood in the middle of the road, splattered in black blood, chest heaving not from exhaustion, but exhilaration. He felt incredible. Using the katana, he carved a slab of meat from the flank of one of the hounds, conjured a small, contained shadow-flame, and cooked it, the smell of sizzling monster flesh filling the air. He ate it raw and bloody.
"Bravo!" Tsukuyomi applauded, materializing beside him. "A true artist at work. You see? You don't need to hide. This power is a gift."
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "It's a tool. And I plan to use it."
"You're a monster," Henry whimpered internally.
"He says I'm a monster," he said to Tsukuyomi, a mocking pout on his lips. "What do you think?"
"I think you're perfect," she replied without hesitation. "But what now, my perfect monster? Are you really going to follow that pathetic plan to go to... school?" She said the word like it was a disease.
He laughed. "School? No. The other one can have his boring little dreams. I want more of this." He gestured to the dead hounds. "I want a real challenge."
Tsukuyomi's smile widened. "I thought you'd say that. That sword I became... it holds more than just my essence. It holds memories. Maps. There is a place, far to the south. A crater from an ancient war, now known as the Obsidian Heart. It's a nexus of dark energy. A place where things like you go to feast, to fight, and to grow stronger."
"The Obsidian Heart. I like the sound of that."
"No! We should take a look at the academy, like Joseph said—"
"Joseph is a weak old man who locked me in a cage!" he snapped, his teeth gritted. "His plans are dead. We're going south." He turned to Tsukuyomi. "Lead the way, goddess."
"With pleasure," she beamed. "But I have a unique way of traveling. Hold my hand." She extended a delicate hand. He looked at her suspiciously. "If this is one of your jokes..." He intertwined his fingers with hers. Her skin was cool to the touch.
"Ooh, cold hands," she purred. "I like that."
The world dissolved into a tunnel of rushing shadows. They moved at an impossible speed until, just as they were nearing their destination, a pale light began to bleed through the darkness. The sun. The connection between them snapped. The power drained out of him, and he transformed back mid-air, crashing hard to the forest floor.
"It's my turn now," Light Henry's voice said, a little stronger this time.
Dark Henry's voice echoed in his mind as it faded. "This isn't over. The night will be back."
"Don't worry," Tsukuyomi's laugh whispered from the katana. "Tonight will be even more fun."
Henry was too weak to move. He crawled to the base of a tree and passed out. He dreamed of the slaughter in the warehouse and the gruesome fight with the hounds.
"Morning, Cinderella," Tsukuyomi's voice woke him. He looked around. He wasn't in the forest anymore. He was in a wasteland of broken metal, at the edge of a giant crater with a city built precariously above it.
"Welcome to the Obsidian Heart," she said, smiling. "It took some time after you decided to take a nap, but I managed to carry you here."
"What is this place?" Henry protested, pushing himself up.
"Where you wanted to be," she smirked. "Well, where he wanted to be."
It was a colossal wound in the earth, miles across, filled with the bones of a dead civilization. Broken skyscrapers jutted out like rotten teeth. Rivers of oily, iridescent sludge flowed through canyons of concrete and twisted steel. A low, constant hum hung in the air, an energy that made the hair on his arms stand up, and an invisible mist of strange mineral dust floated all around.
"This is hell," Henry whispered.
"For you, maybe. For him, it's a playground," Tsukuyomi corrected. "And right now, I suggest we find something to fill that pathetic stomach of yours."
The market was an assault on the senses: a cacophony of shouts, the sizzle of unknown meat, and the smell of hot metal and chemicals. The people here were a patchwork of flesh and machine. A man with piston-arms haggled over rusty gears. A woman with glowing optic eyes sold vials of luminescent liquid. They were scavengers, cyborgs, mutants. Monsters. And Henry, with his white hair and plain clothes, stuck out like a dove in a murder of crows.
"They're watching us," Henry said, his body tense.
"Of course they are," Tsukuyomi chirped, appearing beside him. "You look like an easy meal. And I," she spun, striking a pose, "look like a prize."
That's when he saw them. Three men blocking their path. The leader had a metal jaw and an arm replaced with a claw that hissed with every twitch. His eyes were cold, dead, and locked on the katana at Henry's hip.
"Nice sword," the cyborg growled, his voice like gravel in a garbage disposal. "Looks heavy. Let us carry it for you."
Henry stepped back. "We don't want any trouble."
The cyborg laughed, a hideous, mechanical noise. "I see you, and trouble already found you, meatbag. The sword. Now."
Let me out, a voice hissed in the back of Henry's mind, cold and furious. I'll rip his spine out through his throat.
"No," Henry whispered to himself, falling into the defensive fighting stance Joseph had taught him. "You're not getting it."
The leader's claw shot out. Henry dodged, but the cyborg was too fast, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him off the ground. Black spots danced in his vision.
Weak! You're pathetically weak! Let go!
As Henry struggled, Tsukuyomi sighed dramatically. "Such naughty boys. You shouldn't fight over toys." She held up one delicate hand. The shadow of one of the cyborg's own thugs suddenly lashed out, striking the claw-arm and forcing him to drop Henry.
"You betrayed me!" the cyborg roared at his underling.
Tsukuyomi trapped them all in a bubble of darkness where their own shadows attacked them. When the shadows vanished, the three thugs were dropped, unconscious, to the ground.
"See? No stress," she laughed.
"You..." Henry choked out. "What did you do?"
Before she could answer, a new figure appeared. A tall, slender woman in a leather duster that shimmered with fiber-optic circuitry. Half her face was polished chrome, a single red eye glowing with analytical intensity.
"That was… interesting," the woman said, her voice a smooth hybrid of human tone and digital synth. She glanced at the unconscious men, then at Henry. "Shadow-based mass hysteria. Not a tech I'm familiar with. And you," she fixed her gaze on Henry, "you withstood Iron-Jaw's grip for 3.7 seconds longer than an un-augmented human should. You're not from around here."
"You can see her?" Henry asked, stunned.
"No. But I saw you talking to the wind, so I can guess you have some kind of familiar," she replied coolly.
"Who are you?" Henry asked.
"I'm an information broker. Name's Vex. And I see potential. Potential breeds profit." Vex's optic eye whirred. "You need a place to stay. Food. Intel. I can provide all of it. In exchange for a small favor."
"We don't do favors," Henry said warily.
"You'll do this one," Vex stated with iron certainty. "In the center of the crater, there's a pre-Fall data spire, 'the Pinnacle.' It's guarded by autonomous war drones. My clients would pay a fortune for a data drive from inside. You two are the perfect blend of brute force and… finesse. You can get in."
She wants us to fight. Yes, the voice in his head agreed with a chilling pleasure.
"We'll do it," Henry said, the decision tasting like ash in his mouth.
Vex smiled, a barely-there twitch of her human lips. "Excellent. Meet me at this location before sunset." She handed him a strange device pointing the way.
Henry arrived as the sun began its descent, casting long, ominous shadows across the junkyard city. Vex led him through the maze-like streets. He felt the change begin. A coldness spreading from his marrow, the ache in his muscles turning into a promise of power. The fear in his chest was replaced by an electric anticipation.
He closed his eyes for just a moment, and when he opened them again, the sick light of the Obsidian Heart was reflected in a crimson gleam.
A slow, predatory smile spread across his lips.
War drones, he thought, the voice no longer a whisper, but a triumphant roar in his own mind. Finally. A real challenge.