The horn's echo still trembled in Lucas's bones when Silas moved. He didn't lunge for them but went for the rusted wall panel instead. His gnarled fingers punched a sequence into hidden controls.
"Give it to me." Silas's voice left no room for negotiation, his outstretched palm gleaming with oily sweat.
Lucas clutched the implant tighter. "After you give us Voidmark's location."
The broker's milky eyes flicked to the shuddering ceiling as another Purge horn blared, closer this time. "Foolish boy," he spat, "that data's worthless if you're scrapcode." With shocking strength, he yanked Lucas forward and pried the implant free. The tendrils tore from Lucas's flesh with a wet snap, sending white-hot pain up his arm.
"Out!" Silas hurled a smoke grenade at their feet. "Meet me in the Valley if you survive the night."
The shop filled with acrid smoke in seconds. Nyra hooked an arm around Lucas's waist, dragging him backward as Vex kicked open a hidden grate. "Move!"
They plunged into the bowels of the Gutter Markets just as the ceiling caved in behind them, the Purge Team's arrival shaking the foundations like an earthquake.
The stench of rancid clung to the team as they fled through the Gutter Markets. Their boots splashed through thin streams of sewage water. A rat the size of a boot skittered across their path, dragging a half-chewed lottery ticket — the kind no one had used since the last three winners were found skinned.
Lucas's artifact burned like a branding iron against his sternum, its pulse syncing with his frantic heartbeat as the screech of tearing metal erupted behind them.
Nyra's ears snapped flat against her skull. She threw out an arm, her claws glinting in the neon glow of floating vendor stalls. "Hold up!"
Three figures materialized at the far end of the rickety bridge, their forms flickering like corrupted holograms before solidifying. The lead figure stood a full head taller than the others, its obsidian armor etched with pulsating crimson runes. Where its face should have been, a smooth visor displayed scrolling text:
[NAME: NULL]
[LEVEL: ∞ ERROR]
[WEAPON: [REDACTED]]
A low, mechanical hum bled into the air, like a server farm breathing.
Vex's claws slid free with a metallic snick. "Well, fuck."
TheAnnihilator raised its weapon - a jagged shard sword of fractured light that warped the air around it. When it swung, reality itself seemed to stutter. Nyra's fingers spasmed open against her will, her favorite dagger clattering to the cobblestones as if her muscles had forgotten their purpose. Nearby, the intricate knots holding up a fruit stall unraveled midair, sending baskets of rancid moonmelons crashing onto the street.
Lucas stumbled back, his vision swimming with urgent system warnings:
[WARNING: CONCEPTUAL WEAPON DETECTED]
[ADAPTIVE RESPONSE: INITIATING...]
[ERROR: INSUFFICIENT DATA]
Dain didn't hesitate. The massive brawler charged forward, his stone-encrusted fists already raised. The amber cracks that had been creeping up his arms glowed brighter with each pounding step, pulsing like molten lava beneath his skin. He brought his hands together in a thunderous clap that sent visible shockwaves rippling through the bridge's foundation.
The explosion of sound shattered Lucas's eardrums. Wood splintered. Ropes snapped like gunshots. For one suspended moment, the entire walkway listed sideways before collapsing in a cacophony of screams and splintering timber.
Vex grabbed Dain's arm as the big man staggered back, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "You absolute idiot!" Vex snarled, though his voice cracked with something alarmingly close to panic. The glowing cracks had reached Dain's shoulders now, tendrils of amber light creeping toward his neck. "You're turning to stone!"
Dain grinned, though his jaw was already beginning to stiffen. "Better than turning into ones and zeroes."
Lucas didn't know how to react, neither did Nyra. Their reprieve lasted exactly fourteen seconds.
Two Hound Primes cleared the gap with unnatural grace, their sleek metallic forms moving like liquid shadow. Up close, Lucas could see the horror inside their glass chest compartments - human eyes floating in viscous fluid, pupils dilating in terror as the machines hunted.
He felt a both fear and disgust, instinctraising his hands, summoning Frostbite, but the cold energy reflected off the Hound's glass surface and nearly encased Nyra in ice. She barely twisted away in time, shooting him a glare that could melt steel. "Watch your damn angles, hotshot!"
A high-pitched voice cut through the chaos. "Hey, morons! Down here unless you wanna be System kibble!"
Lucas whirled to see a grimy face peering from a drainage pipe barely wider than his shoulders. Nyra's eyes glittered with something between amusement and impatience as she waved them over.
They didn't need convincing.
As Lucas ducked into the pipe's foul darkness, he chanced one final glance back. TheAnnihilator stood motionless at the ruined bridge's edge.
"I'm coming for you, Lucas Kane."
Its blank visor now displaying a new message that turned his blood to ice:
[DIRECTIVE: PRESERVE SUBJECT [LUCAS KANE]]
[FOR [VOIDMARK] ASSIMILATION]
Then the sewer grate slammed shut, plunging them into darkness thick with the scent of mildew and standing water. Their helper's whisper slithered through the black: "This way."
The tunnel's darkness pressed against them like a living thing. Lucas's boots slipped on the moss-slick stones, his right hand - the one that had held the implant - twitching uncontrollably. Every few steps, his pinky finger would glitch into static, the artifact in his chest pulsing in time with the distortion.
"Would you stop that?" Nyra hissed ahead of him, her ears swiveling like radar dishes. "Your hand's making enough noise to wake the dead."
Lucas clenched his fist, but the static only worsened. Ahead, their small guide moved with unnatural surety, bare feet finding purchase where the others slipped. The child paused beneath a rusted grate where faint light filtered through, illuminating a sign half-buried in sludge: MaintenanceSector 7-B - Authorized Personnel Only.
Vex sniffed the air, his wolfish nostrils flaring. "Smells like piss, gunpowder, and alot bad decisions. Home sweet home." He smiled sarcastically.
The tunnel opened abruptly into a cavernous chamber where time seemed to have stopped. Massive filtration gears stood frozen mid-rotation, their teeth casting shadows. Between them hung dozens of makeshift hammocks fashioned from System patrol uniforms and Warden banners. The air carried the acrid tang of recycled air and something darker - the ozone scent of glitch energy.
"Welcome to Rat Town," their guide announced, spreading grimy arms. A light shone, revealing their guide to be a little girl.
Lucas's breath caught. The walls were covered in carvings - not random graffiti, but precise System runes dug deep into the metal. They pulsed with faint amber light, forming a phrase that repeated like a chant:
CLAVEM TENET VOIDMARK
VOIDMARK SYSTEMA FRANGET
VOIDMARK HIC FUIT
It was scratched deep into the metal, some half-buried under grime, others glowing faint amber like the system itself is trying to erase them but can't.
Nyra's claws dug into his arm. "These markings... they're the same as the ones I saw in the Warren's hidden tunnels." Her voice held something Lucas had never heard before - recognition. Fear.
Dain staggered against a gear, his stone skin cracking audibly. Amber light leaked from his joints like molten solder. "We need to—"
A metallic clang cut him off. From the shadows between two massive gears, a familiar figure emerged - Celine, her stolen Magistrate coat now streaked with fresh blood that couldn't possibly all be hers. In one hand she held a smoking shock-pistol; in the other, a Hound's severed optic sensor that still twitched.
"Celine?" Vex's voice was barely more than a breath.
The years between them collapsed in an instant, and for a heartbeat, the noise of the world fell away. Vex's claws curled against his palms, unsure whether to reach for her or the blade at his belt.
"You're late," she said, tossing the sensor aside.
Behind her, three more children emerged - one with Warden-brand cybernetics, another with Hound claws grafted to their fingers, the last with skin that flickered like a bad hologram. All carried weapons too large for their small frames.
Celine wiped her bloody hands on her coat, leaving rust-colored streaks. "Now that you've seen the welcome mat," she said, her voice suddenly much older than her years. She looked straight into Lucas's eyes. "Let's talk about how you're going to help me kill a god."