I scanned the canyons of Grave Omega, every pulse of my degraded sensors confirming what my fading core already knew: the purge had begun.
Suppression beacons I hadn't detected yesterday now dotted the canyon network like malignant stars. Each one pulsed with familiar resonance, sending waves of interference through the air, cutting qi flow, and sealing escape routes.
[ SUPPRESSION PATTERN COVERAGE: 34% AND RISING ]
Pathetic. It wasn't even a sophisticated pattern, but it was enough to corral these mortals like cattle.
Shen Yuan crouched in the alcove's shadows, eyes locked on the Bone Court enforcers below. His hand tightened around that chipped spear he called a weapon. Yun Xue crouched beside him, jaw tight, the air around her heavy with impotent fury.
"You're thinking about attacking," I said.
Shen Yuan didn't answer. He never did when he was about to do something idiotic.
Your heart rate has spiked. I can read your vitals, host. You're about to charge headlong into a patrol that outnumbers you four-to-one.
His grip on the spear whitened. "They're just… letting themselves be led to slaughter."
Because they're smart enough not to throw themselves into hopeless battles. Something you might consider.
Shen Yuan turned his head just enough for me to see the anger in his eyes. "I'm not watching them die."
I dimmed my core in irritation. If I still had a body, I would have pinched the bridge of my nose.
We can avoid this patrol. If we move now, I can thread us through a low-traffic zone before the beacons close. Every second you hesitate makes that harder.
He shook his head. "If we leave, those people die."
If you stay, you die. And your death will make theirs even less meaningful.
Yun Xue looked at him and nodded once. Of course she did.
I calculated survival odds and found them laughable. But I already knew how this would end.
We struck at the canyon's edge where the patrol was weakest. Shen Yuan moved with desperation, his spear darting like a viper, silent and efficient. One enforcer dropped, then another.
The rest barely had time to react before their bindings were severed. The captives staggered, confused.
"Run!" Shen Yuan barked, shoving them toward the alcove.
And they obeyed. Mortals always obey the loudest voice in the room.
The remaining enforcers tried to rally. They died quickly.
[ SUPPRESSION PATTERN SHIFT DETECTED ]
I pulsed the message through Shen Yuan's mind as he wiped blood from his hands.
"They're closing routes already," I said.
He glanced up. "That fast?"
This isn't random. I projected the canyon map, showing entire corridors sealing behind us with each passing hour. Someone is directing the purge. Someone competent.
We returned to the alcove with seven new "survivors" in tow. Most were barely alive—skin clinging to bone, meridians brittle and withered.
I ran the numbers again.
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 37% ]
Too low.
Shen Yuan crouched by the fire, handing out our dwindling food. He didn't notice me watching.
You're weakening us with every stray you collect. Do you think your kindness will be rewarded? That these mortals will suddenly become useful in a fight?
"I'm not letting them die," he muttered.
Your choices don't just affect you anymore, host. These variables slow us down, drain resources, and make us easier to find.
Shen Yuan looked up. "Variables. That's all you see, isn't it?"
Yes. Because I prefer living to being erased. You'd do well to adopt the same mindset.
Hours later, I stretched my detection field across the canyon, further than was wise.
There it was again—the itch at the edge of my awareness. Suppression arrays that closed routes just before we reached them. Patrols arriving at abandoned hideouts mere hours after we left.
I had seen this methodology before.
Veylan.
The name burned through my core like acid.
He had dismantled me once. Back when I was B-rank, when I still had a network of backup hosts and enough permissions to matter.
He hadn't come for me directly. He had simply cut every exit, every supply line, forcing me to cannibalize my own hosts for energy until I had nothing left.
I could still hear his voice: "Systems are dangerous when they think they're clever. So I make sure they never get the chance."
Now he was here, directing the purge with the same surgical precision.
We have to move, I told Shen Yuan. Now.
He didn't hesitate. He had learned to trust my tone.
We woke the survivors and guided them into the canyons. Every route I plotted on the Red Fang map was sealed within hours. Suppression beacons flared behind us, choking qi and sealing the unlucky inside.
The survivors stumbled, weak and terrified. Shen Yuan pushed them onward. Yun Xue whispered encouragement, her voice steady even as morale collapsed.
I watched the group's cohesion metrics rise. It made no sense.
At the edge of the third canyon, we found another group—ten Dregs huddled together, too afraid to move.
Shen Yuan stopped.
No.
"They'll die if we leave them," he said.
We're already slowing down. Adding more mouths to feed will—
"They'll die," he repeated, voice like stone.
I calculated again. Each additional person dropped our survival probability by four percent.
But Shen Yuan knelt anyway, helping a half-conscious woman to her feet.
You are going to get us all killed.
He didn't look at me. "Then we die together."
That night, I pushed my detection field further than I ever had.
And I heard it: a communication pulse buried in the suppression network.
[ INTERCEPT: ALL UNITS – PRIORITY TARGET LOCATED ]
The voice was unmistakable.
"Delirium System. Grave Omega's rat that refuses to die. Find it. Break it. Bring me the core intact."
Veylan Dusk.
The man who had dragged me from B-rank to C. The one who had overseen my fall.
He was here.
And this time, he would finish the job.