Chapter 13 – The Commander's Net
The survivors moved in silence, ash crunching faintly underfoot. Twenty-one now, each one gaunt and hollow-eyed. Even Yun Xue's voice, normally calm, had grown hoarse from coaxing them forward.
Shen Yuan led at the front, spear clutched tightly in his hands. The canyon ahead split into two paths—one opening into a wide, barren basin, the other narrowing into a jagged ravine that could barely fit a single person at a time.
"We have to choose," he said quietly, his breath misting in the cold air.
Basin: 62% chance it's bait. Ravine: 91% chance of total annihilation.
I fed the probabilities directly into his mind. He didn't respond.
"Which way?" Yun Xue asked, glancing at the survivors huddled behind them.
Shen Yuan's eyes swept the group—their trembling legs, the fear etched into every face—and made his decision.
"The basin," he said.
The group shuffled into the open, feet dragging through the ash. The basin stretched wide and flat, hemmed in by sheer canyon walls. Ash swirled around their legs like smoke, clinging to their clothes and hair. The air was heavy and charged, each step grinding the silence deeper. My sensors struggled to pierce the interference gnawing at every thread of my code.
Too quiet, I noted.
Yun Xue's eyes darted constantly between the ridges. Even the survivors felt it—the unease that settled into their bones the deeper they walked.
Then the beacons ignited.
Blue light flared along the basin's perimeter, suppression arrays activating one after another until they formed a seamless ring of pale fire. Qi flow collapsed in an instant. Survivors gasped, clutching at their meridians as they crumpled to their knees. Shen Yuan staggered, sweat breaking across his brow as his limbs felt suddenly leaden.
[ SOUL-LINK STABILITY: CRITICAL ]
I poured energy into the tether, fighting to keep it from fraying.
This wasn't random. The placement, the timing—every anchor was perfectly calibrated for disruption.
I knew this design.
Disruptor Array.
"Delirium System," a voice said, quiet and cold.
Shen Yuan froze.
The voice threaded through the suppression network itself, clinical and measured, each word a scalpel.
"Grave Omega's rat that refuses to die. I wondered how long you'd last."
Veylan.
The survivors looked around wildly, searching for the source. They would not find him.
"What does he want?" Shen Yuan whispered, voice taut.
Me, I answered.
The tether trembled as I pushed more energy through. Shen Yuan felt it and shook his head.
"We're not leaving anyone," he said.
If we split now, I can thread you through a gap in the grid. The others will slow us down—they're already dead weight.
"No," Shen Yuan said, voice steady despite the fear pressing in from all sides. "I won't abandon them."
Then we all die here.
"Better together than scattered and alone."
The tether steadied.
I stared at the metrics, baffled. His defiance was strengthening the connection, not weakening it.
"You're making this easy," Veylan's voice came again, smooth as a blade. "Gathering every stray in one place. When I break you, it will be clean."
Figures emerged from the beacon glow—Bone Court enforcers, at least two dozen, weapons gleaming with talisman light. Heavier silhouettes followed, dragging crates of suppression anchors behind them.
Disruptor units.
[ SYSTEM CORE DISRUPTION IMMINENT ]
Shen Yuan's grip tightened around the spear until his knuckles whitened.
"We're surrounded," Yun Xue whispered, voice shaking.
Yes. And the net is already closed.
The survivors backed up instinctively, bumping into one another. Some clutched at Shen Yuan's robes like frightened children.
He looked at them—the boy Yun Xue had rescued just days ago, still pale and gaunt; the old man whose legs barely worked; the young woman clutching a cracked dagger like it would save her.
They were dead weight, I reminded him.
"Stay behind me," Shen Yuan said.
I scanned for a gap, any weakness. There was none. Veylan's formations never had weaknesses.
"Do you understand, System?" Veylan asked, his voice filling the basin. "You can't win here. You never could. You're part of the pattern. And the pattern ends with your core in my hands."
The enforcers advanced, their armor catching the pale light of the suppression arrays. The survivors recoiled, pressing themselves against the canyon wall.
We can't fight them all, I said. Cut the tether now, and I might be able to push you through their lines. It's your only chance.
"No," Shen Yuan said.
You're choosing them over survival? This isn't bravery—it's delusion.
Shen Yuan's eyes flicked to the survivors, then back to the advancing enforcers. He planted his feet, spear lowering into a ready stance.
"I've made my choice," he said.
The tether pulsed with unflinching resolve.
I dimmed my core and began diverting every remaining thread of energy into contingency protocols.
If Veylan thought I would let him take me alive, he was mistaken.
The first enforcer broke from formation, sprinting across the basin with a talisman-forged glaive raised high. Shen Yuan shifted, spear flashing up to meet him. The impact jarred his bones, but he held, twisting to ram the spearpoint through the man's exposed throat.
The survivor's gasps turned to cheers for the briefest moment.
Then the next wave hit.
More enforcers closed in from both sides, weapons gleaming, suppression beacons flaring brighter as the net constricted further.
I could feel the Disruptor Array humming, its pulse matching my own failing core.
[ SOUL-LINK STABILITY: 29% AND FALLING ]
Shen Yuan braced for the next strike, his breath ragged. Yun Xue was dragging the survivors backward, barking orders even as fear glistened in her eyes.
This was no longer a hunt.
It was an execution.