Sid had expected a quiet return after the chaos of the last mission. Recovery, light training, and time to clear his mind — that was all he had hoped for. But the alarm shattered any hope of rest.
Red lights flashed across the compound, and the deep siren echoed in his chest: a Hollow had appeared less than a mile from headquarters. Something impossible, yet here it was.
His legs moved on their own, carrying him through corridors filled with shouting operatives.
Kael was already ahead, electricity dancing around his fists, eliminating the smoke and dust as he struck at the collapsing buildings.
.
Each strike of Stormpierce Fangs tore a path for civilians, sparks flying as beams cracked and splintered.
Lucien moved silently behind him, blade drawn, freezing debris mid-fall with precise movements that seemed almost impossible to track. Sid ducked under a fallen girder, feeling the icy edge brush his shoulder, the moment stretched by Lucien's Hourfall Counter. The air smelled of ozone and scorched metal.
And then he saw it. The Hollow was smaller than the last any one they fought, but its movements were unnatural, fluid, and wrong. Its limbs twisted and bent as it lunged toward a group of civilians trapped behind a collapsed wall.
Sid's hand rose instinctively. The Blackbind Flame surged without thought, black fire dancing across the Hollow like a living shadow. It screamed, a sound that seemed to scrape against Sid's mind, then dissolved into ash before it could reach anyone.
A cold, familiar whisper filled his skull.
"You didn't even have to think."
Ravh'Zereth's voice slid into his thoughts, teasing, probing, a reminder of the power Sid carried — and the danger lurking within him. Sid's hand trembled, but he didn't answer. He never did.
Kael glanced at him, lightning still crackling across his knuckles. "You're shaking. Not bad… but don't get cocky." His grin was sharp, dangerous, and Sid felt the weight of their unspoken challenge.
Lucien remained quiet, watching the smoke curl in the wind, the icy residue from the frozen girder glinting under the flashing alarms. Sid noticed the faint tremor in his friend's hands. Even Lucien, so calm, was affected by the Hollow's unnatural presence.
The street was quiet now, littered with ash and twisted metal, the echoes of screams lingering in the air. Sid's breath came fast, heart pounding, yet he knew this calm was temporary. Hollows would keep coming. And the whispers, too.
He straightened, tensing his shoulders. His squad would need him. The civilians would need him.
And deep down, even as Ravh'Zereth's voice murmured in the shadows of his mind, Sid knew that this was only the beginning.
The fight wasn't over. It had just begun.