The night didn't rest.
Jack sat on the edge of a shattered stairwell, helmet off, sweat dripping down his jaw. His lungs pulled smoke like air, harsh and metallic. The HUD still crawled faint warnings across the cracked visor in his lap, red lines like veins.
Neural sync: 54%. Instability: Moderate.
He wiped his face with the back of his hand. "Moderate, huh?" His voice was raw, half a laugh, half a curse. "Feels like I'm hanging on by threads."
Halo leaned against the railing, her rifle balanced across her knees. Even in the faint light of burning rubble, her eyes tracked him sharp, like she was watching more than just his words. "You're burning yourself too fast, Jack. Every push, every fight—it's eating at you. You can't keep pacing like this."
"I don't get to stop." He spat to the side, bitter taste of copper still lingering. "Not when they're out there. Not when they're coming."
Jarrod came up the steps, boots dragging, jacket torn down the sleeve. He didn't waste words. He tossed something heavy onto the ground between them—a black shard, jagged and pulsing faintly with faint orange light.
Jack stared. "That's…"
"Core fragment," Jarrod muttered. "Ripped it straight out of one of those drones before it fried itself. Thing was guarding it like its damn soul."
The shard hissed against the ground, sparks licking out before dying.
Halo's brow furrowed. "That doesn't belong to them. That's system-tech. Same signature as your sync, Jack. Just raw… broken."
Jack's stomach clenched. He reached for it, hand hovering just above the shard's glow. The HUD in his visor, even offline, twitched and jittered, as if it felt the fragment breathing near him.
For a second, the world bent sideways. His vision blurred red, then white. He saw himself standing in some void, endless black—shards just like this one floating like stars, each one beating with a pulse that matched his heart.
Leveling path unlocked.
The voice in his head wasn't human. It was layered, fractured, like a thousand echoes crawling across bone.
Jack ripped his hand back, gasping. The stairwell snapped back into place—the fire, the rubble, Halo's sharp stare.
"You saw something," she said.
He nodded slowly. "It's part of it. The system. Not just upgrades, not just numbers. It's… feeding me pieces. Like milestones. Like the next tier is hiding in these shards."
Jarrod kicked the fragment with his boot. "And what happens when you jam too many of those into your brain? You gonna turn into one of them? Bleeding red code till you drop?"
Jack clenched his fists, shaking. His chest still felt twisted, raw. But under it, burning through the fear, was hunger. A need to rise. To fight bigger, harder, stronger.
"I don't care," he whispered. "If that's what it takes."
The shard pulsed again, faint but alive, like it was calling his name.
Halo's voice cut sharp. "Jack. Don't."
But his fingers were already curling around it.
The moment skin touched crystal, fire tore through him. His vision glitched, HUD bleeding wild—warnings spilling faster than he could read. Neural sync: 79%… 83%… stability critical.
His teeth gritted. He forced air through locked lungs, the shard burning hotter than any weapon he'd held. Then—sudden clarity. The chaos sharpened. His muscles stopped shaking. His sight focused like a blade.
Power hummed under his skin.
Halo cursed, jumping up. "You idiot—"
But Jack only stood, the shard still glowing in his grip. His shadow stretched long across the walls, flickering against the firelight.
"They wanted us weak," he muttered, voice steady now, heavy with something new. "But I'm done crawling. If this is the path—then I'll climb it."
The HUD steadied, just for a breath. Then a new notification appeared, glowing like it was carved in flame:
[Path Ascension Unlocked: Vanguard Tier I]
Halo and Jarrod both froze. Neither of them had ever seen the system shift like that.
Jack's lips pulled into the smallest, hungriest smile.
The war outside wasn't slowing. But inside, something had just changed forever.