CHAPTER 10: "THE HUNTERS OF THE OBSIDIAN VOID"
The night after meeting the Oracle felt heavier than any storm Neon Haven had ever birthed. The air vibrated with tension—like the whole city was holding its breath, waiting to see what I would become.
Lira and I moved through the service tunnels beneath Sector Nine, guided only by the faint blue glow of my blade. She walked slightly ahead, scanning the route, her tech suit projecting shifting holographic grids around her. Ever since the Oracle told her she was "the tether and the threat," she had been quieter, thinking harder, holding something inside.
Or maybe… she was afraid of what she saw in me.
I couldn't blame her.
I was afraid too.
We emerged from the tunnel into a forgotten part of the city—an enormous, hollowed-out transport chamber buried under centuries of metal and decay. Rusted tracks crisscrossed the ground like veins. Cold fog curled around our feet.
"This place used to be alive," Lira murmured. "A transit hub for the first settlers."
"What killed it?"
"Same thing that kills everything in Neon Haven," she said. "Power."
My chest tightened. "Lira… what the Oracle said about me—"
"We're not talking about that here." Her voice was sharp, precise. "Not until we reach the third node."
I nodded, but her avoidance bothered me more than her fear. She wasn't distancing herself from me… she was protecting me. From something.
I barely had time to ask what before the lights above us flickered—just once.
Then the entire chamber fell silent.
Too silent.
Lira tensed, lowering her stance. "Kael… we're not alone."
I felt it too. A pressure in my chest, a ripple in the air, like static gathering before a lightning strike. The shadows trembled. The fog thickened around us.
Then, from the far end of the chamber, three shapes appeared.
At first, I thought they were Guardians. But then their silhouettes sharpened into something taller, more angular—armored in obsidian-black plating that absorbed even the neon reflections. Their movements were fluid, predatory.
Their eyes glowed a deep crimson.
Not friendly.
Lira inhaled sharply. "The Council's elite hunters."
"Hunters?" I echoed.
She nodded slowly. "They're called the Obsidian Void. They don't track. They erase."
Great.
The lead hunter stepped forward. His mask was sculpted into a faceless smooth surface, except for a single red vertical line down the center.
"Kael," he said, voice distorted like someone speaking through shattering glass. "You have been identified as a Class-Zero anomaly. Surrender for extraction."
"Anomaly?" I muttered. "That's new."
"Extraction means death," Lira whispered. "A painful one."
The hunter continued: "Noncompliance will result in full-term obliteration of your genetic imprint. This includes all associated project data."
Lira stiffened. "Kael… they mean the Requiem files. They'll erase everything the Oracle showed you."
Anger flickered through me like a spark catching oil.
My blade pulsed with blue fire.
The hunter tilted his head. "Resistance recorded."
And with that, the chamber erupted into movement.
The hunters moved impossibly fast—black streaks cutting through the fog. Lira darted left as a crimson energy beam sliced the air where she'd been standing. I blocked a strike from the second hunter, sparks exploding as my blade met his obsidian gauntlet.
He was strong.
Stronger than the Guardians.
But something in me reacted on instinct. My feet shifted, my arm twisted, my weight moved like I'd done this a thousand times before.
My blade arced upward—clean, precise, perfect.
The hunter staggered back, armor sparking.
Lira fired her pulse pistols, holographic trails marking every shot. The third hunter deflected them, bending neon light around his arm like fabric.
These things weren't machines.
They weren't human either.
They were something else.
The lead hunter lunged at me, but I saw the move before he made it. My body reacted faster than thought, flipping backward and landing in a crouch.
He paused.
"You are stabilizing," he said. "The Elyndor imprint is awakening."
"I'm not Elyndor," I growled.
"Correction," he replied. "You are iteration nine."
Nine.
Nine versions of… me?
The chamber shook as he attacked again. This time, we clashed so hard the ground cracked beneath us. His gauntlet sent a shockwave through my arm, but I held firm. The blue glow from my blade brightened—then exploded outward in a pulse of energy.
The hunter was thrown back several meters.
Lira ran to my side. "Kael—your blade—what was that?"
"I don't know," I admitted.
But I did know.
Somewhere deep inside, Elyndor's voice whispered:
You're remembering.
The hunters regrouped, forming a triangular formation.
"We must terminate now," the lead one declared. "Full strength permitted."
Lira swallowed hard. "Uh… Kael?"
"Yeah?"
"This is where things get really bad."
"Good," I said. "I was getting bored."
They charged.
All three.
The ground shook under their impact as they came at us from every angle—blades, beams, claws of energy. Lira moved like lightning, flipping over debris, firing charged rounds that ricocheted into their armor. I met the lead hunter head-on.
His strikes became faster, more precise.
I blocked one.
Parried another.
But the third caught me in the ribs—hard. Pain shot through my side. I gasped and stumbled.
"Kael!" Lira screamed.
Before the hunter could finish me, Lira jumped between us, firing a close-range pulse that detonated against his mask. The energy blast pushed him back, but it also sent her crashing into a metal pillar.
"Lira!" I yelled.
The pain in her voice as she fell made something inside me snap.
Blue light burst from my armor lines—brighter than ever. My mask slid open, revealing glowing eyes I barely recognized.
The hunters froze.
The lead one whispered: "Prime mode detected—"
Too late.
I vanished from their sight.
Reappeared behind one.
Cut through him in a single strike.
He fell, his armor dissolving into black dust before it hit the ground.
The second tried to flee.
I dragged him back with a pulse of kinetic force I didn't know I had, slamming him into the floor.
The third hunter raised a hand to call for backup—but his mask cracked before he could speak.
And then all three of them were gone.
Silence returned to the chamber.
The blue glow faded from my armor. My breath slowed. My vision steadied.
I turned to Lira, rushing to her side. She sat up slowly, holding her shoulder.
"You okay?" I asked, kneeling.
She managed a weak smile. "You… tell me. What was that, Kael? You moved like—like you were made of light."
"I don't know," I whispered. "But it scares me."
Her eyes softened. She reached up, placing her hand on my cheek. "You're still you."
I wanted to believe that.
But Elyndor's shadow loomed in my mind.
Nine iterations.
A cycle.
A weapon reborn.
Lira stood, wincing. "We need to move. The Council will feel the hunters' signal drop."
"Where's the next node?" I asked.
She pointed toward the dark tunnel ahead.
"Sector Zero," she said quietly. "The place where the city began."
I tightened my grip on my blade.
"Then let's end this," I said.
We walked forward into the darkness together.
And for the first time…
I wasn't sure if the darkness feared me—
—or if I feared myself.
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