The Null Accord did not take them into the city.
That would have been reckless.
Instead, they led Lucian and Kaelis through a narrow cleft in the cliffside, into tunnels carved long before the current city had ever been built. The stone walls were layered with old stabilizing glyphs—faded, scratched, repeatedly overwritten.
Lucian felt it immediately.
"These tunnels are reinforced against probability drift."
The woman with the spear glanced back.
"Good. You can feel it."
Kaelis frowned.
"…that's not comforting."
"It shouldn't be," the woman replied. "It means you're dangerous even when you're breathing."
They emerged into a cavern hollowed into the mountain's heart. Not a bunker. Not a base. Something between a monastery and a fallout shelter. Dozens of people moved quietly inside—some meditating, some repairing strange lattice frames, others watching shimmering panels that weren't quite screens.
No insignias.
No hierarchy symbols.
No ranks.
Just function.
"This is a Null Accord waystation," the woman said. "One of many. We rotate constantly."
Lucian scanned the room.
"You hide from everything?"
"We refuse alignment," she corrected. "There's a difference."
Kaelis leaned closer to Lucian.
"They feel… calm."
Lucian nodded.
"They've learned how to stay small."
The woman stopped beside a wide, circular platform etched with pale sigils.
"You'll stay here. Move as little as possible."
Lucian frowned.
"That's not really my strength."
"I know."
She turned to Kaelis.
"You especially."
Kaelis raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?"
"You no longer see danger before it arrives," the woman said flatly. "Your reaction lag is measurable."
Kaelis stiffened.
Lucian's jaw tightened.
The woman continued, unbothered.
"Which means you'll train."
Kaelis exhaled.
"…of course I will."
Lucian was guided to a low stone seat at the platform's center. The sigils beneath him pulsed faintly, reacting to his presence.
The woman crouched and pressed a hand to the floor.
"Tell me what you feel."
Lucian closed his eyes.
"…pressure."
She nodded.
"Direction?"
"Everywhere."
"Temperature?"
"…cold."
She nodded again.
"That's leakage."
Lucian opened his eyes.
"That's it?"
She stood.
"Your Monolith density is compressing reality locally. Not breaking it—yet—but bending probability toward extremes."
Kaelis frowned.
"…like bad luck?"
The woman grimaced.
"Like _unfair_ luck."
Lucian swallowed.
"What happens if we stay too long?"
She gestured to one of the shimmering panels.
It showed a recording.
A small village. Peaceful. Children running.
Then—
A stumble.
A fall.
A fire.
A cascade.
Within minutes, half the settlement burned.
Lucian's stomach turned.
"…that was us."
"No," the woman said. "That was someone like you who stayed too long."
Kaelis whispered:
"…the quiet places break first."
The woman met her gaze.
"Exactly."
Lucian clenched his fists.
"So I'm a walking disaster."
"Currently? Yes."
Lucian let out a hollow laugh.
"Good to know."
The woman tilted her head.
"You can learn to reduce it."
Lucian looked up sharply.
"How?"
"By leaking intentionally."
Kaelis blinked.
"…that sounds worse."
"It's controlled erosion," the woman replied. "You bleed density instead of letting it pool."
Lucian frowned.
"And where does it go?"
She smiled thinly.
"Somewhere else's problem."
Lucian didn't smile back.
Kaelis stood in a training ring carved into the cavern wall.
No observers.
No crowd.
Just a Null Accord instructor—an older man with missing fingers and a scar where one eye should have been.
"Again," he said.
Kaelis lunged.
Her blade struck—clean, precise—
And still missed by a fraction.
The instructor's staff tapped her shoulder lightly.
"Dead."
Kaelis exhaled sharply.
"…again."
They repeated the exchange.
Ten times.
She died eight.
The instructor finally raised a hand.
"You're still moving like the future belongs to you."
Kaelis wiped sweat from her brow.
"It doesn't?"
He shook his head.
"Not anymore."
She swallowed.
"…then what do I fight with?"
The instructor tapped his chest.
"Now."
She frowned.
"I've always fought with now."
He met her gaze.
"No. You fought with _next_."
That hit harder than any blow.
Kaelis closed her eyes.
Her grip tightened.
"…teach me."
Lucian sat alone at the platform's center.
The woman circled him slowly.
"Intentional leakage begins with choice."
Lucian frowned.
"I thought compression was the goal."
"It is," she said. "But compression without release becomes collapse."
Lucian inhaled.
"…what do I release?"
"Anything you can afford to lose."
He laughed bitterly.
"That list is short."
She stopped in front of him.
"Start small."
Lucian closed his eyes.
He reached inward—not to the Monolith's core—
But to the **edges**.
The unstable layers.
He let a sliver go.
The effect was immediate.
A shudder ran through the cavern.
Far away, someone cried out in surprise as a tool slipped from their hands and shattered harmlessly.
Lucian's eyes snapped open.
"That felt—"
"Awful," she finished. "Good. That means you noticed."
Lucian exhaled shakily.
"That… felt like hurting someone by accident."
She met his gaze steadily.
"You already are. This just lets you choose where."
Lucian looked down at his hands.
"…I hate this."
She nodded.
"You should."
An alarm chimed softly—not blaring, not urgent.
Just… _concerned_.
The woman turned sharply toward the panels.
A new feed activated.
Lucian stood.
"What is it?"
She watched the display, expression tightening.
"…another Hunter."
Kaelis appeared at his side instantly.
"That was fast."
The woman nodded.
"They adapt."
Lucian clenched his fists.
"Is it coming here?"
She shook her head slowly.
"No."
Lucian exhaled.
"Good."
Her voice dropped.
"It's heading toward the city."
Silence slammed down.
Kaelis whispered:
"…they're baiting us."
Lucian's Monolith pulsed violently.
"Then they picked the wrong bait."
The woman turned to him sharply.
"If you go out there—"
Lucian met her gaze.
"I don't get to choose anymore."
She stared at him for a long moment.
Then stepped aside.
"Five minutes," she said. "After that, we evacuate."
Kaelis squeezed Lucian's hand.
"…guess we're breaking the quiet place."
Lucian nodded grimly.
"Better us than them."
And somewhere above—
The Hunter adjusted course.
The city didn't panic at first.
That came later.
At first, it was small things.
Subtle things.
A mooring line snapped, sending an airship drifting sideways into another dock. A market stall collapsed when a support beam cracked at just the wrong angle. A courier slipped on stone that hadn't been slick a moment before.
Probability leaned.
Lucian felt it from the cliff's edge like a sickness behind his eyes.
"It's already affecting them," he muttered.
Kaelis stood beside him, blade sheathed but hand ready.
"Then we don't hesitate."
The Null Accord woman watched the city grimly.
"You move fast, you bleed intentionally, and you do _not_ let the Hunter force escalation inside the streets."
Lucian nodded.
"I'll pull the pressure away from the city."
She narrowed her eyes.
"That means you become the focal point."
Lucian gave a tired half-smile.
"Story of my life."
They moved.
Lucian stepped onto the outer terrace overlooking the city and let his Monolith _open_—just a fraction.
Not enough to collapse.
Enough to redirect.
The effect was immediate.
The pressure he'd felt spreading through the city snapped toward him like a tide reversing direction.
Lucian staggered, teeth clenched.
Kaelis grabbed his arm.
"Lucian—too much—"
"I've got it," he said through a hiss. "Just… keep me pointed away from people."
She didn't argue.
She never did when he sounded like that.
The sky darkened—not from clouds, but from density displacement. Air warped around Lucian, shimmering faintly as probability bent toward failure _around him_ instead of outward.
A section of stone behind him crumbled harmlessly.
A light fixture shattered.
Lucian exhaled shakily.
"It's working."
The Null Accord woman's voice came sharply through the comm crystal she'd pressed into Kaelis's hand.
"The Hunter has entered the lower districts. Civilian density high."
Kaelis's jaw tightened.
"Lucian. That's my problem."
He looked at her.
"You don't have foresight anymore."
She met his gaze evenly.
"I have eyes. And a city full of people who don't deserve this."
She stepped away before he could argue.
Kaelis dropped into the streets like a blade drawn too late—and still fast enough.
The Hunter moved through the crowd without touching anyone, reality bending around it just enough to avoid collision. People screamed now. Ran. Fell.
Kaelis saw none of it _before_ it happened.
She reacted.
A child tripped.
She caught him and shoved him aside.
A building's support cracked.
She sliced through the falling debris, redirecting it into an empty street.
Every move was half a breath slower than it used to be.
And she felt every delay.
Her chest burned. Her Core lagged, then snapped forward painfully each time she forced it to respond.
The Hunter turned toward her.
**"Anchor-class entity identified."**
Kaelis snarled.
"Wrong label."
She lunged.
No prediction.
No preemptive strike.
Just timing.
Her blade clashed with the Hunter's arm, sparks of warped reality spraying outward.
The Hunter adjusted instantly.
**"Reaction-based combat detected. Inefficient."**
Kaelis twisted, ducking under a return strike that shaved air from where her head had been.
"Then you're going to hate this."
She didn't try to outthink it.
She **outlasted** it.
Each strike drew it farther from civilians, deeper into narrow streets where movement mattered more than raw power.
Her muscles screamed.
Her lungs burned.
She was late.
Again.
And again.
But not dead.
The Hunter felt Lucian before it saw him.
Density roared outward as Lucian stepped fully into the open plaza at the city's center.
The ground cracked under his boots.
People fled in every direction.
Lucian bled Monolith pressure deliberately, shaping it like a gravity well.
"HEY," he roared, voice carrying unnaturally far.
"YOU'RE LOOKING AT ME."
The Hunter froze.
Its head snapped toward him.
**"Primary Monolith source reacquired."**
Good.
Lucian clenched his fists and let the compression leak harder—controlled, directional.
Stone shattered behind him.
Air warped into spirals.
The Hunter charged.
Lucian didn't flare.
He _absorbed_.
Each step the Hunter took toward him increased the density, slowing it, forcing it to fight physics instead of people.
Kaelis felt it from blocks away.
"…he's pulling everything to himself," she breathed.
She pushed harder, driving the Hunter forward with precise, exhausting strikes.
Together, they dragged it into the plaza.
The Null Accord watched from hidden vantage points.
The woman with the spear clenched her jaw.
"He's destabilizing too fast."
An Accord technician shouted:
"City collapse probability spiking!"
She swore under her breath.
"…damn it."
She stepped forward and drove her spear into the stone.
Pale glyphs erupted across the plaza's perimeter, forming a containment lattice.
Accord members revealed themselves—dozens of them—anchoring probability, reinforcing reality manually.
Neutrality shattered.
Lucian felt the change instantly.
"Someone just helped," he gasped.
Kaelis grinned through bloodied lips.
"Told you they weren't heartless."
The Hunter faltered as the lattice locked it in place.
**"Unexpected third-party interference."**
Lucian stepped forward, Monolith screaming but _contained_.
"You came to take us apart," he said quietly. "Instead, you showed everyone where we are."
He slammed his palm into the ground.
Not releasing.
Redirecting.
The Hunter was crushed inward as density spiked asymmetrically, folding its extraction lattice in on itself.
It screamed—an awful, static sound.
Kaelis drove her blade through its core.
The Hunter collapsed into nothing.
Silence followed.
Then—
Screaming.
Crying.
Chaos.
Lucian staggered as he sealed the leakage, collapsing to one knee.
Kaelis caught him.
"You alive?"
He laughed weakly.
"Barely."
The Null Accord woman approached, expression tight.
"You just made us visible."
Lucian nodded.
"I know."
Kaelis wiped blood from her face.
"And saved a city."
The woman exhaled slowly.
"…yes."
She looked around at the damage—limited, contained, survivable.
Then back at Lucian.
"The Sovereign will respond."
Lucian met her gaze.
"He already has."
Kaelis squeezed his hand.
"And now everyone knows what a Monolith War looks like."
The woman nodded grimly.
"Which means hiding you gets harder."
Lucian stood, shaky but upright.
"Then we stop hiding."
The Null Accord woman studied him for a long moment.
Then said quietly:
"…then we need to talk about evacuation protocols."
Far above—
The sky watched.
And it learned.
Cities do not fall apart all at once.
They unravel.
Lucian felt it as he stood in the shattered plaza—people staring, whispering, crying, clinging to each other like survivors of a storm they hadn't seen coming.
Buildings still stood.
Markets still breathed.
But something fundamental had cracked.
Hope relied on predictability.
And predictability had just failed.
Null Accord members moved through the streets openly now, stabilizing fractures, guiding civilians away from danger zones. Their neutrality was gone. Their anonymity shattered.
The woman with the spear walked beside Lucian and Kaelis, eyes sharp.
"You gave them a miracle," she said quietly. "And a warning."
Lucian nodded.
"They deserved both."
Kaelis wiped dried blood from her cheek, ignoring the stares.
People were looking at her differently than they looked at Lucian.
Not fear.
Recognition.
"She fought _inside_ the city," someone whispered.
"She didn't leave us."
Kaelis felt it like pressure on her chest.
"…this is worse," she muttered.
Lucian glanced at her.
"Worse than dying?"
"Yes," she said flatly. "They'll expect things now."
She wasn't wrong.
A collapsed balcony groaned suddenly.
Kaelis moved without thinking.
Too late.
The stone slab fell faster than she anticipated.
A Null Accord stabilizer caught part of it—but not all.
Kaelis threw herself forward, blade flashing.
She deflected the slab at the last possible instant.
The impact rattled her bones.
She landed hard, breath knocked from her lungs.
The crowd gasped.
Lucian felt it instantly.
He rushed to her side.
"You okay?"
She nodded, jaw clenched.
"Yeah."
But she wasn't smiling.
The people stared.
They had seen it.
The hesitation.
The delay.
The near miss.
Whispers spread.
"She almost—"
"She was late—"
Kaelis stood, shoulders squared.
She turned toward the crowd.
Her voice carried, steady and honest.
"I'm not perfect," she said. "I won't always be on time."
The murmurs quieted.
"But I will stand here anyway."
Silence followed.
Then—
Someone clapped.
Another joined.
Not thunderous.
Not worshipful.
Respectful.
Kaelis exhaled slowly.
"…okay," she whispered to Lucian. "That could have gone worse."
Lucian smiled faintly.
"You did good."
She shook her head.
"I did _enough_."
Lucian's Monolith twitched.
Not violently.
Not urgently.
Curiously.
He froze.
The Null Accord woman saw it instantly.
"…you feel something."
Lucian swallowed.
"…yeah."
Kaelis stiffened.
"Bad?"
Lucian hesitated.
"Different."
The sky above the city darkened—not uniformly, but in _bands_, like layers of reality being peeled back one by one.
The air went still.
Too still.
Lucian's leakage spiked involuntarily.
He clutched his chest, breathing hard.
"That's not a Hunter."
The Null Accord woman's face drained of color.
"…no."
She whispered something under her breath—old, sharp, afraid.
"What is it?" Kaelis demanded.
The woman looked at them.
"That's an **Arbiter**."
Lucian's blood ran cold.
"…explain."
She swallowed.
"Hunters remove problems. Arbiters decide whether a _world_ remains viable."
The sky split.
Not tearing.
**Judging.**
A vast shape pressed against reality above the city—featureless, immense, its presence flattening sound itself.
Lucian felt his Monolith resonate painfully.
The Arbiter spoke—not to him—
To the city.
**"INSTABILITY CONFIRMED."**
**"MONOLITH CONTAMINATION PRESENT."**
**"EVALUATING CONTINUATION PROTOCOL."**
People screamed.
Kaelis grabbed Lucian's arm.
"…it's deciding if we deserve to exist."
Lucian clenched his fists.
"No."
The Null Accord woman shouted orders.
"EVACUATION PHASE THREE! MOVE NOW!"
Accord members sprang into motion.
Lucian stepped forward.
"Get them out."
Kaelis stared at him.
"What are you doing?"
Lucian's eyes were locked on the sky.
"Buying time."
She shook her head.
"You can't fight that."
Lucian smiled grimly.
"I don't need to win."
He stepped into the open plaza, bleeding Monolith density deliberately.
The Arbiter's attention snapped to him.
**"SOURCE IDENTIFIED."**
Lucian raised his head.
"Hey," he said hoarsely. "Your math's wrong."
The Arbiter paused.
**"EXPLAIN."**
Lucian exhaled.
"This world isn't unstable because of _them_."
He gestured toward the fleeing civilians.
"It's unstable because of me."
The Arbiter processed.
**"CORRECTION POSSIBLE."**
Kaelis screamed:
"NO—!"
Lucian didn't look back.
"Take me. Leave them."
The Arbiter's presence intensified.
**"SACRIFICIAL RESOLUTION ACCEPTABLE."**
Kaelis ran toward him.
"LUCIAN—DON'T YOU DARE—"
Lucian turned just enough to meet her eyes.
"I promised you I wouldn't let you pay alone."
Her breath hitched.
"…idiot."
He smiled softly.
"Yeah."
The Arbiter began to descend.
Reality warped violently.
Lucian felt his Monolith compress dangerously, bleeding harder than ever.
The Null Accord woman stared in horror.
"He'll collapse the layer!"
Kaelis skidded to a stop beside Lucian.
Her jaw set.
"Then you're not doing this alone."
She stepped beside him.
Lucian's eyes widened.
"Kaelis—no—this thing—"
She met his gaze.
"No more sacrifices without discussion."
Their bond tightened—not fast—
**Firm.**
The Arbiter's voice shifted.
**"MULTIPLE CORE SOURCES DETECTED."**
Lucian felt Kaelis steering the pressure again, even as blood ran from her nose.
"You don't get to take him," she said, voice shaking but solid. "You don't get to take this city."
The Arbiter paused.
Processing.
Recalculating.
The sky trembled.
And somewhere far above—
The Sovereign watched, very carefully.
The Arbiter descended another fraction.
The city bent.
Stone didn't crack.
Air didn't burn.
**Probability flattened.**
People stumbled as if the ground had forgotten how friction worked. Sound dampened, screams turning dull and distant, as though the world itself was being wrapped in cotton before execution.
Lucian felt his Monolith strain violently.
Not against force.
Against **classification**.
It was being measured.
**"CORE DENSITY EXCEEDS LOCAL TOLERANCE,"** the Arbiter intoned.
**"CASCADE RISK: HIGH."**
**"RECOMMENDED ACTION: SOURCE REMOVAL."**
Kaelis gritted her teeth, blood running freely now.
"You don't get to call us a _problem_ and pretend you're neutral."
The Arbiter's attention slid to her.
**"CO-MONOLITH ENTITY: DEGRADED."**
**"LONG-TERM VIABILITY: LOW."**
Lucian snarled.
"Don't talk about her like she's a faulty component."
The Arbiter paused.
Not confused.
**Reassessing.**
The Null Accord woman stepped forward, spear planted hard into the stone.
"This city is under Null Accord protection."
The Arbiter's gaze flicked to her.
**"NULL ACCORD STATUS: NON-SOVEREIGN."**
She didn't flinch.
"Correct. And we're still standing."
The Arbiter processed.
**"IRRELEVANT."**
The woman's grip tightened.
"Then make it relevant."
Lucian felt it before he decided.
The second compression was failing.
Not collapsing—
**slipping**.
Like a mountain slowly losing its footing.
If it went all at once, the city would not survive.
Lucian inhaled slowly.
"…Kaelis."
She shook her head immediately.
"Don't."
"I can bleed it," he said quietly. "All of it."
Her eyes widened.
"That will kill you."
"Maybe," he admitted.
The Arbiter's voice cut in.
**"SACRIFICIAL RESOLUTION CONFIRMED."**
Kaelis grabbed his collar, pulling him close.
"No more heroic exits. We already talked about this."
Lucian met her gaze.
"I'm not leaving."
She froze.
"I'm _staying_," he continued. "And I'm dumping the excess somewhere it can't hurt anyone."
The Null Accord woman's eyes snapped to him.
"…you can't vent that much density here."
Lucian nodded.
"I know."
He looked up at the Arbiter.
"You're evaluating this world."
The Arbiter remained silent.
"So evaluate me instead."
The Arbiter paused.
**"EXPLAIN."**
Lucian exhaled.
"You want a controlled failure. A clean variable removal."
The Arbiter processed.
**"CORRECT."**
Lucian clenched his fists.
"Then let me be the test environment."
Kaelis's breath hitched.
"…Lucian."
He looked at her gently.
"I'm not disappearing. I'm redirecting."
He turned fully toward the Arbiter.
"Open a null containment space. Now."
The Arbiter hesitated.
The Sovereign's influence flickered faintly at the edges of reality.
The Arbiter spoke:
**"REQUEST OUTSIDE PROTOCOL."**
Lucian's voice hardened.
"You already broke protocol by letting Hunters and Arbiters chase us through civilian worlds."
Silence stretched.
The Null Accord woman held her breath.
Then—
**"REQUEST ACCEPTED."**
Reality tore.
Not violently.
Precisely.
A void aperture opened above the plaza—colorless, depthless, utterly empty.
A place where probability went to die.
Kaelis screamed:
"LUCIAN—!"
Lucian stepped forward and released everything.
The release was silent.
No explosion.
No shockwave.
Just **absence**.
Monolith density poured upward like ink into water, vanishing into the null space as fast as Lucian could push it.
His knees buckled instantly.
Kaelis caught him, screaming his name as blood poured from his nose, ears, eyes.
"STOP—YOU'LL TEAR YOURSELF APART—!"
"I'm—fine—" he gasped, clearly lying.
The Arbiter monitored silently.
**"DENSITY REDUCTION: ONGOING."**
Buildings stabilized.
Air regained weight.
People stopped falling.
The city breathed again.
Lucian screamed as the second compression finally broke—not outward—
**Inward.**
His Monolith folded violently, shedding layers like skin.
Kaelis felt it and screamed too.
Their bond burned, stretched to its limit.
Lucian collapsed fully, barely conscious.
Kaelis knelt over him, hands shaking.
"Stay with me. Don't you dare let go now."
The void aperture sealed.
The Arbiter's presence lifted slightly.
**"WORLD STABILITY RESTORED."**
The sky lightened.
Sound returned.
The city lived.
The Arbiter turned its attention fully to Lucian.
Unmoving.
Bleeding.
Still breathing.
**"SOURCE NO LONGER CRITICAL."**
Kaelis glared upward through tears.
"You don't get to decide that either."
The Arbiter paused.
Then spoke words no one expected.
**"MONOLITH PAIR DEMONSTRATES SELF-LIMITING BEHAVIOR."**
Lucian coughed weakly.
"…high praise… coming from you…"
The Arbiter continued:
**"RECOMMENDATION UPDATED."**
**"IMMEDIATE DELETION: DEFERRED."**
The Null Accord woman exhaled shakily.
Kaelis laughed once, hysterical.
"Deferred. Wow. We really moved the needle."
The Arbiter's form began to fade.
**"MONOLITH WAR STATUS: CONFIRMED."**
**"MULTI-WORLD AWARENESS: INEVITABLE."**
Lucian forced his eyes open.
"…so we're famous now."
The Arbiter did not respond.
It vanished.
Lucian lay on the stone, barely conscious.
Kaelis held him, forehead pressed to his.
"You absolute idiot," she whispered, voice breaking. "You scared me half to death."
He smiled faintly.
"…worth it."
She almost hit him.
The Null Accord woman approached, expression unreadable.
"You just forced an Arbiter to hesitate."
Lucian closed his eyes.
"Add it to the résumé."
She studied them for a long moment.
Then said quietly:
"The Accord is no longer neutral."
Kaelis looked up.
"…you're choosing sides."
The woman nodded.
"We don't fight the Sovereign."
Lucian swallowed.
"But?"
"We protect worlds."
She looked directly at Lucian.
"And right now, you're the difference between catastrophe and survival."
Lucian let out a slow breath.
"…no pressure."
The woman actually smiled.
As night fell, messages spread across systems, networks, whispered channels, and forbidden archives.
A city survived judgment.
An Arbiter hesitated.
A Monolith Pair bled power to save civilians.
The Sovereign felt it.
The Emperor heard it.
And every faction that mattered began recalculating.
Lucian drifted toward sleep, Kaelis holding him upright.
"…hey," he murmured.
She leaned closer.
"I'm still here," she said softly.
He smiled.
"…good. Because I think the whole universe just noticed us."
She snorted quietly through tears.
"Yeah. We're trending."
The quiet places were broken.
And the war had a face now.