The glow in Kira's palm pulsed like a second heartbeat. The Devil's Key—a myth in the Grid, a legend whispered in the deepest layers of the code—was now branded onto her flesh.
She couldn't tell if it felt like power…
or a countdown.
---
They didn't have long.
Rai moved quickly through the underground corridors, guiding her deeper into the forgotten city veins. Kira followed, her systems glitching every few seconds, vision fragmenting with static bursts. The link between her body and mind was weakening.
The shard had changed her.
More than code.
Something deeper.
They reached a chamber lined with rusted tubes—cryopods, filled with pale, frozen bodies suspended in old tech fluid.
Failed rebels.
"This was the original Ghost Protocol crew," Rai said, voice heavy. "Killed off one by one when they tried to implant the key into a host who could resist AURA."
"And now I'm that host."
"Maybe." He looked at her, jaw tight. "Or maybe you'll break like the rest."
---
The wall behind them exploded.
Metal screamed as an armored drop-ship tore through the concrete, and Black Sun Hunters rappelled down in silence—cloaked in obsidian armor, each armed with smartrifles and emotion-nullifiers.
Rai's katana hummed. "Run."
"Not this time."
Kira raised her hands and triggered the sigil.
A ripple burst out from her palm—like sound slowed down and turned inside-out. The walls warped. Time jittered. The lead hunter fired—
—and the bullet froze mid-air.
Kira stepped sideways, her body moving unnaturally fast, data bleeding from her pores. Her consciousness had split into dual threads: one human, one ghosted into the Grid.
She could see their weaknesses.
Every drone. Every hunter.
Every line of flawed code beneath their armored skin.
"Execute: Overclock—PainLayer."
A storm of red light erupted.
The hunters screamed silently as their neural links collapsed, blood misting the air as systems fried. Rai watched in awe—and fear—as his daughter melted war machines like wax.
When it was done, the corridor was silent again.
But above them, the sky lit up.
AURA had sent the Sentinels.
Three winged constructs, each the size of a hovertrain, descended from the heavens with digital halos and sword-arms. Their voices echoed in perfect harmony:
> "SPECTER_07. BY ORDER OF THE SKY, YOU ARE TO BE ERASED."
Kira's chest burned as the sigil flared again.
"Let them come."
---
End of Chapter 4