The Hollow had always been quiet in the way dying things are—breathing slow, heartbeat faint, every moment borrowed time.
Tonight, that breath caught.
Rei was the first to notice. She stood near the lookout ledge, her eyes fixed on the far edge of the cavern's roof. A faint shimmer of dust filtered through—a subtle disturbance. Wrong.
She pressed two fingers to her throat. "This is Rei. Eyes on the north tunnel. Incoming. Not ours."
Kael's body moved before his mind caught up. He yanked Lira to her feet and pulled her toward the reinforced chamber beneath the stone platforms.
"What's happening?" she asked.
"They're here."
"Who—"
"The Syndicate."
That name stopped her cold. Her heartbeat stuttered. Images flashed—glass tubes, masked scientists, screams that weren't hers but lived in her bones.
"I'm not ready to fight them," she whispered.
Kael stopped and turned.
"You already are."
Something in his voice changed. It wasn't comfort—it was conviction. Like he'd seen her power before she ever had.
"We don't have to win," he said. "We just have to survive."
Then the cavern ceiling exploded.
A sonic boom cracked through the Hollow as a Class-C Cleanser Drone dropped like a god from heaven—eight limbs of living alloy, its body shaped like a spider carved from bone and fire. Red lenses spun across its face, locking on every source of movement.
A child screamed.
The drone launched a plasma spike toward a walkway.
Kael blurred.
Gravity bent around him as he launched himself into the air, catching the falling child and hurling them into a net of soft-light barriers spun by Rei's squad. The spike detonated behind him. The platform collapsed.
Kael flipped mid-air, landing beside Rei with a snarl. "This isn't a probe."
Rei gritted her teeth. "No. This is extermination."
Below them, the Hollow fell into chaos. Civilians ran for the back tunnels while the remaining fighters engaged the drone. But it wasn't alone.
From the smoke and rubble, a new figure walked—the Chrome Wraith.
He wore crimson-etched armor, no insignia, just the shine of weaponized elegance. His eyes scanned until they landed on Kael.
"You're taller than I remember," the Wraith said, grinning.
Kael's fists clenched. "And you're still smiling like you eat your own kind."
The Wraith tilted his head. "I've missed you, Rhys. But I'm not here for nostalgia."
He lifted one hand. "I want the girl."
Lira stepped from the shadows, trembling, her fingertips glowing with fractal ripples of light and distortion. "You're not taking me."
The Wraith didn't blink. "You're not awake yet. But soon. And when you are, this world will burn or bend."
Kael stepped in front of her. "Then I'll make sure it bends your way first."
The Wraith sighed.
"Fine. We'll do this the hard way."
---
Underground Tunnel — Simultaneously
As the Hollow burned above, three Syndicate agents moved through a back tunnel, searching for escapees. Each wore black synth armor, enhanced by neural reflex tech. Silent. Precise.
Until one stopped.
There was… a humming.
Then a flicker.
One agent turned to shadows.
Another fell without a sound.
The last turned just in time to see Lira—or what looked like her—emerge from the tunnel wall, fractured and gleaming like a shattered mirror. Her eyes were glowing, but her body remained still.
"You shouldn't be here," she said. "This isn't your time."
The agent fired.
Time cracked.
He never got to finish the shot.
---
Back in the Main Cavern
Kael fought like a black star.
The Wraith was fast—too fast for a normal human—but Kael's gravity warped the rules. Each punch landed with the force of a dying planet, each dodge bent the air around him. The Hollow couldn't contain their fight much longer.
"You always resist," the Wraith growled, sidestepping a crushing strike. "Why not join us? With your power—"
"I'd rather die than be a weapon again."
"Then die it is."
The Wraith's blade sang as it extended from his gauntlet—a gleaming whip of energy laced with synthetic venom. It lashed toward Kael.
But before it struck, time stuttered.
The blade slowed.
The air folded.
Lira stood between them. Not as a frightened girl, but something else—her body outlined in radiant bends of space. Her fingers moved like a conductor, and the world followed.
"I don't understand this power," she whispered. "But I feel it."
She raised her hand.
"And I won't let you take him."
The Wraith moved to block.
He didn't make it in time.
Lira's refraction ability detonated in a burst of fractured dimensions, cutting through air, heat, and gravity alike. It didn't kill the Wraith—but it threw him. Hard.
Kael stared.
"Remind me never to stand in your way."
She smiled faintly, her nose bleeding. "Then don't."
---
As the remaining Syndicate units retreated and the drone collapsed under Rei's final strike, silence returned to the Hollow.
But not peace.
Too many injured.
Too many dead.
Kael stood in the ruin of what once passed for home.
Rei limped over, face streaked with ash. "They'll come back."
Kael nodded. "Then we don't wait for them next time."
She frowned. "You're not thinking—"
"I am," he said. "I'm done hiding. And so is she."
Lira stood beside him, blood on her cheek and stars in her eyes.
The Hollow had fallen. But the war had just begun.