**CHAPTER 24: **
The safehouse walls bled.
Not literally—at least, not that Seun could prove. But every time he blinked, the peeling wallpaper dissolved into pulsing veins, the water stains on the ceiling rearranged themselves into familiar constellations of Seoul's skyline, and the System's interface flickered with corrupted text:
**[MEMORY FRAGMENT DETECTED: LAZARUS FACILITY GAMMA]**
**[WARNING: PSYCHIC CONTAMINATION AT 17%]**
Seun drove Nightfang into the wall, the voidsteel blade quivering as it pierced plaster. The visions stopped. For now.
His burner phone buzzed with an encrypted message:
*"Oblivion Armory access granted. Midnight. Bring the Dredger's core."*
He glanced at the blackened lump of chitin pulsing on his makeshift desk. The thing had been leaking shadow-tinged fluid for hours, its bioluminescence fading in time with his worsening migraines.
The System updated its analysis:
**[NIGHTMARE DREDGER CORE (DEGRADING)]**
**[LAZARUS SIGNATURE CONFIRMED]**
**[COGNITIVE HAZARD PROGRESSION: 19%]**
Seun wrapped the core in lead-lined cloth and pocketed it. Whatever game Oblivion's Edge was playing, they clearly knew more about Lazarus than they'd admitted.
Time to collect answers.
---
### **THE ARMORY'S SECRET**
Oblivion's underground vault smelled of ozone and old blood. Elena stood waiting beside a display case containing a single weapon—a straight sword forged from the same voidsteel as Nightfang, but with a core of pulsating crimson energy.
"You passed the trial," she said, her eyes lingering on the wrapped bundle in Seun's hand. "But we both know that thing should've killed you."
Seun set the Dredger core on the table between them. It left scorch marks on the polished steel. "Armory access. Now."
Elena smirked and tapped a code into her wrist console. The display case hissed open.
"Meet *Crimson Eidolon*. Forged from a Monarch-class beast's heartstone." She stepped back as the sword's energy field made her nanites glitch. "None of our S-Rankers can wield it. It burns them alive."
Seun reached for the hilt.
Elena grabbed his wrist. "Last chance to explain how you knew that Dredger's weakness."
Seun looked at her hand until she let go.
Then he took the sword.
The moment his fingers closed around the grip, the vault's emergency lights flashed crimson. The blade's core flared like a miniature supernova, its energy racing up Seun's arm in burning filaments—
—only to be swallowed whole by his shadow veins.
**[WEAPON SYNCHRONIZATION: 89%]**
**[COGNITIVE HAZARD STABILIZED AT 22%]**
**[NEW SYSTEM ALERT: MEMORY FRAGMENTS DECRYPTING]**
Elena stared at his now-glowing veins. "What *are* you?"
Seun tested the sword's balance. Perfect. "Disappointed." He sliced the display case in half with a casual flick. "This is all you have?"
Behind them, the Dredger core began vibrating.
---
### **FIRST MEMORY FRAGMENT**
The seizure hit without warning.
One moment Seun stood evaluating the sword, the next he was *elsewhere*—
—*strapped to a surgical table in Facility Gamma, the scent of antiseptic choking him as white-coated figures murmured about "integration thresholds" and "Shadow Monarch protocols"—*
—*a younger Elena Vasquez standing at the observation window, her eyes cold as the lead researcher said "Subject Zero is awakening"—*
—*then pain, unimaginable pain as something ancient and hungry poured into his—*
He came back to himself on the vault floor, Crimson Eidolon's tip buried in concrete where it had arrested his collapse. Elena knelt nearby, her sidearm drawn but shaking.
"You... you just phased out for 37 seconds." Her voice cracked. "Your eyes turned completely black."
Seun stood, wiping blood from his nose. The System's alert pulsed urgently:
**[COGNITIVE HAZARD CRITICAL: 31%]**
**[MEMORY FRAGMENT ANALYZED: LAZARUS BETRAYAL]**
**[WARNING: OBLIVION'S EDGE FOUNDER INVOLVEMENT CONFIRMED]**
He leveled the glowing sword at Elena's throat. "You were there. At Lazarus."
Her breath hitched. "I was sixteen. An intern. They told us it was military research."
The Dredger core exploded behind them.
From the swirling smoke emerged three figures clad in Ironheart Vanguard armor—but their movements were all wrong, their limbs jerking like marionettes. The lead "Hunter" opened its mouth, and Gareth Vault's voice emerged:
"Hand over the Monarch-spawn, Vasquez. Or we'll peel him from your corpse."
Seun sighed and raised Crimson Eidolon.
"More delays."
---