The timer in the corner of my vision ticked down to nothing.
[ Council Agent Arrival Imminent ]
[ Objective: Survive Encounter – Duration Undefined ]
We had less than a breath to brace before the air shifted. Not the crash of boots, not the roar of Serpents—just a quiet ripple, like a shadow brushing past the walls of the safehouse.
Ryn was already on her feet, blades drawn, her stance sharp as glass. Loran hefted his axe, planting himself in front of Mira, whose hands lit with pale blue sigils.
I stood at the center, sword angled low, every muscle coiled.
The silence stretched, oppressive.
Then—
A whisper. Directly behind me.
"You killed an enforcer."
I spun, blade slashing through empty air. Nothing.
The Agent's voice was everywhere and nowhere, male, smooth, laced with mockery. "Do you know what that means, Kael? Do you even understand the scale of the board you've stepped onto?"
The system flared.
[ Cognitive Manipulation Detected ]
[ Countermeasures Engaged ]
Ryn's eyes darted to the rafters. She flicked a dagger into the shadows. The blade struck wood—and bounced harmlessly off as if the air itself had caught it.
A figure emerged at last, descending from the rafters with predatory grace. Their mask wasn't crude like the Serpents', nor heavy like the enforcer's helm. It was porcelain-white, featureless but for a single black line carved down the center. Their cloak shimmered faintly, colors bending away from it like oil on water.
The Agent landed soundlessly in the middle of the room.
Loran snarled, stepping forward. "You talk too much." His axe came down in a brutal arc.
The Agent raised a single hand. With a flick, the strike halted mid-swing, as if an invisible wall had caught the blade. Loran strained, muscles bulging, but the axe would not move.
Mira gasped. "Wards… bound into their body…"
The Agent tilted their head, voice calm. "The Resistance thinks it can fight. How quaint."
I lunged, driving my sword straight for their chest. Steel met a sudden shimmer of light, the impact rattling my arms. The blade slid away as if the Agent's body rejected it.
Ryn appeared behind them, twin daggers stabbing for the base of the skull. But the Agent vanished in a ripple of shadow—appearing instantly at the far side of the room.
"Fast," they said, almost amused. "But not fast enough."
The system pulsed again.
[ Threat Assessment: Extreme ]
[ Direct Combat Viability: Low ]
[ Recommended Strategy: Escape / Distraction ]
Escape? The word burned in my mind. But I knew the system wasn't wrong. This wasn't a fight we could win—not yet.
Mira whispered frantically, weaving sigils that wrapped around the door in shimmering wards. "They're trying to mark the safehouse. If they succeed, the Council will know everyone connected to us!"
"Then stop them!" I barked, parrying another impossible-fast strike as the Agent blurred across the room, forcing me to block by instinct more than sight.
Every clash wasn't like steel on steel—it was like fighting the weight of inevitability. Their blade wasn't even drawn. They struck with open palms, with the edge of their cloak, each blow ringing through my Soul Resonance as if they were unraveling me piece by piece.
Ryn dove back into the fray, her movements wild and desperate. She feinted high, rolled low, slashed across the Agent's leg. For the first time, she connected. The dagger bit into fabric, drawing no blood but tearing the shimmering ward.
The Agent paused, looking down at the cut. Then they laughed softly. "Clever little rat."
Their hand shot out, faster than sight. Ryn cried out, flung across the room like a ragdoll, slamming into the wall.
"Ryn!" I shouted, but Mira's voice cut through mine: "The wards are collapsing! Thirty seconds—just hold them off!"
Thirty seconds.
I met Loran's eyes. He grinned through clenched teeth. "Buy her time."
We surged together. My sword and his axe crashed in unison, each strike forcing the Agent back by sheer momentum, if not by damage. Sparks flew. Shadows twisted. My arms burned, my lungs screamed, but still we pressed.
[ Countdown: 00:00:25 ]
[ Warning: Structural Integrity Failing ]
The Agent's calm never wavered. They ducked, turned, shifted, letting our fury exhaust itself against wards that shimmered like glass. And then—too fast to follow—they slipped inside Loran's guard. A single strike. His axe fell from limp fingers as he staggered, blood spilling from his mouth.
"LORAN!"
He laughed through the blood, even as he collapsed to one knee. "Keep… swinging, Kael…"
[ Countdown: 00:00:10 ]
I roared, bringing my blade down in a strike fueled by everything I had left. It hit—not their mask, not their body, but the broken tear Ryn had carved earlier. For a heartbeat, their wards sputtered.
The Agent hissed, voice sharp for the first time. "Enough."
They blurred forward, faster than thought, their hand closing around my throat—
And then the wards Mira was weaving flared.
The room exploded in white light.
The Agent staggered back, their cloak smoking, the shimmer around them unraveling. When the glow cleared, they were gone. Just gone. No trace but the faint echo of their laughter.
Ryn groaned, dragging herself upright. Loran wheezed against the wall, Mira already rushing to him.
The system chimed, cold and merciless.
[ Objective Complete: Safehouse Secured – For Now ]
[ Losses: Severe Injuries Sustained – Resources Limited ]
[ New Directive: Counter-Intel Required. Council Knows Your Name. ]
I dropped to my knees, chest heaving. For the first time since this war began, I realized something that chilled me deeper than any wound.
The enforcer had been power.
The Serpents had been fear.
But this Agent… this was precision.
And if the Council had more of them—
We weren't ready. Not even close.