The chant still hadn't left the streets.
Exile. Exile. Exile.
It wasn't just voices anymore. It was in the graffiti glowing on walls, in the rain-slick neon puddles, in the trembling breaths of the gangs who had bent their knees. The Core inside me pulsed to its rhythm, like the city itself had started breathing with me.
But the city had other eyes.
The sky cracked open with the sound of metal wings. Drones swooped overhead, red sensors blinking in eerie synchronization. The crowd's devotion snapped into silence, replaced by fear. They knew what came next.
Sofia-9 didn't flinch. Her voice was calm, clinical. "VoidNet anomaly confirmed. Deployment ETA… twenty-eight seconds."
Milo let out a nervous, rat-like laugh, claws twitching at the wires on his belt. "Oh, they've marked you, boss. The LAW doesn't knock. It doesn't talk. It just deletes."
I clenched my fist. The Core in my chest burned hot, answering with the same fury that had carried me through the arena. "Then let them try."
The street shook.
Three titans dropped from the towers above, slamming into the puddles hard enough to send neon water spraying. They rose, black carbon armor steaming, each three meters tall. Faces blank, nothing human left—just cold visors lit with a single flickering word:
LAW.
The gangs broke instantly, scattering into alleys with shrieks and curses. Only those who had bent to me stayed rooted, paralyzed between awe and terror.
The first Enforcer's arm shifted with a hiss. A railgun unfolded from its forearm, glowing white-hot. Its voice was synthetic thunder, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"Subject: Elias Drexler. Classification: Anomaly. Verdict: Erasure."
The Core roared in my chest, hot enough to feel like it would tear me apart.
The shot came—blinding, louder than thunder.
Sofia moved before I even blinked. Her servo blades snapped open, two white arcs screaming through the rain. She cut the rail slug mid-flight, fragments sparking across the street. She landed in a crouch, coat whipping in the storm, and spoke with machine certainty.
"Engage at close range. Probability of survival… eighty-seven percent."
Gregor Vanko's laugh rolled like an engine. "Good enough!"
The Steel Hound hurled himself at the second Enforcer, his chain-axe spinning to life with a howl. Sparks exploded as steel clashed with steel, his hydraulic spine roaring under the weight.
Clara Seraph spread her jagged wings, neon light dripping off them like fire. "For the Neon Messiah!" she cried, loosing a storm of plasma bolts. Her zealots screamed prayers and charged beside her, their daggers glowing like relics.
Milo was already gone, half-hidden behind a shattered console, claws jabbing into wires. "I'll buy you seconds—hah!—just don't die too fast, boss!"
The third Enforcer locked on me. Its monoblade unfolded from its arm with a cold hiss, longer and sharper than mine. Its visor flickered, the word LAW stuttering with static.
I didn't wait.
My blade screamed crimson into the night, the Core surging hotter, hungrier. Sparks burst as our weapons collided, the sound deafening, the impact rattling through my bones.
For the first time, I wasn't fighting alone.
Sparks, steam, rain, neon blood—it all blurred together as the underhive held its breath.
This wasn't just survival anymore.
This was our first war.
This was the Circle's baptism in blood.
The Enforcer's blade screeched against mine, sparks showering in the rain.
Its visor burned LAW, static hissing at the edges like it couldn't decide if I existed or not. Every clash rattled the street, steel shrieking, neon blood spattering across our boots.
It wasn't like fighting the Jackals. This thing didn't rage, didn't taunt—it just executed, every strike precise enough to kill a dozen men.
The Core inside me howled, pumping heat through my veins until my vision burned red. I shoved back, blade screaming as it split across the Enforcer's chest. The armor cracked—just a hairline fracture, but enough to make it stagger.
"Anomaly adapting," its voice droned. "Escalating protocol."
Its railgun retracted, folding into a spiked gauntlet that swung for my head. I ducked, sparks hissing as it tore through a streetlamp instead.
Sofia was a blur beside me. She slid between two Enforcers, blades cutting white arcs, sparks dancing across her coat. Every movement was mechanical perfection—slashes that would have gutted a man only scored their armor, but it was enough to buy time.
Gregor roared like an engine on fire, his chain-axe biting into an Enforcer's leg. Hydraulic pistons blew apart in a spray of steam, the machine crashing down to one knee. Gregor slammed his armored fist into its visor, denting it deep, roaring in its face. "LAW THIS!"
Clara's zealots swarmed another, stabbing glowing daggers into its joints, chanting through blood-soaked teeth. The priestess herself soared above, her plasma bolts bursting against its plating like fireworks. "Bleed, machine! Kneel before the Messiah!"
But even broken, the Enforcers did not stop.
The one in front of me lunged again, blade driving straight toward my Core. For an instant, I saw my reflection in its visor—not a man, not a messiah. A glitch. A mistake.
The Core pulsed.
Red light exploded out of me, flooding the street in a searing wave. The Enforcer froze mid-strike, its visor flickering, the word LAW glitching into nonsense code.
≠/ERROR//≠/ANOMALY//≠
Its whole body spasmed, joints locking, systems screaming. My blade drove straight through its chest, and this time the armor cracked wide open, neon blood and sparks spraying into the storm.
The machine collapsed, twitching, visor still stuttering in static.
The Core quieted… satisfied.
I staggered back, chest heaving. What the hell had that been?
Sofia's synthetic eyes flicked toward me, calm even in the chaos. "Observation: Core disrupted enforcement protocols. Conclusion: subject capable of rewriting LAW."
Her words hit me harder than the machine had.
I didn't just fight the Enforcer.
I broke its code.
The others saw it too. Milo let out a manic laugh from the shadows. "You saw that, didn't you?! He's not just a monster—he's a virus! He can eat the LAW itself!"
The gangs that had stayed began to chant again, this time louder, more frenzied. Their voices echoed through the alleys, drowning the rain.
"EXILE! EXILE! EXILE!"
The remaining Enforcers faltered under the swarm—Gregor's axe tearing steel apart, Clara's zealots stabbing until neon blood flooded the gutters. One by one, the machines collapsed, smoking heaps against the ruined street.
The storm quieted. The rain hissed.
And then the sky itself shifted.
Above the towers, holo-billboards across the city glitched into the same image—my distorted face, cracked with static, glowing in crimson.
The VoidNet voice boomed across every channel, calm and absolute.
"Priority Threat Detected. Anomaly Class: Crimson Exile. Citywide lockdown initiated."
The gangs fell silent, even the zealots shivering. Helena's smile curved like a blade.
"Well done," she whispered in my ear. "You've just become public enemy number one."
The Core pulsed in my chest, hungry, defiant.
I didn't know if I'd won a battle or just declared war.
But the underhive had seen it.
The LAW had bled.
And the legend of the Exile was no longer just a whisper—it was a broadcast.