The rain didn't stop after the duel.
It only got heavier.
It felt as if the city itself was trying to wash away what had just happened — the blood, the heat, the scream of steel.
But it was too late.
The world had already seen everything.
Every drone that hovered above the ruins, every hidden feed spliced by rat-hackers and black-market streamers — they all caught it: two monsters in the storm, blades burning, the air splitting in light and sound.
And when it ended… when the last strike fell and Kade Strix's mask shattered — the feed didn't cut.
It looped.
"Prey doesn't bleed the LAW."
That single sentence echoed across every holographic billboard, every cracked visor screen, every home terminal plugged into VoidNet.
The city had seen men die before.
But this wasn't death.
This was heresy.
---
VOIDNET // GLOBAL BROADCAST
The system didn't hesitate.
Its response was immediate — precise, sterile, terrifying.
[VOIDNET ALERT – PRIORITY OVERRIDE]
ENTITY: ELIAS DREXLER
STATUS: ALIVE
DESIGNATION: CRIMSON ANOMALY
SECURITY TIER: GLOBAL-CLASS
EXECUTION PROTOCOL: CRIMSON LOCKDOWN
AUTHORIZATION: LAW AUTHORITY 7 // AEGIS EUROPA EXEC.
And for the first time in decades, the global network blinked red.
Not the dull blue that signified order and control.
But red — bleeding, flickering, unstable.
The color of rebellion.
The color of corruption.
The color of him.
---
UPPER CITY – AEGIS EUROPA EXECUTIVE TOWER
Marcus Halden leaned against the glass wall of his penthouse, the skyline of Neo-Prague stretching beneath him like a dying circuit board.
He looked exhausted, but his eyes burned bright — the kind of fire that only ambition could feed.
The broadcast replayed in hologram loops across his office. Elias Drexler. Crimson Core. A man breaking through VoidNet's predictive field like a glitch in God's code.
His secretary's voice trembled behind him.
"Sir… reports confirm Kade Strix is deceased."
Marcus didn't move. "And the feed?"
"Viral. Global. Every shard of VoidNet is mirroring it. Citizens are tagging him as—"
She hesitated.
"As what?"
Her throat tightened. "The Crimson Prophet."
Marcus exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing. "Prophets burn bright. And short."
He turned back toward the screen. "But I'm curious what happens when one refuses to die."
He tapped his cane twice against the floor.
"Send the Specters."
---
UNDERHIVE – EXILED CIRCLE SAFEZONE
The tunnels beneath the reactor were alive with neon ghosts — flickers of static lighting, shadows of machinery half-eaten by time. The Circle gathered in silence, the echo of the duel still hanging in the air.
Gregor sat slumped against a pillar, one leg half-repaired with scavenged plating. The rest of his body was a patchwork of scars and steel.
"Heh…" He grinned, teeth gleaming under the neon haze. "Did you see his face when you split that mask? The mighty hunter looked like a scared priest for once."
Milo was crouched near a pile of sparking cables, chewing on a piece of insulated wire. "Yeah, and the whole damn city saw it too. Feeds went viral in thirty seconds. You're a celebrity now, boss."
Clara knelt beside the bodies of her fallen zealots, fingers tracing their broken augments. Her lips moved in quiet prayer. "Their deaths fed the circuit of faith. The storm anointed our Messiah."
Sofia stood in the corner, silent. Her face half-hidden behind the glow of her visor, eyes processing endless lines of data.
"The Core overclocked your entire neural system," she finally said, her voice steady but low. "Your body shouldn't have survived that feedback. It rewrote your synapses in real-time."
Elias turned to her. "You're saying I should be dead."
"I'm saying you're not entirely human anymore."
He didn't argue.
He didn't have to.
The Core inside him pulsed, faint and rhythmic — not mechanical, not alive, but something in-between.
---
Sofia stepped closer, her tone sharpening.
"You realize what that means, don't you? The Core's adapting to the VoidNet field. It's not just fighting the system — it's learning it."
Elias looked down at his chest. The light there glowed softly through the cracked armor, pulsing like a slow heartbeat.
"It doesn't feel like a weapon anymore," he said quietly.
"It feels… awake."
Gregor chuckled from the side. "If that thing's awake, maybe it can tell us what the hell it wants. Because right now, boss, we're on every bounty board from here to Europa."
Milo spun his screen around, showing hundreds of flashing contracts. "They're not calling you Exile anymore. You're 'Crimson Protocol.' Sounds like a damn virus."
Elias smirked faintly. "Maybe I am."
---
VOIDNET // INTERNAL SYSTEM LOG
> [LAW UPDATE]
// Anomaly confirmed: Crimson Core interference.
// System integrity compromised.
// Deploy SPECTER-CLASS ENFORCERS.
// Target: Elias Drexler.
// Authority: Override granted by Aegis Europa Executive Command.
The city's drones shifted frequency. Every patrol light turned from blue to red.
Every camera reoriented.
Every machine began whispering the same word through digital static:
"Crimson."
---
BACK IN THE UNDERHIVE
Milo's ears twitched as his receiver went haywire. "Uh-oh. That's… new."
Sofia looked up instantly. "What?"
He tapped the side of his head, nervous laughter bubbling out. "VoidNet just went full red. Not partial lockdown. Global. They're deploying Specters."
Gregor frowned. "Specters?"
Sofia's voice was clinical. "High-tier VoidNet constructs. Human ghosts converted into digital enforcement units. They don't bleed, don't stop, don't remember mercy."
Clara shuddered, eyes gleaming with religious awe. "The angels of deletion. Sent to purge sin."
Elias stayed quiet for a moment, letting the weight of it sink in.
Then he smiled.
"Good."
Sofia turned toward him sharply. "Good? You're insane."
"Maybe," Elias said softly, stepping forward. "But the world just saw something it wasn't supposed to. The LAW cracked, and people noticed. They're scared. Confused. Maybe even inspired."
He lifted his hand, the Core's glow reflecting in the puddles beneath him. "We give them something to believe in."
Gregor's laugh rumbled deep. "Heh. I'll take that over hiding any day."
Milo grinned, teeth flashing. "So what's the plan, boss?"
Elias looked up, his reflection fractured in the neon light.
"The same as before," he said. "We make noise loud enough for heaven to hear."
---
ABOVEGROUND – VOIDNET SKYLINE
The rain slowed. The clouds pulsed red as VoidNet came alive. Thousands of surveillance drones moved as one, forming a single glowing pattern across the skyline — a halo bleeding light.
From the center of that halo, something began to descend.
At first, it looked like light — shifting, fluid, almost elegant. Then the form took shape: humanoid, but distorted, like a reflection that refused to settle.
Its armor shimmered in fractal patterns, each panel rearranging itself every second. The face was glass — smooth, blank — except for the faint flicker of static.
Inside that glass, a single distorted image shimmered to life: Elias Drexler's grin.
The first Specter had arrived.
---
Down in the tunnels, alarms blared. Milo's console erupted in red warnings. "Incoming signal—direct VoidNet feed! They're here!"
Sofia's eyes flared white as she scanned the data. "Signal density… impossible. It's inside every frequency. Every drone. Every sensor."
Gregor stood, cracking his neck. "Heh. Guess they brought their goddamn ghosts."
Clara spread her arms, trembling with excitement. "Then let the baptism begin."
Elias drew his blade, crimson fire bleeding down the edge. His Core pulsed once — hard, steady — as if answering the city itself.
"Circle," he said quietly. "Positions."
---
Outside, the Specter's voice echoed across the city, calm and metallic.
"Protocol CRIMSON: confirmed active."
"Subject: Elias Drexler."
"Sentence: deletion."
The lights in the underhive flickered — then went out.
Only the Core's red glow remained.