Graia-Theta-9 lived in shadows.
In the dead hours, beneath manufactoria whose prayer-engines no longer sang, Kairon gathered the desperate. Vault doors closed with coded locks, mechadendrites sweeping corridors to check for listening ears.
The ones he brought were broken but not useless:
A data-scrivener who had seen Rustbound code infect her cogitators and wanted vengeance.
A serf missing half his face from a plasma spill, whose augmetics had been denied because he wasn't valuable enough.
A priest stripped of his rank for questioning why the Omnissiah allowed failure at all.
They knelt in soot and silence while Selene moved among them.
Her voice was steady, her devotion absolute. She told them of Elias — not as a god, but as flame incarnate, the forge of hope. Her hand rested cold against their brows, her breath misting faintly in the vault's stale air. She never summoned ice, never revealed her gift — only her vow.
Her cold divine touch soothed their souls.
"Hold faith in silence. Let it grow like coals beneath ash. When the day comes, you will burn, and nothing will quench you."
Every whisper became another ember in Elias's unseen ledger.
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System Profile:
User: Elias MercerStatus: ANCHOR Stabilized (Post-Mercer Fusion)Flame Integrity: 92
🔹 Core Abilities
- Unstable Flame Manifestation
- Innate after the Mercer fusion.
- Raw orange fire; destructive, uncontrolled, often collateral-heavy.
- Symbolic: eyes burn orange → seen as holy sign by followers.
- Chakra Control (Basic)
- Tree Climbing + Surface Walking unlocked.
🔹 Jutsu Acquired
- Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu(Basic) (New)
- Shadow Clone Technique (New)(Full)
🔹 Apostol
- Selene Varro --> Ice Release Keke Genkai
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Looking at the system profile, Elise realizes that he has got a full version of the shadow clone, and new Fire Release Justu. Hmm.. it seems I did get more than system upgrade from the shadow.
By day, Elias was elsewhere — fighting the Imperium's wars.
Sector Seven's manufactoria was a tomb. Rust bled down the walls in jagged streams, cables hissed like snakes, and cogitators screamed corrupted binary.
The Black File advanced in formation. Volst at point, rifle snapping in bursts. Malk muttered curses as his bolter tore through the dark. Lirae's augmetic eye glowed faintly, her voice calm as she called ranges and choke points.
Elias followed, fire breathing beneath his skin.
The Rustbound came like locusts.
Servitors staggered from the shadows: flesh spliced with steel, saw-blades grafted for arms, torsos split to reveal screaming gears wet with oil. Their vox-speakers wailed corrupted hymns:
"Flesh is error. Rust will reign."
"Contact front!" Volst barked.
Malk's bolter thundered, rounds detonating servitors into sprays of iron and gore. Lirae's plasma charge burst across the wall, melting three into slag.
But more swarmed in. Crawling from vents. Dropping from gantries. Numbers enough to bury them alive.
Elias inhaled.
The fire inside him surged, spilling uncontrolled through his chest. He exhaled — not a technique, just raw, unshaped fire. It tore down the corridor in a storm, igniting servitors instantly, turning rust into rivers of molten metal.
The blast caught too wide. Cables burst into sparks. Steel screamed as beams warped under the heat.
"Control it, Mercer!" Volst shouted, diving aside as flame licked dangerously close.
Elias clenched his fists, forcing the fire down. His heart hammered. I can't leash it. Not yet.
He snapped through hand signs.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Two replicas burst into being at his side, eyes burning orange like his. They rushed forward, intercepting servitors clawing from the vents, dragging them down in grappling holds that ended in violent bursts of fire as the clones dispelled.
"Your toys won't save us!" Malk barked, unloading another magazine.
But Elias ignored him. The clones were enough to split the tide, to buy a heartbeat.
He dashed forward, chakra flooding his feet. The world tilted as he ran up the manufactoria wall, moving along the vertical surface like it was the floor. Shots from Volst and Malk tracked the wave of Rustbound below as Elias dropped down into their midst.
A servitor lunged, drills spinning. Elias's fist blazed.
System — Flame-Enhanced Strike.
The punch detonated through its chest, ripping gears and flesh apart in a spray of sparks.
But the flame spilled outward, catching a support beam, igniting the steel in an uncontrolled blaze.
Then came the bomber.
A hulking servitor staggered from the end of the hall, torso bristling with canisters of promethium. Its vox-speaker screeched static hymns as sparks burst from its seams.
"Suicide bomber!" Lirae shouted.
Volst moved to intercept, rifle barking. The rounds ricocheted, useless.
The servitor broke into a run, fuses flaring.
Volst braced herself — too close to escape.
Elias moved.
He sprinted past her, fire spilling uncontrolled from his eyes and chest. He thrust both arms forward, and the flame roared out in a torrent, wrapping the bomber in a wall of orange heat.
The canisters ruptured. The explosion thundered through the manufactoria, the shockwave slamming outward. Volst hit the floor, seared by heat but alive.
When the smoke cleared, only molten slag hissed where the bomber had been.
The System pulsed coldly in his vision.
> MISSION COMPLETE – Rustbound Purge
> Reward Tier: B
[1] Fire Release: Ash Bullet Barrage
[2] Chakra Enhancement: +20% Speed/Reflex
Elias's chest heaved. His throat tasted of ash.
He stared at the options. Speed would save him. But fire would save them.
If I am their flame, then the fire must grow.
> Selection: Fire Release – Ash Bullet Barrage
> Integration Complete
Knowledge pressed into him — not learned, but remembered. He could feel ash coiling in his lungs, ready to scatter in burning shards.
But not here. Not before witnesses.
Volst staggered to her feet, face pale, eyes hard.
"You're not just a weapon," she rasped. "You're a catastrophe. And when the Inquisition comes, it won't only be you they burn. It'll be all of us."
Elias shook his head, and said "You know it... Its either all of us or none of us."
Hearing this everyone went silent, they knew if Inquisition came.
They will come after each black file member, and getting in their hands was worse than death. It was either they surrender voluntarily or join Elias.
They had seen what he was capable of, rough around the edges.. but they could trust him.
[END OF PART 4: Ash in Two Fires ]