The lingering heat from the Void Spawn's demise was a dinner bell to the Black Swords. My priority had shifted immediately from power gain to Evasion and Recon. I couldn't afford a face-off with a trained patrol until I had a proper escape route and a better understanding of their operations.
Rule one of intrusion: Map the network before you try to burn it down.
I pushed deeper into Ebonscar, the Shadow Cloak now my constant companion, a silent, energy-draining cloak of anonymity. The F-Tier power was quickly becoming second nature, less a spell and more a tool—a custom-built stealth module installed into the Zayn OS. The dull ache of the previous Veil Fracture persisted, a constant reminder of the price of this power.
The environment was a dizzying blend of dark fantasy and forgotten engineering. The air was a toxic cocktail of ozone and metallic decay, scratching at my lungs and tasting like a grounded power grid. Everywhere, the oppressive green glow of the distant rifts cast harsh, sickly light, outlining the colossal skeletons of ancient machinery.
I moved with a practiced, low-gravity shuffle. Kael's logic dictated pathing and efficiency, but Zayn's instincts guided the subtle shifts—the unconscious avoidance of unstable footholds, the almost reflexive lean into a crumbling wall to find cover. The two minds were starting to share a stream, two users on the same terminal.
My Earth memories—the smell of hot coffee and the white-on-black glow of a late-night terminal—flickered whenever the Void's coldness got too close, acting as a mental anchor. Worse than a crashed phone, I thought, pulling my focus back to the immediate threat. At least a corrupted motherboard doesn't whisper your name.
I spent an eternity crawling through the maze, weaving through fused obsidian rock and the broken ribs of titanic, rusted frames. The Black Swords were thorough, but predictable; their patrols followed known, stable routes. The deep sections, where the God-King's Curse had truly manifested and warped reality, were left to the Veilmarked and the Void.
It was in one of these unstable zones that I found it: a narrow, elevated passage constructed from what looked like petrified circuit board material, spanning a sheer drop into a pulsating green rift.
[Threat Detected. Environmental Hazard. Energy Signature Anomaly.] The Codex flashed.
A low, mechanical click echoed from the bridge ahead. A thin, almost invisible red laser line shimmered into existence, spanning the bridge at chest height. It wasn't a physical tripwire; it was a pure energy barrier.
A pressure plate trigger, leading to a laser grid. Old school, but effective. This isn't just an ancient ruin; it's a security system.
My mind immediately began analyzing the pattern. The laser was static, not sweeping. If I touched it, what would happen? More void monsters? A localized energy blast? Given this world, probably both.
I crouched, the Shadow Cloak tightening around me as if in anticipation. My Earth-trained eyes scanned for pressure plates, tripwires, visible emitters. Nothing. The laser simply hung there, humming faintly.
This isn't a conventional trap. It's tied to the Veil itself.
I reached out a hesitant finger towards the red line. Just before it touched, the Codex hummed in my mind, a dry, analytical voice, like an ancient compiler.
[Energy barrier detected. Requires Veil Hack.]
[Definition: Veil Hack – Manipulation of Veil essence to disrupt local energy fields or bypass passive defenses. Risk: Localized Veil instability, potential Void attraction.]
A "Veil Hack." This was new. And it sounded incredibly risky. But it was also a direct solution, a digital key for a physical lock.
Alright, Codex. Let's see if this glorified instruction manual can actually do more than just flash warnings.
I reached out my right hand, feeling the Shadow Cloak essence gather like condensed, dark fog. This time, I didn't push brute force. I thought of it as tuning a radio, or more accurately, sending a tiny, precise flood of corrupt data at a firewall.
"Time for a little buffer overflow, old friend," I whispered, focusing with every fiber of my being.
The mental strain was immense. My brain felt like a CPU running at 500% capacity, heat radiating behind my eyes. I pushed the Shadow essence into the ambient Veil flow, targeting the red laser's waveform. I didn't aim to destroy it, just to introduce a momentary discrepancy.
My nose began to bleed in earnest. The world tilted slightly. My vision swam—a brief, frightening mind blur like a monitor losing its vertical sync.
[Veil Hack Initiated. Payload: F-Tier Shadow Essence.]
The red line flickered violently. Instead of dissolving with a sound of tearing silk, it short-circuited—it exploded outward in a momentary shower of dark, crackling static, a purely technological failure, before vanishing entirely.
The path was clear. But the cost was immediate.
"...Kael. Come to me."
The whisper was low, intimate, and colder than the vacuum of space. It vibrated in my teeth, a frequency only my soul could hear. The Void was drawn to the disturbance, recognizing the signal of my unique method of manipulation. It wasn't targeting Zayn; it was targeting the anomaly—the hacker who saw magic as code.
I stumbled across the gap, ignoring the dizzying height. The metallic tang of old coffee mixed with the smell of ash, a psychological war designed to break my sanity. I am Kael. I am the one who programs the rules. Not the one who follows them. I forced the mantra. But deep down, the instincts of Zayn—the ingrained survival knowledge of this cursed world—were the only reason my foot hadn't slipped.
The success of the Veil Hack led to a chamber that was surprisingly whole, preserved from the worst of the Fracture. It was a cavernous space filled with ancient, curved consoles whose dark surfaces were etched with luminous, complex runes—not unlike the world's most beautiful, grotesque motherboards.
A pedestal of crystalline rock stood at the center. Upon it rested a small, fist-sized relic encased in a cage of blackened bone and twisted silver. It pulsed with an internal light—a soft, steady, ethereal blue-white glow, entirely unlike the sickly green of the surrounding corruption.
I approached slowly. The relic radiated an ancient calm, a feeling of deep, untainted power. As my eyes focused, I didn't see bone or silver; I saw conduits, insulators, and terminals. The blue-white light wasn't just light; it pulsed in intricate, rhythmic patterns that, to my hacker's mind, mimicked a perfect, complex networking topology. This was not magic. This was pure, functioning technology from before the Fracture.
This is it. A data core. A fragment of the God-King's machine, waiting for a connection.
My fingers trembled as I reached for the relic. The Inquisitor, the Black Swords, the Void—they all felt momentarily distant. Here, in the heart of Ebonscar, a new kind of power was waiting to be logged into.
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Poll: Kael has successfully used a sophisticated Veil Hack to access a hidden Ebonscar chamber and discovered a glowing, blue-white relic. He is still deep within the ruins, the Void is actively whispering "Kael," and Black Swords patrols are rumored nearby.
Should Kael immediately search for more relics within Ebonscar to gather power and information, or prioritize evading Black Swords patrols by finding a secure route out of the ruins?
A) Search for More Relics (Risk deeper exploration for more power, hoping to find answers about Zayn's past and the God-King's Curse.)
B) Evade Black Swords Patrols (Prioritize immediate safety, focusing on finding a hidden exit route from Ebonscar before the patrols close in.)