The morning light didn't reach Sector 4, but the sirens did. A harsh, mechanical wail echoed through the damp tunnels, signaling the start of the "Training Rotations."
Reed stood in his cell, staring at the circular hole he had bored into the stone wall the night before. His hand was shaking. Not from fear, but from a strange, hollow ache that had settled into his bones.
[SYSTEM STATUS: VOID CORRUPTION 1%]
[ADVISORY: EXCESSIVE USE OF 'SUBTRACTION' WITHOUT CORE STABILIZATION WILL RESULT IN PERSONAL DELETION.]
Personal deletion. The system didn't say death. It said he would simply cease to be.
"Move it, Error!" a guard yelled, banging a baton against the bars. "The Tier 1s are waiting in the Arena. They're hungry for some target practice, and you're top of the list."
Reed was marched out of the dark sub-levels and into the Apex Arena—a massive amphitheater filled with thousands of students. In the center stood the Tier 1 recruits, their armor polished, their Cores humming with vibrant, healthy light.
Kaelen Voss stood at the front, flames dancing between his knuckles. When he saw Reed, his grin widened. "Look at it! The 'Error' actually showed up. I thought you'd have crawled into a hole and died by now."
The Instructor stood on a raised platform. "The rules are simple: Tier 4s will act as 'Defensive Targets.' Tier 1s will practice offensive output. No killing... unless it's an accident."
The crowd laughed. They knew "accident" was a code word for legal bullying.
Reed was pushed into the center of the dusty circle. Opposite him, Kaelen stepped forward.
"I'm going to do the world a favor, Blackwell," Kaelen whispered, leaning in so only Reed could hear. "I'm going to burn that 'Error' out of the system."
Kaelen roared, and a pillar of white-hot flame erupted from his chest, shaping itself into a massive, snarling wolf of fire. The heat was so intense it cracked the stone floor.
Reed felt the whirlpool in his chest react. But this time, it was different. It wasn't just a thrum; it was a scream.
Let me out, a voice hissed in the back of Reed's mind. It didn't sound like the System. It sounded like something ancient, trapped under miles of ice. Give me the fire. Give me the boy. Give me... everything.
Reed gasped, clutching his head. His vision began to flicker. The world was turning grey, the colors being sucked out of the sky.
[WARNING: ANCIENT VIGILANCE DETECTED]
[CORRUPTION RISING: 5%... 8%...]
"Defend yourself, trash!" Kaelen shouted, and the fire wolf lunged.
Reed didn't move. He couldn't. He was fighting a war inside his own skull. The "Evil" was clawing at his heart, trying to force his hand up. It didn't want to just stop the fire; it wanted to erase the Arena, the students, and the city itself.
No, Reed groaned, his teeth drawing blood from his lip. Not like this.
The fire wolf slammed into him.
The crowd cheered, expecting to see Reed turned into a cinder. But the explosion never happened. Instead, the flames hit an invisible barrier—a sphere of absolute darkness that had materialized around Reed.
The fire didn't bounce off. It didn't smoke. It was simply... sucked in. Like water down a drain, the massive fire wolf was pulled into a single point in front of Reed's chest.
"What?" Kaelen's jaw dropped. "That's... that's impossible! My output is Tier 1!"
But Reed wasn't listening. He was staring at his own hands. They were turning pitch black, the skin dissolving into smoke. The "Evil" had found a leak.
Yes... the voice whispered, louder now. Consume the light. They banished us, Reed. They buried us in the dark. Make them remember why they were afraid.
Reed's head snapped up. His eyes were no longer purple. They were twin voids of swirling black ink. He took a step toward Kaelen, and with every footfall, the ground beneath him disintegrated into nothingness.
"Instructor!" Kaelen yelled, backing away, the fire in his hands sputtering out. "Instructor, something is wrong! Stop the match!"
The Instructor moved to intervene, drawing a massive silver blade of Light energy. "Stand down, Blackwell! That's an order!"
Reed didn't stop. He raised his hand, and the air in the stadium began to moan. A massive shadow, shaped like a clawed hand, began to rise from Reed's own shadow. It was huge, towering over the Arena walls.
The "Evil" was taking control.
Erase them all, the voice commanded.
Just as the shadow hand was about to sweep across the Tier 1 ranks, Reed felt a sharp, cold sting in his pocket. The Council Seal—the black coin—began to glow with a faint, steady white light.
The light acted like a bucket of ice water. Reed's mind cleared for a split second. He saw the terror on the faces of the students—not just Kaelen, but the innocent ones in the stands.
No! Reed screamed internally.
He grabbed his own arm with his other hand, forcing it down. He fought himself, his muscles tearing under the strain. With a final, guttural roar, he slammed his palms into the ground.
The shadow hand didn't strike the students. It struck the Arena floor.
A shockwave of silence blasted outward. No sound, just a ripple in reality. When the dust settled, a massive crater—fifty feet deep and perfectly smooth—had been carved into the center of the stadium.
Reed stood in the center of it, his body trembling, his skin slowly returning to a pale, sickly white.
[CORRUPTION STABILIZED AT 12%]
[CORE OVERLOAD. INITIATING EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN.]
Reed looked up. Thousands of people were staring down at him in a silence so thick it was suffocating. They weren't laughing anymore. They were looking at him the way their ancestors had looked at the Void thousands of years ago.
With terror.
Reed's legs gave out, and he collapsed into the dust of the crater he had created. As his consciousness faded, he saw Instructor Vane and a dozen armed guards rushing toward him, their weapons drawn.
He had survived the fight. But he had just painted a target on his back that the entire world could see.