The air in the Omen Academy always tasted like copper and burnt hair. It was the scent of the Argent Circuit. In the center of the courtyard, the high born Kith moved in blurs of silver light, their heartbeats Overclocked to a frantic rhythm. The mercury silver in their veins hummed, generating the electrical friction that allowed them to harden their skin into reflective chrome. It was a world of noise, light, and constant vibration. Every student was a living battery, trying to outshine the one standing next to them.
Vane sat in the furthest corner of the gardens, hunched over a rusted clock movement. He did not have a Spark. While the other students were training to be living lightning bolts, Vane's blood sat in his veins like stagnant water. He was a Dead Link, a biological glitch in a society of conductors. He did not glow. He did not hum. He just existed in the shadows of the brilliant.
"You are obsessed with that escapement, Vane. You know the gears won't turn if you don't give them a little push."
Lira leaned over his shoulder, her hand resting gently on Vane's arm. Her presence brought a soft, rhythmic hum that made the tiny gears in Vane's hands rattle. Her silver blood was iridescent, giving her skin a faint, pearlescent glow. She was the only one who didn't look at him with pity. Behind her stood Rokan, the academy's golden boy. Rokan's eyes were white with electrical discharge, and his very footsteps left faint scorch marks on the grass. He was the peak of what a Kith could be.
"It doesn't need a push, Lira," Vane whispered, his fingers steady on a delicate brass spring. "It needs balance. If you force the tension, the spring snaps. That is the problem with this school. Everyone is trying to snap."
"Ok Mr Poet," Rokan said, leaning against a nearby tree. "Leave him to his gears, Lira. But he is right about one thing. The tension here is too high. I can't wait for us to get to the Silent District. Think about it. We turn twenty in a few months. When we graduate, we get to make the Choice. We don't have to join the Special Vanguard and hunt monsters for the rest of our lives. We can choose the life of Shadows. We can just disappear into the outskirts, get a store together in the Silent District, and stay away from all of this. We have dreams, Vane."
Lira smiled, looking down at Vane with a warmth that made the copper taste in his mouth disappear. "The life of a Shadow. No more Special Units. No more hunting. Just us. It has a grandfather clock in the lobby that chimes in C flat. A soft, low sound. No buzzing. No static. No more fighting. We just need to finish this year, Vane. Just one more year."
Vane looked up at her, his pacifist heart finally finding a moment of stillness. He lived for their dreams because he had none of his own. He reached out and squeezed Lira's hand. "One more year," he said. "Then we leave the noise behind."
The sky did not darken. It shrieked.
A sound like a thousand violins snapping at once tore through the atmosphere. A massive, jagged spear of obsidian colored bone slammed into the academy's clock tower, pulverizing the stone. From the smoke, the Bylaws descended. They were not statues. They were a nightmare of biology. Twelve feet of corded muscle and jagged mineral plating, their skin pulsing with a dark, oily sheen. They had maws that leaked a grounding fluid and eyes that were nothing more than pits of predatory hunger. As they hit the ground, the electrical hum of the courtyard was instantly sucked into their bodies.
"We've been breached!" a student yelled from the balcony. "Bylaws are coming! They're coming! Run!"
The student did not run fast enough. A Bylaw lunged with impossible speed, its jagged claw piercing through the boy's chest before he could even Overclock. He was dead before he hit the ground. The sight sent a jolt of pure terror through the garden.
"Take Lira and get out of here!" Vane called out to Rokan. "I can't run as fast as you two! Leave now!"
Rokan grabbed Vane by the shoulder, his eyes wide and frantic. "I'm not leaving you behind! We're supposed to graduate and get our shop in the Silent District! Vane, c'mon!"
Vane looked at his friend and then at Lira, who was frozen in shock. "Those are y'all dreams! I just wanted to see them accomplished! Take her and run away now! Gooo!"
A Bylaw sensed the spike of energy from Rokan and turned toward them. It moved like a shadow, its heavy footfalls cracking the marble floor. As the creature lunged with a killing blow, Vane threw his weight forward. He pushed Rokan and Lira out of the path of the strike, taking the full force of the impact himself. He was tossed across the grass like a rag doll, his body slamming into the stone base of a fountain.
"Run!" Vane choked out, blood pooling in his mouth.
Rokan grabbed Lira's hand and tried to sprint toward the exit, but they were stopped. A different Bylaw dropped from the roof, landing directly in their path. Vane watched from the ground, his vision blurring, as the nightmare unfolded.
The twelve foot creature reached out with a clawed hand and gripped Rokan by the skull. Rokan tried to ignite his golden light, but the Bylaw's touch acted like a massive drain. Vane watched as the gold light was ripped from Rokan's skin, followed by his very life. The pressure increased until Rokan's head collapsed inward like an empty shell. His body fell limp, his dreams of the Silent District ending in the dirt.
Lira screamed, her iridescent blood flaring in a desperate burst of light as she tried to strike the beast. The Bylaw did not even flinch. It drove a jagged, obsidian blade through her midsection. Vane seen them die. He watched as the light in Lira's eyes flickered and went out, her body hanging from the creature's arm before being tossed aside like trash.
Everything went numb in Vane's mind. The screaming and the crashing stone faded away into a heavy, suffocating silence. The only thing playing in his head was a chime, the slow and steady sound of a clock.
The black iron pendant he had worn since infancy suddenly began to vibrate. It did not spark. It did not break. Instead, it pulsed with a deep, gravitational cold that seemed to pull the very air into its center. The mercury silver in Vane's veins underwent a terrifying transformation. His blood did not accelerate. It did not hum. It turned into a deep, light eating Matte Black. This was the Monolith Grade, the ancient blood of the first ancestors.
The Bylaw that had killed his friends turned toward Vane. It raised a jagged claw, intending to finish the job. Vane did not move. He did not blink. When the massive claw hit Vane's chest, there was no impact. Instead, a terrifying reaction occurred. The flesh of the Bylaw's arm started to bubble up, hissing as if it were being cooked from the inside out by a frozen heat. The creature shrieked as the corruption spread instantly through its torso. With a wet, violent thud, the first Bylaw exploded, sending shards of stone and black ichor across the grass.
The next Bylaw lunged. Vane caught its wrist, the ground beneath his feet shattering as his weight became immense. He yanked the beast downward, forcing its knees to explode. As the giant tumbled forward, Vane touched its face. The creature shrieked in terror as its skin began to bubble and pop. Vane tore the monster's head from its shoulders with a single, effortless tug.
By the time the Seekers arrived in their gold trimmed transports, the garden was a wasteland. Vane was still sitting in the dirt, the severed head of the giant monster resting in his lap like a morbid prize. He was perfectly still. The black iron pendant sat heavy and silent against his chest.
The Seekers stepped off their ships, their high voltage auras glowing bright. But as they approached Vane, their shields began to flicker. Their weapons dimmed. Their hearts began to skip beats.
"My god," one of the Seekers whispered, his scanner beeping a frantic warning. "The energy levels in this sector are at absolute zero. What is that boy?"
General Kaine stepped forward, holding up a hand. "Stay back," Kaine told his crewmen. "I'll send a low powered drone to collect blood samples. It shouldn't take long. That boy might either be an enemy to us or a child who is a victim. Let's not do anything crazy just yet."
The drone hovered over the garden and returned to the transport with two samples. One was the dark, oily ichor of a Bylaw. The other was a thick, light eating liquid that looked like liquid charcoal.
"This can't be the blood of a Kith," the General said, staring at the matte black sample. "Neither of these samples are clear."
"Incorrect," the drone replied in a flat, robot like tone. "One sample is blood of a Kith and the other is blood of a Bylaw."
The General ran an immediate analysis. When the screen flashed with the genetic markers, he was shocked. "He is not a Dead Link," Kaine whispered to his men. "His blood is the Monolith Grade. We found a match in the deep archives. He is a descendant of the architects who built this world. He does not create power. He is the end of it."
In Vane's mind, everything was still numb with a chime playing. "We were almost done," he said in a hollow whisper. "We had one more year. Just one. We could've escaped out this district and lived in peace. They died because I'm weak."
His tone changed from a sad boy to a boy filled with cold, jagged anger. "Why? Why? They died because I was weak! They died because of me! My only friends! I won't stop til every last Bylaw is eradicated! I'll kill them all!"
A young woman named Nora stepped forward. She was a fresh graduate who had just finished the general academy, and she had immediately chosen to be apart of a special unit who hunted the Bylaws. Now a cadet in training for the Vanguard, this was her first real field assignment under Kaine. She was staring directly at Vane with wide, disbelieving eyes. She pointed a trembling finger at him. "Look General! Look at that wound across his chest to his lower abdomen!" Nora's voice was sharp. "Anyone who'd have a wound like that should've died ages ago! How is he still breathing?"
Vane slowly turned his head. His dark eyes locked onto Kaine. The head of the Bylaw he was holding suddenly turned to ash, slipping through his fingers like gray sand.
"I have nothing left," Vane said. His voice was a flatline. "I just want to sleep."
Kaine swallowed hard. He saw the bodies of the two students in the dirt. He saw the remains of the monster Vane had just dismantled.
"We can't let you sleep yet," Kaine said, his voice trembling as he maintained his distance. "There is a school named Valis Academy that specializes in teaching students and training them to hunt these things. Due to the conditions of your blood, if you join, you'll be an S Rank student. But the choice is yours, boy. You would have to graduate first to be apart of a special unit that hunts these things, or you could choose to live your life in peace in the shadows. We will honor your choice."
Vane looked down at the black blood of a Bylaw on his hands. "Bring my friends," Vane said, his voice a gravelly whisper. "I want to bury them." Kaine swallowed hard and nodded. "Yes," the General replied. Vane stood up, the last of the ash falling to the dirt as he turned to board the transport.
As Vane boarded the transport, the Seekers stepped back to give him a wide berth. They thought they were bringing home a long lost heir to save their civilization. They did not realize that the only thing that had kept Vane human was now buried in the garden. The circuit was broken, and the world was about to go dark.