Underground was quiet—too quiet.
Rael stood at the edge of a flickering holo-map, scanning potential entry points to the Overseer Citadel. Agent 7 moved behind him, muttering system traces under her breath.
The boy sat cross-legged, surrounded by seven floating shards—each one pulsing with raw, unfiltered memory data.
Rael tapped a node. "If we breach from here—"
A ping interrupted him.
> [INCOMING SIGNAL: CATALYST-CLASS INTERFERENCE DETECTED]
[SIGNATURE: MATCH – REVENANT]
Everyone froze.
---
📍 Digital Echo Chamber – Constructed Battle Space
Rael was pulled into the system without warning.
One moment, he stood on concrete. The next—glass.
A digital arena unfolded around him, suspended in an endless sky of falling code.
A figure waited at its center.
Tall. Half of his body seemed burned away—exposed lines of blackened code and old scars. But his eyes burned violet. Focused. Intelligent.
> "Rael Kuro," he said with a voice like broken glass. "The prodigal error."
Rael raised a brow. "You must be Revenant. The corrupted Catalyst."
Revenant smiled darkly.
> "I'm not corrupted. I'm preserved. A remnant of Iteration Zero, forced into silence while the world forgot."
His blade snapped into existence—dark red, shaped like a broken memory stick.
Rael activated his glitch-blade instantly.
> "You gonna give me your speech or swing that relic?"
> "Just one truth," Revenant replied.
The sky above them rippled.
> "The reset has already begun."
---
📍 Elsewhere – Metro City's Core Systems
Invisible to the public, a countdown initiated.
> [GLOBAL RESET PROTOCOL: STAGE 1]
[TIME REMAINING: 167 HOURS 14 MINUTES]
But no one knew.
No one… except the system.
---
📍 Back in the Echo Arena
Steel met code as Rael and Revenant clashed. Their weapons screamed with raw energy, shattering platforms beneath them.
Rael ducked under a spinning kick—his instincts glitching him left. He countered with a burst of unstable velocity.
But Revenant adapted fast.
Too fast.
> "I've fought a hundred versions of you," Revenant hissed, slashing through Rael's shoulder. "You all die the same."
> "Then I'll be the first to rewrite the ending," Rael growled, twisting his blade and launching a Memory Shard Barrage.
The digital space fractured—
And both were thrown back.
---
📍 Meanwhile – Rebel Base
Agent 7's eyes widened.
Rael's body twitched, locked in battle inside the digital echo. The boy reached forward to stabilize him—
When a hand touched his shoulder.
It was Lira, one of the rescued rogue Hunters they'd brought in last chapter. Soft-spoken. Loyal.
Too loyal.
The boy's eyes widened—
But before he could speak—
Slice.
A needle of blue energy pierced his side.
> [SYSTEM INTERVENTION – ASSASSIN ACTIVE]
Agent 7 turned just in time.
> "LIRA!?"
But it was too late.
The woman's skin peeled like paper, revealing a chrome skeleton beneath—an autonomous sleeper.
Sent by the system.
> "Execute: Catalyst Core."
---
📍 Inside the Arena
Rael gasped mid-swing.
His vision blurred. He felt pain—not his.
> The boy…!
Revenant paused. "You felt that, didn't you?"
Rael looked up.
> "You're not the enemy," Revenant said softly. "The system is. But you're not ready."
He waved his hand.
> [FORCED EJECTION – RAEL KURO]
And the battle world vanished.
---
📍 Back at the Base – Moments Later
Rael dropped to the floor, clutching his chest.
Agent 7 stood over the assassin's burning remains. The boy lay beside her—alive, barely. Blood dripped from his side, his glow dimming.
> "They got to us," she whispered. "One of ours."
Rael staggered to his feet.
> "No. They were never one of us."
He looked at the boy.
> We can't hide anymore.
He turned toward the warboard.
> "If the reset's started…"
His system glitched violently.
> [NEW OBJECTIVE ADDED]
[CRASH THE WORLD BEFORE IT CRASHES YOU]
---