Blood on her hands. Smoke in her lungs.
Nira crawled through the maintenance shaft, clutching her side.
The blast had torn through the relay chamber—Silas made sure of that.
She dragged herself into a forgotten corridor, fingers tapping a coded sequence on the wall.
[EMERGENCY PROTOCOL 9: MESSAGE PENDING]
"Raine… don't trust him," she whispered.
Then everything went dark.
Silas' Manipulation
Raine stood before the inner council. Silas had just reported the explosion.
"She triggered the overload," he claimed, face calm. "Said you were too soft. Said we should cut a deal."
A murmur ran through the room.
Raine's fists clenched. "That doesn't sound like Nira."
Silas shook his head, eyes mournful. "She was your friend. I wish it wasn't true."
[Decryption Complete – Message Found]
A file pinged on the console.
Raine opened it.
A video fragment: Nira, bleeding, whispering her warning.
But the image glitched—cut off before the full message.
Doubt crept in.
Was it real? Or was she being manipulated?
The Massacre
While they argued, the world burned.
Hundreds of kilometers away, the city of Valen's Hollow flickered out of existence.
Not with bombs—but with silence.
A strange mist rolled in from the sea. Those who inhaled it froze, mid-sentence, eyes wide, muscles twisted.
Others mutated—flesh reknit by alien design.
[VULTARI BIO-REAPING COMPLETE – SPECIMENS: 1,203,991]
A child's toy floated down a ruined street, untouched.
Raine's Breaking Point
The news came in hours later.
Raine stared at the footage.
No screams. No flames. Just… absence.
Silas stood beside her. "The Vultari don't conquer. They harvest."
She looked at him. "And we're next."
He nodded. "Unless we give them what they want."
Her jaw tightened.
"They want me."
"Yes," he said softly. "But you could survive it. If you chose to lead them."
Raine turned away, her voice ice:
"Get out."
But he smiled.
"Too late. You already let me in."