Damien sat on the edge of a cracked balcony, his eyes scanning the city that now partially belonged to him. The control point pulsed softly in the distance, a sign that this small corner of the system was his. It was not much. A flicker in a sea of power. But it was a start.
Below, the plaza buzzed with activity. Nova worked on stabilizing the perimeter defenses, her fingers dragging strings of glowing code through the air. The turrets she summoned still rotated slowly, scanning the shadows. Though the corrupted invaders had been wiped out, the tension in the air had not faded. It lingered, thick and sharp, like the scent before a lightning strike.
Nova glanced up at him. "You are quiet."
Damien nodded once. "Thinking."
"About what?"
He paused. "About how this place feels familiar even though I have never been here before. Like something inside me has walked this path already."
Nova stood upright and crossed the broken stone floor toward him. "That is because you are a regressor," she said plainly. "Even if you do not fully remember it yet."
The word landed softly but held weight. He had seen the term once before, buried deep in the system interface. A small tab labeled with a name he did not understand at the time. Now it clicked.
"This is not my first time inside," he said.
Nova nodded. "Not even close. You were someone powerful before. Someone the system tried to destroy."
"And it failed."
"For now," she added.
Damien stood and looked out again. The skyline blinked like a living circuit board, beautiful and endless. But beyond the glow, something stirred. He could feel it. Like eyes watching from far above.
"I need more territory," he said.
"You need more than that," Nova replied. "You need a network. Information. Agents. Allies who can act when you cannot."
Damien turned to her. "And you have all that?"
"I have some," she answered. "The rest we will build. But there is a problem."
Of course there was.
"A few hours ago, someone else claimed a control point three zones north of here," Nova said. "The same moment you claimed this one."
"Coincidence?"
"No. Competition."
She pulled up a projection between them. A section of the city map loaded, its shape sprawling like a circuit board. Two blue lights blinked in separate zones. Between them stretched a river of red—unclaimed chaos.
"The person who took that point is not normal," Nova said. "They have no name. Just a title. The Revenant."
Damien studied the map. "What do we know?"
"Fast growth. Unusual tactics. And they do not play fair."
Damien clenched his jaw. He had fought wars in boardrooms. He had seen what ambition did to people. But this place? This place changed ambition into hunger. The kind that devoured everything.
He stepped away from the balcony. "Then we play faster."
Nova gave him a smile, small and sharp. "Now you sound like someone I could follow."
Damien did not respond. He opened his interface instead. The Supremacy System greeted him with a low pulse and a new message.
System Notice: New Zone Challenge Available
Winner will gain full control over Sector Seven
He accepted.
Far from Damien, in a quiet building tucked between forgotten lines of the city code, the Revenant opened their eyes. Their domain was silent, their followers still. Yet they smiled.
"A new player dares to move fast," they whispered.
They reached out and pulled something from the digital air.
A photo.
It was Damien.
Their fingers curled slowly around the image.
"Let us see how long he lasts."