By any means necessary.
The words hung in the air, colder than any grave. They weren't a threat. They were a statement of fact. A policy.
Aiko felt the blood drain from her face. This wasn't the chaotic hunger of a Nox. This was the calm, bureaucratic certainty of erasure.
Existential anomaly. It was the most terrifying thing she'd ever been called. It sounded like a cosmic typo, and these three were the celestial IT department, here to press delete.
Beside her, Kael went perfectly still. The raw terror for her, the grief for his past—it all vanished, locked away behind a sudden, chilling calm.
This was not the man who had wept for a ghost. This was the Reaper who had earned his reputation across centuries.
"You will not touch her," Kael said. His voice was quiet, almost conversational, but it carried the weight of a falling mountain.
The lead enforcer, the one with a face carved from granite and apathy, did not react. Its gaze remained fixed on Aiko.
"Your compliance is not a factor in this equation, Kael." The voice vibrated in her bones, shaking loose a fresh wave of fear. "The anomaly will be contained."
"Anomaly?" Aiko's own voice came out, sharp and shaky. Fear made her reckless. "Is that what you call people who don't fit in your neat little celestial boxes?"
The enforcer's head tilted, a slow, mechanical movement. It was the first sign of anything resembling curiosity.
"We call it a threat to the structural integrity of this reality.""Your binding has created a paradox. A feedback loop of escalating power that is tearing at the Veil."
"So, what, you're going to kill me to save the wallpaper?" she shot back.
Zara, who had been watching with a kind of grim satisfaction, let out a sharp, incredulous laugh. "Gods, she's an idiot. Kael, your taste remains baffling."
"Stay out of this, Zara," Kael warned, not taking his eyes off the lead enforcer.
"Oh, I intend to," Zara said, taking a deliberate step back. "I'm just a humble field agent. This is far above my pay grade. I'm just here to watch the fireworks."
But her eyes, Aiko noted, weren't satisfied. They were narrowed, calculating. Watching. Waiting.
The lead enforcer, Lyron, if he even had a name, raised a hand. It was a simple gesture, but the air crackled in response.
"The time for discussion is over.""Surrender, or we will compel you."
Kael didn't answer with words. He answered with action.
He moved. It wasn't the blur of human speed. It was a violation of physics. One moment he was beside Aiko, the next he was in front of the lead enforcer, his hand a blade of shimmering golden light aimed at the creature's throat.
"I will not," Kael said, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper, "ask again."
The enforcer didn't even flinch. "Predictable," it vibrated.
The other two enforcers moved in perfect, terrifying synchronicity. They didn't draw weapons. They didn't need to. They raised their hands, and threads of pure, white, sterile light shot out, not at Kael, but at the space around him.
They weren't attacking him. They were attacking the reality he occupied.
The air grew thick, heavy as lead. Aiko felt a crushing pressure, as if the gravity in the station had suddenly multiplied by ten. Kael's charge slowed, his hand stopping a mere inch from the enforcer's neck, held fast by an invisible force.
"Kael!" Aiko cried out.
He grunted, his muscles straining against the immense pressure. "They're… suppressing the local laws of physics," he ground out, his voice tight with effort. "Aiko… run."
Run? Where? The third enforcer was already turning toward her, its empty eyes promising a swift, passionless end to her anomalous existence.
Fear gave way to a surge of pure, defiant rage. No.You don't get to delete me.
She didn't have a celestial weapon. She didn't have centuries of training. She had a broken heart, a fractured soul, and a deep, abiding well of empathy that she was just beginning to understand was a weapon in its own right.
She focused on the enforcer moving toward her. She didn't try to hurt it. She just… opened the floodgates.
She pushed all her fear, all her rage, all her grief for Kael, all her terror of being nothing—she pushed it all out in a raw, silent, psychic scream.
For a normal human, it would have been nothing. For a spirit, it would have been a comforting beacon. For a being of pure, cold order…
It was like throwing a bucket of chaotic, messy, emotional paint onto a pristine white canvas.
The enforcer faltered. Its head snapped toward her, its impassive face for the first time showing a flicker of something. Confusion? Disgust? The air around it wavered, and the oppressive gravity lessened for a fraction of a second.
It was all the opening Kael needed.
With a roar that was pure human rage, he shattered the invisible prison. His hand, no longer a blade, slammed into the lead enforcer's chest.
The impact made no sound. But a shockwave of golden light erupted from the point of contact, throwing the other two enforcers back.
Kael spun, grabbing Aiko's arm. "We have to move. Now."
He pulled her into a run, deeper into the dark, labyrinthine tunnels of the subway system. Behind them, she heard Zara's voice, laced with a strange, almost impressed tone.
"Well, I'll be damned. The little anomaly has teeth."
They ran. The tunnels were a maze of darkness and dripping water. Kael moved with a preternatural grace, pulling her along, his senses guiding them through the oppressive black.
"Where are we going?" Aiko gasped, her lungs burning.
"Away," he said, his voice grim. "They will recalibrate. They will follow."
"What are they?"
"Praetorians," he answered, his voice tight. "The Guard. They don't just enforce the rules. They are the rules, given form."
"They can't be reasoned with. They can't be fought, not for long." "Their purpose is to restore the system to its default state. And right now, we are the primary error message."
Error message. Somehow, that was even more insulting than 'anomaly'.
They burst out into another, larger platform, this one utterly cavernous, a nexus of multiple lines. It was a dead end.
And the Praetorians were already there. They hadn't run. They had simply… arrived. They stood waiting, three figures of cold, implacable judgment.
"There is no escape, Kael," the lead Praetorian's voice echoed in the vast space. "Your resistance is illogical."
Kael pushed Aiko behind him again. A celestial blade, brighter and more ferocious than she'd ever seen it, materialized in his hand.
"Logic has nothing to do with this," Kael said, his voice ringing with a conviction that sent a shiver down her spine.
The Praetorians attacked. It was a dance of brutal efficiency. One engaged Kael directly, its movements precise, economical, each block and parry designed to drain his energy. The other two moved to flank them, their hands weaving intricate patterns in the air.
Runes. Glowing, celestial runes began to appear on the walls, the floor, the ceiling. They were building a cage. A cage made of pure law.
Kael fought like a cornered god. He was a whirlwind of golden light and righteous fury. He met the Praetorian's attacks with a ferocity that shook the very foundations of the station. Sparks of celestial energy flew, gouging furrows in the concrete, shattering the remaining lights.
But he was outnumbered. And his opponents weren't trying to win. They were just trying to contain.
A binding rune flared to life on the floor beneath Kael's feet. He tried to leap away, but chains of white light shot up, wrapping around his ankles. He roared in frustration, slicing at them with his blade, but they were intangible, made of concept rather than energy.
Another Praetorian completed its pattern. A wave of silence washed over them. Not just the absence of sound. It was the concept of silence. Aiko felt her own power, her connection to the spiritual world, snuff out like a candle.
They had cut her off.
With Kael bound and Aiko neutralized, the lead Praetorian advanced. It walked through the storm of Kael's remaining power as if it were a gentle spring breeze.
It reached Kael, and placed a single, calm hand on his chest. "Your service is concluded," it stated.
The brilliant golden light of Kael's blade flickered, dimmed, and died. The chains tightened, pulling him to his knees. His head bowed in defeat, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
He was beaten.
The Praetorian turned its cold, empty gaze to Aiko. It began to walk toward her.
This was it. This was the end. Neutralized. Contained. Deleted.
Aiko looked at Kael, on his knees, defeated for her. She looked at the implacable agent of order coming to erase her.
And the fear, the rage, the grief… it all coalesced into something new. Something she had never felt before.
It wasn't the gentle empathy for a lost soul. It was the ferocious, possessive, world-burning love for the one person who had seen her, truly seen her, and decided she was worth protecting.
You will not take him.You will not erase me.I am not an error.I AM.
Something inside her didn't just break. It ignited.
The silence the Praetorians had imposed shattered. Not with a sound, but with a feeling. A wave of pure, raw, untamed power erupted from Aiko, a nova of pure soul-stuff.
It wasn't golden like Kael's. It wasn't white like the Praetorians'. It was a chaotic, swirling storm of every color she had ever felt—the red of her rage, the blue of her sorrow, the brilliant, impossible gold of her love for the fallen Reaper before her.
The Veil, already thin, shredded. The station didn't just warp. It screamed. The concrete floor buckled, the walls flowing like liquid. Ghosts—dozens of them, drawn to the cataclysmic surge—appeared and were instantly vaporized by the sheer intensity of her power.
The Praetorian advancing on her was thrown back, its impassive face for the first time showing something akin to shock. The chains holding Kael dissolved into dust.
The lead Praetorian stared at her, at the storm of impossible energy she was unconsciously wielding. "Level-four was an understatement," it vibrated, a new, urgent tone in its voice. "This is a nascent singularity."
"The vessel cannot contain the paradox. It will rupture.""She must be brought before the Council. Immediately."
The power was too much. Aiko felt her consciousness fraying at the edges. The world turned into a kaleidoscope of screaming colors. The last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was Kael's face, his eyes wide with terror and a desperate, heartbreaking awe.
Then, nothing.