Silas's shop wasn't a shop at all but a repurposed smokestack, its rusted metal walls lined with jars of floating flesh. Lucas squinted at the nearest one - a human tongue, suspended in murky fluid, with a tiny branded number burned into its surface.
"Don't stare," Nyra muttered, elbowing him. "He takes it as interest."
The broker himself perched on a stool of fused bone fragments, milky eyes tracking their movement despite obvious blindness. "Dain." His voice crackled like fire over wet wood. "What a pleasant surprise. Who are your friends here?"
Vex bristled but Dain stepped forward, stone knuckles cracking against the counter. "We need Voidmark's last message."
Lucas was surprised about Dain's straightforwardness.
Silas laughed, a wet sound that turned into a cough. He spat something black into a jar before responding. "And I need my original liver. But we bargain with what we have." His gnarled fingers tapped a specific jar labeled in flaking red paint - 1147.
Vex growled at Silas, looking him dead in the eye. "We don't have time for games."
"Calm down, tough guy." He looked over to Dain. "For you, old friend... a trade. Steal Magistrate Hull's prototype Ocularimplant from the Relay Tower. It can decrypt System data-chips - including the ones that store executed prisoners' final memories."
Vex's growl vibrated through Lucas's aching bones. "It's impossible-"
"Not for him." Silas pointed a yellowed nail at Lucas. "That artifact in his chest? It'll scramble their scanners. Briefly."
Nyra's ears flattened against her skull. "How'd you know about the artifact?"
The broker's grin showed needle-thin teeth, ignoring her question. "The implant's guarded by a new Hound variant. Doesn't track magic—but fear." His blind eyes somehow found Lucas's. "And you, boy, don't stink of it."
Lucas's mouth went dry. The artifact pulsed in response, sending a wave of unnatural calm through him. His breath steadied even as his mind raced.
Dain coughed again, amber light sputtering between his fingers. "How long does the scrambling last?"
"Three minutes. Maybe four." Silas shrugged. "After that, every drone in the sector comes for him."
He opened a box, took out an oddly-looking pellet and handed it to Lucas. "Swallow this."
Nyra turned to Lucas, her dark eyes reflecting the jarred tongues' faint glow. "Your choice."
Lucas collected the pellet and gulped it. The artifact throbbed again, harder this time. Lucas felt something unlock in his chest - not pain, but potential. Like a door cracking open just enough to glimpse what lay beyond.
[SYSTEM INTERFERENCE DETECTED]
[ADAPTIVE RESPONSE INITIATED]
[TEMPORARY SKILL: PHANTOM STEP]
[DURATION: 5 seconds per activation]
[Allows short-range teleportation]
[WARNING: Spatial dislocation risk]
Lucas blinked. The knowledge settled into his muscles like he'd always possessed it. He looked at Silas. "Okay, I'll do it."
Vex threw up his hands. "Of course he will. Martyr complex."
Silas slid a vial of inky liquid across the counter. "Drink this too. Suppresses vital signs. Makes you... uninteresting to the Sniffer."
The liquid burned like swallowing lit gasoline. Lucas's vision swam, then fractured - he could suddenly see the heat signatures of his companions, the cold spots where the building's supports had rusted through. His heartbeat slowed to a mechanical, steady rhythm.
[TEMPORARY SKILL: PREDATOR'S APATHY]
[DURATION: 12 minutes after activation]
[Suppresses emotion]
Nyra pressed a stolen clerk's badge into his hand. "Relay Tower's west entrance has the lightest patrols. You'll have to-"
"I know," Lucas interrupted. And he did. The artifact whispered paths to him now, overlaying possible routes across his vision in faint blue lines. He shook his head, trying to clear the invasive knowledge. "I mean... I'll figure it out."
Dain caught his arm as he turned to leave. The stone-skinned man's grip was weaker than it should be. "That implant's keyed to Hull's biometrics. You'll need..." He coughed, amber light spilling over his lips. "Need to trick the scanner."
Silas chuckled and slid another item across the counter - a glass eye swimming in preservatives. "On loan."
Lucas pocketed it, trying not to think about its origin. The artifact's hum grew louder in his chest, drowning out his revulsion.
The streets outside were unnaturally quiet. Lucas moved through the shadows, his new skills itching beneath his skin. He tested it between two crumbling walls - focusing on the patch of darkness ahead and feeling the world lurch sickeningly as he appeared there instantly.
[PHANTOM STEP: 4.5 SECONDS]
[Spatial stress: 12%]
His stomach rebelled but the emotional suppressor kept him from vomiting. The Relay Tower loomed ahead, its surface crawling with scanner drones. Lucas took a steadying breath and stepped into the open.
The lobby was a nightmare of light and sound. Clerks in System uniforms moved between glowing terminals, their faces obscured by flickering holographic masks. Lucas kept his stolen badge visible and walked with purpose, following the artifact's pulsing guidance toward a service elevator.
Then he saw it.
The Sniffer moved differently than other Hounds - a sleek, almost organic machine with no visible eyes or mouth. It wove between clerks, its smooth head tilting occasionally as if tasting the air. Lucas's suppressed emotions spiked despite the chemical dampener, and the creature froze.
Its featureless face turned toward him.
Lucas ducked behind a terminal bank as the Sniffer's clicking footsteps grew closer. His breath fogged in the suddenly frigid air - Frostbite responding to his panic. He clenched his fists, focusing instead on the new skill.
The shadow beneath a nearby data console looked deep enough. Lucas exhaled and stepped into it.
[PHANTOM STEP: 5 SECONDS]
[Spatial stress: 27%]
The world twisted. Lucas stumbled into being behind the Sniffer, his head swimming. The creature whipped around, but he was already moving, slipping into the service elevator just as the doors closed.
Hull's office was colder than the lobby. The implant sat in a clear case on the Magistrate's desk, its surface crawling with microscopic System runes. Lucas approached cautiously, Silas's stolen eye in hand.
The biometric scanner flared red. Lucas held his breath and pressed the glass eye against it.
The Sniffer's shriek echoed through the vents.
Lucas didn't hesitate. He slammed his artifact-embedded fist into the case. Frostbite surged, but this time the ice formed in precise, crackling lines - shattering only the glass. The implant was freezing cold in his hand, its surface immediately fusing to his palm like living metal.
{WARNING: SYSTEM TRACKING DETECTED}
{COUNTERMEASURE UNAVAILABLE}
The office door exploded inward. The Sniffer filled the doorway, its smooth head splitting vertically to reveal rows of rotating teeth. Lucas backpedaled, his boot heels scraping against the suddenly brittle floor.
He wanted to use PhantomStep again - but the spatial stress warning flashed crimson.
[SPATIAL STRESS: 89%]
[RISK: MOLECULAR DISSOCIATION]
The Sniffer lunged.
Lucas did the only thing he could think of - he grabbed the frozen shards of the display case and threw. Frostbite surged through his fingertips, transforming the glass into deadly projectiles. They struck the Sniffer's open maw, ice spreading rapidly across its surface.
The creature staggered but didn't stop. Lucas's back hit the window - reinforced polymer, unbreakable under normal circumstances. The artifact in his chest flared white-hot.
[PHANTOM STEP: 5 SECONDS]
[EMERGENCY OVERRIDE ACCEPTED]
The world exploded in light and pain as Lucas's body dissolved into shadow, reforming outside on a lower balcony. He collapsed, blood streaming from his nose. The implant burned in his hand, its tendrils now buried deep in his flesh.
[PHANTOM STEP CRITICAL USE]
[SPATIAL STRESS: 97%]
Lucas didn't have time to process the warnings. The Sniffer's shrieks echoed above him. He rolled off the balcony, catching a drainage pipe on the way down. His shoulder screamed in protest but held.
Nyra's voice crackled through the stolen earpiece: "East alley! Now!"
He ran, the implant's tendrils writhing beneath his skin. Behind him, the Relay Tower's alarms wailed to life, joined by a new, more ominous sound - the deep, resonant horn of a System Purge Team.
Silas's den was in chaos when Lucas stumbled back in. The broker was on his feet, his milky eyes wide with something like fear. "You triggered a Purge? Foolish boy!"
Nyra grabbed Lucas's arm, her claws pricking his skin. "What did you do?"
Lucas couldn't answer.
Vex's claws unsheathed with a metallic hiss. "Run or fight?"
Lucas looked at his hands - one fused with stolen System tech, the other still faintly blue from Frostbite. The artifact in his chest hummed in anticipation.
"I don't know." He said, panted endlessly.