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Chapter 4: The Eye of the Storm
The sky shattered.
Not in sound — in feeling.
A pressure descended from above, an invisible weight that crushed the air from Kai's lungs. The Wraith Lord's presence wasn't just seen; it was experienced. The light bent around it, distorting the streets, warping reflections in glass.
Every whisper from its countless eyes seemed to speak directly into his head.
You fear... you hope... you struggle...
Each word crawled beneath his skin, prying into memories he'd buried — the studio fire, the loneliness of years spent chasing unreachable perfection, the dull ache of existing without purpose.
Lira grabbed his shoulder, shaking him back to the present. "Focus, Kai! If you listen too long, it eats you from the inside!"
He blinked rapidly, sweat streaming down his temples. Around them, soldiers of Hollow Light were falling one by one, not to claws or blades, but to despair. The weaker minds simply gave up, their bodies fading into wisps of black smoke that the Wraith Lord absorbed.
Lira raised her halberd, her silver aura flaring brighter. "We need to reach the Spire!"
Kai nodded, forcing his legs to move. The ground pulsed like a heartbeat, every vibration threatening to throw him off balance. Above, energy cannons fired in coordinated volleys, their beams lancing into the creature's mass. The explosions illuminated only a fraction of its body. It was too vast to fully comprehend.
"Lira!" a voice crackled through her communicator — harsh, metallic, panicked. "Sector Four collapsing! The Wraith density's beyond the barrier's tolerance!"
"Evacuate who you can," she barked. "We're heading for the core."
Kai barely heard the rest. His attention was fixed on the flickering blue interface in front of him.
> [Warning: Emotional Index Critical.]
[Will Integrity dropping — 42% → 27%.]
He gritted his teeth. "No. Not again. I'm not dying twice."
The screen glitched. Lines of unreadable code rippled across it, breaking and reforming like waves. Then, beneath the chaos, a new phrase appeared — one he hadn't seen before.
> [Dimensional Code Request: Override Protocol?]
Kai hesitated. The letters pulsed, waiting.
He whispered, "Do it."
Light exploded from within him.
His body convulsed as streams of data burst through his skin, glowing circuits etching themselves along his arms and neck. His vision fractured into a thousand shards, every nerve in his body screaming — not in pain, but clarity.
> [Override accepted.]
[Combat Subroutine: Zero Drive initializing.]
The world slowed. Time became syrup.
Every falling ember hung suspended in midair. Lira's shout stretched into a distant echo. Even the Wraith Lord's titanic body seemed sluggish.
Kai exhaled — and with that breath, the light around him bent. His sword reformed into something new, its surface covered in faint symbols. When he swung it, the air itself cracked.
He vanished — or perhaps moved faster than sight could register. The next instant, he was halfway up a collapsing tower, his blade cutting through the swarm of lesser Wraithborn like lines of code being deleted. Each strike sent ripples through reality, unraveling the creatures' existence.
Down below, Lira looked up, shielding her eyes from the blinding light. "Impossible… he's rewriting the field."
Kai didn't understand the mechanics. He simply moved. His instincts guided every strike, every motion.
For the first time since his death, he felt alive.
The Wraith Lord turned its focus toward him, countless eyes converging into one massive, burning gaze. It screamed — a sound that tore through dimensions, shattering windows across Hollow Light.
Kai met that gaze and swung.
A beam of energy shot upward, slicing through the fog and cutting deep into the creature's body. It staggered — a being of emotion and shadow faltering as light consumed part of its form.
But the backlash hit Kai like a freight train. The light around him shattered, and he fell, crashing through layers of debris before slamming into the ground beside Lira.
He gasped, barely conscious, the Code still flickering across his skin.
Lira caught him before he hit the ground fully. "Hey! Stay with me! What did you do?"
He coughed, blood staining his lips. "I… pressed continue."
A tremor rolled through the city. Above them, the Wraith Lord was retreating — or perhaps regrouping — its body folding into the storm like smoke sucked into a vacuum.
The air fell eerily silent.
Around them, the remaining Spirit Warriors cheered weakly. The crimson light faded, replaced by a pale glow as the sky rings slowed to normal rotation.
Lira helped Kai to his feet. "You're insane, rookie."
"Maybe," he said hoarsely, "but it worked."
Her expression softened. For a moment, the battle noise seemed to fade. "You saved Hollow Light. That's not something most newcomers manage."
He looked up at the fractured skyline, the glimmer of surviving towers reflecting in his eyes. "Then maybe this world just gave me my first win."
Lira laughed quietly — a sound equal parts exhaustion and respect. "Don't get used to it. Storms like that don't end. They wait."
Kai looked toward the horizon, where the fog was already beginning to churn again. In the distance, faint red lights flickered — countless new eyes opening in the dark.
> [System Notice: Combat Protocol stored.]
[Dimensional Code: 3% Synchronization achieved.]
[Hidden Objective unlocked — 'The Path of Ascendancy.']
He smiled faintly despite his exhaustion. "Then I guess we keep pressing continue.