“Hey man,” Louise’s voice cut through the thick fog in Myles’ head like sunlight through mist.Myles blinked a few times. The world came into focus—white walls, glowing blue lines across a polished metal floor, and his broker sat at a corner of the bare room. “Where am I?” Myles rasped. His throat was raw, like he’d swallowed glass.“Paragon stronghold, I bet,” Louise replied with a shrug, gesturing vaguely at the room. “And boy, do you look awful.”Myles groaned, rubbing his temples. “Try getting drugged multiple times in the span of twelve hours and see how you’d look.”Louise chuckled. “Fair. You also died once. That doesn’t help the skin tone.”Myles managed to sit up. The restraints were gone—at least someone had decided he wasn’t a rabid animal. The lights in the room dimmed automatically as his vitals stabilized, some AI probably tracking his every breath.Louise voice turned a shade more serious. “You really brought hell to that alley. And now they think you’re some sort of a

"I am Vhorak," it growled, its voice crackling like dying embers underfoot. Each word reverberated in the air, thick and suffocating. "Herald of Famine. Soul-Seeker. You carry the scent of the Hades-bound. Where is he?"Alpha Team reacted with military precision."Engage!" Anna barked, her voice cutting through the tension.Jack and Leo opened fire without hesitation, unleashing precision rounds that struck Vhorak square in the chest. But the bullets fizzled into nothing upon impact, as if swallowed by the creature’s dark aura."Bullets aren't doing a damn thing!" Leo growled, reloading as he rolled behind a scorched pillar.Alex darted left, sleek in her combat gear, her boots crunching broken glass. She lobbed a plasma grenade with practiced ease. It detonated in a pulse of blue fire, shaking the ground and momentarily obscuring the demon in flame."Come on, come on," Melissa muttered, fingers dancing across the tablet secured to her arm. "Deploying spectral dampeners now!"With a h

In the heart of Kaelin’s underground chamber, the summoning circle began to pulse—a seething array of glyphs glowing blood red across the obsidian floor. Every wall in the chamber trembled with the pressure of what was being called forth. The air turned viscous, humming like a distorted bassline from the depths of a dying star.Kaelin descended the spiral staircase carved into the stone, each step echoing like the ticking of a doomsday clock.The cultists knelt before the sigils, their voice taut with strain as they chanted in an ancient tongue. With every word, their bones seemed to creak under pressure.The circle burst open—wind howled inward, dragging light and heat into the void at its center.From it stepped a tall, ragged figure wreathed in flickering black flame. Its face was cloaked in a metallic mask etched with infernal runes, and its hands were wrapped in barbed gauntlets that radiated cruel heat. Charred wings fluttered briefly behind its back before crumbling to ash.The

The night at the Paragon base was unnervingly quiet. Security lights pulsed dimly along the sterile halls, casting long shadows that crawled across the floor like restless spirits. The reinforced boarding rooms were filled with the heavy breathing of off-duty soldiers lost in deep, dreamless sleep. Exhaustion had taken them like a lullaby.All except two.Myles sat on the edge of his bunk, drenched in sweat, shirt clinging to his back, breath uneven. The vision from Hades still burned behind his eyes—ash falling from a dead sky, the black columns, the cracked hourglass. And Sorran. The name felt like poison in his throat.He hadn’t moved since waking up. The digital clock blinked steadily on the wall: 3:12 AM. The hum of the suppressor field gnawed at his nerves.“The Black Flame walks again,” he whispered to himself. “And Hades is conveniently bound by ‘cosmic law.’ Figures.”He stood abruptly, pacing. The room felt smaller than usual. Tighter. Like the walls were leaning in to liste

Sorran stood still, his skeletal helm catching the flickering embers that danced in the smoke-choked air. The ruined Paragon base groaned around them, metal straining, fires raging in wild tongues along the shattered walls. The Watch had sung its song, and now the result stood before him—suspended in a fiery cocoon of purple flame.Myles.His form had changed. No longer just flesh and bone, he was evolving—becoming something darker. Something ancient. Something hungry.From within the infernal sphere, bones cracked. The sound echoed through the air like drumbeats from a war long forgotten. His body twisted and stretched with unnatural grace, muscles rippling, tendons pulsing with violet and crimson light. Where skin once was, lines of molten gold now traced beneath, flickering like lava under pressure.It wasn’t divine. It wasn’t demonic. It was a hybrid thing born from two colliding forces.Sorran didn’t flinch. He knew this phenomenon. The Infernal Apex."So it begins," he whispered