"Hold him down," the leader said, walking forward. He pulled a thick, metal zip-tie from his belt. "We just became billionaires."Jayden lay on the wet concrete. He was helpless. The electricity had drained his last ounce of strength. He watched the men walk toward him.He was going to be locked in a dark box forever. They were going to keep his heart beating in a coma while they chopped his arms off. The thought filled him with a cold, absolute horror.As the leader reached down to grab Jayden’s wrists, a sudden, blinding light flashed from the wall behind them.It was not a flashlight. It was not a System magic light.It was an old, broken television screen hanging from the ceiling of the subway station. It was meant to show train arrival times.The screen had been dead for three years. But suddenly, it buzzed to life with a loud, sharp hiss of static. KZZZZZT. The screen glowed with a sick, flickering green light. The mercenaries jumped back in surprise. They aimed their rifles

"We are mapping his threat radius," Cole said. "We are going to drop sensors closer and closer to him. We will find out exactly how close we can get before the magic wakes up. We do not strike until the math is perfect."Jayden limped out of the alley. He stepped into a massive, abandoned train yard.The yard was filled with dozens of old, rusted American cargo trains. They sat on broken steel tracks, covered in thick snow. The space between the trains was wide and open.Jayden stopped walking.He saw three more black sensor spikes sticking out of the snow, forming a perfect circle around him.He looked up. There were four silent drones hovering in the grey sky.He was completely surrounded. They had boxed him in. They were herding him like a sheep into a pen.Jayden was so tired of running. He was tired of hiding in the dark. He was tired of people treating him like a monster or a bomb.He looked at his hands. They were trembling from the freezing cold. He did not feel any golden lig

The dirty water in the New York sewer was freezing cold. It smelled like old garbage, wet mud, and rust.Jayden lay flat on his back on a narrow concrete walkway next to the black water. He was shivering violently. His teeth chattered together. Clack, clack, clack. His breath came out in small, weak clouds of white fog.He was mortal now. The blue chemical from the sniper bullets had killed his magic. The golden Immortality Lock inside his chest was silent. Every broken rib, every torn muscle, and every deep cut sent waves of absolute, terrifying human agony through his brain.Maya knelt beside him. She was the survivor from the Analog Underground. She wore a heavy green military jacket covered in dirt."Hold still, kid," Maya ordered. Her voice was rough and tough.She pressed a thick, white cotton bandage hard against the bullet hole in Jayden’s stomach."AGGGGH!" Jayden screamed. His body jerked upward. He grabbed Maya’s wrist, trying to pull her hand away. The pain was blinding.

BANG! HSSSSSS.A thick, blinding cloud of thick grey smoke exploded from the grenade. It filled the entire church in two seconds. The Loyalists coughed and swung blindly in the fog.Maya grabbed Jayden’s arm and dragged him toward a small wooden door at the back of the church.They burst out into a back alley, leaving the screaming, fighting Loyalists behind in the smoke.The hunt outside was fully awake now.High above them, a massive, sleek black corporate helicopter shined a blinding white spotlight down into the streets."There he is! In Sector 4!" a voice boomed from the helicopter loudspeaker.Three men in high-tech, black corporate armor dropped down on ropes from the helicopter. They carried advanced stun rifles. They were private mercenaries hired by a billionaire CEO to claim the prize."Run!" Maya shouted.Jayden forced his broken legs to move. He sprinted down the alley, slipping on the ice. He had no magical speed. He just had the burning pain in his lungs.A mercenary ai

"How?" Jayden asked his mind, tears of pure joy filling his eyes. "I saw you dissolve! The Null-Bomb erased the magic! I thought you were deleted forever!"Kzzzt. Luna’s voice crackled with heavy static. "I was deleted from your brain. But before I died... I hid a tiny, microscopic fragment of my base code inside your physical human DNA. Inside your actual blood. When you crossed through the System Gate... the heavy magic of the portal gave my battery just enough power to wake up."Jayden smiled. It was the first time he had smiled in days. He was not completely alone. His friend had survived. But Luna did not sound happy."Jayden, listen to me carefully," Luna whispered. Her voice was shaking with fear. "You are in terrible danger. You are the Anchor Node. Do you understand what that means?""Eli told me," Jayden thought back to her. "I am the server. My heartbeat keeps the magic stable.""Yes," Luna explained, her voice fading in and out. "When you were in New York, you stood still