AETHER MIDNIGHT

The Bleeding Shard

With one swift, ruthlessly precise, and utterly emotionless diagonal slash, my violently crackling red blade sliced through the chest plate of his black armor. The sickening, high-pitched screech of melting metal rang out, instantly followed by the stench of vaporized flesh as my plasma destroyed his life-support circuitry, breached his reinforced ribcage, and cleanly cleaved his heart.

The Eclipse Agent's body stiffened for a moment. His helmet tilted up, staring straight into the void of my face that reflected no hesitation, and certainly no regret. Then, slowly, he collapsed backward, hitting the metal floor with a heavy thud, splashing dirty water in all directions. He died before his brain could process how he had been defeated so easily.

My ragged breath caught hot and heavy behind the airless confines of the mask. I stood perfectly motionless over his ruined corpse. The heavy acid rain continued to pour, hissing angrily as the drops struck my still-ignited plasma blade, as if the water itself were representing the weapon's own boiling fury.

The Veil Shard in my hand screamed even louder, vibrating violently in my palm. Take his weapon. Crush his head. Take his power! The dark side whispers buzzed like thousands of carrion flies inside my skull, urging me to satisfy an infinite hunger.

In the past, I always obeyed. I often took the weapons of my enemies as trophies, hanging them as monuments to my conquests, while serving as a mark of absolute humiliation for those who dared challenge me.

Subconsciously, my eyes fixed on the Eclipse Agent's plasma sword lying a few meters away. The hilt was dead, but I could feel that the Veil Shard inside the weapon was still intact, pulsing softly in search of a new master. My rational mind began calculating automatically: two crystals meant double the power, a limitless source of energy, absolute domination over this sector.

My hand slowly reached toward the weapon. My fingers curled slightly. I only needed to extend my Veil grip, and that weapon would fly into my grasp.

However, the moment my fingertips radiated energy, a tremendous wave of pain slammed into my head like a sledgehammer. The dark resonance from the Eclipse Agent's Veil Shard met the frequency of my own. The noise in my mind became doubly deafening, threatening to tear my consciousness apart.

The image of Kael's terrified face, Cora's logical voice, Risha's laughter, and Spark's cheerful hum flashed sharply in my consciousness.

If I took that Veil Shard, I would be bringing a dark resonant time bomb straight into the heart of The Garage. If I surrendered to this greed of my past, I would bring a signal that other Inquisitors could track. I would burn down the fragile family ecosystem I had built from nothing, with my own two hands.

I was no longer a trophy-collecting monster. I am L. I am a mechanic. And a mechanic's first rule is: remove components that can damage the main engine.

Groaning through the pain in my temples, I pulled my hand back and clenched my fist. I forcefully rejected the dark side's temptations that continued to whisper promises of power.

With a rough swing of my steel-plated boot, I kicked the hilt of the Eclipse Agent's sword. The metal slid across the wet floor, heading straight for the open exhaust vent of the giant plasma smelting reactor next to the loading area. The weapon fell, swallowed into the bottomless fiery abyss.

Without wasting a single second, I bent down and grabbed the collar of the Inquisitor's armor. With strength amplified by the Veil, I dragged his massive body without mercy. Leaving a trail of blood and water, I swung him and hurled the corpse after his weapon into the reactor.

A pillar of blue fire flared brightly from the reactor's abyss for a few seconds. The body and the weapon were obliterated, melted down to atoms in mere seconds by temperatures of thousands of degrees.

No corpse to autopsy. No weapon to track. No forensics, no holographic traces. There was only one Imperium Nexus hunter mysteriously missing, swallowed by the cruel street reality of Noctis Reach. Just like thousands of other lives in this city.

I pressed the plate on my hilt, deactivating my plasma blade. The hiss of steam vanished, and the industrial silence of the port took over once again, interrupted only by the rumbling rain.

However, instead of feeling relieved that the task was done, a searing heat suddenly shot through my palm. I flinched, nearly dropping my weapon. I looked down, staring blankly at the cylindrical hilt in my grasp.

The black metal vibrated violently, its heat penetrating my glove. From the gaps in its emitter plates, blinding, unstable cracks of red light shone through. The Veil Shard inside was fracturing. The crystal was rebelling because it had been forced to swallow back the anger I had just awakened, without me granting it the release to fully vent its brutality.

The vibrations grew more aggressive, cracking the internal components of the hilt. It threatened to detonate this raw energy at any moment. My breathing quickened, my chest tight from the pull of the dark side that was now turning against me, trying to crush my sanity from within. My arrogance all this time, my thought that I could keep and control this weapon without consequence, shattered to pieces.

My limited time had indeed saved The Garage tonight, but now, a far greater and unforeseen danger was exploding in my own palm.

I turned in a panic, shoving the volatile weapon back into my jacket, and ran through the pouring rain back toward Sector 1313. My muscles screamed as I forced myself to top speed. I had to get back to the lead-lined basement in my workshop immediately. Tonight, The Garage was safe from the Imperium's hunt, but if I couldn't heal, or cage this Veil Shard before dawn broke... their monster protector would be the very thing that reduced the place to ashes.