Eternity Decay

EXECUTION IN THE DARK

To an ordinary person, darkness is blindness; but to Axel, it was a tactical map.

The moment the hall plunged into blackness, Angga’s panicked shriek shattered the silence, instantly followed by the frantic clatter of automatic weapons as Valen’s enforcers attempted to blindfire into the void.

“Activate night vision! Fast!” Valen barked, his previously arrogant voice now pitching into a frantic, high-strained panic.

It would take them exactly four seconds to boot up the infrared tactical visors on their helmets. To Axel, four seconds was an eternity.

SWISH!

Silently, Axel burst from behind the marble pillar. He moved like a phantom, his black tactical frock coat slicing through the air without a sound. His first target was the gunman on the right flank. Extending the tactical blade CNC-machined into his sleeve, Axel severed the external power cable of the enforcer's helmet before the infrared sensors could even initialize.

In one fluid, pivoting motion, Axel spun the disoriented guard around, turning him into a human shield just as the gunman on the left flank unleashed a frantic volley.

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT!

Polymer rounds shredded the chest of the human shield. Axel didn't waste a shred of momentum; he drew his tactical pistol from beneath his coat and fired two precise rounds directly into the muzzle flashes of his remaining target.

BANG! BANG!

Two gunmen collapsed onto the marble floor with heavy, resounding thuds. Finished in two seconds.

Valen stumbled back a step, blindly discharging his weapon in all directions. “Show yourself, Cripple! Show yourself!”

Axel didn't dignify the screams with an answer. He flanked around, closing the distance toward Angga, who was desperately scrambling across the floor toward the escape vent. Axel slammed his tactical boot onto Angga’s back, pinning the traitor's face hard against the freezing marble.

“A-Axel?!” Angga gasped in terror as he felt the cold steel of a pistol muzzle press firmly against the nape of his neck. “Mercy, Axel! I was forced to do it! They tortured me! I swear, I did all of this for Rhea, ”

“You sold out the Lower District just to save your own skin, Angga,” Axel whispered, his voice carrying a deathly chill through the dark. “And in my logistics calculations, a traitor holds zero surplus value.”

THUD.

A single, suppressed point-blank shot silenced Angga’s pathetic excuses forever. No drama, no negotiations. A swift, merciless end to an opportunist leech.

Hearing the muted gunshot, Valen whipped around and aimed his weapon. However, precisely at the fourth second, the emergency backup power kicked in, and the main lights flooded the hall once more.

The sudden brightness seared Valen’s eyes. As his vision cleared, horror struck. His entire squad lay lifeless across the blood-slicked marble. In the center of the hall stood Axel. His black tactical frock coat was buttoned tight, immaculate and pristine save for a faint crimson splatter on the cuff of his sleeve. Beneath his boot, Angga’s corpse lay completely still.

Axel stared at Valen with an absolute, dead vacancy, a gaze that made his half-brother's blood run cold.

“You’re... you’re a monster,” Valen stammered, his hands trembling violently as he held his gun. He finally realized that without his father’s protection or a full squad to hide behind, he was nothing more than a spoiled child who didn't know the first thing about survival.

“You have it wrong, Valen,” Axel said calmly, stepping forward with measured, unhurried strides. “The monsters in this city wear pristine white suits and sit on the fiftieth floor. I am merely the consequence of what you all created.”

Valen fired in sheer panic, but Axel easily sidestepped behind the nearest pillar. The moment Valen paused to reload his magazine, Axel was already in his face. A brutal strike from the butt of Axel’s pistol smashed into Valen’s jaw, sending the young man crashing to the floor and dislodging a silver, cube-shaped physical encryption module from his pocket.

Axel scooped up the silver cube, tucking it beneath his coat. He looked down at Valen, who was writhing on the floor, clutching his bleeding jaw.

“Your lifespan distribution system is going to collapse in exactly twenty-one days, Valen,” Axel said, checking the digits on his wrist, which now read 21 Days, 10 Hours. “Tell Adrian I’m not going to stop it. Tell him I'm coming back just to watch your empire burn.”

Before the second wave of corporate security could flood the sector, Axel turned and vaulted back into the ventilation shaft, vanishing once more into the shadows of the Lower District with the exact key he needed.

***

The fiftieth floor of the Eternity Tower was the epitome of sterile luxury. Towering glass walls offered a panoramic view of the Upper District, glittering with neon lights, standing in stark, brutal contrast to the Lower District, which lay suffocated beneath a shroud of black industrial smog far below.

Inside the silent CEO office, Adrian Vince stood with his back to the room, gazing out at the cityscape with his arms folded tightly behind his immaculate formal suit.

On the marble floor behind him, Valen knelt, his entire body trembling. His swollen jaw was bound in tight medical bandages, and dried blood still stained the collar of his expensive white shirt.

“H-he moves too fast, Father,” Valen whimpered, his voice nasal and distorted from his dislocated jaw. “Axel utilized an unregistered cyber-protocol to kill the lights. Our elite squad... they were wiped out in seconds. He stole the reactor’s physical encryption module.”

Adrian didn't turn around. He merely let out a short exhale, a soft sigh that sounded far more terrifying to Valen than the cocking of a rifle.

“I allowed you to take Axel’s position as the Head of Logistics Development because you promised you could perfect the new Time Core source code, Valen,” Adrian said. His tone was utterly calm, yet heavy with an suffocating, suffocating weight of intimidation. “But all I have received is a cascade of failures. You allowed the logistics warehouse to be detonated, and now, you have let a dying dog slip into our home and steal the key.”

“I can fix it, Father! I swear!” Valen crawled forward, desperately reaching for the hem of Adrian’s trousers, but his advance ground to a sudden halt as two personal bodyguards drew their weapons, pressing the cold barrels against his head. “The core reactor code is still stable for the next twenty days! I just need time!”

Adrian slowly turned around. His freezing eyes appraised Valen not as a son, but as an investment asset that had entirely depreciated in value.

“You don't have twenty days, Valen. And you lack the capacity to even match Axel,” Adrian walked toward his desk, tapping a button on the holographic console. “The lifespan distribution system you tampered with has already begun experiencing micro-leakages in Lower District Sub-Sector 7 as of two hours ago. If this continues, the entire city will know that Eternity Corp is selling a defective product.”

Adrian glanced down at the digital timer on his own wrist. Unlike the common citizens, the numbers on his flesh displayed boundless, unrestricted time: 99 Years, 11 Months, 29 Days. Absolute immortality, purchased with the blood and sweat of millions of souls trapped far below.

“Then... what should we do, Father?” Valen asked, swallowing hard against the lump in his throat. “Should we deploy the entire Liquidator division to level the Lower District?”

“That would be an ignorant, inefficient move,” Adrian replied coldly. “Axel is deliberately baiting us to attack below so he can leverage that squalid labyrinth of a grid to trap our forces. We will not go to the dog. We will make him crawl back to us of his own free will.”

Adrian shifted his attention to a secondary holographic display showcasing the Lower District’s cyber-network. A stark red ring locked onto the coordinates of a makeshift logistics clinic. Rhea’s clinic.

“Didn't you once say that the best bait to catch a wolf is to threaten its den?” Adrian offered a thin smirk, a sociopathic smile completely devoid of human warmth. “With the encryption module Axel stole, he is undoubtedly attempting to breach the main elevator network alongside his cyber-operator.”

Adrian punched a final command into his console.