Iron Revenant: Blood Of The Marked

The Ghost In The Stone

Jace Caldwell’s world narrowed to the pulse of the Obsidian Heart, its sickly green glow bathing the subway platform in dread. Ethan’s face—his brother, dead two years—stared from the stone’s surface, eyes burning red like The Shroud’s.

 Jace, it’s not her. It’s me. The words echoed, impossible, as Marcus “Glitch” Reyes, the traitor hacker, scrambled for the Heart’s case. Lena lay bleeding, her shoulder a crimson ruin, her gun lost in the chaos. 

NexTech assassins closed in, their exosuits clanking like death knells. Jace’s scar blazed, a black fire in his chest, and his body moved before his mind could catch up.He tackled Marcus, slamming him against the rusted train car. 

The hacker’s enhanced suit whirred, but Jace was faster—too fast. His fist cracked Marcus’s cracked visor, blood spraying. “Why?” Jace roared, pinning him. “NexTech’s money worth selling me out?”

Marcus coughed, grinning through bloody teeth. “Not money, Caldwell. Survival.” He twisted, a hidden blade in his gauntlet slashing Jace’s arm. Pain flared, but the wound closed in seconds, the scar’s heat swallowing the sting.

 Jace snarled, smashing Marcus’s head into the ground. The hacker went limp, but the Heart’s glow pulsed brighter, Ethan’s voice louder: Jace, stop.He froze, heart hammering. The platform was a slaughterhouse—blood, bullet casings, and the groans of dying assassins.

 Lena crawled toward the Heart, her face pale, her eyes locked on Jace. “Don’t touch it,” she gasped. “It’s using you.”The Shroud’s laugh rumbled in his skull, its red eyes flashing behind his own. She’s right. But you’re already mine.

 His vision split—half subway, half void, The Shroud looming, its shadowy form coiling around the Heart’s case. Take it, Iron. Or they all die.

Jace lunged for the Heart, snatching it before Lena could. The stone burned through his gloves, syncing with his scar. Images flooded his mind: Ethan in a NexTech lab, wires in his arms, the Heart glowing as he screamed.

 I did it for you, Jace. The vision shifted—Ethan’s face morphing into The Shroud’s, laughing. Jace stumbled, dropping the Heart. It hit the platform, and the air cracked like thunder.The ground shook, cracks spiderwebbing across the concrete. 

A low hum filled the tunnel, and the remaining assassins froze, their exosuits sparking. Lena grabbed Jace’s arm, her wound slowing her. “We have to go—now!” she shouted, dragging him toward the tunnel’s exit. 

The Heart’s glow intensified, and a shadow rose from it—not The Shroud, but something worse, a humanoid mass of writhing black tendrils, eyes like molten embers.Jace fired, bullets sinking uselessly into the thing. It lunged, tendrils lashing like whips.

 His scar screamed, and his body moved on instinct, dodging with inhuman speed. He grabbed Lena, hauling her into the tunnel as the creature’s tendrils shredded the train car behind them.

 The assassins weren’t so lucky—screams cut short as the thing tore through their suits like paper.

They ran, the tunnel’s flickering lights blurring past. Jace’s side burned, his scar pulsing in time with his heartbeat. Lena’s breath hitched, her wound slowing her. “The Heart’s waking something,” she panted. 

“NexTech didn’t know what they unleashed.”

“Then why’d you run with it?” Jace snapped, half-carrying her. Ethan’s voice, Lena’s lies, Marcus’s betrayal—his head was a warzone.

“I didn’t!” she said, eyes fierce. “I was trying to hide it. Ethan told me to protect you.”

“Ethan’s dead!” Jace roared, shoving her against the wall. His scar flared, and The Shroud’s voice hissed: Is he? His vision flickered—Ethan’s face again, not in the Heart but standing at the tunnel’s end, blood dripping from his eyes.Jace blinked, and the figure was gone.

 A trap? A trick? The tunnel shook again, the creature’s hum closing in. Jace pulled Lena forward, his scar guiding him through the dark like a radar. They burst onto a maintenance platform, a rusted ladder leading to the street. 

Above, drones buzzed, their red eyes scanning. Below, the creature’s tendrils slithered closer.“Up!” Jace barked, pushing Lena toward the ladder. She climbed, blood trailing, while he turned to face the thing.

 His scar burned white-hot, and The Shroud’s voice was a roar: Fight, Iron. His senses sharpened—every crack in the creature’s form, every weak point, glowed in his mind. He grabbed a broken rail, swinging it like a bat.

 The tendrils recoiled, but the creature advanced, its eyes locked on the Heart’s case in Lena’s hands above.Jace’s phone buzzed—another text: Give them the Heart. Live. 

He ignored it, climbing after Lena. They hit the street, Chinatown’s neon chaos swallowing them. The creature didn’t follow, but the drones did, cannons charging. Jace’s scar pulsed, and he moved—faster than human, tackling Lena into an alley as a blast scorched the pavement.

They crouched behind a dumpster, Lena’s breath shallow. “Jace, the mark—it’s changing you,” she whispered, clutching the case. “Ethan warned me. You’re their weapon now.”“Whose?” Jace growled, but his vision blacked out again. He was in the void, The Shroud’s red eyes boring into him.

 “You’re not just marked,” it said. “You’re the vessel.” The Heart appeared in its claws, Ethan’s face inside, screaming silently. I’m still here, Jace.He snapped back, gasping. Lena was shaking him, her gun pressed to his chest. 

“Jace, listen! NexTech made a deal with it—The Shroud. They’ll kill you to get it back.”Before he could answer, a figure stepped into the alley—Marcus, alive, his exosuit sparking, holding a detonator. “Last chance, Caldwell,” he said, voice cold.

 “Hand over the Heart, or this block goes up in flames.”Jace’s scar burned, and Ethan’s voice whispered: He’s not alone. A shadow moved behind Marcus—Ethan, flesh and blood, holding the Obsidian Heart, his red eyes glowing. “Sorry, brother,” he said, raising a gun. “You were always too stubborn.”