THE GLASS GOD: Heir of the living Grid

CHAPTER 8: THE PRICE OF A NAME

"Drop the girl and back away from the machine, or I'll see if your head sparks as much as your hands do," a voice grated, sounding like stones grinding together.

I blinked through the haze of the data crash. The white-suited man and the Crown vehicle had been a hallucination of my fracturing mind—or perhaps a memory of what was to come. The reality was grittier. We weren't in the open; we were pinned against a wall of weeping pipes by the Solder-Sons.

The leader, the one with the mechanical jaw that hissed with every breath, stepped forward. He didn't want the bounty anymore. He wanted something better.

"Look at the way his chest glows, Jace," a scavenger whispered, eyeing the golden light beneath my skin. "That’s pure, unfiltered Caster-energy. It’s better than a hundred stolen cells."

Jace, the leader, pointed a rusted Solder-Torch at Lyra’s throat. "I heard you, kid. You said you're a battery. Well, it's time to earn your keep. My boys got five industrial cells that went dry during the blackout. You’re going to fill them up."

"He can't!" Lyra screamed, the torch’s green flame singeing her hair. "It’ll kill him! His brain is already redlining!"

"Then he better be fast," Jace sneered. "Hey, Sparky. Look at me. You see these cells?" He kicked a crate of heavy, lead-jacketed batteries toward me. "Plug in. Now."

"If I do it," I wheezed, my vision swimming with golden artifacts, "the energy signature will be massive. The Circuit Crown will see us from orbit. You’ll be dead before the cells hit full charge."

"We’re already dead in the Null Zones, kid," Jace barked, his mechanical jaw snapping shut with a metallic *clack*. "At least with these cells, my crew can trade for a way out. Now, hands on the glass, or the girl gets a new breathing hole in her neck."

"Elion, don't," Lyra pleaded, her eyes wide. "Don't give them what they want."

"I don't have a choice, Lyra," I said, my voice sounding hollow even to me.

I reached out, my fingers trembling as they touched the cold, reinforced glass of the first power cell. The moment contact was made, the "Operator" frequency roared to life. It didn't need an invitation. It wanted to be free.

**[ UPLOADING ENERGY... 12% ]**

"That’s it," Jace laughed, his eyes reflecting the golden light. "More! Give me everything you’ve got!"

"You have no idea what you're asking for," I growled. My skin began to itch as the gold moved from my chest, down my arms, and into the dead machinery.

"I'm asking for my future!" Jace yelled. "More power!"

"Elion, stop!" Lyra cried out. "The Crown... I can hear the drones!"

In the distance, the low-frequency thrum of Crown Seekers echoed through the alleyways. They had picked up the spike. I was a lighthouse in a world of shadows, and the sharks were coming.

"They're coming for us!" a scavenger shouted, looking at his scanner. "Jace, we gotta go!"

"Not until these are full!" Jace shoved the torch harder against Lyra’s neck. "Keep going, Sparky! Or she dies right now!"

I looked at Lyra. I looked at the man who was willing to burn the world for a few credits. A cold, surgical clarity washed over me. The "Data Crash" was still there, eating my memories, but it left the combat logic intact.

"You want the power, Jace?" I asked, my eyes flaring into blinding gold. "Take it all."

**[ NEURAL LOAD: 99% ]**

**[ OVERLOAD PROTOCOL: ACTIVATED ]**

"Wait—what are you doing?" Jace’s face turned from greed to terror. "The levels are too high! The cells can't—"

"I’m not charging them," I said, my voice echoing with the power of the Source. "I’m detonating them."

I didn't just push energy; I pulled the ambient static from the entire block and funneled it through my body. The five industrial cells didn't just glow; they turned white. The glass cracked. The air began to hum with a sound that shattered the windows of the surrounding tenements.

"Run!" Jace screamed to his crew, but it was too late.

I slammed my palms against the crates. "EMP!"

A massive, invisible wave of electromagnetic force erupted from the center of the alley. It wasn't a fire explosion; it was a surge of pure logic. The green flames of the Solder-Torches vanished. The scavengers' cybernetics locked up, sending them crashing to the ground like discarded dolls.

Above us, the approaching Crown drones didn't just stall; they fell from the sky like dead birds, their circuits fried instantly.

The world went pitch black. The constant, nagging hum of the city’s grid was silenced. For the first time in nine months, there was total, absolute darkness.

Except for me.

The golden glow in my chest was the only light left in the Null Zone. I stood up, the gravel crunching under my feet. Lyra was huddled on the ground, gasping for air, untouched by the pulse.

Jace was slumped against a pipe, his mechanical jaw frozen open, sparks dancing in the dead wiring of his prosthetic arm. He looked up at me, his eyes full of a primal fear.

"What... what are you?" he wheezed.

I didn't answer. As my vision adjusted to the dark, the gold in my eyes began to filter the world differently. I wasn't seeing heat signatures anymore. I was seeing *data truth*.

Floating in the air above Jace’s head, written in the shimmering golden script of the Ancients, a word appeared. It pulsed with a rhythmic, accusatory light.

**[ TRUE NAME: TRAITOR ]**

I blinked, the word staying fixed in my vision. I looked at the other fallen scavengers.

**[ TRUE NAME: SCREED ]**

**[ TRUE NAME: PARASITE ]**

I turned my gaze to Lyra. I held my breath, terrified of what I might see above the person I loved.

The script above her head flickered, then stabilized. It was brighter than the rest, a soft, radiant gold that brought a sudden, painful memory of her smile to the front of my mind.

**[ TRUE NAME: ANCHOR ]**

"Elion?" Lyra’s voice was small in the darkness. "Why are you looking at me like that? The lights are out. Everything’s dead."

"Not everything," I whispered.

I looked back at Jace. The word **TRAITOR** was glowing brighter now, turning a violent shade of red. He wasn't just a gang leader. He was something else. Someone who had been marked by the system long before tonight.

"You're not just a scavenger, are you, Jace?" I stepped toward him, the golden light from my chest casting long, terrifying shadows. "The 'Traitor' tag... who did you sell us out to?"

Jace’s eyes darted to the dark sky, where the silhouette of a massive, silent Crown cruiser was descending, unbothered by the EMP. It was shielded. It had been waiting for the signal.

"They promised me a seat in the Inner Circle," Jace hissed, his real teeth bared in a grin. "They said you were the key to everything."

The cruiser lowered a retrieval beam, the blue light cutting through the darkness like a spear.

"Lyra, run," I said, but my feet wouldn't move.

The "True Name" above Jace began to shift, the letters rearranging themselves into a new, terrifying command.

**[ INITIATING HARVEST ]**

The ground beneath us began to vibrate, and the golden script in my vision turned a blinding, bloody red.