THE UNSEEN VEIN-EDGAR

CHAPTER 2 — THE LEGACY THAT SHOULDN’T EXIST

Rain hammered the pavement as Edgar stared at Master Shin, only this wasn’t the calm, quiet man he knew. This Shin radiated something sharp, something ancient, something dangerous.

“Shin,” Aria said cautiously, “the scout is still behind us”

“I know.” Shin didn’t look away from Edgar. “But the real threat is standing right in front of me.”

Edgar recoiled. “What? Me?! I almost died three times in the last ten minutes!”

“Exactly,” Shin murmured. “And you didn’t.”

Aria stepped between them. “Explain. Now.”

Shin’s eyes flicked to her, then back to Edgar. “He awakened. Violently. Instinctively. Without training. And he used a martial form no untrained civilian should even comprehend.”

“I—I don’t know how I did that!” Edgar protested.

“You shouldn’t know,” Shin said sharply. “Because that form hasn’t been taught in over a hundred years.”

Aria’s breath hitched. “…That’s impossible.”

“Yes,” Shin said. “It is.”

Behind them, the Syndicate scout shrieked again, closer. Aria grabbed Edgar’s wrist. “We need to move, now.”

“No,” Shin said. “We settle this first.”

“We will be killed if we stand here!”

“We’ll be killed if we run without understanding what he carries.”

Edgar’s voice broke. “Please, please don’t talk like I’m holding a bomb”

“You’re worse than a bomb,” Shin said. “You’re a signal.”

“To who?!” Edgar screamed.

Shin’s expression hardened. “To everything that hunts your bloodline.”

Aria froze. “…Bloodline?”

“Yes,” Shin said. “Edgar is a descendant of the Umbral Line.”

Aria’s face went pale. “That’s a myth.”

“It was,” Shin replied. “Until tonight.”

Edgar rubbed his palms into his hair, trying to hold himself together. “Shin, what is the Umbral Line? Please. I’m losing my mind.”

Shin exhaled slowly, as though preparing to break something fragile.

“Long before awakenings existed, there were entities, shadows given will. They bonded with certain humans. Passed down power. Passed down memories. Passed down instincts. Each descendant inherited fragments of the original entity.”

“I don’t have an entity inside me,” Edgar whispered.

Shin gave him a sad, pitying look. “You do. And it has finally stirred.”

Edgar stepped back. “No. No, no, no”

“It’s the only explanation,” Aria muttered. “That martial form… the surge of energy… the way the scout reacted…”

Shin nodded. “He carries the last unbroken fragment.”

Edgar felt dizzy. “So what, some ghost ancestor is living in my brain?!”

“No,” Shin said. “Something more dangerous than a ghost.”

Aria swallowed. “Shin… if the Syndicate realizes he’s the carrier”

“They’ll burn the whole district to extract him,” Shin finished.

A screech tore through the rain, louder, closer. The scout. Aria grabbed her badge. “We have to move!”

Shin didn’t move. “Edgar stays with me.”

Aria’s nostrils flared. “If you plan to kill him, Shin, I will fight you.”

Shin sighed. “I’m not here to kill him.”

“Then why are you acting like this?!”

“Because,” Shin said, “I know what that legacy does when it wakes. And I know the cost.”

Edgar shook his head. “I don’t… I don’t want this. Whatever this is.”

“Want has nothing to do with it,” Shin said softly. “You were born into it.”

Aria suddenly stiffened. “Shin, behind you!”

The scout dropped from above, claws bared. Shin moved faster than Edgar had ever seen, blurring, intercepting the attack with a flash of steel.

Edgar shouted, “SHIN!”

The two clashed in a violent crack of energy. Aria yanked Edgar behind a toppled trash bin. “Stay down!” “What do I do ?!”

“Nothing. You’ll just die.”

“Great, thanks.”

Shin’s blade met the scout again, sparks flaring. The scout’s mask had split fully, revealing a twisted jaw and eyes like polished obsidian. “You cannot protect the boy,” it hissed. “Not from us. Not from what follows.”

Shin kicked it back. “I only need to protect him long enough.”

“For what?” the scout snarled.

Shin answered by vanishing. The scout froze, confused, Shin reappeared at its back, slamming a palm to its spine.

Energy surged. The scout crashed into the wall with bone-breaking force. Edgar gaped. “He can teleport?! Since WHEN?!”

Aria’s face tightened. “…He doesn’t teleport. He just moves faster than sight.”

“That’s worse!”

“Correct.”

The scout staggered up, hissing. “You… cannot fight us and him at once.”

Shin’s blade gleamed. “Watch me.”

But the scout wasn’t looking at Shin anymore. It was staring at Edgar. “Your blood sings,” it rasped. “Your core calls.”

Edgar felt the hot energy rising again, unwanted, rising like a storm inside him. “No, no, not again”

Aria grabbed his shoulders. “Breathe. Fight it.”

“I don’t know how!”

“Then learn now!”

The scout lunged, not at Shin, but straight for Edgar. Shin swore and blurred toward them. Aria drew her dagger. Edgar raised his hands out of instinct, And something exploded.

A shockwave burst from him, invisible but violent, ripping down the alley. Aria was flung back. Shin was shoved off balance.

The scout was hurled into a dumpster so hard it dented. Edgar collapsed to his knees, shaking violently, steam rising from his palms. Aria coughed. “Edgar… you did that?”

“I didn’t mean to,” he gasped. “I’m sorry—I’m sorry”

Shin landed beside him, eyes wide. Not afraid. Awed. “It’s awake,” Shin whispered. “After all these generations… it’s finally awake.”

“What is?!” Edgar cried.

“Your entity,” Shin said. “Your shadow.”

Aria pulled herself up. “Shin, we need to leave. Now. More scouts will come.”

“No,” Shin said. “We need to get him to the Vault.”

Aria froze. “The Vault? Shin, that’s suicide.”

“It’s the only place that can suppress an Umbral awakening.”

Edgar grabbed Shin’s coat. “Please, tell me what’s happening to me.”

Shin knelt, lowering his voice. “It isn’t trying to harm you. The entity inside you has been dormant your whole life. But tonight, when the car hit you… the trauma woke it.”

“So I have… a monster inside me?!”

“No,” Shin said firmly. “It is not a monster. It is a memory. An instinct. A being that once chose your ancestors and now chooses you.”

“That’s not comforting!”

“It’s the truth.”

Aria peered down the alley. “Shin, we really have to move.”

The scout rose again, broken, staggering, but alive. Its voice warbled. “You cannot run. You carry the key.”

Shin stepped in front of Edgar. “He carries nothing. You carry delusions.”

The scout screamed and lunged again. Shin met it with a slash that severed its mask fully, revealing a creature of writhing shadows underneath. Edgar screamed. “WHAT IS THAT?!”

Aria pulled him back. “Focus! Don’t panic!”

“I AM PANICKING!”

“That’s fair.”

Shin shoved the creature down, pinning it with his blade. “Aria!” he shouted. “Signal extraction!”

“I can’t without my badge, they jammed the frequency!”

“Then unjam it!”

“Do I look like a hacker?!”

Shin gritted his teeth. “Just try!”

The scout writhed. “The Syndicate knows. They are coming.”

Shin snapped, “Aria, NOW!”

Aria slammed her badge against the wall. A spark of blue light burst out, flickering. “Signal interference heavy!” she shouted. “I need a clear spike!”

Shin turned to Edgar. “Edgar. Listen to me.”

“I—I’m listening!”

“You have to release another pulse.”

Edgar froze. “I can’t control it!”

“You must. Just enough to clear the signal. Not enough to blow the district.”

“That is the worst instruction I’ve ever heard!”

Shin grabbed his shoulders. “Edgar, if you do not do this, we all die.”

Edgar’s vision blurred with fear and rain. Aria shouted, “Do it! Just try!”

The scout screeched beneath Shin, shadows rippling.

Edgar shut his eyes. He reached inward. He felt the thing inside him, the pressure, the heat, the memory that wasn’t his. He whispered, “Please… help me… just this once.”

The energy stirred. Slow. Reluctant. Like a sleeping beast lifting its head. His hands glowed faintly. Aria gasped. “Yes, yes, that’s it! Just a little more”

Edgar exhaled, and released a controlled pulse that trembled the air but didn’t explode. Aria’s badge flared bright blue. “SIGNAL CLEAR!” she shouted.

Shin kicked the scout away. “Then call it!”

Aria slammed the badge again. A tone beeped. “Extraction confirmed,” a robotic voice said. “ETA: forty seconds.”

Edgar collapsed, panting hard. “Forty seconds… that’s too long…”

Shin lifted him. “Then stand. Because the Syndicate will arrive in thirty.”

Aria readied her dagger. “I hear them.

Footsteps. Dozens. Closing fast. Shin pulled Edgar close. “Listen to me. No matter what happens, stay conscious. The entity grows stronger when you lose control.”

“That sounds like a threat!”

“It’s advice.”

Aria pressed her back to Shin’s. “Here they come…”

Shadows filled the end of the alley, multiple scouts, moving like smoke. Edgar’s heart stopped. Shin whispered, “Hold on.”

The first scout lunged, And a blinding column of light erupted from above as a portal tore open. A voice boomed overhead: “Extraction squad arriving. Stand clear.”

Aria grabbed Edgar’s arm. “Move!”

Shin pushed them toward the descending beam. The scouts shrieked. The portal widened. Edgar stumbled into the light, And just as the beam swallowed him, one scout broke through and latched onto his ankle.

Aria screamed. “EDGAR!”

Shin spun toward him. Edgar felt claws dig into his leg, and the entity inside him roared awake. Everything went black. And the chapter ends.