The Shadow Sovereign: Level Up from the Dirt

The First Blood of Revenge

A loud, electronic click came from the dark water, and the silver pistol in my hand felt suddenly very light.

"Step away from the girl and put your hands on your head," a voice said from the metal boat. The man speaking wore a thick helmet with a glowing red visor. The letters VP were painted in white on his chest armor. Vanguard Premier security. "You are valuable property of Chairman Femi. Try to run, and we will take you back in pieces."

My fingers tightened around the handle of my gun. My heart thumped hard against my ribs, not from fear, but from the sudden rush of pure fury. They had already killed Kemi once. They had stolen her core, thrown her into a trash bag, and now they were calling us property.

"Zane, do not shoot from the front," Kemi said. She did not even look at the red laser dots dancing across her white shirt. She stayed sitting against the wooden crate, her fingers tapping a strange rhythm on the small, glowing red drive in her hand. "The boat has an energy shield that blocks regular bullets from the front. But their back engine is completely open to water damage."

"How do we get to the back?" I said out loud.

"You have two shadows in the water," Kemi said, her voice completely smooth. "Use them."

I looked down at the dark, oily surface of the lagoon. The two shadow soldiers I created in the hospital alley had followed us through the drainage pipes. They were hiding right beneath the surface, completely invisible to the boat’s sensors.

"Go," I thought, directing my mind toward the two dark shapes. "Destroy the engine. Now."

The three guards on the boat did not see the black smoke rising from the water behind their deck.

"Last warning, rat!" the leader said, stepping toward the edge of the boat. He raised a heavy black rifle.

Suddenly, the bright red headlights on the boat flickered. A deep explosion shook the back of the metal ship, sending a spray of black water into the air. The energy shield protecting the front instantly died, the blue light fading away into the dark.

"What happened?" one of the guards shouted, losing his balance as the boat tilted sideways. "The engine just died!"

"Now, Zane," Kemi said.

I lifted the silver pistol and pulled the trigger three times. The lack of an energy shield meant my bullets hit their targets perfectly. The leader took a hit straight to his chest armor. He stumbled backward, his rifle falling into the lagoon with a loud splash. The other two guards tried to turn around, but the two shadow soldiers rose fully out of the water like giant black waves.

The shadows grabbed the guards by their heavy vests, dragging them down into the deep, dark water. There were a few loud splashes, the sound of metal hitting metal, and then everything went quiet.

Ding.

Mana Level: 75 / 150.

Three enemies defeated.

Would you like to extract their souls?

"Yes," I thought.

Three more shapes rose from the black lagoon. They were taller than the hospital guards, their smoke bodies carrying the outline of heavy armor and long rifles. They lined up next to the first two, five black soldiers waiting for my next word.

"Get the boat," Kemi said, standing up slowly. She did not look like a normal sick girl anymore. The red cracks under her skin were brighter now, moving up her neck like tiny veins of fire. "The engine is broken, but the digital console inside still works. I need to d******d their current patrol routes before the main network realizes this squad is gone."

I walked into the shallow water, pulling the floating metal boat closer to the shore. I helped Kemi climb inside. Her hands were burning hot, almost melting the plastic handle of the drive she held.

"Kemi, your skin," I said, my voice full of worry. "What is happening to you?"

"The Calamity Core Femi took was only a battery," Kemi said, her fingers flying across the glowing screen of the boat’s dashboard. "He thought he took the power. But the core was a lock, Zane. The data inside it exploded into my brain when the machine broke it. Right now, I can see every single energy line connecting the Island to the Mainland. I can see their banks. I can see their security codes."

She pulled the red drive out of the console. The screen turned black.

"Femi did not just try to save the Island’s energy bills," Kemi said, looking up at me. Her red eyes were wide and intense. "The billionaires are planning to completely shut down the Mainland’s power grid next week. They want to turn our home into a dead zone so they can mine the ground for more ancient cores. Millions of people will freeze to death in the dark."

I felt a cold sensation in my stomach. The Island elites did not see us as humans. To them, we were just weeds growing on top of a gold mine.

"We have to stop them," I said.

"We will," Kemi said. "But we need a safe place first. Femi's personal hunters are already moving toward this sector. I can track their digital signals. They are five minutes away."

"Where do we go?" I asked, looking at my five shadow soldiers.

"The old train tunnels under the iron market," Kemi said. "The rich people forgot about them twenty years ago. The walls are lined with lead, so their sensors cannot find us."

We left the boat sinking in the mud and ran through the dark, narrow alleys of the slums. The smell of garbage and old iron was everywhere. My mana was dropping slowly, down to 68 now, and I could feel a heavy tiredness growing in my legs. But I kept moving, carrying the silver gun.

We reached the iron market, a place filled with broken sheets of metal and old car parts. Kemi pointed to a rusty iron plate hidden under a pile of rubber tires.

"Move it," she said.

The shadow soldiers lifted the heavy plate easily. A dark stone stairway led straight down into the earth. We hurried down, pulling the iron plate back over our heads to hide the entrance.

The tunnel was completely dark, but the glowing red lines on Kemi's skin gave us enough light to see a few feet ahead. We walked for ten minutes until we reached a large room filled with old computer screens and broken wires. It looked like an old military post.

"This is it," Kemi said, dropping onto a stone bench. The red light in her eyes flickered slightly, showing how tired she really was. "We are safe from their scanners here."

I let out a long breath, my body finally relaxing. I looked at the five shadows standing against the stone wall. We had survived the first wave. We had a base.

Suddenly, a loud, scraping sound came from the deep darkness at the end of the tunnel.

The five shadow soldiers instantly raised their weapons, their blue eyes flashing in the dark. I stepped in front of Kemi, aiming my silver pistol into the gloom.

A tall figure stepped into the dim red light. He did not wear the armor of Femi’s guards. Instead, he wore a long, ragged gray coat, and his left arm was completely made of glowing blue metal. His face was covered in scars, and his single human eye looked straight at Kemi.

"Well, well," the man said, his voice deep and rough. "The dead girl walks. Femi offered me ten million credits for your head, little lady. I think I am going to collect."