Ironreach did not forgive disruption.
By dawn—if the gray smear above the smoke could be called dawn—the district they had fought in was sealed behind iron barricades. Church banners hung from factory towers like verdicts. Loudspeakers repeated a single message:
"Void contamination under containment. Citizens remain indoors. Emotional irregularities will be reported."
Lyra pulled her hood lower as she and Kael moved through the under-bridges of Sector Nine. Steam hissed from broken valves, cloaking them in warm fog.
"They're rewriting the narrative," she said quietly. "By tonight, you'll be labeled a terrorist."
Kael didn't respond. His chest ticked steadily.
Tick.
Tick.
Controlled. Watching.
He felt it now—the way the city seemed to lean toward him. Not physically.
Systemically.
"Hunters?" he asked.
Lyra nodded. "Special division of the Gear Church. Aether-augmented operatives trained to eliminate anomalies."
"Like me."
"Yes."
They reached a rusted tram line suspended above a canal of chemical runoff. Below, workers in gray uniforms moved in rigid lines.
Brass collars glinted at their throats.
"Emotional Suppression Bands," Lyra said when she saw him staring. "Installed after the First Riot."
Kael's brow tightened. "First?"
She didn't answer.
A metallic clang echoed ahead.
Kael froze.
The ticking sharpened.
Tick.
From the fog stepped three figures.
Long white coats.
Brass masks shaped like expressionless faces.
Hunter insignias etched in gold.
Their leader carried twin Aether pistols glowing faint blue.
"Void signature confirmed," the leader announced in a modulated voice. "Authorization: retrieval or termination."
Lyra stepped slightly in front of Kael.
"Kael," she whispered, "don't escalate."
One Hunter activated mechanical boosters in his legs and launched forward.
Kael reacted instinctively.
The world slowed.
The Hunter's motion fractured into segmented frames.
Kael sidestepped and struck.
His hand connected with the Hunter's chest—
And space buckled.
The Hunter flew backward as if gravity rejected him.
He crashed into a pipe tower, metal imploding around him.
The other two opened fire.
Aether rounds split the fog.
Lyra dragged Kael behind a pillar.
"You can't keep bending space every time someone attacks!"
"I'm not choosing to!"
She grabbed his collar.
"Then choose!"
The ticking accelerated.
TickTickTick—
He inhaled slowly.
Focused on the rhythm.
On her voice.
The distortion receded just enough.
The Hunters advanced methodically.
Their boots synchronized.
Precise.
Emotionless.
The leader raised his pistols.
"You are destabilizing the district's Aether flow. Continued existence is unacceptable."
Kael stepped out from cover.
Lyra cursed under her breath.
"Unacceptable to who?" Kael asked.
"To the Engine."
The Hunter fired.
Kael didn't dodge.
He watched the bullet.
Felt its path.
Instead of bending space—
He shifted it.
The round curved midair, missing him by inches.
The Hunter hesitated.
"Trajectory deviation detected."
Kael felt something new.
Not raw distortion.
Control.
Subtle.
Less violent.
He extended his hand again.
The air rippled—but didn't tear.
The Hunters' movements slowed slightly.
Not frozen.
Weighted.
Lyra's monocle flashed.
"Synchronization at 21%," she whispered.
Too fast.
The leader's pistols transformed into a single cannon.
"Overdrive authorized."
A massive Aether blast charged.
Kael's chest pulsed painfully.
Tick—
He saw it again.
Under the city.
The machinery.
The massive eye shifting.
Observing this exact moment.
He felt… examined.
Tested.
The cannon fired.
The blast roared like a collapsing star.
Kael's mind went silent.
He didn't think.
He remembered.
The falling feathers.
Lyra's hand grabbing his.
The laboratory glass.
He reached forward—
And opened something.
Not space.
A seam.
The blast vanished into blackness before touching him.
Behind the Hunters, the canal water exploded upward as the redirected force erupted outward.
Shockwaves rippled across the tram line.
The remaining Hunters stumbled.
Lyra stared at him in disbelief.
"You redirected it…"
Kael blinked.
He hadn't felt the strain this time.
The ticking remained steady.
Tick.
Tick.
The leader recalibrated.
"Adaptation detected. Escalating."
From rooftops above, more Hunters descended on cables.
At least ten.
Lyra swore.
"This isn't containment," she said. "It's extermination."
Kael felt something cold in his spine.
"They're afraid."
"Yes."
"For the first time," she added.
The Hunters formed a circular formation.
Their masks rotated slightly, lenses glowing red.
In unison, they activated suppression fields.
A grid of light dropped around Kael.
The air grew heavy.
His chest tightened.
The ticking stuttered.
Tick—
Lyra slammed her wrist device against the ground, releasing a burst of steam and static interference.
The grid flickered.
"Move!" she shouted.
Kael tried.
The field resisted.
His vision blurred.
The machinery beneath the city felt distant now.
Muted.
The Engine's presence receding.
He felt… human.
Weak.
The leader approached slowly.
"Void anomalies cannot be permitted self-awareness," he said calmly.
Lyra rushed forward with a shock tool, striking one Hunter's leg joint. Sparks erupted.
"Kael!" she yelled.
The leader aimed the cannon at her.
Kael's heart stopped.
Not metaphorically.
It stopped.
Silence flooded his body.
The ticking vanished.
The world lost sound.
He saw only one thing—
Lyra in the cannon's aim.
Fear didn't come.
Something deeper did.
Refusal.
The seam opened again.
Wider.
Darker.
The suppression grid shattered outward.
Hunters were thrown back as gravity inverted for a split second.
The cannon blast fired—
And dissolved midair.
Kael stood inside a sphere of distorted space.
His eyes faintly luminous.
The Hunters hesitated.
Their formation broken.
Lyra looked at him carefully.
"You're still you," she whispered.
He wasn't sure.
He stepped forward.
The Hunters retreated instinctively.
The leader recalculated.
"Engagement no longer viable. Withdraw."
Cables fired upward.
Within seconds, they were gone.
Steam settled back into silence.
Kael swayed.
Lyra caught him.
"You stopped it before it consumed you," she said softly.
He stared at his hands.
"It didn't feel like rage."
"No."
"It felt like… permission."
Her expression darkened.
"That's worse."
They moved quickly after that, disappearing into the industrial maze.
Far above Ironreach, in a cathedral of polished brass and stained glass—
Archon Vire stood before a massive projection of rotating gears.
The report streamed across the air in glowing script.
Subject Noctis — Adaptive response observed.
Emotional trigger confirmed.
Suppression protocols insufficient.
Vire folded his mechanical fingers together.
"So," he murmured, "the prototype learns."
Behind him, a colossal mechanical iris rotated slowly.
The projection shifted to show Kael's face.
"Deploy the Seraph Unit," Vire ordered calmly.
"Begin Phase Two."
Back in the lower districts, Kael and Lyra reached an abandoned rail tunnel.
Dim lanterns flickered along cracked stone.
Kael finally spoke.
"They weren't trying to kill me."
Lyra nodded.
"They want you intact."
"For what?"
She hesitated.
"For synchronization."
The word lingered.
Tick.
His artificial heart resumed its steady rhythm.
He leaned against the tunnel wall.
"I don't think the Engine is just watching," he said quietly.
Lyra looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"I think it's waiting."
A distant rumble echoed through the tunnel.
Not from trains.
From below.
Deep beneath the rails.
As if something vast had shifted in its sleep.
Lyra's monocle flickered briefly.
A reading spiked.
She didn't tell him what it said.
But her hand unconsciously tightened around his sleeve.
Because for the first time—
The Engine's pulse had matched his.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
And somewhere in the depths of Aetherfall—
A new system command initialized.
Seraph Unit Deployment: Authorized.
The hunters were only the beginning.