Destiny: The Legendary Hunter

[Writers-Ablood]

Gotta say I was pretty hesitant when I first found this story, but its been a fun one I especially love the way you've slotted him in as a faction leader and quest npc for the players that's been consistently fun each time it shows up.

Click to shrink...

Appreciate the comment, it's nice that you've been enjoying the story, and hopefully you enjoy the chapters to come.

 

[purplefox1013]

Appreciate the comment, it's nice that you've been enjoying the story, and hopefully you enjoy the chapters to come.

Click to shrink...

I think a large part of what im liking about the pc ocs is that your using the same ones so it gives a sense of continuity that flashes out things a bit more

 

[Writers-Ablood]

Void didn't linger.

The moment the noise of the inner sanctum dulled into distance, he let the shadows take him again. He moved through the Vestian Outpost like a blur, and his eyes scanned the harbour lanes one last time. Corsairs. Paladins. Wolf Guard. Too many people were already gathering, likely having heard of what had happened inside.

"Transmat, now", Void said.

Void vanished from the harbour and reappeared inside the cockpit, boots hitting metal with a dull thud. He sank into the seat and punched the thrusters. The Jumpship trembled and flared to life, shooting off into deep space.

Only when he had left behind the Vestian Outpost did he let his shoulders drop a fraction.

He looked at the engram resting in his palm. Old. Encoded. Heavy with layered locks.

He exhaled. "Did it work?"

Obsidian scanned the radar. "Well, no one's chasing us, that's a good sign."

Void didn't smile. His gaze flicked toward the Ahamkara resting on his neck. "Zamyr."

«It was complete,» Zamyr murmured. «As complete as illusion can be. There is no doubt about it.»

"If she wasn't convinced…"

«Then you would already be bearing the brunt of her Ahamkara's powers,» Zamyr said, low.

Void nodded once, slowly.

The illusion around his shoulders and neck, the little ghost serpent he had made Mara see, finally began to crumble. It didn't vanish in a flash. It collapsed like ash. The tail thinned. The claws became fog. The head faded last, grin lingering for half a second longer than it should have, then dissolving into nothing.

Void watched it go. "If she thinks I can still wish," he said, voice quiet, "she won't move. Not yet."

«Indeed,» Zamyr replied. «She is a cunning one. She will watch you, but will not strike while she believes you have a wish to answer hers.»

Void's jaw tightened. "Good."

Obsidian drifted closer, eye flickering. "That sorcery she used. The binding. It wasn't Hive. It wasn't Light."

Void's gaze narrowed as he remembered the feel of it sliding up his arm.

Zamyr's tone shifted, interested now. «It intrigued me. It is not the shrewd rot of Hive craft, nor the bright shaping of your Warlocks. It sits between.»

Zamyr's energy began to fade, his phantasmal presence whittling away as he spoke.

«It seems my time is up, O brother mine.»

"For now." Void sighed, "I'll get you back as soon as I can."

Obsidian hummed. "The Awoken are… an existence in between Light and Dark. They were made in the collision of both. It tracks."

Void stared out at the outpost shrinking behind them. "There's no good information on what they can do."

"There's good information," Obsidian corrected. "It's just not for us."

Void snorted. With the Gate Lord's remains secured, he set course for Venus. And for the first time since he'd entered Mara Sov's chamber, he allowed himself a thin, tired breath.

-

[Campus-9, Hidden Subspace]

Void stepped through the entrance and immediately walked to the centre of the workshop.

Pahanin was at a central table with Alemyr and Marcus, slates and projections layered in the air like stacked glass. The Stoic stood off to the side, hands moving with calm precision as he tweaked the projections using magical output.

Taeko-3 was perched near a console, half leaning, half hovering, already deep in a stream of numbers.

When Void entered, the room didn't stop. Not at first.

Then Pahanin looked up.

His eyes narrowed.

"What happened?" Pahanin said with a dogged voice. "You were gone too long."

Void didn't answer immediately.

He stepped closer, and for a moment, the only sound was the hum under the floor and the soft clicks of keys still being pressed. Then Void's lips curved faintly into a thin smile.

He reached into his cloak. And placed the engram on the table.

It hit with a dull, heavy clack.

Pahanin blinked once, then twice. "No."

Marcus leaned forward. "That's not…"

Alemyr's eyes widened, just a fraction. "How did you-"

The Stoic didn't react at all. But his gaze sharpened, every fibre of his being locked onto the hologram on the table.

Void rested his palm on the table beside it. "As I said, I got what we need," he said, voice calm. "Gate Lord remains."

Pahanin's mouth opened, then closed again. "How the hell did you swipe that from the awaoken?"

Void cut him off with a look. "Not important."

Pahanin's brows knit. "Not important."

Void's smile flashed, quick. "Not important."

Taeko-3 pushed off the console and glided closer. "You're insane."

Void shrugged. "Yeah."

Then his expression tightened. "Before we do anything, we make sure it cannot connect back to the Vex network."

Alemyr's gaze snapped up. "It's alive?"

Void's eyes went cold. "No, but the remains are completely preserved. There's no telling what might happen."

The room sobered instantly as the danger of a Vex Gate lord being accidentally resurrected was now a real problem.

The Stoic stepped forward at last, twirling their wrist softly and began working on a new spell.

Taeko-3 didn't waste time. She flicked her comms open and sent a tight burst message. "Gallida. Isidel. Uzoma. Get here. Now."

A reply came almost immediately. Three quick pings. Nearby.

Alemyr and The Stoic then moved together; a glance was all they had needed to communicate what was required to prevent the Gate Lord from reconnecting to the Vex Network.

They needed a cage.

Alemyr's hands were already pulling up projections. A cage model formed in the air. Not physical. Not exactly. A set of layers, or rather a shape made of spells that was slowly being filled in by The Stoic's magic.

Alemyr added, "This cage we make will prevent it from communicating with anything outside."

Marcus whistled softly. "A prison for a machine."

The Stoic's fingers moved with a strange harmony, weaving his magic into the shape of the cage that Alemyr kept projecting.

Minutes passed in tight silence as The Stoic wove and wove, till magic itself was condensed so tightly that it lashed out against the world, sending faint ripples through the air.

Finally, the engram's outer locks were cracked under the Stoic's direction, Alemyr guiding the process like he'd done it a hundred times.

The engram opened with a soft sigh of light that spat out a single Vex corpse. A husk of a machine so powerful and elusive that it had never been once examined by human hands.

They laid it out on the table.

Even dead, it felt… alive.

The Stoic placed a thin node at the edge of the table. The isolation cage flared once, then settled, invisible but present. The Stoic nodded in affirmation.

Void exhaled. "Good."

Right on cue, footsteps approached, and the air shifted as Gallida, Isidel and Uzoma came in.

They stopped at the table.

Gallida stared at the corpse, eyes narrowing slowly. "You actually did it."

Uzoma blinked, then laughed under his breath. "Ghostsword. What the hell."

Isidel didn't speak. He just leaned in slightly, gaze heavy with judgment and interest.

Taeko-3 pointed at the corpse. "We're isolating it. Before you touch anything, understand that if this thing manages to ping the Vex, we all die."

Gallida's gaze flicked to Void. "So like a ticking bomb?"

Void nodded once.

The Stoic carefully began his operation.

He opened sections of the Gate Lord's chassis with a careful splinter of magic that cut through the metallic outer coating, revealing trapped radiolaria, pooled and thick liquid trapped in a broken vessel.

The Stoic paused, fingers trembling for just a brief second. He treated it like it was venom and gold at the same time. With a flick of his finger, he extracted it, guiding it into a new glass sphere. Not just a container. A seal. A controlled environment.

The ball filled, and the radiolaria inside swirled slowly, as if it didn't like being watched.

Uzoma swallowed. "That's… a lot."

Alemyr murmured, "About five times the amount you'd find in a Vex Minotaur."

Void's eyes didn't leave the sphere.

The Stoic palmed the glass sphere, sealing it completely from the inside out and gently set it down on the table. He then continued dismantling the remains. Layer by layer. Plate by plate. Until the deeper structure showed itself.

Then they reached it.

The mind.

A compact core of complexity that made everything else look like armour. It wasn't just a processor. It was the identity of the Gate Lord itself.

Gallida's breath hitched. Marcus leaned in.

Pahanin whispered, "That's it."

The Stoic frowned slightly, pausing before he tampered with the mind of the Gate lord.

Void's eyes sharpened. "What's wrong?"

The Stoic's fingers hovered over the exposed mind, but he dared not touch it.

Alemyr's voice was quiet, "The only way to access the mind of a Vex construct is to power it."

"And?" Void frowned.

"The only power it accepts is radiolaria." Taeko-3 shook her head.

Silence gripped the group.

Void looked at the glass sphere.

The radiolaria inside swirled again, slow and patient, as if calling out to its own body.

Taeko-3's jaw tightened. "If we feed that back in, there's a chance it wakes. If it wakes, it tries to connect. Even if it fails to connect to the network, the probability that it doesn't just up and teleport away still exists."

The Stoic nodded once.

Gallida's eyes flicked to Void. "So we either keep it dead and know nothing. Or we wake it carefully and pray our cage holds."

Void stared at the mind core, then the sphere, then the magical cage that surrounded the body.

He thought of Mara Sov's warning. He thought of the Black Heart. For a moment, countless such thoughts swirled in his mind. But he couldn't reach a conclusion. No matter what he tried to work it out, it seemed impossible.

He couldn't figure it out.

He had worked so hard to just reach here; was he expected to risk everything just to take another step forward?

That didn't sit right with him. There had to be another way. Another choice, another line of thought. But there wasn't. No one else had reached this problem before.

No one else except-

'Except me'

His mind shook, and realisation dawned on him.

Void's voice came out steady. "We stop here."

Pahanin looked at him sharply. "Stop?"

Void nodded. "I need something first."

Gallida frowned. "What?"

Void's gaze stayed on the mind. "A plan. One that will definitely work."

The Stoic's eyes lifted to him and curiously scanned his face.

Void stepped back from the table, already turning. "I'll be back."

Taeko-3 called after him, "Where are you going?"

But Void shook his head and didn't slow down. "No time to explain."

-

A/N:

Check out Patreon to read ahead!

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[SenpaiSamaChan]

If the "no time to explain" was a funny then it was a good one. Nice chapter boss

 

[Writers-Ablood]

If the "no time to explain" was a funny then it was a good one. Nice chapter boss

Click to shrink...

Thank you, it was indeed a funny.

 

[Writers-Ablood]

[Ishtar Sink, Ishtar Academy Perimeter]

Void waited on the ridge that overlooked the Ishtar Academy. He was still as stone, cloak barely shifting with the damp Venusian wind as he stared at the dark crater that marred the Academy's grounds.

The last few days had been quiet. The crater had deterred most creatures from sparing the Academy a glance, but today was different. Fallen silhouettes flickered through the ruins in quick, nervous bursts. Vex lights blinked in the shadows of exposed corridors, their shapes stepping in and out of sight like they were checking if the surroundings had calmed enough to take it back.

Void watched it all without blinking.

Obsidian floated near his shoulder, scanning in soft pulses. "Activity's rising. Both sides. The House of Winter is stirring again."

Void exhaled through his nose. "Of course they are."

His eyes tracked a cluster of Winter vandals in the distance, slipping along a collapsed walkway, dragging something metallic between them. The Vex didn't engage either and just watched. As if they were waiting for the Fallen to finish their mistake before punishing them for it.

Void's jaw tightened. "There's no way to stop them cleanly unless I walk in and take their leadership off the table."

Obsidian cautiously spoke up, "That costs time. And we still don't know where Winter's operating from. You'd spend a few days tracking them down and still not find their core members."

Void hummed, low and annoyed. His gaze drifted past the Academy into the thick jungle beyond, where the green swallowed everything. "And if I wipe them out here…"

"The Vex gain ground," Obsidian said immediately. "Winter keeps the Vex busy. Removing them shifts the balance."

Void nodded, understanding settling in like a weight. He'd learned this lesson once on Earth already. Removing the House of Devils had caused too many other factions to pop up.

Sure, he could wipe out the House of Winter's leadership. But every victory made another enemy stronger by accident.

He stared down at the crater again, the dark pit where Vex lights flickered like embers. "I can't be volatile. Not on Venus."

Obsidian pulsed. "You can't erase every threat you see and call it progress."

Void's lips curved, faintly. Not happy. Not amused. Just acknowledging a truth that annoyed him. "This is why the City leaned on diplomacy whenever it could."

Then he smirked, the edge of it sharp. "Enemy of my enemy."

Obsidian's eye dimmed a fraction. "Not always a friend. Sometimes just a delay."

Void didn't answer. His eyes stayed on the ruins. He watched a Vex goblin step out from behind a cracked pillar, raise its arm, and fire. Winter vandals scattered in a panic, their ether masks flashing as they sprinted. The goblin didn't chase.

It just stepped back into the dark like it had proven a point.

Minutes passed.

Void remained still.

Then space rippled.

A pale presence flickered behind him. Elsie had arrived.

She appeared a few metres away, boots on stone, rifle slung, eyes already sweeping the perimeter as if she'd already stepped into this exact scene before.

Her gaze landed on Void, and he paused.

"You're here?" she said, tone flat, almost accusing.

Void glanced over his shoulder, calm as ever. "I figured you'd show at some point."

Elsie's eyes narrowed slightly. She looked past him toward the Academy, then back. "How would you know that?"

Void shrugged, "The Academy will probably see some action soon. That tends to pull you out of wherever you've been hiding."

Elsie didn't deny it. She stepped beside him and looked down at the crater. For a second, the two of them just watched the chaos simmer.

Then Void spoke again, voice lighter, almost dry. "I will say, though. You're late."

Elsie shot him a look.

Void raised his brows. "Don't look at me like that. The Vex and the Fallen have been stirring for a good hour. You have time travel. How are you late?"

Elsie's mouth twitched. "It's more complicated than you think."

Void stared at her for half a second in disbelief, then shook his head. "Sure."

Elsie exhaled once. "Ignore that. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be busy trying to get a way to the Black Heart?"

Void's posture shifted slightly. Something colder slid into his voice.

"I did find it," he said.

Elsie's eyes sharpened. "Found what?"

Void looked down toward the crater again, "A Vex Gate Lord."

Elsie's surprise was small, but real. Her eyes widened a fraction, then narrowed again as she processed it. "You're moving faster than I expected."

"Problem is," Void continued, "there's no way for me to extract the key. Not cleanly. Not with what I have."

Elsie's gaze lingered on him. "So you came to me."

"Seems you've caught on."

Elsie's expression didn't change. "You want to know how the others did it. Don't you?"

Void's eyes met hers, and he only replied with a quiet nod.

For a moment, Elsie didn't answer.

She just turned, walked past him, and moved to the edge of the ridge. Her boots crunched gravel. Then she spoke, voice quiet, almost tired.

"Some things never change."

Void's brows lifted slightly.

Elsie didn't look back at him. "Every version of you that makes it this far asks me the same question."

Void's heart skipped a beat.

Elsie finally glanced over her shoulder.

"I do end up helping sometimes."

Void didn't speak for a second. The wind filled the gap. The Academy's distant gunfire crackled like static.

Elsie turned back to the crater. "I can help you, too. If that's what you want."

Void's thoughts moved fast. The key. The Heart. The stakes. But also the fact that she'd done this before. Which meant that maybe his timeline was conforming to something Elsie had lived through.

'Is that a good or a bad thing?'

He swallowed the questions and took a breath.

"I hate to be that guy, but. There's no other way,"

Elsie nodded once, like she'd expected that answer. "Then I'll do it."

Void's gaze stayed on her. "Just like that."

Elsie's voice stayed calm. "I don't see a reason to refuse."

Then she shifted her rifle strap, eyes narrowing toward the ruins. "Give me a moment. I need to clear the area first. The Vex and Winter are already sniffing around. I don't want them to start another fight and damage the place further."

Elsie started forward, stepping down the ridge with measured speed.

Void watched her for a breath.

Then he unsheathed his sword.

Arc light crawled along the blade's edge, wreathing his forearm and shoulder in blue cracks that snapped and faded. His cloak fluttered once as the charge built under his skin.

Void's lips curved into something sharp.

"I'll help speed it up," he said.

Lightning radiated from him; his figure crackled and flickered towards the Academy.

-

[Dreaming City]

Space tore, then settled as a fissure connecting two dimensions.

The Reef's empty darkness quivered behind Mara Sov as she stepped through the portal, replaced by a new emptiness that didn't behave like a vacuum. Rather, this strange realm itself glowed with ethereal light.

Mara stepped forward. The first thing her boots touched was a bridge of pale stone that lit up beneath her feet.

Below the bridge was an incandescent glow that pulsed akin to a heartbeat. A sea of mist was layered below it, slow and rolling in sheets that caught colour like oil. The mist wasn't water; rather, it was an odd, amorphous crystal that hardened in a vaporous form.

A sort of invisible solid. Above it was a grand structure.

The Dreaming City.

Spines of crystal climbed into the air, each one faceted just enough to fracture the glow into ribbons. The buildings in the city were tall and leaned into the horizon. Curved towers, open ribs, bridges that looped in graceful arcs, and windows cut like tears through gold-veined stone.

There was no wind in this realm. Yet the banners of this city still fluttered in slow, deliberate motions, as if orchestrated.

Even sound behaved differently in this place. When Mara Sov's Paladins stepped on the bridge, the tap of their boots did not echo. It softened, sinking into the walls as if absorbed by a curated silence.

Mara walked across the bridge, calm and unhurried.

Her Paladins escorted her in a tight formation, armour catching the realm's glow in soft highlights. The city opened into wide terraces where water ran in perfect channels, silent streams that flowed uphill as easily as down. The water carried faint sparks of light, little points that drifted like living motes. When they passed beneath a bridge, the motes rose, brushing the underside of the arch, and the stone answered with a gentle pulse.

The path ahead narrowed into a corridor of gold with smooth and curved walls that were hollow like the inside of a shell. Openings lined the sides, each one framing a different view of the city. A spire in the distance. A garden terrace. A pool of mist rolling over the edge of the world.

Mara raised her hand.

Her Paladins halted instantly, as if their bodies were tied to her gesture.

"That's far enough," Mara chimed up.

They scattered without hesitation, peeling away into hidden routes and narrow alcoves, slipping behind pillars that seemed too thin to hide anyone.

Mara continued alone, the corridors bent once more, then opened into a chamber with heavy doors. She gently pushed forward with her palm, and the doors creaked open.

Inside, the chamber looked like it had been carved out of a single golden bone.

It was shaped like an egg split open. A hollowed chamber with many openings, each one a dark wound in the gold.

The gap in the doors allowed light to slip through, but despite the polished interior of the chamber, not a single ray of light was reflected. Instead, a stale and colorless aura stained the room.

The moment Mara stepped over the threshold, her hair shifted slightly, and a tremor ran through the floors. An immense presence lurked in the darkness. It's figure rolled across the chamber, deep and slow, like a tide arriving without water.

Then the darkness in one of the openings rippled.

A draconic head emerged, simply weaving out of the shadow, as if the dark itself had taken that form at will.

Riven.

Gargantuan. Restrained by the magical geometry of the chamber. Her scales caught the gold in dull flashes; her eyes were many, each one fixed on Mara with a different kind of hunger. Some curious. Some amused.

Mara stopped beneath her, gaze tilted up.

"Riven," Mara smiled, "Have you been well?"

Riven's mouth curled, slow. Her voice filled the hollow chamber like an echo.

"How could I not be well?" Riven replied. "We've built you a beautiful city."

She paused.

"And me, a beautiful cage."

The Ahamkara's words lingered, but Mara's expression did not change.

"It keeps you hidden."

Riven's eyes narrowed by a fraction. "So it does."

The silence that followed was heavy, but controlled. A silence between two beings who never spoke without weighing the consequences.

This time, Mara spoke first.

"I met someone today," she said.

Riven's attention sharpened.

"Did you," Riven murmured.

"An enigma," Mara continued. "Another who carries the power of an Ahamkara."

The chamber tightened, space itself quivered and contracted.

Riven tilted her head, and the movement made the shadows in the openings sway as if they were tethered to her thoughts. "And you are certain."

"I know what I felt."

"Did you see it?"

"I could not mistake that energy." Mara's fingers flexed once at her side as she recalled the sensation of the energy lingering on her hand. "I want you to find out if what I saw was real."

Riven's lips parted in something like a smile.

Mara's tone lowered, the warning threaded cleanly through her words. "Be careful. If the other one senses you reaching, the result could be… unpleasant."

Riven's eyes flashed.

For the briefest second, they turned white, and the chamber's pale light dimmed as if a candle had been pinched between fingers.

Then Riven went quiet.

So quiet that Mara could hear her own breath.

A moment passed. Riven laughed, peevish and soft.

"I see," Riven said.

Mara's eyes narrowed. "Explain."

"A price," Riven replied.

Mara's answer came immediately. "The same as always."

Riven's grin sharpened. "How generous, Queen."

She paused, as if choosing which truth to reveal and which lie to dress in silk.

Then she spoke.

"What you saw was true," Riven said. "There is another."

Mara's gaze hardened. "I thought you said you were the only Ahamkara left?"

"I was mistaken"

Riven leaned closer, just enough that her form shifted into a serpentine creature. "Because the one who carries it was cunning enough to hide its presence."

Her eyes flickered with faint delight.

"Much like yourself."

Mara frowned, "Is that all?"

"Do you wish to give more?" Riven smiled back.

Before the Ahamkara could finish, Mara had already turned to leave.

Halfway to the exit, she stopped. She looked back over her shoulder. "I will ask you one last time. Are you certain?"

Riven's smile became something harrowing. Her voice slid through the hollow like a vow.

"Would I lie to you, O queen mine?"

Mara held her gaze for a second and then walked away. The door slowly pulled behind her with a soft finality, as the gold floors swallowed the sound of her footsteps, and plunged the chamber into darkness once more.

Riven form shifted again, but it was different this time. The Ahamkara didn't feel the need to assume a form while alone. What she had adopted now was something akin to smoke.

Yet even this formless smoke had conjured her distinct eyes that always seemed to stay open. Alone in the dark, Riven's eyes flickered white once more, and endless possibilities flashed through her mind.

A shapeless and wretched smile bloomed on her cloudy figure.
-
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[Writers-Ablood]

Void led Elsie back to the Campus-9 subspace and stepped in first. Elsie followed behind him, rifle slung on her shoulder.

Void glanced sideways at Elsie as he moved through the door "You might feel it," he said quietly. "Entering here for the first time. It's… weird."

Elsie didn't even slow. She stepped through the door, eyes flicking across the room, then looked at Void with a faint amusement.

"What makes you think it's the first time I've entered here?"

Void's mouth opened, then closed.

He blinked once, then let out a short laugh. "Right."

Elsie's lips curved slightly.

Void shook his head once, then gestured down the corridor. "Come on."

They moved towards the central room, with the group still waiting on Void's return. A few hours had passed, but the table sat at the centre was still guarded by a warlock spell, lit in soft white. The Gate Lord corpse lay on it in pieces, contained within Alemyr and the Stoic's isolation work. The air around the table felt thick with restraint.

Gallida stood at the edge of the table with Taeko-3 beside her. Uzoma was perched on a counter. Isidel stood like a pillar, arms folded, gaze heavy. Alemyr and the Stoic were closest to the corpse, hands quiet, ready.

When Gallida spotted Elsie, she straightened instantly.

Taeko-3 did too.

They exchanged a look, quick and sharp, like a suspicion finally paying off.

Gallida's voice cut through the room. "Of course."

Taeko-3 nodded, almost smug. "We knew it. In the end, Ghostsword was going to bring his mysterious friend."

Elsie's eyes slid over them, calm. She didn't greet. She didn't posture. She simply walked closer to the table, as she belonged there.

Gallida stepped forward a fraction. "Can you actually do it. Extract the key. Safely."

Elsie's gaze stayed on the Gate Lord's remains. "It shouldn't be a problem."

Uzoma's brows lifted. "You are?"

Void nodded once, backing her without overplaying it. "You can trust her."

Taeko-3's head tilted slightly. "We don't even know her name."

Elsie finally glanced up, eyes steady. "Most don't, but don't let that bother you. If we're really doing this, I'll need explicit agreement that you'll do as I say."

The room went quiet.

Everyone shared a glance, and then all eyes finally flicked to Void.

Void gave back an approving nod, and the group parted to give her some more space.

Elsie stepped into the circle of light around the table. She rested her rifle strap tighter on her shoulder, then placed her hand on the exposed core of the Gate Lord's mind.

Elsie looked over to the Stoic. "When I tell you," she said, voice even, "you comply."

The Stoic's expression didn't change. His gaze lingered at Elsie for a heartbeat, then he inclined his head once.

Alemyr watched closely, jaw tight. He didn't like outsiders touching fragile things. But seeing as Void was the one to bring her in, he couldn't voice any disagreements. The most he could do was ensure that his spells did not fail.

Elsie's right hand remained on the core; her left hand traced the magnetic core of her rifle. Her eyes flicked to the watch on her wrist.

Then she released something.

Not Light. Not Darkness.

A pulse.

The air around the Gate Lord tightened. It felt like the room flinched. Around the corpse, something unfolded. A wrinkle. A pocket. A thin bubble that seemed to encapsulate the corpse and hold its translucent form.

The Gate Lord was still dead, but now it was dead inside a moment that had been pinned in place.

Taeko-3's voice dropped. "That is?"

Elsie didn't acknowledge it. She just spoke to the Stoic. "Now."

The Stoic hesitated for half a heartbeat. His Eyes flicked toward the glass sphere containing the radiolaria, then back to Elsie.

He moved.

A careful hand motion. A precise release.

The sphere shattered with a soft crack, not loud, but final. Radiolaria spilt out like thick mercury, luminous and alive. It flowed in a smooth line toward the core as if it recognised home.

Void felt a subtle prickle at the base of his neck.

The radiolaria touched the mind.

And the Gate Lord woke.

But not fully.

A faint flicker ran through its body as the gate lord instantly tried to trigger a spatial warp, but space seemed to stutter. At most, it released a fragmented pulse that frayed immediately, because the temporal wrinkle was holding it in place.

The gate lord would be alive for a second, maybe a minute, or perhaps even an hour. That did not matter. Truthfully, it was trapped in a moment it could not escape.

Elsie's fingers tightened.

She looked down at the watch on her wrist and dialled it, precise movements like she was tuning a weapon.

Then she lifted her rifle.

Not toward anyone.

Toward the core.

Elsie fired.

The group around the table flinched.

But there was no bullet, nor an explosion.

Instead, an odd wisp seemed to break away from the Gate lord and enter the rifle's barrel. Elsie fired once more, and the Gate Lord's mind stuttered again, trapped between function and failure. Frozen in a pinned second while Elsie ripped information out of it like a surgeon pulling a thread.

She then aimed at a nearby data pad and clicked the trigger.

A string of numbers poured into the nearest terminal, too fast for anyone to read.

A key.

Longer than a human mind could comprehend.

A 2000000456-digit identifier, the Vex's own method of locating and splitting spatial distortions, the kind of code that didn't just open a door, it told the door what it was.

Obsidian's eye flared bright as he recorded it, his voice low with urgency. "Captured. Stored. Multiple backups."

Elsie's gaze didn't leave the terminal until the final digit settled.

Then she stepped back, hand lifting again. "Remove it."

The Stoic reacted instantly. He swiftly guided the radiolaria out, not with brute force, but with control, drawing it back into a newly reformed glass sphere. Glass knit itself under his hands, sealing without leaving a seam.

The radiolaria swirled inside, contained again.

The Gate Lord's mind core dimmed.

Time snapped back into place, like a taut string being released. The corpse fizzled into stillness, dead again.

Everyone in the room exhaled at once.

Marcus stared at Elsie as if he'd just watched someone cheat the very fundamental rules of life. "Who are you?"

Elsie spared him a glance.

"It's better if you don't know."

Taeko-3 opened her mouth, clearly ready to argue. Alemyr's brows tightened. Gallida looked like she wanted to ask twenty questions at once.

Elsie cut them off and whispered while turning to Void.

"Before you ever attempt the Black Heart," she said with a firm voice, "you prepare. Don't rush it. And when you're ready, you find me again. Is that clear?"

Void nodded, "Trust me, I will"

Elsie's watch ticked.

A faint sound, like a cold clock hand landing on a mark. Her body began to fade. Fine flakes peeled off her armour and drifted upwards. Her outline broke apart in a soft scatter, and in seconds she was gone, leaving nothing but a faint chill and a space where she'd stood.

The room stared at the absence.

Marcus finally couldn't hold it in any longer. "Okay. Nope. Seriously, who was that?"

Void didn't look away from the terminal where the key was stored.

"She's a friend," he said.

Alemyr exhaled, half impressed, half annoyed. "You have more strange connections than I thought."

Void nodded. "Yeah."

He turned slightly toward Uzoma, eyes narrowing with a different kind of focus. "By the way."

Uzoma lifted a brow. "Uh oh."

Void pointed at the terminal. "We had to call outside help to extract the key. Which means your squad technically didn't solve the problem."

Isidel's head tilted a fraction. Gallida's lips twitched. Taeko-3 straight up sighed like she could see where this was going.

Void continued, calm as ever. "So. Don't you owe me some glimmer back?"

Uzoma stared at him for a beat, then laughed. "You're joking."

Void's face stayed straight. "Am I?"

Alemyr rubbed his face with one hand. "That's a shrewd bargain."

Then he pointed at the node plans projected on the far wall. "But the glimmer you gave was already spent. On node work. On equipment. On running this place and making sure you can enter and leave at will. Opening the entrance is quite the expense, as you'd know."

Void clicked his tongue once, amused despite himself. "Shrewd response."

Uzoma grinned. "We learned from the best."

Void snorted and shook his head, then turned back to the table.

"The key is finally secured."

He looked around the room, letting his gaze land on each of them. Gallida. Taeko. Alemyr. The Stoic. Uzoma. Isidel. Marcus. Pahanin.

"Until then," Void said, "we focus on the project. Nodes. Placement. Scaling. We build the backbone. Because when I do go through that door, I don't exactly know what'll happen. I want to ensure we're all on the same page before then."

-

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