The center of the intersection was eerily quiet.
"This is the spot?" Kenzo asked, his eyes scanning the surrounding glass towers. "I'm not seeing anything, Sarina. It's just an empty street."
Sarina didn't answer immediately. She was staring at her tablet, but for a split second, the screen blurred. A flash of crimson—the memory of the blood on her hands from years ago—flickered across her vision, staining the digital display. She blinked it away.
"This is a Grade-C," she said, her voice strained. "Weavers are architects. They don't just hunt; they hide. It won't be visible unless it's forced into a reaction."
Kenzo looked around, his hand hovering near the hilt of his blade. "So what? We just swing at the air? If it's invisible, it's basically a ghost."
Sarina knelt, placing her small tablet flat on the asphalt. She tapped a single command. A circular pulse of translucent light rippled outward, scanning the density of the area. Suddenly, the screen chirped.
"There," Sarina pointed.
On the 16th-floor balcony of a luxury apartment building, a jagged, multi-limbed outline appeared in glowing red on the display. It was clinging to the railing like a massive, predatory spider, its glass-like limbs twitching in a rhythmic, sewing motion.
Kenzo shifted into a battle stance, his boots scuffing the pavement. "Damn. That thing looks nothing like the Grade-D I fought. It looks... heavy."
"It's a different league," Sarina said, her Soul Energy beginning to glow around her feet like a heat haze. "Here's the plan: I'm going to lure it down to street level. You stay focused. These things are fast—faster than your eyes can track if you lose concentration."
Kenzo glanced at her, a flicker of worry in his eyes. "Lure it? Sarina, if it's that fast, you're just putting yourself in a blender."
She gave him a look—a sharp, lavender-eyed glare that reminded him she wasn't just an intel officer. "I'm faster."
In the blink of an eye, she was gone.
Sarina bolted toward the building, a streak of translucent light. The Weaver didn't notice her at first; its focus was on the reality vibrations of the city. From a pouch at her waist, Sarina pulled a solid white sphere. She wound back and threw it with immense force.
The sphere didn't hit the Weaver. It exploded just feet away, a concussive blast of localized soul-static. The Weaver screeched—a sound like metal being torn—and lost its grip. It plummeted, smashing through three separate balconies with a series of thunderous cracks.
"Damn it," Kenzo hissed as residents began peering out of their windows in panic. "We need to pull it away from the civilians!"
"Copy that!" Sarina shouted. She landed in the street and began sprinting toward the center of the intersection.
Behind her, the Weaver hit the pavement, its glass legs skittering for purchase before it vanished into a blur of speed. It was a predator now, locked onto the lavender light Sarina was emitting.
She flew past Kenzo. "He's on me! Now, Kenzo!"
Kenzo planted his feet, his heart hammering against his ribs. He gripped his blade, his palms—scarred from his previous fight. Give me the spark, he thought. Now!
He reached for his Distorted Energy, expecting the violent, jagged eruption that usually threatened to consume him.
Nothing happened.
The energy stayed dormant. No purple static. No reality-breaking hum. His veins felt cold, empty.
What? Why now?!
Suddenly, the world around him slowed down. The sounds of the city faded into a dull, underwater muffle. A voice, cold and resonant, echoed from the back of his skull.
"Kenzo... I'll be here in the silence, waiting for our first encounter."
"What the hell was that?" Kenzo gasped, his hand flying to his head as a blinding spike of pain shot through his brain.
In that split second of distraction, the Weaver struck.
It manifested out of the blur, a wall of transparent, jagged limbs. The impact was like being hit by a freight train. Kenzo was sent hurtling backward, his body crashing into a brick wall with enough force to crater the masonry.
"Kenzo!" Sarina's scream pierced the air. She skidded to a halt, turning back as the Weaver vanished again—the scanning device on the ground had been crushed under the creature's weight during the charge.
Sarina reached him in seconds, her hands glowing as she checked for internal damage. "What were you thinking? You just stood there! Did you come here to die?"
Kenzo coughed. He pushed her hands away, forcing himself to stand, though his legs felt like lead. He looked at his palms. Still nothing. The energy was gone.
"No," Kenzo rasped, his eyes searching the empty street for the shimmer of the invisible killer. "I'm here to take that thing out."
Inside, his mind was screaming. Usually, it's too much. Usually, I can't stop it. Why is it empty now?
Far off in the silence of the alleyway, the sound of glass limbs clicking against the pavement began to grow louder. The Weaver was circling back.
The Weaver didn't wait for them to recover. It blurred in and out of focus, its glass-like body stuttering through the air as it charged.
As it lunged, Kenzo didn't retreat. He threw himself forward, colliding with the creature. He reached out and gripped one of its disfigured, spindly arms with both hands, his muscles straining as he tried to pin the invisible weight.
"Sarina! Help!"
Sarina's response was instantaneous. Her legs began to glow with a rhythmic, pulsating light—her Soul Energy focusing into her lower body. She launched herself upward, delivering a devastating high kick that caught the Weaver under its jagged jaw. The impact sent the creature spiraling into the air.
Kenzo didn't waste a second. He unsheathed his blade, the cold steel reflecting the bruised sky, and drove it deep into the Weaver's chest as it fell back toward the pavement.
But there was no resistance. The blade slid in as if through water, and the Weaver didn't even flinch.
No energy, Kenzo realized, his stomach dropping. Naomi was right. Without Distorted Energy to disrupt the Weaver's structure, he was just poking a ghost with a piece of metal.
Kenzo ripped his blade out, his face twisted in frustration. He stood over the creature, clenching his jaw so hard his teeth ached. Focus. Give me the spark. Just one damn spark!
"Kenzo, you're not outputting anything!" Sarina shouted, her eyes wide with worry as she skidded back into a defensive stance. "What's going on?"
"I'm trying!" Kenzo growled, his voice cracking. "It's like I don't have access anymore!"
Then, the static returned. It wasn't just a sound this time; it was a physical weight pressing against his brain.
"No access, huh? You're acting like a tenant in a house you built."
The voice was a distorted mirror of his own—covered in digital glitches. Kenzo grabbed his head, a sharp, blinding pain lancing through his skull. Get out of my head!
The Weaver didn't care about his internal struggle. It planted its remaining glass limbs on the asphalt, its chest cavity beginning to glow with an ominous, concentrated light. It wasn't looking at Kenzo. It was targeting the person with the most active energy signature.
"Sarina! Move!" Kenzo yelled. "It's aiming right at you!"
Sarina reacted with the speed she had promised, jumping high over the Weaver just as a concentrated bolt of energy tore through the air where she had been standing.
Kenzo felt it then. A glimpse.
Deep within the dark void of his chest, a single, jagged point of light flickered. It was like seeing a light at the end of a long, suffocating tunnel.
There.
He didn't wait for the voice to answer. He reached out and snatched that light.
His blade suddenly erupted into life. It wasn't a glow; it was a scream of deep purple static. The air around the steel began to tear, creating small, jagged fissures in reality that hissed with unstable power. He didn't care about the recoil. He didn't care about the burn.
Kenzo dashed forward, his silhouette blurring with purple streaks. With a violent horizontal slash, he sheared through one of the Weaver's primary arms.
The creature let out a high-pitched shriek that shattered the nearby glass windows. It scrambled back, digging its remaining glass feet into the ground, the eyes on its multi-faceted head glowing with a vengeful light.
It targeted Sarina again.
Damn it, Kenzo thought, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Why does it keep going after her?
He raised his blade to strike again, but the Weaver was faster. It flickered once, twice, and then vanished entirely. Not just a blur—absolute invisibility.
"What?!" Kenzo spun around, his eyes darting across the empty intersection.
Sarina held her hands out, trying to scan the air for a soul-signature, but it was too late. The air behind her shimmered for a fraction of a second.
The Weaver manifested directly at her back. Before she could turn, it launched a heavy, concussive strike that hit her square in the center of her spine.
The sound was sickening—the crack of a shield breaking followed by the thud of a body hitting the pavement.
"SARINA!"
Kenzo watched as she was sent skidding across the asphalt, her tablet shattering into a thousand pieces.
Kenzo's vision began to tunnel. The purple energy around his blade started to bleed onto his arms, the static growing louder and louder until it drowned out the sounds of the city.