NEON REQUIEM — CHAPTER 8
"Echoes Beneath Neon Haven"
The deeper we went beneath Neon Haven, the more the city above felt like a fading dream — a memory swallowed by machinery, darkness, and the constant pulse of invisible data streams twisting through the underground like ghost veins. The air was colder here. Not natural cold… a technological cold, sharp and metallic, like the world itself was holding its breath.
Lira walked beside me, her steps light but guarded, her eyes flicking across every shadow like she expected them to reach out and grab us. Maybe she wasn't wrong.
"I can feel it again," she whispered. "That same energy signature. Stronger. Much stronger."
My grip tightened on my blade — the blue glow humming back at me like it understood my nerves. "Is it the thing we saw in the tunnels?"
"No." She shook her head once, expression hardening. "Worse."
That wasn't exactly comforting.
The path opened into a massive chamber buried under layers of collapsed infrastructure. Old metro tracks, broken power conduits, shattered holo-projectors — all fused into a chaotic maze. But the strangest thing was the light.
A faint, pulsing glow radiated from the center of the room… like a heartbeat.
Lira and I exchanged a look.
"After you," she murmured.
I stepped forward, blade drawn. The closer I got, the more a subtle vibration crawled through my bones. Not sound. Not even energy, exactly. Something else. Something deeper. Like a resonance calling out to me specifically.
Then I saw it.
A floating shard — a crystalline fragment, cracked and bleeding with blue light — hovering inches above a makeshift altar built from twisted metal. Tiny symbols flickered across its surface, disappearing the moment I tried to focus on them.
"What… is that?" I whispered.
Lira exhaled slowly, awe mixing with fear. "A Signal Core. But it shouldn't exist. Those things were wiped out after the Collapse."
"And what does it do?"
"Depends," she replied. "Some were weapons. Some were data vaults. Some were… alive."
Alive.
Great.
Before I could ask anything else, the shard pulsed — bright as lightning — and a shockwave rippled outward. I stumbled back, raising my blade, but the wave didn't hit me physically. It hit my mind.
Images. Flashes. Things I couldn't understand.
A skyline burning.
A man falling through neon rain.
A hand—my hand—covered in static.
A voice whispering a name I didn't recognize: "Elyndor."
I gasped as the visions snapped away.
Lira ran to me. "Kael! What happened?"
"I… I saw something." My heartbeat hammered. "Like memories. But not mine."
Her face paled. "The Core reacted to you?"
"Is that bad?"
"Kael." Her voice dropped. "Those shards don't react to just anyone. They resonate with… marked individuals."
"Marked," I repeated. "Like chosen?"
"No." She swallowed. "Like dangerous."
Before I could respond, the entire chamber trembled — a sudden rumble that made dust rain from the ceiling. Lira drew her pistol instantly, scanning the darkness.
"Something's coming," she said. "Multiple signatures. Fast."
The shadows shifted.
Movement.
Then they stepped into the faint blue glow — tall, humanoid figures with bodies of black, semi-liquid metal. Their eyes glowed white-hot like tiny suns, unblinking, emotionless. The same type of entity we encountered before… but these looked older. Sharper. Smarter.
One of them raised its elongated arm, the metal rippling into the shape of a blade.
Lira hissed. "They're Guardians."
"Guarding what? The shard?"
"No." She shook her head slowly. "Guarding you."
Before I could process that, three Guardians lunged.
I moved on instinct. My blade met the first one with a burst of electric-blue energy, slicing through its arm. The severed limb dissolved into mist, but the creature didn't hesitate — it slashed again, forcing me back.
Lira ducked under another attack, firing three precise shots into a Guardian's chest. The bullets disrupted its form, but it reconstituted instantly.
"They're adapting!" she shouted.
"I noticed!"
The first Guardian swung again, but this time my blade pulsed — brighter, stronger — like it was feeding off the shard's energy. I slashed diagonally, and to my surprise, the Guardian's body split clean in half. It dissolved into static and vanished.
Lira blinked. "Kael… your blade shouldn't be able to do that."
"It just did."
More Guardians advanced.
Lira and I stood back-to-back.
"Ready?" she asked.
"No," I replied. "But let's go anyway."
We fought like we'd trained for years — though we both knew we hadn't. I moved faster than I ever had, my blade cutting through the fluid metal bodies with growing ease. Each Guardian dissolved faster than the last, as if my blade was learning how to kill them.
But the shard pulsed again — violently — and all the remaining Guardians froze.
Then they all turned toward me at once.
Their glowing eyes focused, synchronized.
Lira stiffened. "Kael… they've identified you."
"Fantastic," I muttered. "As what?"
The Guardians knelt.
All of them.
Lira's jaw dropped. "They're… bowing to you."
I took a hesitant step back. "I don't want them to."
The shard lifted higher, its glow intensifying until the entire chamber vibrated. Data streams of blue and white spiraled around me, almost like they were scanning my very soul.
Then — the voice returned.
Not spoken. Not heard.
Felt.
"Elyndor returns."
I stumbled. "No. No, I'm Kael. You've got the wrong guy."
The shard's glow flickered — like disappointment.
The Guardians rose again, and their bodies reshaped into more dangerous forms — blades, spears, jagged talons.
Lira grabbed my arm. "We need to run. Now."
"But—"
"No arguments, Kael!"
The chamber shook violently as the Guardians reawakened with hostile intent.
We sprinted through the ruins as the creatures screamed in synthetic fury behind us. My blade lit our path while Lira blasted obstacles out of the way. The tunnel ahead collapsed, forcing us to dive through a narrow gap just before it sealed shut.
We landed hard on metal flooring, gasping.
Silence.
Darkness.
Only the faint glow of my blade remained.
Lira pushed herself up, wincing. "Kael… whatever that shard is, it thinks you're someone named Elyndor."
"I don't know who that is. I don't want to know."
She studied me carefully. "We need answers. And there's only one person in Neon Haven who might have them."
"Who?"
Lira met my eyes.
"The Oracle of Sector Nine."