Tae remained on one knee, his hand clamped hard over his left shoulder as the crushing weight kept his arm completely dead. Blood dripped onto the stone from his lip, but his eyes were locked forward in a mix of shock and agony.
Beside him, Joseph's glasses caught the crimson glare of the burning obelisk. His hands moved over his interface by pure muscle memory, analyzing the battlefield, but his gaze wasn't actually on the silver-haired boy.
It was on the boy's hands.
He's not looking at Tae, Joseph thought, his breath hitching as he noticed the subtle angle of Nox's head. He hasn't taken his eyes off that carved block of wood for a single second. The connection isn't directional... it's bound to the object itself.
"Hey! Little ghost kid!" Ethan shouted, stepping out of line, his golden aura flaring aggressively around his fists. "Put the damn doll down before I tear your arms off!"
"Ethan, wait! Hold back!" Diego warned instantly, his hand snapping out to grab Ethan's shoulder. Diego's eyes were wide, sensing the thick, unnatural stagnation in the air around the newcomer. "Something isn't right here. Don't touch him—I can feel the negative energy radiating off him. It isn't just heavy mana; it feels like stepping into a frozen grave."
Ethan gritted his teeth, his jaw tight as he tempered his rage, but he held his ground beside Diego. "I don't care what it feels like. He's pinning Tae down without even touching him."
Jax shifted his heavy stance, stepping directly in front of Tae with his broadsword lowered to shield his friend's blind side. His face was hardened with pure protective instinct. "Tae's genuinely hurt—he can't move his left arm. I don't care how exhausted we are. If that silver-haired freak takes another step toward him, I'm dropping him."
"Karai!" Rashad called out, his voice echoing over the ruined ring as his dark energy flared, keeping a tight eye on the portal. "You sacrificed your own Prime Clone just to light that Beacon? What the hell have you guys been planning this whole time?"
Marcos let out a sharp, nervous laugh, shaking his head as he glanced back at Ayden, trying desperately to break the suffocating tension and pull Ayden out of his shock. "Man, look at us. Half of us are bleeding out, Kd's standing over there looking like the Grim Reaper, and now we've got a creepy kid playing with action figures. Ayden, get up, man. You're making the team look bad."
Ayden didn't laugh, but Marcos's push worked—Ayden slowly pushed himself off his knees, wiping dirt and blood from his cheek, stepping back into formation alongside Joseph, Diego, and a still-fuming Ethan as they all carefully analyzed every ring and vector around the platform.
Karai didn't answer Rashad. Instead, she stepped over to where the shattered shell of the Prime Clone lay. He wasn't completely turned to ash—his core explosion had left his broken, smoking body clinging to life by the barest thread, barely breathing. Karai reached down, grabbing the near-death Prime Clone by the collar and hoisting him up effortlessly.
Nox paid no attention to any of them. He tilted his head slightly, his pale eyes tracing the carved wooden face of the puppet.
"You still protect them," Nox said softly.
Tae froze. The breath caught entirely in his throat. His golden lotus eyes widened in genuine shock. How... how does he know that? That's the exact thought I had before we stepped through the rift...
"You always stand in front," Nox continued, his voice carrying an eerie, quiet rhythm, like a child reciting a nursery rhyme. "Even when your knees shake. Even when you think about running back to the room with the two bunk beds. The net sponge hanging in the bathroom. The little green watch on the nightstand."
The silence that fell over the Prodigies was absolute.
Tae couldn't speak. Cold sweat broke out across his forehead. The details weren't just personal—they were impossible for an enemy to know.
"Who the hell are you?" Tae choked out through gritted teeth.
Nox didn't answer. Joseph's interface flickered wildly as he tried to scan the puppet, but his sensors returned nothing—no energy, no curse signature, no physical matter composition. It's not copying his appearance or his mana, Joseph realized, his mind working in overdrive as he watched the interaction. It's bound to something far deeper. His memory. His soul's imprint.
Nox slowly pulled the iron pin from the puppet's shoulder.
Instantly, the suffocating pressure lifted. Tae gasped, air rushing back into his lungs as feeling surged back into his arm with a sharp sting. He leaned forward, catching himself with his right hand against the cold stone floor.
Nox slipped the wooden puppet back inside his oversized coat.
Karai, carrying the barely alive Prime Clone, backed into the dark portal alongside the two silent, hooded figures who had stepped down behind them. Nox turned, his oversized coat swaying as he walked toward the void.
"I'll see you again, Tae," Nox said quietly.
The spatial rift snapped shut, leaving only the dying embers of the obelisk and the bitter cold of the ring.
Tae remained on the stone, his breathing heavy and ragged.
Joseph stepped up beside him, offering a hand. Tae took it, slowly pulling himself up onto his feet, rubbing his numb shoulder.
"Tae..." Joseph muttered quietly, his eyes fixed on the empty space where Nox had stood.
"What?" Tae asked.
Joseph hesitatingly turned to him. "He didn't find us."
Beat.
"He found you."
Behind them, a low, painful cough broke the silence.
Kd collapsed onto his hands and knees. The dark, floating embers in his hair faded back into his normal dark locks, and his eyes returned to their natural color. But as the absolute authority of the Underworld retreated, the thick, pitch-black veins crawling up his neck did not vanish. They remained embedded beneath his skin like permanent, dark ink, pulsing faintly with a cold, dormant aura.
"Kd!" Ayden sprinted over, catching him before his chest hit the stone.
"I'm fine..." Kd rasped, pushing Ayden away with a weak grin, though his hands were trembling uncontrollably. "Told you... I run the grave..."
Beside them, the three translucent pillars began to flicker violently.
Cygnus looked down at his hands, which were already turning into soft grey ash. "Our time is up."
Rix grunted, sheathing his weapon with a heavy sigh. "Short fight. But it was good to swing a blade beside you idiots one last time."
Jay stepped forward toward the group, his face warm and calm.
Joseph couldn't hold it in anymore—he rushed forward, throwing his arms tightly around Jay's spirit form. He couldn't feel solid warmth, only a cool, mist-like pressure, but Joseph buried his face into Jay's shoulder, his frame shaking with quiet, restrained sobs.
"I missed you, man..." Joseph choked out, gripping Jay's translucent coat.
Kd stumbled over, supported by Ayden, and both of them threw their arms around Jay at the same time. Kd wrapped his arm tight around Jay's neck, pulling him into a hard, desperate hug, his head resting against Jay's chest.
"Don't go yet..." Ayden whispered, tears streaming down his face as he held onto Jay with everything he had. "Please, bro... stay a little longer."
Jay smiled, pulling Joseph, Kd, and Ayden close into a deep, tight embrace, holding all three of his brothers against him as his hands rested heavily on the backs of their heads. He looked over their shoulders at Tae, Marcos, Diego, Ethan, Jax, and Rashad, who stood watching with solemn, quiet respect.
"Look at how much you've all grown," Jay said softly, his voice echoing like an old, comforting memory. "You're fighting for each other. Don't let them break that. Keep standing tall, keep moving forward... and take care of Tae. Take care of each other."
Cygnus and Rix gave one final nod before turning to light, and with one last gentle squeeze around Joseph, Kd, and Ayden, Jay's form dissolved into soft, glowing particles, drifting up into the dark sky.
The ring fell completely quiet once more.
The Orphanage - Planning Room
Night had fallen over the city by the time the team made it back to the old orphanage base.
Downstairs, the quiet murmurs of the younger kids could be heard through the floorboards, along with the warm smell of simple dinner broth drifting up the hallway. The group deliberately kept their footsteps quiet and avoided the main common room, not wanting the little ones—who looked up to them as invincible protectors—to see them bruised, bandaged, and rattled.
In the upper planning room, the heavy oak table was lit by a single tactical lamp in the center.
Nobody sat at the head of the table. Tae sat near the middle, his left arm wrapped in a tight compression bandage, leaning back against his chair with his eyes fixed silently on the ceiling. Kd slumped in a chair across from him, his collar unbuttoned, revealing the dark, permanent veins still tracing up his neck.
Tae looked around the room at everyone—Joseph, Kd, Ayden, Ethan, Diego, Jax, Rashad, Marcos.
"I don't want to just sit here and give orders tonight," Tae said quietly, his voice dry and weary. "I want everyone's opinion. What just happened back there?"
Joseph leaned forward, opening his tablet to pull up the recorded battle telemetry. "The Beacon wasn't an explosive device. The Prime Clone didn't detonate his core to kill us; he used the resonance to jump-start the transmission before Karai retrieved what was left of him. But..." Joseph paused, adjusting his glasses, frustration clear in his voice. "I can't analyze Nox. His energy didn't register on any frequency. The puppet didn't use spatial mana, curse energy, or telekinesis. I don't understand how he affected Tae from that distance. It defies everything I know."
"We should've rushed him!" Ethan snapped from the corner, his arms crossed tight over his chest. "I don't care if his energy was weird. We stood there, let him walk in, pin Tae down, talk trash, grab the Clone, and walk out with Karai and those hooded freaks. We looked soft."
Diego shook his head immediately, turning to face Ethan. "Think about it for a second, Ethan. He walked in knowing we were exhausted. He saw Kd's transformation. He saw the spirit manifestations. If he wanted us dead right there, why didn't he finish us? He wasn't there to fight us. He wanted us to attack—he was testing something."
Jax leaned back against the wall, his broadsword resting against his knee. He ignored the tactical map on the table and looked straight at Tae. "Everybody keeps talking about the Beacon and the Clone. I'm more worried about why that kid knows Tae. That wasn't tactical intel. That was personal."
"And what about Karai?" Rashad added, leaning over the table with a frown. "Why did she need that specific signal? Where was it directed? It went straight into deep space—past our localized realm pockets. She didn't call reinforcements from this dimension. And who were those hooded people behind Nox?"
Marcos leaned back in his chair, letting out a heavy breath that carried none of his usual humor. "We're acting like we won because we're sitting back alive in this room. We didn't win. They got what they came for, retrieved their Clone, dropped a creepy kid on us, and walked away cleanly."
The room went completely silent. The heavy truth of Marcos's words hung in the air.
Tae slowly brought his gaze down from the ceiling, looking at his brothers around the table.
"I think Nox knows me," Tae said quietly.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"What do you mean?" Ayden asked softly.
Tae reached up with his right hand, pointing to his own left cheek. "The puppet. Did you see the face? It had the scar. The thin, pale scar I got on my cheek when we were training in the lower realms two years ago."
Joseph stopped typing. Ethan's grip on his own arms tightened.
"That scar healed completely months ago," Tae continued, his voice barely above a whisper. "None of the Genesis Extinction files have pictures of me from back then. Karai couldn't have known about it."
Joseph's hands began to move rapidly over his tablet again, pulling up the high-resolution frame capture of the wooden puppet from his memory log. He zoomed in, analyzing the fine carvings on the wooden frame.
Joseph froze.
"Joseph?" Diego asked, noticing the sudden change in his demeanor. "What is it?"
Joseph slowly turned the tablet around so the entire room could see the magnified image.
"The puppet isn't wearing Tae's current combat gear," Joseph said, his voice dropping into a flat, chilling quiet. "Look at the collar. Look at the stitch pattern on the sleeve."
Kd leaned forward, his black-veined neck straining as he squinted at the screen. "That's... that's the dark hoodie he wore back when we were still writing in the old notebook. Before we ever unlocked our cores. Before any of this started."
Silence blanketed the room once more. Outside, the cold wind rattled the old windowpanes of the orphanage.
Nox hadn't just studied Tae's recent battles. He had been watching him long before any of them ever stepped into the fight.
The door at the back of the room creaked open.
The Walker walked in, drying his hands with a towel after spending the last hour in the bathroom cleaning the blood off his arms and healing his burns. He had been silent the entire time down at the Core, and he hadn't said a word since they got back.
Tae turned toward him. "Walker?"
Walker stood near the edge of the table, his eyes remaining fixed on the glowing tactical display in the center.
"You're all looking at this like Nox is the problem," Walker said softly.
He slowly looked up, his expression dead serious.
"He's not."
The room went quiet.
"He's a symptom," Walker said, leaning his hands on the edge of the table. "Those two weren't Genesis soldiers."
Rashad frowned, leaning over the console. "Then what were they?"
Walker's expression hardened.
"High Envoys."
Joseph immediately looked up from his tablet. "You're sure?"
"I've seen them before," Walker replied, his voice dropping an octave.
The room went dead silent.
Walker stared blankly at the tactical display, watching the static signal remnants from the rift slowly decay.
"And if I'm right..." Walker's eyes shifted slowly toward Tae. "That Beacon wasn't calling them here."
"Then what was it doing?" Ethan asked, stepping out from the corner.
Walker paused, letting the silence hang over the table.
"Marking this realm."
No one moved. Outside, the cold wind rattled the old windowpanes of the orphanage, but inside, the air felt suffocatingly heavy.
Nox wasn't a random assassin. He was the anchor.