[ Ironhaven Megacity, Undercity Sublevel 10 – Abandoned maintenance tunnels ]
One week after the Grinder fight
Ebon slipped through the darkness, moving as if the shadows were an old friend and he was just another piece of the gloom.
These tunnels were ancient, so far off the usual paths that even the most desperate scavengers had given up on them. The concrete, poured before the Shattering, was cracked and leaking something that might have once been water. Pipes hung overhead, bone-dry for years. The atmosphere was dense with dust. Somewhere beneath it all, a faint electric hum buzzed. Leftover Fracture Energy seeped from cracks you couldn't see, but could almost taste if you breathed deeply.
He'd claimed this stretch as his own. No one came this deep unless they were running from something worse.
Perfect.
He stopped at a wide junction, where the ceiling had given up and collapsed, leaving a hollowed-out space that felt more like a cave than a tunnel. One emergency bulb, probably running on a battery older than he was, glimmered above and threw long, twitching shadows sweeping across the floor.
Ebon rolled his shoulders, let out a slow breath, and got to work.
First, the fists.
He clenched both hands.
Pain flared up—sharp, familiar, almost welcome by now. At least it meant things were working.
Obsidian plates rippled over his knuckles, and diamond spikes pushed through the skin—longer than last time, steadier too. Five on each hand, like he'd actually practiced this.
He held them for ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.
Sweat gathered on his forehead. Blood oozed from where the spikes broke through, but not as much as last week. Progress, if you squinted.
Good.
He let the spikes slide back in. The wounds closed up, black veins crawling over the skin until there was nothing left but a faint ache.
Next, forearms.
He focused harder, picturing the plates spreading upward like armor.
Pain spiked — white-hot.
Black glass crept along his forearms in uneven patches, jagged and unfinished. One chunk cracked and dropped, hitting the ground like a piece of broken volcanic rock.
He gritted his teeth and forced it, a low growl rumbling in his throat.
The plates finally settled, covering his arms from wrist to elbow in glossy black, shot through with diamond veins that caught the flickering light.
He held it for forty seconds before the strain got to him and the plates slid away.
Better. But not enough.
He punched the nearest concrete pillar.
The impact echoed. Dust rained down. The pillar cracked, a spiderweb of fractures spreading from the point of impact. Ebon stared at his fist, chest heaving, half-expecting to see it fall apart.
The power was there.
But every time he reached for it, he felt something else too — a cold hunger deep in his chest, like something was watching, waiting for him to slip.
He didn't know if he was mastering it… or if it was mastering him.
Footsteps resounded behind him — light, careful.
Ebon spun, spikes flashing out instinctively.
Mira Lee stood ten feet away, hands raised, eyes wide but not scared.
"Just me."
He let the spikes retract, pain flaring again.
"How'd you find me?"
"You're not as sneaky as you think. And you've been disappearing every night." She stepped closer, looking at the cracked pillar, then at his blood-streaked hands.
"You're pushing too hard."
"I have to."
"No. You want to." Her voice was quieter than usual. "There's a difference."
Ebon turned away, smearing blood across his pants without much thought. They were already ruined.
"Lena's better now. The medicine worked. Jax won't stop drawing you with spikes. Tomas counted the creds three times — says we could move up two whole levels if we're careful."
He nodded, keeping his mouth shut. Words felt pointless right now.
Mira moved in front of him, forcing him to meet her eyes.
"You think if you get strong enough, nothing can touch us. But look at you." She gestured at his arms, the fresh cuts already sealing under black veins. "You're tearing yourself apart."
"I'm fine."
"You're not." She hesitated, then added softly, "You're scaring them. Jax asked if the spikes hurt you every time. And Lena won't sleep unless the light's on. They think you're turning into something else."
Ebon clenched his jaw, refusing to let anything show.
"I am something else."
Mira didn't flinch. "Yeah. But you're still Thorne. Still the idiot who shared his last meal with a pickpocket."
Stillness hung between them.
Finally, Ebon spoke, voice low.
"The guilds won't stop, Mira. Apex already came once. They'll come again. And next time, they won't ask nicely."
Mira's expression hardened. "Then we fight. Together."
"NO." The word came out sharper than he intended. "I fight. You stay safe, them. That's how it works."
She stared at him for a long moment.
"You're planning to leave us, aren't you?"
He didn't answer.
Mira's voice cracked, just a little. "Don't you disappear, kid. Not after everything."
Ebon looked away, staring at the tunnel wall as if it might offer an answer.
"I'll do what I have to."
She stepped closer, voice fierce again.
"Then do it smart. Not alone."
For the first time since the awakening, the black veins pulsed slower.
He nodded — once.
Mira exhaled, tension easing slightly.
"Good. Now come back before Jax eats all the protein bars."
She turned and started walking back toward the bolt-hole.
Ebon watched her walk away, feeling the weight settle back on his shoulders.
Then he looked at his hands.
The hunger hadn't gone anywhere. It just waited, patient as ever.
But for now, he followed her.
They were halfway back when the ground trembled.
A low rumble rolled through the tunnels. Not the usual mag-lev trains rattling overhead, but something deeper, like the world itself was splitting open.
Dust drifted down from the ceiling, catching in the flickering light.
Mira froze. "What was that?"
Ebon's veins pulsed hot. He felt it — Fracture Energy spiking, thick and chaotic.
"Rift breach. Close."
Shouts echoed from ahead, near the bolt-hole level. Panic. Screams.
"Riftborn!"