The world didn't return in colors; it returned in shades of cold iron, stinging ozone, and a silence so heavy it felt like physical pressure.
Reed Blackwell's eyes snapped open. He wasn't in the dust of the Apex Arena anymore. He wasn't surrounded by the terrified gasps of thousands of students. Instead, he was suspended three feet off the ground in a room that seemed to swallow light. His wrists and ankles were bound by shimmering, translucent blue "Aether-Cuffs."
These weren't ordinary shackles used for common criminals. These were high-tier containment units, designed to vibrate at a frequency that drained a prisoner's Core energy directly into the reinforced walls. For a normal student, the cuffs would cause a mild, dull ache. For Reed, whose "Core" was a hungry whirlpool of nothingness, the sensation was agonizing. It felt like a thousand tiny needles were trying to pull his very soul out through his skin.
He was in the Black Cell, a legendary interrogation chamber hidden deep within the mountain's roots. It was a place where the Zenith Institute sent those who didn't just break the rules, but those who threatened the very fabric of their reality.
[SYSTEM STATUS: CRITICAL WEAKNESS]
[VOID ESSENCE: 2/100 (REGENERATING SLOWLY)]
[CORRUPTION: 12% - STABLE]
Reed tried to flex his fingers, but a sharp, jagged jolt of white electricity shot through his arms, snapping his head back against the cold stone wall.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, boy," a voice echoed from the shadows. It was a dry, rasping sound, like dead leaves skittering across a grave.
A man stepped into the faint, flickering circle of light produced by a single glow-stone. He was ancient, his face a map of deep, jagged scars that suggested a lifetime of magical warfare. He wore the long, flowing robes of a High Inquisitor, embroidered with the symbol of the Silent Sun. Behind him stood Instructor Vane. Usually, she was a pillar of cold authority, but now, her face was pale, and her hands were visibly trembling as she stared at Reed.
"Reed Blackwell," the Inquisitor said, his eyes narrowing. "You caused a fifty-foot ripple in the fabric of this Institute. You deleted a Tier 1 elemental construct as if it were a mere candle flame. And yet... the Pillar says you are a Zero. A Null. A mistake."
"The Pillar said... Error," Reed croaked. His throat felt like it had been scrubbed with glass, and his voice was a mere shadow of itself.
"An Error we intend to fix," the Inquisitor hissed, leaning in close. His eyes suddenly began to glow with a terrifyingly bright, blindingly white light—the light of Truth. "Tell me about the voice, Reed. Tell me about the shadow that crawled out of the ground to protect you. That wasn't a Core ability. That wasn't an elemental affinity. That was... something else. Something that hasn't been seen in three thousand years of recorded history."
Reed clamped his jaw shut, his teeth grinding together. The "Evil" in the back of his mind stirred, a low, predatory growl that made the shadows in the corners of the room lean toward the light. Tell him... the voice whispered. Tell him the truth as you erase his mind from his skull.
Reed pushed the voice back, sweating despite the chill of the cell. He knew if he spoke, if he gave in to the anger, he might lose his grip on reality again.
Outside the heavy, ten-inch-thick obsidian blast doors of the Black Wing, two Tier 2 Sentinels stood like statues. Their heavy plate armor hummed with electrical current, and their spears were leveled at the only entrance. They were the elite of the elite, trained to detect the heartbeat of a mouse from fifty yards away.
But they didn't hear the shadow that detached itself from the ceiling.
Nyx dropped silently between them, her boots making less noise than a falling feather. Before the guards could even process the blur of motion, she moved. She was a master of the Shadow Faction's "Ghost-Step." Her hands, wrapped in reinforced dark silk, struck the precise pressure points on their necks where their armor met the helm.
The guard on the left collapsed instantly, his spear clattering to the floor. The second guard managed to gasp, his hand reaching for the alarm crystal on his belt, but Nyx was faster. She jammed a small, jagged violet crystal into the gap of his neck-guard.
"Sleep, big guy," she whispered, her voice a playful contrast to the lethal efficiency of her movements.
A puff of concentrated violet smoke erupted from the crystal, and the guard's eyes rolled back. He slumped against the wall, unconscious before he hit the ground. Nyx didn't waste a second looking at them. She turned to the massive obsidian lock. She didn't use a key or a bypass tool. Instead, she placed her bare palm against the cold stone and closed her eyes, her brow furrowing in concentration.
A series of dark, intricate runes began to crawl from her fingertips, glowing with a faint, forbidden purple light. They seeped into the lock, mimicking the unique "Aura Signature" of a High Inquisitor.
Click.
The heavy mechanisms groaned and began to slide open. But Nyx didn't enter yet. She knew the room inside was bugged with sensory alarms. Instead, she slipped a small, blackened metallic disk under the door. With a flick of her finger, she whispered a single syllable of command. The disk disintegrated into a fine, odorless mist that began to seep through the ventilation shafts like a hungry ghost.
Back inside the cell, the Inquisitor was losing his patience. He raised a glowing hand, pressing his thumb firmly against Reed's forehead. Reed felt a searing, white-hot heat as the man tried to force his way into Reed's subconscious. It felt like a hot iron was being pressed into his brain.
"Let... go..." Reed hissed, his body arching against the restraints.
[WARNING: EXTERNAL MIND-PROBE DETECTED]
[VOID PROTOCOL: DEFENSIVE SUBTRACTION?]
No, Reed fought the system's prompt. If I use it here, in this small room, I'll kill them all. I'll be the monster they want me to be.
Kill him anyway... the Ancient Voice whispered, surging against the walls of Reed's mind like a black tide. He is a flea. A gnat. He dares to touch the Void? Let me out, and I will show him the true meaning of Light. I will turn his sun into a tomb.
Reed's skin began to smoke. The blue Aether-Cuffs began to flicker and hiss. The blue light was being drained, but not into the walls—it was being sucked into Reed's wrists. The cuffs began to turn a bruised, oily black as the Void energy started to eat the very energy that was supposed to be containing him.
"Instructor, get back!" the Inquisitor yelled, pulling his hand away as if he'd been burned. "His capacity is not zero! It's—it's negative! He's consuming the field!"
Suddenly, the Inquisitor stumbled. He clutched his throat, his eyes darting toward the vents where Nyx's mist was swirling. The white light in his eyes flickered, turned grey, and died. He fell to one knee, gasping for air that felt like lead in his lungs.
The door to the interrogation room slammed open, hitting the stone wall with a thunderous crack. A messenger, looking terrified and out of breath, stumbled in holding a scroll with a gold-and-black wax seal—the mark of the High Council.
Behind him, leaning casually against the doorframe, Nyx appeared. She was adjusting her collar, looking as if she had just come from a casual stroll in the gardens. She caught Reed's eye and gave a subtle, two-finger salute—a silent signal that she had orchestrated this "official" intervention.
"Stop! By order of the High Council!" the messenger cried, his voice cracking. "Reed Blackwell is to be released into the custody of the Shadow Faction immediately!"
The Inquisitor looked up, his face twisted in a mask of fury and confusion. "The Shadows? Why would they want a Tier 4 glitch? He's a danger to the city!"
"They don't want a student," the messenger swallowed hard, looking at the floor where the Void energy from Reed's cuffs had left perfectly circular, eroded holes in the stone. "The Council has classified him as a 'Living Relic.' He is no longer under the jurisdiction of the Inquisitors."
Reed felt the cuffs snap open as the power was cut. He fell to the floor, his body feeling like a lead weight. He was cold, he was exhausted, and he could still hear the Ancient Voice laughing in the back of his mind.
Nyx stepped forward, pushing past the messenger and the groggy Inquisitor. She reached down and pulled Reed up, slinging his arm over her shoulder. Her touch was cold, but it felt remarkably solid and real compared to the shifting darkness inside him.
"Come on, Error," she said, her voice a comforting hum in the middle of the chaos. "The Inquisitors are boring. They only want to ask questions they already know the answers to. The Shadows have much better libraries... and much darker secrets."
Reed looked at her, his vision blurring. He saw the unconscious guards in the hall, the black mist still clinging to the ceiling, and the sheer audacity of her plan. "Why?" he whispered. "Why help me?"
Nyx leaned in close to his ear as they walked out of the Black Wing, her voice dropping to a whisper that only he could hear. "Because the world thinks you're a mistake, Reed. A glitch in the system. But I remember the stories my grandmother told me. I know what you really are. And I know you're the only thing that can stop what's coming for all of us."
As they disappeared into the winding, dark corridors of the Shadow Faction's territory, Reed realized his life as a scavenger was truly over. He wasn't just a Null anymore. He was a secret that the world was about to find out.