When I woke, the world was quiet again.
A faint blue haze drifted across the ruins, and the fire we'd built last night was nothing but a pile of cooling embers. My neck ached, my hands were still on my rifle, and the taste of ash lingered in my mouth.
I must've fallen asleep while keeping watch.
I sat up, brushing off the dust. "Great job, Ryze," I muttered to myself. "Real good sentry work."
"Morning, Starborn," a familiar voice called out.
I looked up — and there he was.
Blaze stood a few meters away, his armor glinting faintly in the light, arms crossed like he'd been up for hours. He looked… fine. Too fine.
"Hey—shouldn't you be lying down?" I said, blinking in disbelief. "You're not exactly healed yet."
"Not healed yet?" He smirked and reached for the sword hanging at his hip. "Guess I'll have to prove you wrong."
"Wait, Blaze, don't—!"
Too late.
He drew his blade in one clean motion. The air itself seemed to crack as he swung.
WHOOSH!
A shockwave tore through the camp, scattering ash and sending a gust of wind straight into my face. I had to shield my eyes, boots digging into the dirt. When the air settled, Blaze was standing there—smiling like a madman, sword resting casually on his shoulder.
"See?" he said, grinning. "Good as new."
I blinked, staring at him. "You… you really are impossible."
He gave a soft chuckle and sheathed the blade, the faint hum of energy fading away. "You worry too much, Ryze."
"Yeah, and you worry too little," I shot back. "Seriously, you nearly died. You should still be on your back, not waving that sword around like nothing happened."
He shrugged, looking off toward the horizon. "If I can still swing it, I'm not done yet."
That was Blaze for you. The same stubborn smile, the same impossible strength. But still… something felt off. The glow in his eyes wasn't the same as before — dimmer somehow, like there was a flicker behind it that didn't belong.
I told myself I was just imagining things. He was alive. That was what mattered.
"Where's SK?" I asked, stretching my shoulders.
"She went scavenging early," Blaze replied, kicking a piece of rubble aside. "Said she wanted to find anything that still works before the next storms hits."
I stood and slung my rifle over my shoulder. "Then let's help her. The sooner we pack up, the sooner we can move."
"Agreed," Blaze said, adjusting his armor. "This place is dead weight now. The Void's changing again."
That sent a chill down my spine. The Void was always unstable — shifting terrain, corrupted zones, ghost data floating like dust. But after what happened last night, it felt worse. The static hum in the air was louder now, crawling under the skin like tiny needles.
We started picking through what was left of the house.
Most of it was rubble — shattered walls, melted metal, scorched glass. The blast from Blaze's fight had vaporized nearly everything. Still, a few things survived: half a ration pack, a cracked battery cell, and a functioning data core buried under the debris.
"Hey, this one's still got power," I said, wiping off the dirt. "Might help us find a way out."
Blaze knelt beside me, his shadow falling over the flickering screen. "Try accessing the grid logs," he said. "See if there's a jump signature nearby. Anything that leads to the upper sectors."
I nodded and tapped the screen. The holographic interface sputtered to life — glitching, distorted, but still readable. Streams of corrupted coordinates scrolled past, most of them useless. But one fragment caught my eye.
A pulse signal. Active. Not far from here.
"Got something," I said. "Energy reading—faint, but stable. Could be a relay beacon."
Blaze leaned closer. "Or a trap."
"Or a way out," I countered.
He smirked. "That's my line."
Before I could answer, SK's voice called from the other side of the wreck. "Hey! I found something!"
We hurried over. She stood near what used to be our storage room, holding a metallic cylinder. It was cracked, but the label was still visible.
A medical stabilizer. A good one.
"I thought this was destroyed," I said, surprised.
"It almost was," SK replied, brushing off dust. "But it's still got enough for one full use. Could help Blaze—"
"Don't," Blaze interrupted firmly.
We both looked at him. His tone had shifted—low, heavy.
"I said don't," he repeated. "Use it on one of you if things get bad. I'll manage."
SK frowned. "Sir, with all due respect, you can barely stand yesterday. Don't tell me—"
"I'm fine."
The way he said it was final, but his hand trembled slightly as he reached for his side. A flicker of blue static pulsed under his armor—just for a moment—then vanished.
I saw it. He knew I did.
I wanted to say something, but SK broke the silence first. "We're not leaving you behind, Sir. So don't even try to pull that 'I'll manage' crap."
Blaze gave a tired laugh. "Didn't plan to."
"Good," I muttered. "Because next time you disappear, I'm tying a tracker to your armor."
He grinned. "You'd have to catch me first."
The mood lightened a bit after that. We scavenged for another hour, packing what little we found. Rations, ammo, tools—barely enough to survive the next few days, but it was something.
Once we had everything, we regrouped near the campfire pit. The embers had cooled, leaving faint trails of smoke curling into the blue haze above.
"So," SK said, resting her scythe against her shoulder, "where to now?"
Blaze looked toward the horizon. The endless stretch of fractured terrain shimmered faintly with distortion, like a mirage of broken data.
"There's a signal to the east," I said, showing them the holo-map. "Could be a relay—maybe even a portal fragment."
He studied it silently for a moment, then nodded. "Then that's our way out."
"And the Shard?" SK asked quietly. "It's still out there. We saw it walking away."
Blaze's eyes darkened for a moment. "Then it's just a matter of time before it finds us again."
None of us said anything after that.
We packed up the rest of the supplies and doused what was left of the fire. The Void wind howled softly across the ruins as we prepared to move.
As I adjusted my gear, I glanced at Blaze again. He was facing the horizon, his hand resting on his sword. The same calm expression as always… but I noticed it again. That faint flicker under the armor. The blue light. The glitch.
He caught me staring and smirked. "What? You see something interesting?"
I forced a small smile. "Just wondering how you're still standing."
"Simple," he said. "You keep moving forward, or the Void eats you alive."
And with that, he started walking, the faint hum of his armor echoing through the silence.
I sighed, following after him.
Whatever he was hiding, it could wait. For now, we just had to survive.