ASHEN VALE POV
The Progenitor spirit's mouth opens wider than physics should allow, and I watch helplessly as it lunges for Kai's face.
NO.
I don't think. I just move.
Seven years of consuming grief has given me one ability nobody else has: I can manifest my trauma as weapons. My mother's last scream becomes a sonic blade. My father's dying breath becomes explosive force. My brother's unfinished life becomes a spear that NEVER misses its target.
I've never used all three at once. The emotional cost is devastating—it feels like reliving their deaths simultaneously.
But Kai is about to die, and something in my frozen heart REFUSES to let that happen.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I scream, and all three weapons manifest at once.
The grief energy EXPLODES outward, shattering the fear chains binding everyone. The Progenitor spirit shrieks as my brother's spear pierces straight through its chest.
For one second, impossible hope flares—maybe I actually hurt it.
Then the spirit starts LAUGHING.
"Oh, this is delicious. The Phantom General finally cares about something." It pulls my spear out of its chest like removing a splinter. The wound closes instantly. "Seven years of perfect emptiness, and you break it for a boy you met this morning? How wonderfully pathetic."
Rage floods through me. This THING is mocking my family's memory.
"Ashen, don't!" Kai shouts. "It's baiting you—"
I'm already attacking. My mother's scream-blade cuts through the air. My father's explosion follows. Every weapon I have, thrown with everything I've got.
The spirit dodges them all like it's dancing.
"You're SS-rank," it purrs. "Impressive for a human. But I'm a PROGENITOR. We were old when your species learned to fear the dark." It gestures lazily, and black chains wrap around my throat. "Let me show you the difference between us."
The chains tighten, cutting off my air. I claw at them uselessly.
Through blurring vision, I see Kai standing there, shaking but not running. His hands are moving—typing on his phone with desperate speed.
What is he DOING? He should be escaping while I distract this thing!
"Interesting," the Progenitor says, noticing Kai too. "The reincarnated one isn't running. Is he stupid or suicidal?" It floats closer to Kai, dragging me along by the throat-chains. "Tell me, little game designer—in your previous life, did you ever create a game you couldn't beat?"
Kai looks up, meeting those empty black eyes. "Yeah. One."
"And what did you do?"
"I changed the rules." Kai's phone beeps. He smiles—sharp and dangerous and nothing like the exhausted boy from my first meeting. "See, the thing about game design is you learn that every system has exploits. You just need to find them."
He presses something on his phone.
Every VR pod in the marketplace ACTIVATES simultaneously—even the broken ones.
Eternal Midnight loads across all of them, but the program is different now. Modified. Instead of creating individual horror experiences, all the pods are networked together, generating a MASSIVE concentrated fear field.
The Progenitor's smile vanishes. "What did you—"
The fear energy doesn't flow outward like before.
It flows INWARD.
Straight into the spirit.
"You said my game creates pure fear, right?" Kai's voice is steady despite his hands shaking. "That it's more refined than anything you've tasted in centuries? Well, here's the problem with eating refined fear—" He grins viciously. "It's also more CONCENTRATED. And you just got force-fed about a thousand hours' worth in three seconds."
The Progenitor SCREAMS.
Black smoke pours from its mouth, eyes, everywhere. It's choking on fear energy—the same energy it came here to consume. Too much, too fast, too pure.
The chains around my throat dissolve. I collapse, gasping.
"Impossible!" the spirit shrieks. "I am ETERNAL! I am—"
"Dying from overeating," Kai interrupts. "Yeah, that's embarrassing for you."
The Progenitor's beautiful form starts cracking like broken glass. But even dying, it's laughing.
"Clever boy. You found my weakness." Its voice fragments, multiplying into dozens of tones. "But killing me won't save you. Director Feng already knows what you can do. The Association will hunt you. Other Progenitors will come. You've made yourself the most valuable prey in this city."
The spirit's body EXPLODES into black mist.
For three seconds, there's perfect silence.
Then every warrior in the marketplace starts cheering. They're free. The spirit outbreak is over. We WON.
But I can't celebrate because I see Kai's face.
He's not smiling anymore. He looks terrified.
"Ashen," he says quietly. "That spirit called me 'reincarnated one.' It knew I don't belong here. If a spirit could figure it out..." He meets my eyes, and I see genuine fear there. "How long before humans do?"
My stomach drops. He's right. If the Progenitor recognized Kai as something unnatural, others will too. And in this world, being different makes you either a weapon to be used or a threat to be eliminated.
Director Feng will do both.
"We need to hide you," I say immediately. "Get you somewhere safe until—"
"There is nowhere safe." Raze appears beside us, his cybernetic eyes flickering with data streams. "While you were fighting, I was monitoring communications. Director Feng just issued a city-wide alert."
He shows us his phone. My blood goes cold.
SPIRIT WARRIOR ASSOCIATION BULLETINPRIORITY: MAXIMUMTARGET: KAI CHEN, E-RANK WARRIORCHARGES: ILLEGAL FEAR HARVESTING, SPIRIT COLLABORATION, SUSPECTED HUMAN EXPERIMENTATIONORDER: CAPTURE ALIVE FOR INTERROGATION. LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED IF NECESSARY.
"That's all lies!" I snap. "Kai saved everyone—"
"Doesn't matter." Raze's voice is grim. "Feng controls the narrative. He's already got warriors mobilizing. We have maybe ten minutes before this marketplace is surrounded."
Kai looks at me. "You should go. You're SS-rank, you have a career, a reputation. If you're caught helping me—"
"I'm not leaving." The words come out before I can think. "You saved these people. You saved ME. I'm not letting Feng turn you into a lab experiment."
"Ashen—"
"I SAID I'm not leaving." I grab his arm. "You asked me earlier if I believe in second chances. I said no. But maybe..." I swallow hard. "Maybe I was wrong. You got a second chance at life. Maybe I get a second chance to protect someone instead of just killing things."
For the first time since my family died, I'm choosing to care about someone's survival.
It's terrifying.
Kai stares at me like I've grown a second head. Then he smiles—real and warm and grateful. "Okay. So what's the plan?"
"We run," Raze says. "I know people in the outer districts. We can hide there while we figure out—"
A slow clap echoes through the marketplace.
We all spin around.
Director Feng is standing at the entrance, flanked by twenty armed warriors. His smile is poisonous.
"How touching. The Phantom General choosing a criminal over her duty." He gestures, and his warriors spread out, surrounding us completely. "Ashen, last chance. Step away from the boy and I'll overlook your temporary insanity."
I move in front of Kai instead. "He's not a criminal. You're framing him because he threatens your control."
"Think carefully before you throw away everything you've built." Feng's voice turns cold. "Your rank. Your reputation. Your place as humanity's protector. All gone for a boy you met this morning?"
My heart pounds. He's right—I'm destroying my entire life for someone I barely know.
But when I look at Kai, I remember how his game made me feel things again. How he chose to save me even knowing I might kill him. How he just defeated a Progenitor spirit using nothing but intelligence and courage.
"Yes," I hear myself say. "All of it. For him."
Feng's expression hardens. "Then you're both under arrest. Restrain them."
The twenty warriors move in.
I manifest my weapons, ready to fight.
Then Kai does something insane.
He grabs my hand and pulls me toward the nearest VR pod—the only one still functioning. "Do you trust me?"
"What? Kai, there's no time—"
"DO YOU TRUST ME?"
I look into his desperate, determined eyes.
"Yes," I whisper.
"Good. Because this is going to be really weird."
He shoves both of us into the pod and activates a program I've never seen before. The VR system engages instantly.
Reality BREAKS.
The marketplace dissolves into impossible geometry. Feng's warriors freeze mid-step. Everything goes silent except for Kai's voice in my ear:
"Welcome to the debug mode. Where I can rewrite local reality for exactly ninety seconds."
My brain can't process what I'm seeing. "How is this possible?"
"Because I designed the system." His grin is wild. "And game designers ALWAYS build themselves cheat codes."
Through the impossible space, I see Feng's face twisted with rage, trapped in frozen time.
"Ninety seconds," Kai repeats. "Then we're back in real time with twenty warriors trying to kill us. Any ideas?"
Before I can answer, the pod's emergency alert screams.
A new message flashes across every screen in the marketplace:
PROGENITOR KING MANIFESTO:"THE GAME DESIGNER DIES IN 24 HOURS.OR NEO-REQUIEM BURNS.SIGNED: THE GRIEF KING"
Kai goes pale. "That's... not good."