I’ve been shot.

  A sharp, searing pain tore through my arm. My body jolted, instinct kicking in—I clamped a hand over the wound. Warm. Sticky. Too much. My breath hitched, chest tightening.

  The world blurred. A sharp ringing drowned out everything else. My ears buzzed. Gunfire crackled in the distance—muffled, distant, like I was sinking underwater. Focus. Stay awake.

  Zara crouched beside me, yanking a strip of fabric from her shirt. “Bite.”

  I did.

  Desire moved fast. His fingers split apart, shifting into something sharp. Tongs.

  “This will hurt.”

  No time to breathe. No time to brace.

  White-hot agony.

  I clenched my teeth around the fabric, a muffled scream dying in my throat. My body seized, every muscle locking as the tongs dug into my arm, metal scraping against bone. My vision pulsed, red-hot. The bullet—small, sleek—clinked onto the pavement. I barely heard it over the pounding in my skull.

  Desire’s arm shifted. A MedTech gun. A hiss. A sting. Numbness spread through my arm, dulling the pain but leaving behind a deep, electric ache.

  I gasped for air through clenched teeth. My fingers trembled. Blood. My blood. It coated my hand, thick and dark. It should’ve felt wrong.

  But all I felt was cold.

  The ringing in my ears faded—replaced by something worse.

  Gunfire. Louder. Closer. Metal shrieked. Sparks spat across the ground.

  Zara’s flames roared to life, swallowing bullets before they could touch us. A living shield. Heat pressed against my skin, searing, suffocating.

  “Kid, stay down!”

  I barely registered her voice. My vision swam. My mind screamed at me to move, but my limbs felt like lead.

  A car screeched to a halt. Black. Tinted windows. Shadows shifting inside.

  They weren’t done.

  They were hunting us.

  The doors flung open. Figures spilled out—shadows moving fast, weapons already raised. No hesitation. No pause. Relentless. Precise.

  I gritted my teeth, voice straining over the gunfire. “Who the hell are they?! Are they Qi?”

  Zara’s eyes locked onto them, scanning their movements. Grit. Fire. Battle-ready. "Doubt it."

  Another barrage of bullets. Too close. Too many.

  "We need cover!" Zara yanked me down an alley, nearly dragging me off my feet. Footsteps pounded after us.

  Then— gunfire.

  Not theirs.

  Behind them.

  One of them jerked forward, blood misting the air. Another collapsed.

  The gunfire didn’t stop. Controlled. Precise. Ruthless.

  The store.

  Droge.

  His rifle peeked out from the reinforced shop window, muzzle flashing. A steady rhythm—three shots, pause, three shots, pause.

  The attackers spun, caught off guard.

  "FUCKIN’ MOVE, YOU IDIOTS!" one of them barked—

  BANG.

  His skull snapped back, blood spraying across the pavement.

  Zara lunged.

  Flames burst from her hands. They engulfed two men instantly. Screams ripped through the air. Their bodies collapsed in smoldering heaps.

  A third aimed—

  BANG.

  His body jerked back as another precise shot from Droge ripped through his chest.

  "YOU OWE ME FOR THIS SHIT, ZARA!"

  Droge’s voice rang out over the chaos, his rifle unloading another burst.

  Zara laughed, wild and reckless. "PUT IT ON MY FUCKIN’ TAB!"

  Then—she leapt.

  Into the sky.

  Vanished into the neon glow of the city.

  I turned, breath ragged.

  Footsteps.

  Closing in.

  I clenched my fists.

  A hum.

  A flicker of heat.

  My right hand split open.

  A blade shot out.

  Glowing. Burning.

  However, my focus shattered as a window abruptly flickered into my vision. My body jolted.

  “Mari! Mari! Hey, it’s okay!” Desire’s voice cut through my panic. “That’s just your eye—looks like my system’s compatible with it.”

  A window flickered into view. Stats. Temperature. Form.

  I locked onto Form.

  Three options.

  Non-Lethal.

  Lethal.

  Erase.

  I hesitated. My finger twitched.

  I selected Erase.

  With a low, resonant hum, the blade came to life. Metal shifted—clicking, twisting, reshaping. The heated edge stretched, curving into something far more sinister. A scythe. Sleek. Razor-sharp. A weapon made for something far beyond cutting.

  The air around it shuddered. Warped. Like reality itself was rejecting it. The edges of the blade blurred, twisting the space around it, an unnatural ripple spreading outward—erasing, distorting, unmaking.

  It wasn’t just a weapon.

  It was a wound in existence itself.

  “Uhm… Desire… is this safe?” I asked, watching the air ripple around the scythe like reality itself was second-guessing its existence.

  “Mari. It’s a blade. It cuts. It’s dangerous if you use it wrong.”

  “No, no, I mean this. The little thing it’s doing around it.” I gestured vaguely at the way space seemed to shiver around the blade.

  “Oh! Well then, it is! As long as you don’t touch it directly." Desire’s voice buzzed with excitement. "This blade is a marvel of nanotechnology! A true masterpiece of science! Its structure is composed of carbon nanotubes and graphene-based frameworks, allowing it to sever molecular bonds at an unparalleled precision! And the nanomachines—oh, the nanomachines!—they manipulate quantum states, momentarily altering matter at a fundamental level, inducing a quasi-undefined sta—”

  “Desire! Nano-what?! Can you say that in English?”

  “Oh?” He paused. “Perhaps my auto-translation program is malfunctioning. This blade is made out of very advanced nan—”

  “NO! I mean explain it in a way that doesn’t make my brain melt!”

  A beat of silence. Then, with the confidence of a scientist dumbing down quantum physics for a toddler, Desire cheerfully said:

  “Blade. Swing. Cut. Poof. Erase.”

  I blinked. “...Sure. I guess.”

  There was definitely some offense hidden in my tone.

  Suddenly, amidst the barrage of windows in my vision, I noticed something—

  we were surrounded.

  Figures in gas masks. Rifles trained on us. Shadows closing in.

  “You really think we’d wait for you to finish your little science lesson before surrounding you?” one of them barked. “Put the weapon away if you want to live.”

  My jaw clenched.

  The air around my right arm flickered. My fingers twitched, the internal servos whirring, ready. I could feel it—a low hum vibrating in my bones. But there were too many of them. Too many guns. Zara could probably take them—but could I?

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  I raised my hands, forcing my blade to retract back into my arm. The distorted air around it vanished in an instant, like it had never existed.

  My captors wasted no time.

  “Cuff the kid.”

  Metal clamped around my wrists with a sharp click. Too tight. No escape.

  A hand grabbed my shoulder, shoving me forward. “Let’s go.”

  “Why? Why are you doing this? I didn’t do anything wrong!” The words spilled out, desperate.

  The man in charge turned slightly, voice disturbingly calm. “No. But you will.”

  The blood in my veins ran cold.

  “Sorry, kid.” His grip tightened. “But it’s something we just can’t let happen.”

  And then—

  A streak of light.

  A man screamed. His body was yanked into the air, hoisted like a ragdoll—

  Then slammed.

  Bones crunched. Another man was crushed beneath the weight.

  Zara.

  Hovering above us, flames licking at her hands. “Oh, sorry. Were you guys in the middle of something?”

  The cuffs around my wrists melted, pooling onto the pavement like wax. Freedom.

  The soldiers aimed their guns.

  They fired.

  Zara didn’t even flinch.

  Bullets melted before they could touch us, swallowed by her flames.

  “You guys are adorable.” Her smirk was wild, manic. “Trying so hard.”

  I raised my arm, the raw power thrumming beneath the surface.

  Time to end this.

  The gunfire stopped.

  Desire latched onto my neck.

  A window flickered into my vision.

  INJECTING SERUM.

  A sharp pinch—then a rush. A flood of heat. A sensation of invincibility.

  I lunged.

  The man who ordered them to cuff me—he was mine.

  My arm snapped forward. My scythe, once dormant, came alive, unfolding from my wrist like a predator unsheathing its claws. I swung.

  He dodged.

  The blade hissed through empty space, but—

  Behind him—

  A thin hole. Not a wound. Not a break. Just… gone.

  The wall stood untouched, yet a perfect gap had been carved into reality itself.

  The man stumbled back. Realization dawning in his eyes.

  I moved. Instinct fueled me. No thought. No hesitation. Just the hunt.

  My scythe arced again. Faster. Sharper.

  He barely dodged. Again. Again.

  I grinned, baring my teeth. This was fun.

  A feral rush surged through me. Every dodge. Every desperate movement. He knew he was prey. And I was the hunter.

  I swung—

  PAIN.

  A white-hot sting burned through my arm. The world lurched.

  I staggered, blinking through the haze.

  Desire’s voice crackled in my head. “Mari! It seems my anesthetic wore off! Would you like another dose?”

  My breathing was ragged. My pulse wild. But my grin never faded.

  I exhaled sharply. “You even have to ask?”

  Desire’s fingers shifted, morphing into the MedTech gun. A hiss. A pinch. Another flood of energy.

  The pain vanished.

  The hunt resumed.

  The man regrouped with the others, guns raised. A synchronized wall of firepower.

  They pulled the triggers.

  I reacted.

  My vision snapped to the Size option.

  Scythe Width: Expand.

  A flick of thought—and my weapon obeyed. The blade widened, stretching into a shield, its warped edges swallowing the air around it.

  Bullets vanished on contact. No sparks. No ricochets. Just gone.

  The gunfire slowed.

  Click. Click.

  Reloading.

  Now.

  I charged.

  In a single motion, I reset the width, extended the length. My weapon shifted, adapting to the kill.

  A leap—high, fast, merciless.

  My arm snapped down. A perfect angle. A perfect cut.

  The first man didn’t even scream.

  The scythe sliced clean through him, parting flesh like it was never there.

  Next.

  I locked onto another. He barely turned before I was on him.

  I swung—straight down.

  The blade pierced his skull, cutting through like paper. No resistance.

  Momentum carried me forward. One after another.

  Until—

  One left.

  He stood frozen. Cowering. Trembling.

  I raised my arm. No hesitation.

  One more. One more and it would be over.

  Then—

  “That’s enough, kid.”

  Zara’s voice cut through the frenzy. Sharp. Commanding.

  I froze.

  The scythe hovered inches from his throat.

  What… had I just done?

  I looked down. Blood.

  My clothes. My hands. My face. Soaked.

  My breathing turned ragged, chest heaving as the realization crashed down.

  Zara stepped forward, her fiery aura dimming. “We need this guy, or we won’t know squat.”

  My grip loosened. My weapon retracted.

  The man collapsed onto his knees, gasping for air.

  The alley was silent.

  Except for the pounding of my heart.

  From inside the store, Droge let out a whoop.

  “WOOOO! Haven’t had this much action since I retired!”

  The shop door swung open.

  Droge strolled out, rifle still slung over his shoulder, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face.

  "Pew! Pew! Pow!"

  He posed, pointing his rifle in the air like some washed-up action hero, throwing in exaggerated gun noises as he strutted over.

  Zara groaned. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

  Droge ignored her, spinning an invisible revolver on his finger before blowing at the tip.

  “Well, well, well,” he drawled, stopping beside me with a cocky smirk. “Not bad, huh, kid? What do ya think? Should little old me get back into the hunting scene?”

  Zara scoffed.

  “Oh yeah? How about instead of eye-fucking your guns all day, you go get some ACTUAL action for once, damned virgin.”

  She punched him in the stomach.

  Not hard. Just enough to shatter his ego.

  His smirk instantly dropped.

  His whole soul left his body.

  “...Damn,” he muttered, staring off like he was contemplating every life choice that led him here.

  Zara snickered.

  “But nah, for real—thanks again, old man.” She grinned, throwing an arm around his shoulders. “Saved our asses there.”

  Droge perked back up instantly. “Damn right I did.”

  Then, muttering under his breath—

  “Should’ve let y’all handle it your damn selves.”

  “But hey, kid—keep that up, and I swear, I'll be your biggest fan.”

  Zara grinned, but there was something else behind it. Something sharp. Something watching me.

  I stepped back, breath unsteady, my hands still stained red. The scythe retracted, reshaping into my arm, but I could still feel it. The weight of it. The way it had felt right.

  The last man trembled on his knees, eyes darting between us, like a cornered animal.

  Zara cracked her neck. “Alright, speak up. Who sent you? Why the hell are you after us?”

  Silence.

  The man swallowed, his hands twitching at his sides like he was debating his odds.

  Zara didn’t wait.

  She grabbed him by the throat, flames licking at her fingers, the heat making his mask sizzle.

  “Listen, man—we can do this the easy way or the crispy way. Your choice.”

  His hands clawed at her wrist, his voice a choked gasp.

  “Okay! Okay! Fuck! I’ll talk!” His words tumbled out in a panic, Zara’s fire getting way too close for comfort.

  She dropped him. He hit the pavement hard, gasping, scrambling backward.

  His wide eyes flicked to me. Then—something shifted.

  Not just fear. Recognition.

  His breath shuddered.

  “You don’t get it.”

  His voice was different now.

  Not just fear—conviction.

  “We’re the Resistance. We came for the kid.” His eyes locked onto mine.

  “For Aclima.”

  The world tilted.

  “The bearer of Enoch.”

  He exhaled, like saying the words made it real.

  “The daughter of Adam and Eve.”