The hunter's silver eyes glowed in the subway's gloom.
Six minutes. That's all they had before the next Veilbound team arrived. Lucian's fingers twitched, his new claws scraping against concrete as he pushed himself up. The System flickered in his vision like a dying flashlight:
[Blood Corruption: 51%]
[Hollow King's Shadow - Stage 2: Partial Manifestation]
[Warning: Cognitive Deterioration Detected]
The last warning was new. So was the laughter in his skull—soft, mocking, just behind his left ear. Not his own.
Little king, the voice cooed. Let me taste their fear for you.
Lucian ignored it. The hunter was already moving toward the exit, her boots silent on the cracked tiles.
Vaelros leaned against a collapsed pillar, examining his blackened hand. The corruption had reshaped his fingers into talons, the nails elongated and razor-sharp. He flexed them, watching the way the dim light caught on the obsidian edges.
"Still functional," he mused. "Pity."
Lucian wiped his mouth. His palm came away smeared with shadow and something darker—thick, ink-like blood.
"What did you do back there?"
Vaelros grinned. "Took a gamble."
"That symbol—"
"—is none of your concern." The hunter cut in, her voice brittle. "Move or die. Your choice."
Lucian studied her. The silver in her eyes wasn't just color—it swirled, liquid and alive. Veilbound, but not. Something worse.
He'd seen eyes like that before.
In his dreams of the Hollow Crown.
The Chase
The tunnels stank of wet rust and something sweetly rotten. Lucian's enhanced hearing caught the distant hum of machinery—Veilbound tech, probably. The hunter led them through a maze of service corridors, her movements precise, calculated.
She killed the first patrol before they even registered her presence.
Three Veilbound acolytes—younger, unmasked—rounded a corner. The hunter's knife flashed. The first died with a slit throat. The second took the blade through the eye. The third managed half a scream before she snapped his neck with a twist of her hands.
Lucian watched, his new claws itching.
Efficient.
Beautiful.
Wrong.
The thought startled him. Since when did he care about how killers worked?
Vaelros nudged the nearest corpse with his boot. "No masks. They're sending novices after us now. How insulting."
The hunter wiped her blade on a dead acolyte's robes. "They're trackers. Not fighters." She tapped her temple. "Everything they saw is already uploaded to the Veilnet."
Lucian's System pulsed:
[Veilnet Connection Detected]
[Data Packet Transferred: 98% Complete]
[Recommended Action: Immediate Evasion]
The hunter was already moving. "We have ninety seconds."
The Trap
They burst onto a derelict train platform. The tracks below were flooded with black water that shimmered with rainbow hues—oil or something worse.
The hunter skidded to a halt.
Too late.
The platform's far end was already occupied.
Five full Veilbound, masks gleaming. Between them stood a figure Lucian hadn't seen before—taller, their armor etched with glowing blue runes. No mask. Just a smooth, featureless visor that reflected nothing.
The hunter hissed. "Cleansing Captain."
The captain raised a hand. Their voice was genderless, toneless, wrong.
"Heretic souls. Return to the script."
The air warped. Lucian's shadowform convulsed as five silver collars materialized around the Veilbound's throats. The runes on their armor flared brighter.
"Oh," Vaelros said softly. "That's new."
The hunter backed toward the platform's edge. "They've chained themselves to the Veil's will. No more free thought. Just… execution."
Lucian's claws extended fully for the first time—longer now, curved like a beast's. The Corruption in his veins sang.
Let me play, the voice in his head purred.
The captain pointed.
"Cleanse them."
The Fight
Lucian moved before the command finished.
His body wasn't entirely his own anymore. The Corruption guided him, twisting his movements into something fluid, predatory. He tore through the first Veilbound before they could react, claws shredding silver armor like paper.
Black blood sprayed. His System cheered:
[Combat Efficiency: 87%]
[Shadowform Synergy: Improving]
The second Veilbound lunged, their blade singing with purging light. Lucian ducked—
—and his body moved without his input.
His shadow lashed out, wrapping around the Veilbound's wrist. The armor screamed as it corroded, the silver blackening and peeling away in flakes. The voice in Lucian's head laughed as he drove his claws through the exposed flesh.
Good, it whispered. Again.
Across the platform, Vaelros fought with brutal elegance, his corrupted arm now a weapon—every strike left inky veins spreading through his opponents' armor.
The hunter…
The hunter wasn't fighting.
She stood frozen, her knife trembling in her grip, her silver eyes wide. The Cleansing Captain approached her slowly, deliberately, their visor reflecting her terrified expression back at her.
"Broken tool," they intoned. "You will be reforged."
Lucian saw her lips move. Just one word:
"Run."
Then the captain's hand closed around her throat.
The Choice
Lucian's body moved before his mind caught up.
He crossed the platform in three strides, his claws aimed for the captain's spine—
—and stopped.
The captain hadn't turned. Hadn't flinched.
They simply held up the hunter's limp form like a shield.
"Prioritize," the captain said. "Her life or yours?"
The voice in Lucian's skull hissed.
Ours, it said.
Always ours.
His claws twitched.
[To Be Continued…]