The Hunted Become the Hunters
We left Blackmarket District by dusk, boarding a scrap-freighter headed toward the Emberreach Wastes—miles of scorched earth, twisted relics, and buried war machines from the old Age of Systems.
Our target: Ashen Vale, an outlaw city rumored to house a Fragment Bearer.
The wind howled as we stepped off the freighter.
Ash fell from the sky like black snow.
The air stank of rust, oil, and forgotten blood.
> [System Ping: Passive Interference Detected — Bonded Fragment Nearby]
[Caution: Unknown Intent]
"You feel that?" Aria asked, pulling her scarf tighter.
"Yeah," I muttered. "Like my spine just looked back at me."
She raised her pistol. "Stay close. Ashen Vale eats people for fun."
---
The city rose from the dust like a graveyard on fire—half-burned towers, scavengers in chrome masks, and flashing symbols that pulsed with forbidden sorcery.
We headed straight for the Dead Ember Bar, the last known location of our target.
Then everything went quiet.
Too quiet.
That's when I saw him—sitting on the edge of the bar's rooftop, legs swinging casually.
He looked about my age. Silver hair. White jacket. Black blade strapped to his back. His partner—a girl in red leather with a smile like a razor—stood beside him, chewing on something that might've once been alive.
> [System Ping: Bond Pair Detected — Sync Rate: 87%]
[Names: Cain & Velvet]
[Status: Hostile / Predatory]
Cain waved. "Yo. Took you long enough."
I stepped in front of Aria.
"You're the Fragment Bearer?"
"Nah," Cain smirked. "I was—until I killed mine and took the piece."
Velvet giggled. "We like doing things the old-fashioned way. You know—murder, madness, soul-ripping. Real bonding stuff."
> "We've been tracking you since Blackmarket," Cain said, hopping down. "Lucien told us you'd come. He said you'd be fun."
Aria's gun was already up.
"Step closer," she warned, "and I'll scatter your system across this city."
Cain didn't flinch. He just cracked his knuckles.
"I like her," he said. "But Lucien said I can't kill her yet."
> "So I'll start with you."
---
He moved like lightning.
One second he was twenty feet away—the next, his black blade clashed against my gauntlet with a sonic boom that shattered windows around us.
> [Warning: Bond Disruption in Progress]
[Enemy System attempting sync lock override]
He was trying to hack me mid-fight.
I pushed back with a surge of pure rage.
"Aria! Go!"
"I'm not leaving—!"
But she didn't finish the sentence. Velvet lunged, a serrated whip bursting from her wrist.
Aria ducked, rolled, and fired.
Velvet vanished in a blur of red smoke.
> "Tag team time, lover boy!" Cain grinned.
He activated something—his blade lit with voidfire.
"Let's see what kind of monster you've got hidden under that sarcasm."
> [Bond Limit Release: 3% Unlocked]
[WARNING: Using this protocol risks permanent corruption.]
I didn't care.
I punched harder. Moved faster.
For Aria.
For us.
The air cracked with every blow. The dust around us spiraled like a storm as we clashed again and again, blades singing, fists breaking pavement.
> Then Cain laughed.
"Good! Yes! That's it! You're one of us, Flare! You get it!"
I drove a knee into his gut and blasted him back with an energy pulse.
"No," I said. "I'm nothing like you."
---
Cain crashed through the bar wall.
Velvet hissed, lunging for Aria again—but Aria fired a blast of Devilblood straight into her chest.
The scream echoed for miles.
Cain stumbled out of the rubble, coughing smoke.
"You're better than the last pair we killed," he admitted. "But not by much."
> "We'll see you again, Flare. When you're stronger. When you're ready to choose."
He snapped his fingers.
Both he and Velvet vanished in a burst of black light.
> [Warning: Cain has marked you for future system dueling.]
[Sync Prediction: Lethal Conflict Imminent — Timeframe Unknown]
---
We stood in the wreckage, breathing hard.
Aria limped toward me, bleeding from a whip slash across her thigh.
"You okay?" she asked, teeth clenched.
"Define okay."
She gave a weak laugh and leaned into me.
I caught her.
And for a second, I forgot the world was burning.