Flicker.
A red screen glitched into shape in front of Zekai's face, text fracturing apart before it could finish rendering.
[Warning: Arcana status retrieval has failed.]
The system was dead in the water, refusing to show him anything. He and Iris were both wrecked — bleeding, battered, out of good options. In a spot this bad, only one path made sense.
Just survive until backup gets here.
He gritted his teeth, eyes hardening. To buy Iris a few more seconds, he reached for the power he'd already used once.
He thrust his hand out, forcing the Fool's authority open. The instant he tried to force it open, something inside him slammed shut.
Zzzzsup!
The screen glitched harder this time, violent.
"...Perfect timing."
Nothing answered him. The system flat-out ignored the command. Whatever twisted outcomes this power bent to his will, it wasn't listening now.
Did the Fool lock me out. Or is this backlash catching up from before.
No time to work out the answer. He had to force it open regardless. There was no other way. He clawed at whatever reserves sat buried in his soul, dragging at the power through sheer will.
The recoil hit like a freight train.
"...Gah!"
His heart seized in his chest, like an invisible fist had closed around both lungs at once. Every muscle went slack. His nervous system dropped into blackout mid-thought. His body simply stopped answering him.
No. Not here. Not now.
Pfft.
Dark blood sprayed from his mouth. His vision went next, and he hit the floor like dead weight.
"Zekai!"
Iris's pupils shrank to pinpricks. Already bleeding out, already barely holding herself upright, she stared down at his unconscious body with no idea what had just torn through him.
"What the hell just happened to you—"
The moment worked entirely in the enemy's favor.
He barked out a laugh, delighted. "Hahaha! I haven't even touched him and he's already down! Saves me the trouble."
Thud. Thud.
He stepped forward, slow, confident, malice pouring off him thick enough to choke on.
"Should I just finish it right here?"
Iris's mind raced, blood soaking through her clothes, panic clawing up her throat.
Perception Fracture needed contact. He was already three strides past her, closing on Zekai instead — and there was nothing left in her to close that gap twice.
If I go down now, he dies with me.
Is anyone coming. Anyone at all.
"No — stay away from him!" Her voice cracked on the last word.
A predator doesn't stop for a scream from something already down.
He grinned, wide and wrong. "Relax, sweetheart. I've got no interest in you." His eyes went bloodshot, madness bleeding through them. "Him? I'm erasing him. He was born to destroy everything — this world, me, you, everything we've ever built."
His voice filled the room with a pressure that pressed down on her chest like a physical weight.
There was no hesitation in his voice. He wasn't threatening Zekai. In his own head, he was saving the world.
This man's completely broken, Iris thought, staring him down.
"You attacked BSA Headquarters over some prophecy nobody's ever proven? He's one of us!"
Her words only fed the fire.
"Then you're saying my grandfather was wrong?!" he shrieked.
She went quiet. This wasn't fanaticism anymore. She was looking at a mind that had come apart at every seam.
He spread both hands wide.
"...[Magma Flame]."
VROOOOOOM!
White-hot torrents of molten fire erupted from his palms, drowning the room in orange light. The heat spiked instantly, thick enough to hurt just to breathe.
Iris's heart slammed against her ribs.
—
Elsewhere, deep inside the sprawling underground labyrinth of BSA Headquarters—
Red emergency lights pulsed down the reinforced corridors, throwing long, bleeding shadows across concrete.
Officers of the Bureau's main forces moved through the haze with practiced, mathematical precision. No shouting. No frantic sprinting. No panic anywhere in the ranks.
"Sector Three secured."
"Escort the civilians to the primary bunker."
"Contain every hostile alive for extraction."
Long rows of restrained attackers now lined the reinforced corridors.
The visible fighting was winding down. Officers forced them into the dirt one by one, modified weapons clattering onto the concrete.
"Line them up against the wall!"
"Send every survivor to Section Fifty-Three for processing."
One captured man, face bruised and bloody, spat crimson onto the polished floor.
"You'll regret this. Our cause can't be stopped by government dogs."
A veteran Bureau officer merely tightened the heavy steel restraints around the man's wrists until the bone popped.
"Keep dreaming, kid."
The impossible question was only beginning.
How had more than a hundred armed infiltrators entered the most heavily monitored supernatural facility on the continent without triggering a single major security alarm?
Nobody asked it out loud.
Not yet.
Deep in the fortified command room, Intelligence officers threw glowing tactical maps across the central glass displays.
Commander Helden Mirch, acting head of the Everlight Unit, stood in front of it all, arms folded.
"One hundred and twelve confirmed infiltrators."
"One hundred and seven secured."
"Five still active."
His eyes tracked the five remaining hostile signatures scattered across the underground map.
Then shifted to a separate feed.
One name remained fixed at the top of the inactive surveillance feed.
EYEMAC
No status. No report. No response.
An officer frowned. "...Still nothing from him?"
Helden didn't even glance at the dead channel.
"If Eyemac were dead, we'd already know." A pause. "Unfortunately."
Nobody in the room laughed.
He finally turned away from the feed.
"Find the remaining four."
His voice stayed level, flat.
"I'll handle the fifth myself — assuming Chamber Twelve's still standing by the time I get there."
Commander Clara Venor, Operations Commander of BSA Headquarters, tapped the terminal and closed the flashing display without a word.
"Dispatch the remaining Everlight units to clean up the rest."
Helden was already walking.
"Don't."
She glanced up at him.
He adjusted the gloves at his wrists.
"Use them to secure the wounded."
A beat.
"My unit doesn't need help cleaning up four people."
He turned from the display and walked out.
✦ End of chapter 34 - The Invasion ✦