Chapter 12 — Forbidden Existence
The extraction chamber had become a battlefield between realities.
Gunfire.
Smoke.
Screaming mutants.
And in the middle of it all
A vampire child stood calmly beside monsters from another age.
The shadow crows slowly dissolved into black ash around the Fairy while the Death Reaper stood motionless near the shattered entrance, its clawed hands dripping dark blood onto the steel floor.
No one lowered their weapons.
Not even the Grave Hounds.
Especially not Darius Vane.
The massive Steelborn commander kept his rifle trained directly on Einar Winter while his cybernetic eye glowed brighter beneath the red emergency lights.
The Iron Reign outlawed magic.
Outlawed supernatural entities.
Outlawed anything humanity could not fully control.
And standing before him now
Was proof those laws had already failed.
“You should’ve told us,” Elias said quietly.
Dr. Voss looked shattered.
“We weren’t allowed.”
Cassian laughed once.
Not humor.
Disgust.
“Of course not.”
Another tremor shook the chamber violently. Somewhere far below the facility, something enormous roared through collapsing corridors.
Nobody moved.
Because the greater danger right now stood directly in front of them.
Einar looked almost bored by the tension.
“You’re all very dramatic.”
Darius stepped forward.
Heavy steel boots slammed against the floor.
“You are a classified abomination under Iron Reign law.”
The Fairy slowly turned his head.
Not toward Einar.
Toward Darius.
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
The beautiful creature’s silver eyes became empty.
Cold.
Predatory.
The room suddenly felt smaller.
Kael noticed immediately.
“…Uh oh.”
Darius didn’t stop.
“You should not exist.”
Einar sighed softly.
“And yet here I am.”
The Death Reaper moved one step forward.
Every soldier immediately raised weapons.
Heavy Metal targeting systems locked on.
Drones repositioned.
Shotguns chambered.
The extraction chamber stood one breath away from total violence.
Lucien felt it before anyone else.
Pressure.
Not physical.
Something emotional.
Ancient.
The Fairy’s gaze slowly drifted toward him.
And suddenly
Lucien couldn’t breathe.
His vision blurred faintly as whispers echoed at the edge of his thoughts again.
Not words.
Feelings.
Loneliness.
Hunger.
Centuries of silence.
The Fairy stared at him silently from across the room.
Recognition.
Lucien staggered slightly.
Elias immediately caught his shoulder.
“Ghostlight?”
Lucien whispered weakly:
“…He knows me.”
That froze the room.
Einar’s expression sharpened slightly with interest.
“Oh?”
The Fairy tilted his head slowly toward Lucien.
Then
He disappeared.
The entire chamber reacted instantly.
Weapons snapped upward.
Targeting systems failed.
Dex’s drones lost lock completely.
Even Nero’s eyes widened slightly.
Too fast.
The Fairy reappeared directly in front of Lucien.
No sound.
No movement detected.
Just sudden presence.
Elias immediately stepped between them, combat blade raised.
“Back away.”
The Fairy looked at the blade curiously.
Then at Elias.
Then gently touched the tip of the weapon with one pale finger.
The steel instantly frosted over.
Elias stepped backward instinctively.
“…What the hell…”
Lucien stared at the Fairy up close now.
The creature looked impossibly beautiful.
But wrong.
Not human beauty.
Predatory beauty.
Like something evolved specifically to lure trust before feeding.
Yet his expression held no aggression toward Lucien.
Only curiosity.
The Fairy slowly reached toward Lucien’s face
Darius fired.
BOOM.
The entire chamber erupted.
The Fairy vanished before the round even crossed the air.
The slug struck the wall behind Lucien hard enough to crater reinforced steel.
Suddenly every crow in the room exploded outward in violent black motion.
The Death Reaper roared.
The sound shook the chamber.
Cassian immediately raised his shotgun.
“DARIUS!”
Too late.
The Fairy appeared above Iron Alpha like a phantom descending from nowhere.
One pale hand rested gently against Darius’ rifle barrel.
The barrel bent sideways instantly.
Like soft metal.
The room froze.
Even Darius looked shocked.
The Fairy stood balanced effortlessly on the commander’s weapon while white robes drifted softly around him.
No aggression.
No rage.
Just overwhelming superiority.
Then Einar spoke.
“Enough.”
Everything stopped instantly.
The crows froze midair.
The Death Reaper stepped back immediately.
The Fairy disappeared from Darius’ rifle and returned silently to Einar’s side.
Absolute obedience.
The chamber remained deathly quiet.
Einar looked annoyed now.
“You’re behaving like frightened animals.”
Darius slowly dropped the ruined rifle.
His cybernetic eye locked onto Einar again.
“You control them.”
The vampire child nodded casually.
“Of course I do.”
“How?”
Einar smiled faintly.
“They love me.”
Nobody liked that answer.
Lucien still stared at the Fairy.
The connection hadn’t faded.
If anything
It had become stronger.
The creature looked toward him again quietly.
And Lucien realized something horrifying.
The Fairy wasn’t staring at him like prey.
It was staring at him like kin.
Lucien took an uneasy step backward.
Elias noticed immediately.
“What’s wrong?”
Lucien struggled to explain it.
“When I use my powers…”
His voice became quieter.
“It feels similar.”
Silence crashed into the room.
Even Kael stopped joking.
The implication settled hard.
Lucien’s abilities.
The angelic projections.
The impossible light.
Magic.
Forbidden existence.
Just like them.
Darius turned slowly toward Lucien.
Not hostile.
Not yet.
But thinking.
That almost hurt worse.
Lucien saw it immediately.
And looked away.
Einar watched the entire interaction carefully.
Then smiled slightly.
“There it is.”
Cassian narrowed his eyes.
“There what is?”
The child folded his hands behind his back.
“The reason your empire fears things like us.”
Another tremor shook the facility violently.
Chunks of ceiling collapsed nearby.
The third coffin rattled again.
This time harder.
CLANG.
Something inside slammed against the interior walls.
Everyone turned instantly.
The atmosphere changed again.
Even the Death Reaper slowly looked toward the unopened coffin now.
And for the first time
The monster appeared nervous.
Einar’s expression faded completely.
“That,” he said quietly, “is why I told you not to open the last one.”
The scratching inside the coffin stopped.
Silence filled the chamber.
Then
Something inside knocked back.
Once.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Like it knew they were listening.
No comments:
Post a Comment