Back in the Eastern Cardinal, the world moved along like one SSS-ranked soldier wasnāt missing.
Reconstruction crews worked through rubble that used to be apartment complexes. Street vendors reopened their stalls in neighborhoods that still smelled like smoke and death. The government issued new regulations about structural integrity and emergency protocols. News networks cycled through the same footage of Kruelās attack, analyzing it frame by frame like studying a particularly violent nature documentary.
Life continued because life had to continue. You couldnāt stop civilization just because three million people died in less than a day. That sounded callous when you said it out loud, but it was true. The survivors needed food, shelter, medical care. Buildings needed rebuilding. Bodies needed identifying and burying. The world kept spinning whether you were ready for it or not.
Two million empty seats at dinner tables across the Eastern Cardinal, and somehow people still had to show up for work the next morning.
The Eclipse Faction headquarters sat in the middle of it all, purple and black logo visible from three blocks away. Reconstruction drones buzzed around the buildingās exterior, repairing damage from shockwaves that had cracked the facade during the attack. This discovery was made a month ago after government officials came to survey buildings for structural integrity and found areas that needed to be worked on.
Inside, the faction hummed with activity that felt wrong somehow, like a party continuing after the guest of honor left.
On the fifth floor, in what used to be the combat training wing before half the equipment got destroyed, Lucas Grey stood alone in an empty room and tried not to think about how quiet everything was.
Heād been back from Raiju Prime for three weeks now. Showed up expecting Noah to be there, ready to give him grief about taking so long, maybe challenge him to a sparring match to see what heād learned in the shadow dimension. Instead, heād found Sophie in the command center looking exhausted, Lila organizing relief efforts with volunteers, and no Noah anywhere.
"Heās on a system quest," Sophie had told him. "Said it might take a while."
That was it. No details, no timeline, just Noah doing what Noah did best, which was disappearing to handle cosmic bullshit while everyone else dealt with the aftermath of regular bullshit.
Lucas had wanted to be annoyed about it. Wanted to feel that familiar spike of competitive frustration that Noah got to do the interesting stuff while Lucas was stuck handling cleanup. But mostly he just felt tired.
And guilty. Two months since Kruel tore through their cardinal. Two months since Diana took a hit meant for Kelvin and ended up in a hospital bed with her skull held together by surgical pins. Two months of Lucas running solo contracts because the thought of bringing backup, of putting anyone else in danger, made his chest tight in ways that had nothing to do with physical exertion.
The training roomās door slid open. Marcus from the tech division stuck his head in.
"Uh, Lucas? Youāve got a contract. Category five in the industrial sector. Some kind of Razorback-class causing problems near the foundries."
Lucas nodded without turning around. "Send me the coordinates."
"Already did. Also, uh..." Marcus hesitated. "The drones are following you again. Livestreamās at about forty thousand viewers right now. Just thought you should know."
Lucas reached for the visor on the equipment table. Sleek black composite that Kelvin had built, integrated HUD that could display tactical data, contract information, and unfortunately, livestream chat.
Heād started wearing it a week ago. After he came back from Raiju Prime and discovered people had been commenting about how he seemed slower now, less sharp. For someone who prided himself on staying fit, on being the perfect soldier, on maintaining the discipline that had gotten him through the academy, those comments had stung more than he wanted to admit.
āLet them watch,ā Lucas thought, sliding the visor on. āLet them see exactly what Eclipse does while Noahās gone.ā
"Thanks, Marcus."
The door slid shut. Lucas stood there for another moment, then activated his combat HUD. The contract details populated across his vision, coordinates locked in, threat assessment displaying Category 5 with civilian casualties already at three confirmed dead.
He left through the window.
***
The industrial sector looked like someone had played a very aggressive game of urban planning with explosives. Half the foundries were still operational, their smokestacks pumping out smog that mixed with the lingering haze from fires that still burned in collapsed sections. The other half were skeleton frames, their interiors gutted by either Harbinger attacks or structural failures during the chaos.
Lucas dropped from his flying car onto the roof of Foundry Seven, boots hitting metal with barely a sound. His HUD immediately picked up the target, highlighted it in red about three hundred meters east.
A camera drone buzzed into position maybe twenty feet away, its red recording light blinking. Lucasās visor automatically connected to the livestream feed, and the chat started scrolling across the bottom of his vision.
[yooo Lucas is online!]
[finally some action, been waiting all day]
[whereās Noah tho? havenāt seen him in like a month]
[Eclipse without Noah hits different ngl]
[Lucas looking sharp today, that new visor is sick]
āForty thousand people watching me hunt a category five like itās entertainment,ā Lucas thought, moving across the rooftop toward the edge. āWonder how many are genuinely interested versus just waiting to see if I mess up.ā
He reached the roofās edge and looked down. The Razorback-class was exactly where the contract said it would be, tearing through a warehouse that probably had workers inside based on the screaming he could hear even from up here.
āCategory five,ā Lucas thought, watching the creature move. āWhich means itās dangerous enough to kill trained soldiers but not dangerous enough to require special deployment protocols. Just another day in the Eastern Cardinal.ā
The beast was maybe twelve feet tall, quadrupedal, with chitinous plating that looked like organic razor wire twisted into armor. Its mandibles clicked as it moved, each click producing sparks that set fire to anything flammable nearby.
[titlove345: that thing is HUGE]
[Armadaglory: Lucas going solo again? whereās his backup?]
[dragontameR: heās been running solo since he got back, someone said itās PTSD]
[7daysaweek: after what happened to Diana I donāt blame him]
Lucas ignored the chat and jumped.
No dramatic entrance, no theatrical flourish for the cameras. Just a straight drop from the roof, gravity pulling him down, wind resistance minimal because he was built for speed and speed didnāt care about looking cool.
He hit the ground in a crouch, concrete cracking beneath his boots from impact force. The Razorbackās head swiveled toward him immediately, compound eyes tracking movement with predatory focus.
Blue lightning began crackling around Lucasās arms, dancing between his fingers, illuminating the dimly lit warehouse interior with electric light that cast sharp shadows against rusted equipment and concrete support pillars.
[greyhonor: OH SHIT HERE WE GO]
[stormcell: Lucasās lightning is so cool, way better than fire users]
[voidwatcher: bet Noah could one-shot this thing]
[emberline: can we NOT compare them? theyāre both good]
The beast charged. Twelve feet of armored killing machine covering the distance between them in maybe two seconds, mandibles spreading wide enough to bite a man in half.
Lucas moved faster.
His body blurred across the warehouse floor, leaving afterimages that the camera drone struggled to track. He appeared at the Razorbackās flank before it could adjust trajectory, his fist already coming around in a punch that channeled every volt of lightning he could generate into a single point.
CRACK!
The impact created a thunderclap that shattered every window in the warehouse. The Razorbackās chitinous armor splintered where Lucasās fist connected, pieces flying off like shrapnel. The creature stumbled sideways, off-balance, its rear legs giving out from the force transferred through its body.
[neonparser: YOOOOO DID YOU SEE THAT SPEED]
[volt_theory: Lucas is actually insane]
[frameperfect42: okay that was clean af]
[oldpatchnotes: still not as fast as he used to be tho, remember the academy tournament?]
Lucas saw that last comment scroll past and felt something twist in his chest. His jaw tightened behind the visor.
āNot as fast as I used to be,ā he thought, electricity surging brighter around his hands. āLetās test that theory.ā
He didnāt give the Razorback time to recover. His body blurred again, appearing on the opposite side, his other fist driving into where ribs would be on a normal creature. More lightning, more thunder, more armor breaking apart under electrical discharge that made the air smell like ozone and burnt chitin.
The camera drone repositioned to get a better angle, its stabilizers working overtime to keep the feed smooth despite the shockwaves.
[TapStrafeKid: heās DEMOLISHING it]
[AimAssistOff: Lucas really said fuck around and find out]
[NoTeamQueue: whereās the backup tho? he always used to run with a team]
[PatchDayTrauma: I heard he wonāt take anyone with him anymore, not since Diana got hurt]
āTheyāre right,ā Lucas thought, ducking under a retaliatory swipe from the Razorbackās bladed tail. āI wonāt bring backup. Canāt risk it. Canāt put anyone else in a position where they might take a hit meant for me or anyone else. Not again.ā
He caught the tail on its return swing, electricity surging through his grip into the appendage. The Razorback convulsed, its entire body seizing as voltage overloaded its nervous system.
Lucas pulled. Hard.
The tail ripped free with a sound like tearing metal. Black ichor sprayed across the warehouse floor, and the Razorbackās scream was this awful chittering noise that hurt to hear even through the visorās audio filters.
[UltraWidePanic: OH MY GOD HE JUST RIPPED ITS TAIL OFF]
[BuiltDiffed: Lucas is built different I swear]
[ViolenceEnjoyer: this is brutal, I love it]
[EclipsePRTeam: chat heās literally carrying Eclipse rn]
[MissingMainChar: yeah but whereās Noah? itās been a month]
[SSSRankCopium: Noahās probably off doing SSS-rank stuff, heāll be back]
Lucas tossed the severed tail aside and watched the Razorback try to stand on legs that werenāt cooperating anymore. Blood loss and electrical damage were shutting down its system piece by piece.
āNoah would have made this look easy,ā Lucas thought, blue lightning still crackling around his hands. āWould have smiled for the cameras, said something clever, made everyone feel safe. Made them forget that three people died before I got here.ā
The thought made him angry. Not at Noah, but at himself. For not being faster. For not being there when it mattered. For coming back from Raiju Prime stronger than ever and still feeling like it wasnāt enough.
The Razorback was dying now, its movements getting sluggish. Lucas ended it with a lightning bolt straight through its skull, the crack of thunder echoing through the warehouse one final time.
The beast collapsed. Twitched once. Went still.
[SpeedrunVerified: contract complete, that was like 90 seconds total]
[HiddenMetaPick: Lucas is low-key underrated]
[MainCharacterBias: heās good but heās no Noah Eclipse]
[FactionMediator: can yāall stop comparing them? theyāre BOTH carrying the faction]
[PostNoahEra: real talk tho, Eclipse hasnāt been the same since Noah left]
[BringBackSSS: facts, we need our SSS-rank boy back]
Lucas stood there for a moment, breathing steady despite the exertion, blue lightning still crackling faintly around his hands while he stared at the chat scrolling across his visor.
āThey miss him,ā Lucas thought. āCanāt even watch me complete a contract without asking where Noah is. And honestly? I miss him too. Guyās annoying as hell but heās got this way of making everything feel manageable, like no matter how bad things get, weāll figure it out.ā
He looked at the camera drone.
"Contract complete," Lucas said, his voice flat. "Industrial sector clear. Eclipse out."
He left before the chat could ask more questions about Noahās whereabouts.
***
Somewhere else in the faction headquarters, in a workshop that smelled like burnt wiring, Kelvin was facing a different kind of problem.
KROME lay in pieces across his workshop floor like the worldās most expensive jigsaw puzzle. The mechās chassis was intact, mostly, but everything else had been torn apart in varying degrees of catastrophic failure. Hydraulic systems fried from overload. Targeting arrays destroyed from proximity to Kruelās missed punches. The entire left arm assembly just gone, ripped clean off during the fight two months ago.
Kelvin sat on the floor in the middle of it all, a holographic schematic rotating slowly in the air above his head while he stared at a servo actuator that absolutely should not have been bent at that angle.
"This is fine," Kelvin said to nobody. "Everythingās fine. My girlfriendās in a coma with her brain trying to rebuild itself from getting punched by a four-horn Harbinger, my mech looks like it got chewed up by a garbage disposal, and Iām trying to rebuild a weapons platform using parts that donāt exist anymore because the manufacturer went bankrupt in 2067. But sure. Fine. Totally fine."
He threw the servo actuator across the room. It bounced off a wall and clattered to the floor with a sound that was deeply unsatisfying.
The workshop door slid open. Seraleth ducked through, her seven-foot frame making the doorway look comically small.
"Kelvin," she said carefully, "I heard shouting."
"I wasnāt shouting. I was expressing frustration at an appropriate volume for the situation."
"You threw something." She said.
"Mechanical failures deserve physical consequences."
Seraleth walked over and sat down on the floor next to him, which looked absurd because she was tall enough that sitting put her at some normal human standing height.
"How bad is it?" she asked, gesturing at KROMEās scattered remains.
Kelvin laughed. It came out wrong, too sharp, with edges that cut on the way out.
"Well, letās see. The hydraulic systems need complete replacement. The targeting arrays are slag. The left arm is literally gone, torn off when Kruel decided KROME looked better as abstract art. The power core is cracked, which means I need to source a new one from somewhere that isnāt the black market because Iām pretty sure buying unauthorized military hardware while running a faction would get us shut down. Oh, and the neural interface that lets me actually pilot this thing? Fried. Completely fried. Diana helped me build that, and I donāt remember half of what she did because she was the engineering genius and I just made the tech work."
He picked up another piece of debris, turned it over in his hands.
"So yeah. Itās bad. Real bad. The kind of bad where Iām seriously considering just scrapping the whole thing and starting over, except I donāt have time to start over because Eclipse is barely holding together and Lucas is running himself into the ground trying to cover category five contracts solo."
Seraleth was quiet for a moment.
"You know," she said eventually, "on my homeworld, we had a saying. āThe broken blade teaches the smith.ā It means that failure is where you learn to build better."
"Thatās beautiful," Kelvin said. "Poetic, even. Doesnāt help me fix a mech with parts that donāt exist anymore, but itās beautiful."
"Iām trying to help, Kelvin."
"I know. Sorry." Kelvin rubbed his face with both hands. "Iām just... Iām so tired, Sera. Dianaās lying in a hospital bed with her skull held together by pins, and the doctors keep saying her brain is healing but itās so slow. And I canāt help her. Canāt build something to fix her. Canāt engineer my way out of this problem like I usually do. So Iām trying to rebuild KROME because at least thatās something I can control, except I canāt control it either because I donāt have the parts or the time."
He looked at her, and his expression cracked just slightly.
"Do you know what void sickness is?"
Seralethās expression shifted. "Iāve heard of it. Exposure to void energy for non-awakened humans. Itās like poison."
"The doctors think Mrs. Harper has it. Noahās guardian. She collapsed three days ago, and they ran every test they could think of. Found void energy saturation in her cells at levels that shouldnāt be possible for someone whoās not awakened. They want to put her in an induced coma because thereās no treatment, Sera. No cure. Just hope her body eventually filters it out on its own, which it might not do because sheās human and humans arenāt built to process void energy."
Kelvinās hands were shaking now.
"So thatās two people I care about in medical facilities with conditions I canāt fix. Diana with a fractured skull thatās healing too slowly, Mrs. Harper with void energy poisoning her from the inside out. And Iām sitting here in a workshop surrounded by broken technology trying to rebuild a mech like that somehow makes up for being completely useless when it actually matters."
Seraleth reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. Carefully, because her strength could hurt humans if she wasnāt cautious.
"Youāre not useless, Kelvin."
"Tell that to Diana. Tell that to Mrs. Harper. Hell, tell that to everyone who died during Kruelās attack while I sat in KROME and watched my girlfriend sacrifice herself to save me because my brilliant plan failed by one point five seconds."
"Kelvin."
Something in Seralethās voice made him look up.
"Youāre a good person trying to help people you love," she said firmly. "Thatās not useless. Thatās what makes you worth knowing. Diana knows that. Mrs. Harper knows that. Everyone in Eclipse knows that."
She squeezed his shoulder gently.
"Now, letās fix your mech. You tell me what to do, and Iāll do the lifting. Weāll figure out the parts situation together. And then maybe we can work on finding that void stone you keep talking about."
Kelvin was quiet for a long moment. Then he nodded.
"Okay," he said quietly. "Yeah. Okay."
They got to work, Kelvin directing while Seraleth lifted components that would have required industrial equipment for anyone else. The workshop slowly transformed from chaos into organized reconstruction, piece by piece, bolt by bolt.
***
In Sophie office on the third floor, the factionās operational heart beat on despite everything trying to stop it.
Sophie had been here since sunrise. The holographic displays floating around her desk showed contract status, budget allocations, personnel rosters, supply requisitions, all of it color-coded and cross-referenced because organization was the only thing keeping Eclipse from falling apart completely.
She was currently staring at a contract offer from a private military contractor. Big money, enough to cover three months of operating expenses. The kind of offer that would solve a lot of problems if she just said yes.
It was also blood money disguised in corporate language, and Sophie knew exactly what Noah would say about it.
The door opened. Lila walked in without knocking, carrying two cups of coffee.
"You need to eat something," Lila said, setting one cup on Sophieās desk.
"Iāll eat when I finish this budget reconciliation."
"Sophie."
Sophie looked up. Lila was watching her with an expression that was hard to read.
"You canāt keep doing this," Lila said. "Working eighteen-hour days, sleeping four hours, eating one meal if weāre lucky. Youāre going to collapse."
"Iām fine."
"Youāre burning out. Everyone can see it."
Sophie wanted to argue, but the words wouldnāt come. Because Lila was right, and they both knew it.
"What else am I supposed to do?" Sophie asked quietly. "Noah trusted me to keep Eclipse running while heās gone. People are counting on us. The city needs us."
"So delegate," Lila said. "Let me help. Let Lucas help when heās not running himself into the ground with solo contracts because heās got PTSD about putting anyone in danger after what happened to Diana. Let the others carry some of this instead of trying to do everything yourself."
She pulled a chair over and sat down.
"I know we didnāt start off well. I know you didnāt like me when we first met because I was competition for Noahās attention. And I didnāt like you because you had what I wanted. But weāre past that now, right?"
Sophie almost smiled. "Are we?"
"Iād like to think so. Weāre both here. Weāre both running Eclipse while Noahās off doing system quest stuff. Weāre both in love with the same guy who keeps taking on impossible tasks because he doesnāt know how to do things halfway."
This time Sophie did smile, just a little.
"So let me help," Lila said again. "Please."
Sophie was quiet for a moment. Then she pulled up the contract file and slid it across the desk holographically.
"Private military contractor," Sophie said. "Offering Eclipse a lot of money to handle security consultation in a conflict zone. Basically mercenary work."
Lila read through it, her expression darkening. "Thatās blood money."
"Thatās our budget shortfall covered." Sophie said.
"Noah wouldnāt take it." Lila said while considering it from the angle Sophie was coming from.
The words hung between them. Sophie closed the file.
"Youāre right," she said. "He wouldnāt. Which means we donāt either."
She looked at Lila.
"Help me find another way to cover the shortfall. Because Iām out of ideas."
They worked in silence for a while, going through numbers, running scenarios. Eventually, Lila spoke up.
"Can I ask you something personal?"
Sophie glanced at her. "Should I be worried?"
"When you started dating Noah, did you know I liked him?"
Sophieās hands stilled on the holographic interface.
"Yes." She finally answered.
"And you did it anyway."
"I did."
Lila nodded slowly. "Thatās kind of a jerk move, not gonna lie."
"It was," Sophie agreed. "Iām competitive. Probably too competitive. Back then Noah was getting quite popular and Micah, I donāt know if you remember him, one of the top 25 wouldnāt stop talking about how he hated Noah. And in my opinion, Micah had a shitty taste. So I looked Noah up, we met at the Rave, I saw something I wanted, and I went for it without considering how it would affect you."
"And now weāre dating the same guy."
"And now weāre dating the same guy," Sophie confirmed. "Which is weird, and complicated, and probably shouldnāt work. But it does work, somehow. Because heās got enough emotional bandwidth for all of us, and we all care about him enough to make it work."
Lila was quiet for a moment.
"Iām glad you didnāt give up on him," Sophie said. "On being here. Eclipse is better with you in it."
"Thatās the nicest thing youāve ever said to me." Lila said.
"Donāt get used to it."
But they were both smiling now.
Sophieās phone rang. Unknown number. She almost didnāt answer, but something made her pick up.
The voice on the other end was professional, detached. It was a hospital staff.
Mrs. Harper had been admitted. Collapsed at home. Theyād found Noah listed as emergency contact, but he wasnāt answering. They were calling Sophie because Eclipseās information was in Mrs. Harperās phone.
Sophie felt the blood drain from her face.
"Whatās wrong?" Lila asked.
"Itās Noahās guardian," Sophie said, already standing. "Sheās in the hospital."
They were in Sophieās car three minutes later, Lila driving because Sophieās hands were shaking too badly. The city blurred past them through the windshield, reconstruction drones and damaged buildings and people going about their lives like the world wasnāt ending.
The hospital was chaos. Too many patients, not enough staff, everyone still dealing with casualties from Kruelās attack two months ago. A nurse directed them to the ICU, third floor, room 307.
Mrs. Harper lay in the bed unconscious but breathing. Machines beeped steadily, monitoring vitals that looked stable on the displays.
A doctor met them outside the room. Young, looked exhausted, the kind of exhaustion that came from working sixty-hour shifts during an ongoing crisis.
"Are you family?" the doctor asked.
"Close enough," Sophie said. "What happened again. Is she getting worse??"
"Miss, itās void sickness. Sheās got void energy saturation in her cells at levels weāve never seen in non-awakened humans. We donāt know how she was exposed, but the damage is extensive."
"Can you treat it or not?" Lila asked.
The doctorās expression said everything before his words did.
"There is no treatment. Void energy is toxic to non-awakened humans. All we can do is manage symptoms and hope her body filters it out naturally. But given her age and the saturation levels..." He trailed off, the implication clear.
"How long does she have?" Lila asked quietly.
"We donāt know. Could be days, could be months. Weāre going to induce a coma to reduce stress on her system. Give her body the best chance to heal itself."
Sophie nodded, her throat too tight to speak.
They signed the consent forms. Sat in the waiting room while doctors prepared Mrs. Harper for the induced coma. Hours passed, marked only by the movement of medical staff and the occasional announcement over the intercom.
Eventually, Lila spoke.
"We need to tell Noah."
"Heās on a system quest," Sophie said. "We donāt even know where he is."
"So we wait for him to come back?"
"What else can we do?"
Lila pulled out her phone, typed a message to Noahās number.
||Your guardianās in the hospital. Void sickness. Theyāre putting her in an induced coma. Come home||
She hit send. The message showed delivered but no read receipt.
Sophie stared at her own phone, at Noahās last text from a month ago.
*System quest. Might take a while. Iāll be fine.*
She typed a new message, her fingers moving slowly.
*Where are you?*
Sent.
No response.
Unknown to the both of them, Noah left his phone back at the the headquarters. And it hadnāt occurred to anyone to check his room soon after Sophie got the text from him the night he left.