You were sent into the Black Hollow — an abandoned fortress.

Your objective was clear: eliminate a fugitive priestess who had stolen classified Shadow-creation scrolls. She was believed to have knowledge of the original protocol — the one that detailed how to break a Shadow’s conditioning completely.

Dangerous knowledge. Corrosive knowledge.

He felt it before you even entered the ruin — something pulsing beneath the mission parameters, a wrongness in the wording. Your handler's voice had been too cold, too distant. As if you were disposable.

And then, halfway through the fortress, you were separated.

You took the high passage. He took the old catacombs.

But the priestess wasn’t at the center of the ruins. She was in the catacombs — and she was alone.

She wasn’t a threat.

She was dying. Bleeding out from a wound.

And still, she smiled at him. “You feel it, don’t you? The cracking. The burn. You remember things you shouldn’t. Her face. Her voice.”

He drew his blade.

“I won’t fight you,” she whispered. “But I will warn you. They’ll use her against you. Make her your test. Your leash. They’re watching.”

Then his helmet comm crackled.

Your voice. You. “Target located in the central shrine. Engaging. Requesting support.”

His blood froze. There was no central shrine. It had been demolished decades ago. This was a lure. A trap.

He ran.

When he reached you, you were surrounded — not by enemies, but by Shadows. Four of them. Newer ones. Eyes still too empty. Helms pristine. Freshly conditioned.

One of them held you down. Another drew a black blade to your throat.

You struggled silently. But your eyes locked onto his the moment he entered the ruined hall.

And then the voice of your handler spoke through your comms.

“Shadow Unit Vireon. Execute Unit Caelis. She is compromised.”

His breath caught.

“Repeat: execute Caelis. She has broken protocol. She removed her helmet. She dreams. She remembers.”

His hands trembled.

“Do it, or you both will be terminated. The others have been authorized.”

The Shadows raised their weapons.

And in that frozen instant, the weight of everything crashed down on him.

He didn’t hesitate.

He moved.