I barely have time to process the voice in my head before the alarms scream through the facility.
A deep red light floods the room. Emergency lockdown.
Dr. Bao and Dr. Lynn freeze. Their wide eyes tell me everything—this isn’t a drill.
Then the ground shakes. Not a violent explosion, not an earthquake—just a single, heavy impact. Like something massive just landed right on top of us.
I push myself off the cot. “That’s him, isn’t it?” My voice is quiet, but inside, my heartbeat pounds.
Lynn swipes at the control panel on the wall, pulling up security feeds. The monitors flicker to life. Outside, in the facility’s main courtyard, stands a single figure.
Not an army.
Just one.
A dark shape silhouetted against the floodlights. Tall—inhumanly tall—wrapped in obsidian-black armor with no visible features except for two glowing slits where eyes should be.
He doesn’t move.
Just…stands there.
Waiting.
Dr. Bao leans forward, adjusting his glasses. “Impossible…”
Lynn tightens her grip on the console. “They didn’t send a fleet…” she mutters. “They sent a damn Harbinger.”
The lights flicker.
The cameras cut to static.
A voice, layered and distorted, rumbles through the comms system— but it doesn’t come from the speakers.
It comes from inside our heads.
“Yuri Takahashi. Step forward.”
The words slice through my mind like a knife.
For a second, I swear I feel something else stir inside me.
Something older.
Like a memory that isn’t mine.
A name whispers in the back of my skull.
Noctis.
The Unrelenting.
I don’t know how I know it. It just appears, as if my body already understands something my mind hasn’t caught up to yet.
I stagger back, gripping my head.
What the hell was that?!
The feeling is gone almost instantly. Like water slipping through my fingers.
Dr. Lynn notices my reaction. “Yuri?”
I shake my head, trying to focus. “It’s… nothing.”
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But it’s not nothing.
The name echoes in my brain, like it was always there, waiting for me to remember.
And I don’t like what it means.
Because something tells me…
Noctis isn’t the only one.
I can’t breathe.
The figure stands in the center of the chamber. Eight feet tall. His armor is impossibly smooth, reflecting the red emergency lights like liquid metal. No mouth. No face. Just those slits of burning white light where his eyes should be.
His hands flicker.
Like they’re shifting between two realities at once.
Then, his head tilts toward me.
I hear his voice inside my skull.
“You are not ready. You are incomplete.”
I try again.
I squeeze my fists, grit my teeth, and will myself to transform.
Nothing.
I force it, reaching for the feeling, trying to command it—
But my body doesn’t change.
Noctis watches, as if amused.
I charge at him anyway.
I throw a punch—fast.
He doesn’t block it.
He vanishes.
Not teleports. Not dodges. He just isn’t there anymore.
Then—
Pain explodes in my ribs as I’m sent flying into the wall.
I gasp. I can’t even tell if he hit me. It was too fast.
I roll to my feet, just in time to see him raise a flickering hand.
I duck—just barely.
His hand passes through the wall behind me—**PHASES THROUGH IT—**and the entire wall melts away into nothingness.
What. The. Hell.
I swing again—wild, desperate.
He glides back without moving his legs.
Then—his hand flickers toward me again.
I brace—
But suddenly—
I see it.
A second before it happens.
The understanding comes back.
I dodge.
The attack misses—barely.
I twist—counter—and for the first time in this entire fight—
I hit him.
It’s not a hard punch.
But it lands.
And for a split second—
Noctis pauses.
He tilts his head.
The red lights flicker. The hum of the facility dims.
Then, without a word—
He steps back.
A deep, static-laced hum fills the air, and suddenly, a projection flickers to life above him.
The room darkens.
And then—
A face appears.
Golden eyes. Silver skin. A crown of jagged obsidian.
Even through the hologram, his presence feels overwhelming.
His voice rumbles, layered with power.
"Yuri Takahashi… you killed my father."
The weight of the words slams into me.
Akunon.
I feel my breath catch.
He stares at me through the projection, expression unreadable.
"I will not make the same mistakes he did."
The flickering light of the hologram shifts, forming a procession of figures.
Not Noctis.
More like him.
Different shapes, different forms. All shrouded in darkness, their eyes glowing with alien light.
"This was merely a test."
Akunon’s voice is steady. Cold. Calculated.
"Noctis was the first. He will not be the last."
My stomach tightens.
"Each Harbinger I send will learn from the last. Each one will push you further. Break you down. Until the day we meet."
The projection flickers.
"And when that day comes, you will not surprise me. You will not stand a chance."
His golden eyes burn into mine.
"Because when we meet, I will already know exactly how to destroy you."
The projection vanishes.
Noctis doesn’t move for a long moment.
Then, with a final static-laced hum, he begins to fade.
Not teleport.
Not run.
Fade.
Like he was never really here.
The lights flicker back to full power. The alarms stop.
And just like that—
he’s gone.
I stand there, breathing hard.
The facility is in shambles.
Soldiers, scientists—everyone looks shell-shocked.
Dr. Bao pulls himself to his feet, adjusting his shattered glasses. “He… left?”
Dr. Lynn kneels beside me, gripping my shoulder. “Yuri… what did he say to you?”
I swallow. My entire body is shaking.
I don’t have the words to explain it.
But I force them out anyway.
“They’re coming,” I whisper. "And next time, it won’t just be him."
I glance at my hands. Still human. Still powerless.
And for the first time since this started—
I wonder if I’ll even make it to the end.
TO BE CONTINUED…
