Chapter 10 – The Pulse Beneath the Iron Veins
1050 Words
The night over Blackspire City felt wrong—too still, too polished, like someone had wiped the sky clean of chaos. Leth walked along the suspended steel bridge that arched above the industrial trenches, boots clinking softly. Every step echoed like a countdown he wished he could ignore.
The city’s neon veins pulsed beneath him, synchronized in a rhythm too deliberate to be natural. It reminded him of the Blood Engine embedded in his spine: a heartbeat that didn’t belong to him, whispering power with every beat.
He hated how familiar the whisper had become.
Ahead, a silhouette leaned on the railing. Mira. Her white mechanical cloak fluttered in the cold wind, the edges humming with micro-servos. She looked like a ghost sculpted out of electricity.
“You’re late,” she said without turning.
“And you worry too much,” Leth replied, though he already knew she had every reason to worry. The Bloodforge Syndicate had doubled its patrols since the incident at the Core Vault. Someone had tipped them off. Someone inside their circle.
Mira finally faced him. Her eyes—silver-irised with faint cracks of crimson—studied him too intently. “Leth… the Engine is changing you faster than we thought.”
He shrugged. “Everything changes me faster than I want. Not news.”
“This is different.” She stepped closer, lowering her voice. “Your vitals are showing unstable spikes. You’re absorbing something that isn’t supposed to be compatible with human tissue.”
Leth smirked. “Who said I’m still human?”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
Before he could respond, a deafening metallic roar erupted in the distance. The bridge vibrated under their feet. From the far end, a squadron of Syndicate Hunters emerged—towering exo-frames with serrated limbs glowing red-hot. Their sensors swept in synchronized arcs.
Mira cursed under her breath. “They shouldn’t be this close.”
“They’re not here to search,” Leth said, his voice dropping. “They’re here for me.”
The Hunters charged.
Leth’s body reacted before his thoughts caught up. The Blood Engine flared, sending a burning ripple along his spine. His right arm split open along its plated seams, transforming into the crimson blade forged from living metal—his signature, the thing that made people whisper his name like a warning.
He hated how natural it felt.
The first Hunter lunged. Leth met the strike head-on, sliding beneath its blade and severing its knee joints in a single arc. The machine collapsed with a scream of tearing steel. Another Hunter fired a shockwave cannon. Mira leapt, cloak expanding into a kinetic barrier that shattered on impact, sending ripples through the air.
“You said you wouldn’t use the Engine unless necessary!” Mira yelled, voice strained.
“This is necessary!”
Leth dashed forward, carving a burning red path through the attackers. But each attack strained him—heat crawled up his throat, vision flickering with red static. Every time his blade struck metal, he felt something inside him grow hungrier.
When the last Hunter fell, severed wires sparking at his feet, Leth dropped to one knee. He swallowed a gasp as the Blood Engine clawed at his consciousness, demanding more fuel, more destruction.
Mira rushed to him. “Leth! Hey—look at me.”
His pupils flickered between human and something else.
She gripped his shoulders. “You’re still in control. Breathe.”
After a moment, the red haze faded. Leth exhaled shakily.
But Mira wasn’t relieved. She was terrified.
She whispered, “There’s something you need to know… The Syndicate isn’t trying to capture you anymore. They’ve marked you as a Phase Trigger.”
He froze. “A what.”
“A catalyst. The Engine inside you—if it overloads, it could activate the dormant cores under the entire city. It would rewrite everything: machines, flesh, the ecosystem. Blackspire wouldn’t survive the transformation.”
Leth stared at her, body suddenly cold despite the heat radiating from the Engine.
“And you waited until now to tell me?”
“I didn’t know how,” she said, voice shaking. “I was scared you’d run. Or worse—accept it.”
Silence tightened around them like a vice.
Then Leth laughed—not out of humor, but disbelief. “So basically, if I lose control once, the world ends.”
Mira didn’t deny it.
The wind pushed against them, carrying the distant alarm sirens. The city was waking up to the battle they had just unleashed.
Leth rose to his feet. His blade receded, metal folding back into his arm.
“Then we don’t let that happen,” he said.
Mira frowned. “Leth… the Engine is evolving on its own. It’s learning you. Bonding with you. It may not want to be stopped.”
“Good,” he said. “Because neither do I.”
Her eyes widened—not in fear, but in reluctant admiration. “You always say things like that right before something explodes.”
“And yet you still follow me.”
“Someone has to make sure the world doesn’t end because you got emotional.”
The sirens grew louder.
A new glow appeared far below the bridge: a spherical pulse of deep red, rising from the undercity. Leth stiffened. “That’s not us.”
“No,” Mira whispered. “That’s the Syndicate’s Core Reactor. They’re starting the awakening sequence.”
He clenched his fists. The Blood Engine trembled inside him, resonating with the pulse.
“They’re trying to force me to trigger,” Leth murmured. “They’ll use the whole city as leverage.”
Mira stepped closer. “Then we break the sequence before they finish.”
“And if the Engine reacts again?”
“I’ll handle it,” she said firmly. “No matter what it takes.”
He looked at her, trying to read the unspoken promise behind her words. She looked away too quickly.
“Mira… what aren’t you telling me?”
She hesitated.
Then the bridge shook violently—an explosion erupted beneath them, tearing apart the supports. The world lurched sideways as the structure collapsed.
Leth grabbed Mira’s hand as they plummeted toward the burning red glow below.
The awakening had already begun.
- Writer
