Ayra couldn't sleep.
She stared at the rusted ceiling of her podroom, a cramped metal capsule deep inside the Null Zone's sleeping sector. The city's night hum surrounded her — the breathing of the memory towers above, their genetic circuits pulsing with the lives of the powerful.
But she had heard a different kind of hum now.
The hum of voices not recorded in any archive. The voices of the erased.
Her fingers shook as she tapped open the interface again. It responded instantly, casting red light over her face.
[NULL CODE SYSTEM: ONLINE]
Bloodline Access: 1/7
Current Sync Rate: 12%
Active Echo: Vareth, the Sky-Burner
Trait Inherited: "Unbreakable Will"
Status: Being tracked.
She clenched her teeth.
Tracked.
That one word made her stomach twist. But the system didn't lie. It couldn't. It was inside her now, integrated with her very blood. The memory had been so vivid, so full of fury — the woman standing before a burning sky, eyes wild with power, wings of ash spreading wide behind her.
That… thing lived in Ayra's blood now.
Was she even still human?
A knock jolted her from her thoughts.
Three quick taps.
Not normal.
She silently slid from her bed and pressed her hand to the door. No answer came when she whispered, "Who is it?"
Then—
Boom!
The entire podroom exploded inward as something smashed through it — black-gloved hands, sharp plasma lines crackling through the air. Ayra rolled instinctively, barely avoiding the crushing impact of a boot. A second figure leapt in, masked, armed.
They didn't speak.
They moved like ghosts.
Her heart pounded, but something strange filled her chest — not fear, not exactly. A surge. The memory of battle that wasn't hers. Her fingers moved with someone else's skill as she ducked, twisted, then reached for a sharp fragment of metal.
Slash!
She cut one of the intruders across the shoulder. He hissed. But before she could run, a net fired—electric, sparking with blue light.
It wrapped around her body, locking her limbs.
"Target secured," one of the masked intruders said coldly.
Ayra struggled, but her muscles wouldn't listen.
"We found her faster than expected," the second murmured, touching a glowing screen. "She's synced with one of the Seven. The rumors were true."
Ayra growled. "Who… are you?"
The answer came from a small speaker in the taller one's helmet.
"We are the Hunters of the Erased. And you, girl, are a mistake."
Before she could speak, her vision blurred.
A sharp sting pricked her neck.
Then… darkness.
—
She woke up restrained.
Cold metal on her wrists, her ankles. The air smelled of chemicals and burnt ozone. A sterile room—too bright, too quiet.
The masked figures were gone.
A woman stood before her instead — tall, black-suited, eyes silver and unreadable.
"I don't understand," Ayra whispered. "What do you want from me?"
The woman didn't blink.
"You accessed a forbidden lineage. Blood that was erased. Memories that were removed for a reason. You are unstable."
"I didn't choose this."
"No one ever does," the woman said. "But the moment you awakened the Null Code, you became a threat to the Balance."
Ayra's fingers twitched. The trait of Vareth stirred.
Unbreakable Will.
Even shackled, she felt it—the iron pressure behind her bones, the fury of a queen once denied her throne.
She stared back at the woman. "You're afraid of me."
"We're afraid of what you carry," the woman said softly. "Those lineages were sealed for a reason. They destroyed cities. Erased nations. You may be one girl now. But when the others awaken…"
Ayra felt her blood chill. Others?
"There are more like me?" she asked slowly.
The woman tilted her head. "You don't know? The Null Code wasn't made for you alone. There are others… fragments scattered across Veltraxis and beyond. And if all seven awaken…"
A sudden alarm blared.
Red lights.
A voice: "Containment breach! Null signal spreading!"
The woman's face changed. "Impossible—"
Ayra didn't wait.
The interface in her vision blazed.
> Echo Surge Activated
Trait: Sky-Burner's Flame
Duration: 4 seconds
Warning: System Overload Risk: 73%
Her chains melted.
Power screamed through her skin as violet fire erupted from her palms.
The room became ash and scream and glass. She burst through the containment wall, her feet hitting the ground hard as she sprinted down unknown corridors. Guards shouted behind her.
A single word pulsed in her skull:
Run.
—
Outside.
The city lights above were dim now, early morning on the edge of waking. The towers seemed to look down at her, judging, waiting.
She didn't know where to go.
But the Null Code did.
New Mission: Locate Obelisk Two
Distance: 14.6 km
Sector: Shadowspire Wastegrounds
Status: Unstable echo signal detected
She was shaking, panting, bleeding.
But alive.
Free.
Ayra didn't look back as she vanished into the mist.
Only one thought remained.
If they're hunting the erased…
Then maybe the erased deserve to hunt back.