Zeraphine
She found the bounty by accident.
It wasn't flagged in her official Observer feed—it was too deep, embedded in an encrypted Syndicate-side sublayer not meant to be indexed by Concordium surveillance.
But someone had messed up. An echo bled into the neutral merchant chain.
And the name blinked.
Sykaion Kairo – Kill Authorization: Absolute
Issuer: Red Ledger Syndicate
Execution Agent: Killmark
Timeline: Active
She froze, breath catching in her throat.
Killmark wasn't a name. It was a finality. A symbol.
He didn't hunt targets.
He closed files.
"System," she whispered, pulling open her Concordium override panel, "override local protocols. Emergency Field Intervention."
> Access Denied.
Observer Class Restricted from Interference.
Penalty: Memory Reformat.
Concordium Protocol §44.B: Let value extinguish itself.
She stared at the words.
Then shut them.
And ran.
---
Sykaion
The world ended with a bell.
Not a loud one—soft, distant. Like the sound of a single copper coin dropped into a forgotten wishing well.
He was sitting on the rooftop of the half-destroyed Risk Shop, watching data-moons crawl across the sprawl. Arlyss slept below. His Coin pulsed faintly on his palm, still cracked. Still burning.
And then the bell rang.
> [ALERT: System Interruption Detected – Non-Registered Force Entering Thread]
Defensive Options: Disabled
Combat Permissions: NULL
Advice: Run.
He stood.
The sky fractured.
Out of the clouds stepped a man in a debtcloak made of human promises—each one flickering across his back in ghostlight. His face… changed with every second, shaped by regret, by fear, by expectation.
Killmark.
He didn't walk. He arrived. The way a foreclosure does. The way an ending does.
"You are out of alignment," the figure said.
His voice was nothing. Not deep, not high. Just precise.
"You are accumulating belief faster than the System can counterbalance. That creates unrest. That creates faith."
Sykaion didn't answer.
Because part of him already knew—
This was death.
---
Zeraphine
She leapt through the final market seal just as the air in Veltrin screamed.
The rooftops were lit by reverse fire: flame that froze, light that dimmed.
She saw Sykaion standing, bare-handed.
She saw Killmark step forward.
And she screamed his name—
"SYKAION!"
---
Sykaion
The first blow wasn't a strike.
It was extraction.
Killmark pointed a single finger.
And the entire shop below collapsed—its very concept erased. No fire. No sound. Just gone.
Memories fled from Sykaion's body. Childhood. Hunger. Arlyss's smile—
He screamed, holding his skull as the Coin cracked further.
> [Phantom Feather Response: Unstable]
Warning: Risk Pool at Critical Saturation
Emergency Authority Option: UNLOCKED
Label: Debt Reversal Gambit
Cost: Future Self
"Do it," he whispered. "Whatever it takes—DO IT."
The Coin split.
A new feather burst from his chest, black and gold, spiraling with numbers not yet earned.
He launched forward—
—just as Killmark moved.
---
The battlefield twisted. Every step became a recalculation.
Killmark fought in extractions—pulling memories, futures, and financial alignment directly from Sykaion's form. Every touch wasn't pain. It was undoing.
But Sykaion… fought like a man who owed everyone something.
He struck not with weapons, but with promises made—activating phantom contracts of hope he'd collected from his Risk Shop.
Each time he screamed, a memory from someone else ignited in the air.
A woman who remembered her child.
A man who remembered his name.
A boy who remembered why he hadn't quit.
These became his shield.
---
Zeraphine
She activated her emergency protocol. Burned the memory lock. Unleashed a Class-S Signature flare.
Her Concordium tag burst open.
But she didn't care.
She ran into the storm of symbols and tearing timelines—
Just as Killmark drove a hand through Sykaion's chest.
Not blood.
Not flesh.
The Coin shattered.
Sykaion's body lit up like an exploding debt engine.
And then—
Darkness.
---
All across Veltrin Sprawl…
Memory contracts collapsed.
Faith values crashed.
And a ripple echoed through the Mercy Weave.
One word.
Sykaion.
---
To be continued in Chapter 14…