Zero’s Hunt ContinuesThe world was breaking.I could feel it in my bones, see it in the cracks forming around me.Street signs flickered, shifting between names I didn’t recognize. A woman in a red coat crossed the street, only to appear back on the sidewalk seconds later, trapped in a loop that shouldn’t exist. Cars rolled by with an eerie smoothness, their tires barely touching the pavement. I turned to look at a shop window, but my reflection wasn’t right—too slow, too delayed like it wasn’t just a reflection at all but something watching me back.I exhaled sharply, pressing my palm against my temple. Focus. I had been running for what felt like hours, but I couldn’t stop now. Not with the way reality itself was shifting around me, bending to the will of something unseen. The Overseers were tightening their grip. I was out of time.And I wasn’t alone.That cold, creeping sensation crawled up my spine—the feeling of being watched.I turned just as a blur of black moved at an imposs

The Turning PointThe alley was empty except for the distant hum of traffic beyond the concrete walls. A single flickering streetlight cast distorted shadows across the cracked pavement. My heart pounded, but this time, I didn’t run.I had run before. Fought. Escaped. None of it worked.This time, I had to stand my ground.A gust of cold air rushed past, carrying the scent of rain and asphalt. Then, I felt it—the shift in the air, the silent predator in the dark.He was here.I tightened my grip on the gun at my side, but I didn’t raise it. Not yet.Footsteps, light as a whisper, echoed through the alley. A shadow detached from the darkness, moving with the lethal grace of a machine honed for one purpose.Zero.His mask gleamed under the dim light, the sleek black visor reflecting nothing. His stance was unreadable—still, patient, like a wolf sizing up its prey.But I wasn’t prey. Not tonight.His voice, cold and stripped of humanity, cut through the silence. “You don’t run.”I forced

The Final Confrontation with ZeroThe ruins of the city loomed around me, twisted metal and shattered concrete stretching into the distance like the bones of a dead giant.I moved carefully, my pulse hammering in my ears. He was here.Zero didn’t make mistakes. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t leave unfinished work. And I was unfinished work.I gripped the memory key tighter in my palm. One shot. That’s all I had.A flicker in the distance.I spun—too late.Something slammed into my side with the force of a battering ram. My ribs cracked, pain exploding through my chest as I flew backward. The world tilted, and then I hit the ground hard, rolling through the rubble.Damn it. Too fast.I barely had time to lift my head before Zero was on me.His boot crashed down toward my face. I rolled, gasping through the pain, and scrambled to my feet. His mask gleamed under the dim city lights, a cold and unfeeling specter.“You never stop running, Tony.”His voice was as smooth as ever, but there wa

The Fragmented TruthZero was breaking apart. And so was I.The air shimmered with distortion, a fractured illusion collapsing in on itself. The ground beneath my feet wasn’t stable, wasn’t real—cracks rippled through the concrete like the city itself was trying to reject what was happening.And in the center of it all, Zero knelt on the ground, his entire body flickering like a corrupted file.His face twisted, shifting between his own features and something else. Something familiar.Something I had seen in mirrors my whole life.The breath hitched in my throat. My pulse pounded in my ears like war drums.This wasn’t possible.It wasn’t.A slow, rhythmic clap echoed through the ruined sector.And then, she appeared.Kane.She stepped through the distortion, effortlessly graceful, her silver coat billowing slightly as the corrupted wind howled around her. The chaos didn’t touch her. It never did.She stopped a few feet away from me, arms crossed, her sharp gaze locked onto mine. There

The Impossible ChoiceThe world was collapsing.Reality flickered, breaking apart in jagged bursts of static. Buildings unraveled into glowing dust. The ground beneath my feet cracked, revealing an endless void stretching into nothingness. The system was finishing its purge, erasing everything—everyone—that didn’t belong.I had seconds.And one impossible choice.Zero—Elias—was on his knees in front of me, his body trembling under the weight of memories fighting their way back into his fractured mind. His hands clutched his head as if trying to hold himself together. His breathing was ragged and uneven, the sound of a man on the edge of breaking.But I saw it.He was still there.The system hadn’t fully erased him. It had twisted him, rewritten him, but deep down, Elias wasn’t gone.That meant I could save him.But saving him meant risking everything.I could feel it now, a pressure in my skull, a whisper crawling through my mind like a virus. The system wasn’t just purging this secto