Chapter 13 013

The secure northern facility was locked down within ninety seconds of the alert.

Nyxor moved like a shadow across the rooftop, pistol in hand, night-vision goggles activated. Snow fell heavily, reducing visibility, but he could feel them — the new enemy — closing in.

“Vesper, status?” he whispered into the comm.

“Perimeter breached on the east wing. Three… no, five hostiles. They’re ghosts, my King. Almost no thermal signature.”

Elara’s worried voice cut in. “Nyxor, please be careful. Aunt Selene is scared.”

“Stay in the panic room,” he ordered. “Do not come out until I say so.”

Below, in the medical wing, Elara helped move Aunt Selene into the reinforced panic room while elite guards took positions at every corridor.

Nyxor dropped silently from the rooftop onto a lower balcony. That was when he saw the first one.

A Veilwarden.

The figure stood motionless in the snow on the opposite building — tall, clad in matte-black armor with faint purple neural veins glowing beneath the surface. A full-face mask with a single glowing white slit for a visor. No heat signature. Almost no sound.

It wasn’t human anymore.

The Veilwarden raised its arm. A suppressed weapon unfolded from its forearm with a mechanical click.

Thwip. Thwip. Thwip.

Three needles hissed through the snow toward Nyxor’s position.

He rolled behind cover just as the needles embedded in the concrete, releasing a hissing corrosive acid that melted through steel in seconds.

“Enhanced operatives confirmed,” Nyxor growled. “They’re using experimental tech.”

Two more Veilwardens appeared on adjacent rooftops, moving with unnatural speed and silence. One leaped across a thirty-meter gap without a sound, landing gracefully on Nyxor’s building.

Nyxor opened fire.

His bullets struck the Warden’s chest — and sparked off advanced armor plating. The figure barely flinched.

It countered instantly.

The Veilwarden blurred forward, faster than any normal soldier. A blade extended from its wrist with a sharp shing. Nyxor barely dodged as the blade sliced through the air where his throat had been.

He countered with a brutal punch to the helmet. The impact dented the mask, but the Warden grabbed his arm with inhuman strength and slammed him into the wall.

Concrete cracked.

Nyxor drove his knee into the Warden’s midsection, then headbutted the visor. The mask cracked. For the first time, he saw a glimpse of cold, augmented eyes.

“Impressive,” a distorted synthetic voice came from the Warden. “But you are still flesh.”

It activated a pulse emitter. A wave of electromagnetic force slammed into Nyxor, momentarily disrupting his balance and comms.

Two more Wardens dropped onto the rooftop, surrounding him.

Down below, the east wing erupted into chaos.

Four Veilwardens breached the outer defenses. Facility guards opened fire, but the Wardens moved like phantoms — dodging bullets, using wrist-mounted energy shields, and returning fire with needle rounds that paralyzed on contact.

One guard went down screaming as neurotoxin spread through his body.

“Elara!” Nyxor roared through the static-filled comms as he fought. “Stay hidden!”

He exploded into motion against the three Wardens.

He grabbed one by the helmet and smashed its head into the rooftop edge repeatedly until the visor shattered completely. The second Warden stabbed at his back — Nyxor twisted at the last second, letting the blade graze his ribs, then snapped the attacker’s arm and drove the blade into its own throat.

The third Warden fired a grappling hook that wrapped around Nyxor’s leg, yanking him off balance. It charged with a powered fist.

Nyxor rolled with the momentum, used the cable to pull the Warden toward him, and delivered a devastating elbow strike that caved in the side of its helmet.

All three lay broken on the rooftop.

But more were coming.

Vesper’s voice finally broke through the static. “My King! They’ve reached the medical wing! We’re engaging!”

Nyxor sprinted toward the edge of the building and leaped down, crashing through a window into the facility’s third floor. He rolled to his feet and sprinted down the corridor, blood trailing behind him.

Two Veilwardens were advancing on the panic room door, cutting through guards with terrifying efficiency.

“Get away from that door!” Nyxor bellowed.

He opened fire as he ran. One Warden turned and unleashed a barrage of needle rounds. Nyxor weaved through them, closing the distance in a blur. He tackled the first Warden into the wall, then used its body to smash the second one to the ground.

He finished them with precise shots to the cracked visors — the only vulnerable points he had identified.

The corridor fell silent except for the groans of wounded guards.

Nyxor kicked open the remains of the panic room entrance.

Elara and Aunt Selene were pressed against the far wall. Elara had a pistol in her hands, aimed at the door, her arms shaking but steady.

The moment she saw him, she dropped the gun and ran into his arms.

“You’re bleeding again…” she whispered, clutching him tightly.

“It’s nothing,” Nyxor said, holding her close while checking Selene. His aunt was pale but unharmed.

Vesper burst in moments later with reinforcements. “The perimeter is secured for now. We killed seven Veilwardens. They retreated, but this was clearly a test run.”

Nyxor’s expression was murderous. “They tested us. Now we test them.”

He looked down at Elara, gently wiping a smudge of dirt from her cheek.

“You held your ground,” he said with quiet pride. “I’m sorry you had to.”

“I’m not,” she replied, voice small but firm. “I won’t be helpless anymore.”

Later, in the war room, the full scale of the new threat became clear.

Kael projected the data. “The Veil Syndicate has activated a Tier-One protocol. They’re sending the First Warden — their strongest enforcer. A near-mythical figure. Enhanced with full neural integration. They want your sister alive… and you broken.”

Nyxor stared at the new holographic image — a towering figure in darker, more advanced armor with glowing purple veins.

“Let him come,” Nyxor said, voice like winter death.

He turned to Elara and Selene, who had been brought into the briefing.

“This new enemy is stronger than Seraphine,” he admitted. “But they made the same mistake she did.”

He placed a hand on Elara’s shoulder.

“They came after my family.”