Eclipse Protocol

Chapter Three: Fracture Point

"Ward-Nulls," Azure said, blades flicking open with a hungry hiss. "Eternal Ward's lab grunts. They learn mid-fight."

"Cute," Crimson murmured, drawing her crimson daggers. "Let's teach them the wrong lesson."

The first Null lunged. Nyctarion met it with a low step and a rake of vibro-claws. Sparks cascaded. The second adapted, catching his wrist and twisting with surgical cleanliness. Nyctarion flowed with it, boots magnetizing to a support strut as he inverted and kicked the Null through a railing.

Umbros purred. "Uploading a present. Leaving a turd in their nervous net."

"Make it stink," Kalen said.

Violet code flared across three Null spines. They shuddered, jerked... then their gait corrected, smoother, faster.

"Bad news," Umbros said brightly. "They like the taste of me."

Azure crashed into the line like a faultline breaking, after-images peeling away from him and striking a heartbeat before he did. Resonant Strikes cratered carapace. The Nulls recalibrated, modeling his timing, closing windows as if the future were a spreadsheet.

Crimson wove through them-no wasted effort, no flourish. Kunai kissed a spine, a wrist, a throat. A Null froze mid-step, then toppled like a marionette with its strings cut.

"North wall," she said. "Power conduit, disguised as a prayer script."

Nyctarion followed her sightline. The red lattice converged through a mural of etched sigils: not worship, wiring.

"Fracture Array," Azure said. "He's mapping the city's stress lines. Learning where to break it... and us."

The chamber hummed, low and predatory. A voice drifted from above, almost cheerful, almost kind.

"Do keep moving. My models plateau without new variables."

Nyctarion's shoulders tightened. "Madix."

A small figure stepped onto a catwalk a dozen meters up, hands tucked into olive research gear, eyepatch matte, smile immaculate. He hummed a bar of something classical and flicked a brass switch with theatrical restraint.

Nulls opened to form lanes, not for retreat-for her.

She came like a knife in silk.

Azara Nihrix walked the aisle in violet-black armor that drank the light, Whisper Blades unfurling from her wrists with a whisper that felt like the room exhaling. Gold eyes, steady. Void Step-twenty feet-she was simply elsewhere, after-image smearing like an oil slick.

Crimson didn't flinch. "Of course it's you."

"You chose freedom," Azara said, voice even, almost tender. "I chose destiny."

Azure slid between them, blades low. "We're busy."

Azara didn't look at him. "You're always busy, dying."

Umbros clicked his tongue. "Request: fewer exes, more exits."

"Denied," Nyctarion said, and moved.

They collided-Crimson and Azara-as if the air were a drum. The first trade was razor-thin: meteor-forged dagger against phased energy, both refusing to be where the other expected. Crimson redirected, stepped through, flicked a neurotoxin kiss toward Azara's hip. Void Step. Miss. A shadow bind rippled under Crimson's feet, her outline dragged and nailed to concrete for a heartbeat too long.

Nyctarion hit the bind with a sonic pulse. The Silent Roar fractured the tether, speakers screaming, Nulls stuttering. Azure took the gap, after-images folding into a single brutal angle-Resonant Strike aimed at Azara's core.