Grid: Omnipotence Series

Issue #4: In The Shadows

Mara Leto, the old Resilience leader, pulled Cassiel aside. "Keep your people together, girl. If he breaks us without firing a shot, he wins."

Cassiel's optics narrowed. "Then we bleed together until we've got no blood left."

"Good," Mara rasped. "That's how rebellions are supposed to sound."

Nocturnal stood apart, silent, listening. Inside his skull, Pancho whispered: "They're right to fear. He's already inside us. He watches through their eyes."

⸻

Chapter 13 — False Leads

They tried to bait him again.

Nocturnal left marks in the alleys—fake insignias carved with precision, data trails planted into abandoned terminals, whispers seeded among civilians.

Three nights later, all their traps detonated at once. Crows brought flash charges to every decoy site, as if mocking them. The only casualty was a scavenger who had been too curious.

Cassiel stared at the maps afterward, fists clenched on the table. "He knows when we're lying. He's in our planning before we are."

Nocturnal leaned back, visor dim. "Then he's watching me. Not you. The Grid's where he tracks my movements."

Pancho chittered softly: "He's already turned your shadow into a map."

⸻

Chapter 14 — Fractures in the Night

Resilience patrols began refusing night duty. Some swore the crows followed them in flocks too quiet for birds. One fighter claimed he saw a man-shaped shadow crouching on the roof, half a skull glowing faint white.

They dragged him back screaming; his neck bore faint alloy scratches, too precise for claws.

Cassiel gathered her best and made them walk the stronghold all night, torches burning bright. "If he comes for us, he'll have to show his face," she growled.

But the hunter never appeared. Only his mark—scratched into the wall above Cassiel's bunk by dawn.

She didn't sleep after that.

⸻

Chapter 15 — Remnant in the Grid

In the meantime, Remnant walked the Grid as though it were his true home.

The black metallic plain stretched endless. The white sky glared above, wires dangling like veins. Here, his three lives sang louder; here, the secondary code in his skull resonated with the Architect's presence.

He saw the god not as form but as movement through reality—a distortion that bent the white sky when it passed, like a hand pushing through cloth.

He followed, always just behind, always at the edge of the hum.

The crows darted through impossible corridors, carrying fragments of code back to him. Through them, he learned pieces of the Architect's will:
• Build. Burn. Repeat.
• Shadows must kneel.
• The city is scaffolding. The Grid is the cathedral.

Each night he returned to the waking city, leaving hints for Nocturnal and Cassiel. Each time sharper, closer, more deliberate.

The hunt was tightening.

⸻

Chapter 16 — The Cracks Show

The Resilience's confidence began to fray.

Two strongholds refused to send aid to the Markets, claiming the insignia attacks never reached them. Another accused Cassiel of provoking the hunter. Even Mara Leto admitted privately: "One shadow is breaking us worse than Orion ever did."