My Infinite System.

The world twisted, layers of reality peeling apart like rotten fabric. Lucian’s knees hit the glassy ground hard. A fire he didn’t recognize was trying to burn him from the inside out, crawling up his veins. It wasn’t his power. It felt foreign, ancient, and demanding.

Somewhere in the roaring in his ears, he heard Marc’s strained grunt and the earth-shaking impacts of Kaelis fighting the shadow-thing. But it all felt distant, drowned out by the inferno in his chest.

He couldn’t think in words, only instincts. This power—his father’s final, cruel gift—was a key trying to turn a lock deep inside him. He knew with a cold certainty that if it turned, he’d change. He’d become something else, something that might not be able to stay here, to fight. He’d be pulled away, and Marc would be left alone.

No.

The thought was a clawed thing, ripped from the core of him. He wouldn’t abandon his brother. Not again. Not for power. Not for anything.

He fought it, not with force, but with a sheer, stubborn refusal. He pictured a wall, not of stone, but of will. He pushed back against the tide, gritting his teeth until his jaw ached. The fire raged, searching for an outlet.

And then he felt it—a connection, thin and taut as a wire, thrumming between him and Marc. It had always been there, he realized, this tether of shared blood. It was a road he could use.

He didn’t ask for permission. There was no time. He just reached for that connection in his mind and shoved.

The fire inside him changed direction. It wasn’t trying to consume him anymore; it was flowing out of him, a scalding river of potential rushing down that invisible line straight into Marc.

The relief was instant and brutal. The pressure in his chest vanished, leaving him hollowed out and gasping. The world snapped back into focus.

He heard Marc then—a sharp, punched-out sound that was half pain, half shock.

Lucian looked up, pushing sweat-soaked hair from his eyes.

Marc was on his feet. The wild, green energy that usually crackled around him had changed. It was still there, a vibrant, living storm, but woven through it now was something else—a calmer, paler light, almost invisible, like heat haze on a summer road. The two powers braided together, not fighting, but merging. The air around Marc thickened, reality itself seeming to bend to his quiet command.

The Hunter, still trying to reform, lunged.

Marc didn’t even look at it. He just lifted a hand.

The creature froze mid-air, trapped not in ice, but in the very concept of space. It struggled, a fly in amber, as Marc’s new, layered power pressed down, compressing it, forcing its shadowy form into a tighter and tighter knot.

Kaelis, his golden scales gleaming under the strange sky, gave a low, approving rumble and took a step back. The fight was over. This was a execution.

Lucian pushed himself upright, his legs shaky. His weapon was cool in his hand. He saw Reia, Evelyn, and Silas sprinting from the Nova Sanctum, their faces etched with worry and awe.

”Lucian! Are you—?” Reia called out.

”I’m here,” he managed, his voice rough. ”Stay back.”

”Way ahead of you,” Silas muttered, his eyes wide as he took in the scene of Marc casually dismantling a cosmic horror.

The Hunter gave one last, desperate shudder, trying to phase into nothingness.

Marc simply closed his fist.

There was no sound. The Hunter didn’t explode. It unraveled, its form dissolving into motes of black dust that were then scattered on a wind that hadn’t been blowing a second before. It was simply... erased.

A heavy silence fell over the shattered plain.

Marc finally turned. His eyes, usually a sharp green, now held flecks of that same pale, calm light. He looked at Lucian, and for a long moment, neither of them spoke. The air was thick with everything left unsaid between them—the lost years, the separate pains, and now, this.

”Thanks,” Marc said finally, the word simple and heavy.

Lucian just gave a short nod. ”Don’t mention it.”

Reia was already at work, a scanner in her hand. ”I’m reading the energy signature of whatever controlled that thing. It’s faint, but it’s a pattern. If another one comes, we’ll know.”

Evelyn came to Lucian’s side, her gaze searching his face. ”You look like hell.”

”I feel it,” he admitted. He looked up at the sky, where the tear his father had ripped was already healing. Lucy was out there. He could still feel the faint, violet echo of her presence, fading like a forgotten dream. ”He took her and ran.”

Kaelis’s voice was a deep vibration through the ground. ”He has what he came for. A awakened daughter. He will now seek to perfect her. To make her his instrument.”

”Then we find them faster,” Lucian said, his voice hardening. He looked at his team. ”Reia, I want you to trace that pattern until you can predict it. Evelyn, start planning. I want options, tricks, anything that gives us an edge. Silas, get the Sanctum ready for a long hunt. Vyn, you’re our eyes. Watch for things the rest of us can’t see.”

He turned to the immense dragon. ”Kaelis. If more of those Hunters show up...”

Kaelis bared teeth that could shred moons. ”They will find my appetite... considerable.”

Lucian allowed himself one last look at the empty sky where his sister had been. The hollow feeling from the transferred power was gone, replaced by a cold, solid purpose.

He met Marc’s gaze again and saw the same resolve reflected back, now forged with a new, terrifying strength.

”Let’s go get her,” Lucian said.

And as the engines of the Nova Sanctum whined to life behind them, the only sound left was the wind whispering over the scars of their battle.

A/N

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