Kenji stared at the flickering holographic map on the rough table in their command centre, the old bank vault.
The main blight stronghold, the "Ministry building" as Kaito named it, throbbed with a fierce, high-pitched red.
"This is it."
He stated, his voice a low growl of grim resolve.
"Sector Gamma-9. The Blight Nexus for this entire district. If we take it out, we sever his local control. It'll buy us time, disrupt his thralls, and give us a fighting chance to expand our safe zone."
His Shadow Brand throbbed, a familiar pain, but now also a dangerous anticipation.
Kaito hunched over the holographic map. Its sickly glow lit up his face. He nodded and tapped certain points with a salvaged stylus.
"Alright, this monstrosity in Sector Gamma-9, the one that used to be the old Ministry building? It's radiating a high-frequency blight signal. It's the central nervous system for this whole district. If we can take out its core, we can disrupt their local communications and possibly weaken their thrall control. It's heavily fortified, though. Focus less on "breaking and entering"
"Punching a hole in a living, screaming wall. My scans reveal at least three layers of organic defence and many angry thralls."
His voice was tight with concentration, gestures precise as he outlined the strategy.
"We'll use the old maintenance tunnels for infiltration. They're less heavily monitored. Commander Reyes's team will create a diversion at the main entrance."
Elara, her light shining bright, looked at the map and then at the worried faces of the Resistance fighters.
"The core… It's a vortex of despair! It feels like the Blight's very consciousness is condensed here! My light… It's recoiling from the sheer weight of it! Kenji, be careful, it's not just a structure, it's a living part of him!"
Her voice was strained and almost breathless, as if she felt the heavy weight of the Nexus.
The infiltration began. They navigated the heavy darkness of the maintenance tunnels.
The air was thick with decay and ozone. Kenji led the vanguard, Shadowfang held ready, his senses honed.
His Corruption Influence meter was already spiking, reacting to the sheer density of the blight's presence.
They breached the outer defenses with a coordinated strike. Commander Reyes's team kept their promise.
They detonated charges at the main entrance of the Ministry building. This action drew the majority of the Blight's forces.
Kenji and his small, elite team – Kaito, Elara, and two skilled scouts from Reyes – sneaked into the building through a hidden entrance.
Inside, the Ministry building was a living nightmare. Walls glowed with a sickly light. Veins of blight snaked through the old marble.
The air was heavy with the growls of hidden horrors. Specialized Nexus Guardians, massive, multi-limbed constructs composed of hardened blight-armor, patrolled the corridors.
Kenji moved like a dark ghost.
His Shadow Step helped him slip past security systems turned into blight traps.
He used bursts of Dark Knight energy to create openings. His movements were precise and focused on controlling the Heart of the Eclipse.
He didn't want to unleash its full, terrifying power unless absolutely necessary.
"More guardians ahead!"
Elara's voice was clear, even if it was strained. Her Lumina light flared up, shining on the dangers around her.
She released a burst of pure energy, briefly disrupting the organic shields of a Nexus Guardian. This gave Kenji a vital opening.
She always offered support, her light shining in the dark.
She healed scouts who were injured and stopped blight-energy from reactivating disabled doors.
Kaito, meanwhile, was a whirlwind of focused intensity. He muttered a curse as he forced a salvaged bypass chip into a broken security panel, sparks flying.
"Their internal comms are linked directly to their neurological network! Disgusting! But if I can overload this relay…"
He slammed his fist onto the panel. The heavy blast door in front of me shuddered open. It revealed a darker, more corrupt part of the building.
"Got it! But we won't be able to close it behind us. One way trip, folks!"
They pushed deeper, the resistance growing fiercer.
Kenji felt an increasing pressure on his mind, a cold, focused malevolence radiating from the core of the building.
The Heart of the Eclipse throbbed in response, almost like a mirror.
Finally, they reached the Nexus Core. It was a terrifying sight. The central atrium of the Ministry building was gone.
It was replaced by a huge, throbbing mass of decay mixed with the old energy reactor. It shone with a strange green light.
From its surface, hundreds of glowing tendrils reached out.
They connected to every part of the structure and probably to the entire district's Blight Network. It was the nerve center. The heart.
As Kenji raised Shadowfang, preparing to strike, a cold, vast presence slammed into his mind.
It wasn't just a whisper; it was a voice, echoing directly in his thoughts, vast and utterly indifferent.
"Little insect. You squirm. You lash out. But you are merely a part of the greater design. Your efforts are… quaint. The Heart within you, it knows its purpose. It understands. Why resist the inevitable?"
Kenji froze for a moment. A terrifying vision flashed in his mind: Noxius's true cosmic form. A cold sweat broke out on his brow.
His body tensed, but he pushed through it. His grim resolve turned into pure fury.
His System screamed:
[Warning: Direct Conscious Manifestation Detected! Entity Awareness: MAX!]
"It's him! He's here! He's in my head!"
Kenji roared, pushing back against the mental intrusion, his eyes blazing.
"Everyone! Get ready! We hit it! Now!"
Overloading the Nexus was a desperate, chaotic symphony.
Kenji focused a huge burst of Dark Knight energy into Shadowfang, targeting the core.
The blade resonated with a terrifying hum, vibrating with raw power. Elara, straining hard, focused a bright beam of Lumina light to boost his power.
The light shone painfully against the surrounding blight. Kaito had climbed onto a shaky platform made of twisted metal.
He rushed to place shaped charges on the open interfaces of the old reactor.
"This is going to blow everything to hell! Get ready for a shockwave!"
The core pulsed erratically, shrieking with a sound that tore at their sanity.
Kenji plunged Shadowfang deep into its pulsing heart, unleashing the stored energy.
The Corruption Influence meter on his System flatlined, then flashed a fierce red, threatening to swallow him whole.
He pushed through the agony, the raw power tearing at his very being.
With a final, ear-splitting scream, the Nexus imploded. A shockwave of blight energy tore through the building.
It shattered the walls and sent debris flying. The very ground trembled. Thralls in the immediate vicinity disintegrated into dust.
Kaito leaned against a wall that was quickly falling apart. His hands still sparked from the overload.
"That's it! It's screaming! The whole damn local network just went dark! We did it! We actually did it!"
He coughed, spitting out a mouthful of acrid dust.
Elara knelt, her light shining bright even though she was exhausted. She breathed heavily as she watched the chaotic disintegration of the Nexus core.
"The silence… It's so strange. A small victory, but it tastes so good." She winced, shielding her eyes from a residual burst of energy.
Kenji stood among the crumbling ruins of the Nexus.
His body shook as the Corruption Influence meter on his System glowed a solid, terrifying red. He felt Noxius's rage as a deep tremor.
It was a cosmic roar that shook his bones, echoing the cold voice he'd heard.
He glanced at Kaito, then Elara, and finally at the chaotic thralls in the distance.
They stumbled aimlessly, their link to the Nexus cut off. He raised Shadowfang, its dark blade seeming to absorb the last vestiges of the Nexus's death throes.
"One down. Thousands more to go,"
Kenji stated, his voice hoarse, but laced with grim satisfaction.
"But this city… it just got a taste of what's coming. We're not just fighting to survive anymore. We're fighting to win."
He started to move, like a shadow in the chaos. He began the careful clean-up of the disordered thralls.
"Let's take back this district."