Chapter 4: First Blood on a New World

The Nexus Corporation's warehouse squatted in Boston's industrial district like a concrete tumor, its facade deliberately unremarkable. Chain-link fencing topped with razor wire surrounded a loading dock where trucks came and went at all hours, their cargo invisible behind tinted windows and corporate NDAs.

Leo hunched over his laptop in the passenger seat of their stolen sedan, parked three blocks away with a clear view of the facility. The geometric patterns in his screen's corners had evolved over the past six hours, becoming more complex, more... aware. They pulsed in rhythm with Daelan's breathing, as if the device had become some kind of technological extension of the Avatar's power.

"Security cameras are on a closed loop," Leo reported, his fingers dancing across keys that sparked slightly at his touch. "But there's something weird about their network architecture. Look at this."

Daelan leaned closer, his ember eyes reflecting the screen's glow. The proximity made Leo's skin crawl with static electricity, but the laptop remained stable within what they'd started calling the "interface radius."

"Explain," Daelan commanded.

"Standard corporate network would have maybe fifty, sixty connected devices. Computers, phones, security systems." Leo highlighted sections of code that scrolled past like digital waterfalls. "This place has over three hundred active connections, and half of them are running protocols I've never seen before."

In the corner of Daelan's vision, his System provided helpful annotations:

Analysis: Probability 94% - Thaumic-digital hybrid network Warning: Magically enhanced security systems likely Recommendation: Infiltration approach modified for supernatural countermeasures

"They're using magic to enhance their technology," Daelan said with something approaching respect. "Clever. Whoever runs this operation understands both worlds."

Leo's screen flickered, displaying building schematics that definitely weren't in any public database. "I can get you inside, but after that, you're on your own. Their internal systems are... aggressive."

Daelan studied the layout. Three main sections: administrative offices on the ground floor, storage and processing in the basement levels, and what the schematics unhelpfully labeled as "Special Projects" on the second floor.

Mission Update: Information Gathering Primary Target: Special Projects level Secondary Target: Administrative databases Warning: Civilian casualties will reduce power efficiency

"Stay here," Daelan said, already moving toward the door. "Monitor communications. If hunters arrive—"

"We run," Leo finished. "Got it."

But Daelan paused, his hand on the door handle. "No. If hunters arrive, you leave me and escape. Your survival is more important than mine."

Leo stared at him. "That's... actually kind of decent of you."

Daelan's smile was sharp. "Don't mistake pragmatism for compassion. I need you functional, not traumatized by witnessing what I'm about to do."

The Avatar stepped out into the Boston night, and Leo watched through the car's windows as shadows seemed to reach out and embrace him. One moment Daelan was there, solid and threatening. The next, he was gone, as if darkness itself had swallowed him whole.

Shadow Step Activated

Daelan materialized inside the warehouse perimeter, the System's enhanced stealth capabilities carrying him past sensors that should have detected any living presence. The ability felt natural now, as if Hell had burned away everything unnecessary and left only the tools of survival.

The loading dock was empty, but Daelan's enhanced senses detected the lingering traces of recent activity. Not just human—something else. Something that smelled of copper and ozone and the particular staleness that came from beings who weren't entirely mortal.

He approached the main entrance, where a card reader blinked red beside a reinforced steel door. A normal infiltrator would need specialized equipment, hours of preparation, or significant technical expertise.

Daelan placed his palm against the reader and whispered a word in the old tongue.

The device didn't just unlock—it melted, its plastic casing flowing like water as its electronic components fused into abstract sculpture. The door's magnetic locks disengaged with a soft click.

New Ability Demonstrated: Technological Disruption Note: Hell-forged energy interferes with complex electronics Tactical Application: Security systems vulnerable to direct contact

The lobby was generic corporate blandness—fake plants, motivational posters, a reception desk that looked like it belonged in any office building in America. But Daelan's otherworldly senses detected the lies woven into every surface. Protective wards had been carved into the walls and painted over. The floor tiles concealed pressure sensors that measured more than weight. And the air itself hummed with surveillance spells that would have made a medieval inquisitor proud.

None of it was designed to stop something like him.

Daelan moved through the ground floor with predatory efficiency, his presence disrupting electronic systems and causing magical wards to flicker and fail. The elevators were protected by both keycard access and what felt like a minor binding spell, but his touch reduced the security panel to slag.

The Special Projects level revealed itself as something far more interesting than corporate storage. The hallway was lined with doors bearing warnings in multiple languages, including several that predated most human civilizations. Through reinforced windows, Daelan glimpsed laboratories where figures in hazmat suits worked with materials that glowed with their own internal light.

Intelligence Gathering: High-value targets identified Subjects appear to be conducting experiments with divine essence Warning: Potential connection to God-King assassination confirmed

One room contained what looked like a fragment of crystallized starlight, suspended in a containment field that made reality shimmer around its edges. Another held a pool of liquid that reflected not the ceiling, but some other sky entirely. And in a third, Daelan saw something that made his ember eyes flare with rage so pure it was almost physical.

Chained to an examination table was a being he recognized—not individually, but by type. One of the lesser angels, its wings clipped and its divine radiance dimmed to barely perceptible flickers. Tubes ran from its arms to collection tanks, harvesting something that glowed like liquified prayer.

The door was protected by every security measure Nexus could afford, both technological and supernatural. It didn't matter.

Daelan's touch didn't just disable the locks—it aged them decades in seconds, reducing high-tech alloys to rust and corrosion. The reinforced door itself cracked along lines that followed the stress patterns of its molecular structure.

The angel looked up as he entered, its eyes wide with disbelief and desperate hope.

"Avatar," it whispered in the old tongue. "You live."

"I endure," Daelan replied, moving to the examination table. The restraints were designed to hold divine beings, inscribed with binding runes that would have taken months to craft properly. He destroyed them with casual gestures, his hell-forged power eating through millennia-old enchantments like acid through paper.

The angel tried to sit up and nearly collapsed. "They... they drain us slowly. To make it last. The essence... they sell it to the highest bidders."

Mission Update: Rescue Operation Warning: Angel is severely weakened Note: Information extraction takes priority

"Who commands this operation?" Daelan asked, supporting the angel's weight.

"Mortal... named Harrison. But he serves others. Ancient ones. The same... the same ones who..."

The angel's words were cut off by alarms that began shrieking throughout the building. Emergency lighting bathed the laboratory in hellish red as blast doors slammed shut throughout the facility.

Alert: Security breach detected Recommendation: Immediate extraction advised

But Daelan was already moving, the weakened angel in his arms. The blast doors that should have trapped them crumpled like foil at his touch. Emergency response teams flooded the hallways, but they weren't normal security guards.

These figures moved with inhuman coordination, their eyes glowing with the same cold light Daelan had seen in certain demons. Hybrids, he realized—humans enhanced with supernatural elements, turned into weapons for whoever was pulling the strings.

The first team rounded a corner and opened fire with weapons that definitely weren't standard issue. Energy beams that burned the air itself, bullets inscribed with banishment runes, grenades that exploded into nets of binding energy.

None of it was designed for something that had survived the deepest pits of Hell.

Combat Mode Activated Power Level: 15% and rising New Abilities Unlocked: Soul Fire, Fear Projection

Daelan set the angel down carefully, then stepped forward to meet the attack.

What followed wasn't a fight—it was a demonstration.

His touch boiled blood in their veins, the hell-forged heat that had sustained him through eons of torment proving quite effective against mortal flesh. His presence projected terror so pure that several guards simply collapsed, their minds unable to process the reality of what they faced. When they tried to retreat, shadows moved to block their escape routes, responding to his will like extensions of his own body.

Enemy Forces Neutralized Information Extracted: 15 Targets Eliminated Power Level: 18% and rising

The angel watched with something approaching awe as Daelan moved through the security teams like a natural disaster given human form. When the last hybrid fell, twitching and smoking, the Avatar returned to collect his charge.

"Can you travel?" he asked.

"With... assistance," the angel managed.

They made their way toward the exit, but Daelan paused at one of the laboratories. Inside, computer terminals hummed with data that Leo's skills could definitely exploit. He placed his palm against the closest screen, letting his hell-forged energy interface with the corporate network.

Data Acquisition Complete Intelligence Package Downloaded: Nexus Corporation Structure Key Personnel Identified: CEO Marcus Harrison Additional Targets Located: Multiple Corporate Entities Warning: This action will trigger enhanced hunter response

The entire building's network collapsed as Daelan's power surged through it, every screen dying and every server melting into abstract sculptures of fused metal and silicon. Sprinkler systems activated randomly, emergency lights strobed in patterns that hurt to look at, and somewhere deep in the building, something that might have been a generator exploded.

By the time they reached the loading dock, the facility was in complete chaos. Daelan paused at the threshold, the rescued angel leaning heavily against him.

"Tell me," he said quietly. "The ones who ordered this. The ones who harvest divine essence and sell it like a commodity. Are they the same ones who murdered my God-King?"

The angel's eyes met his, filled with pain that stretched back centuries. "The Syndicate of Shadows. They have many names, but their goal never changes. They killed the old gods to harvest their power, and now they farm what remains."

Primary Mission Updated: THE SYNDICATE OF SHADOWS Threat Level: Maximum Personal Involvement: Confirmed Recommendation: Prepare for total war

Daelan's ember eyes flared brighter, and for a moment, the air around him shimmered with heat that had nothing to do with temperature.

"Then they will learn," he said softly, "what it means to face the last Avatar of the Court of Stars."

Behind them, the Nexus Corporation warehouse continued to burn, and across the city, every supernatural sensor capable of detecting divine wrath suddenly redlined.

The hunt had become a war.