The Weight of Shadows

The Veil Anchoring Protocol thrummed in Shen Mu's veins like a second heartbeat, its rhythm synced to the Quantum Core's pulse. The fortress walls held, but the air tasted metallic, charged with an energy that made survivors flinch when he passed. They no longer met his eyes—not since his irises began glowing faintly green in the dark.

Zhao Ling found him in the Matrix chamber at dawn, her rifle slung over her shoulder and suspicion etched into her stance. "Granny Wen says the core's stability is slipping. Radiation levels are spiking in the north quadrant."

Shen Mu didn't turn. The system's interface hovered in his vision, cold and clinical.

[Veil Stability: 58%.]

[Foreign Energy Saturation: 34%.]

"It's holding," he said.

"For how long?" She stepped closer, her voice sharp. "You're burning up. Literally."

He glanced at his hands. Thin trails of smoke curled from his fingertips, the skin beneath shimmering with the core's emerald hue. The integration was rewriting him, cell by cell.

"We need the stability," he said flatly. "Sacrifices are necessary."

"Sacrifices?" Zhao Ling's laugh was brittle. "You're not a sacrifice. You're a time bomb."

Luo Qi's infection had spread.

He lay in the infirmary, his arm swollen and mottled black, his breath ragged. Granny Wen hovered over him, her tools sterilized but useless against the necrosis creeping toward his shoulder.

"Should've let me die in the bunker," he rasped, sweat beading on his brow. "Better than rotting alive."

"Don't be dramatic," Granny Wen snapped, but her hands shook as she adjusted his IV. "The core's energy might… stabilize you."

Luo Qi's gaze flicked to Shen Mu, who stood silently in the doorway. "Yeah? And turn me into that? Pass."

Shen Mu left without a word.

The system's alert came at midnight.

[Veil Breach Detected: 0.8km Northwest.]

[Anomaly Classification: Apostle-Class.]

Shen Mu mobilized the team in silence. Zhao Ling fell into step beside him, her rifle loaded with Rift Shard rounds. Luo Qi insisted on joining, his gauntlet strapped clumsily over his bandaged arm.

"If I'm dying," he muttered, "I'm taking a few shadows with me."

The rift was smaller than the last—a vertical slit in the air, oozing black ichor. But the creature that emerged was unlike anything they'd faced.

It stood on six skeletal limbs, its body a fused mass of human and machine parts. A cracked pre-collapse visor served as its face, glowing with the same hollow light as the Apostle's eye.

"Fortress Lord…" Its voice buzzed through broken speakers. "The Maw sees you. The Maw hungers."

Shen Mu fired first. His bullets tore through the visor, but the creature didn't slow. It scuttled forward, claws gouging the earth.

Zhao Ling's Rift Shard rounds punched holes in its torso, the energy tearing at its form. "Aim for the core! Left side!"

Luo Qi charged, his gauntlet slamming into the creature's flank. Metal crumpled, revealing a pulsing black core. Shen Mu lunged, his hand blazing with the core's energy, and pulled.

The core shattered, the creature collapsing into ash.

But the rift didn't close.

Instead, it expanded.

The Maw's voice flooded Shen Mu's mind, vast and suffocating.

You cannot win… You are already ours…

He staggered, the system's warnings screeching.

[Foreign Energy Saturation: 51%.]

[Neural Integrity: Compromised.]

"Shen Mu!" Zhao Ling's hand gripped his shoulder, her touch searing. "Snap out of it!"

The rift trembled, disgorging a wave of shadows—half-formed, shrieking things that clawed at the air. Luo Qi roared, his gauntlet tearing through them, but for every one he crushed, two more took its place.

"Fall back!" Zhao Ling dragged Shen Mu away, her rifle spitting Rift Shard rounds. "We need to collapse the rift!"

Shen Mu's vision cleared. The system offered a solution, brutal and final.

[Emergency Protocol: Overload Veil Anchoring Protocol.]

[Objective: Detonate Quantum Core to Seal Breach.]

[Success Probability: 38%.]

He didn't hesitate.

"Get clear!" he shouted, sprinting toward the rift.

"You idiot—!" Zhao Ling's curse dissolved into static as the core's energy surged.

Shen Mu plunged his hand into the rift.

The explosion was silent.

A sphere of green light swallowed the breach, the shadows, and Shen Mu. When it faded, the wastes were still.

He woke in the fortress infirmary, the core's hum muted but alive in his chest. Zhao Ling sat beside his cot, her rifle across her knees.

"You died," she said flatly. "For three minutes, you were gone. Then the core… rebuilt you."

Shen Mu lifted his hand. The skin was smooth, unmarked. "The protocol worked."

"Did it?" She leaned forward, her eyes hard. "Look in the mirror."

The reflection showed a stranger. His eyes glowed fully green now, veins of emerald light branching beneath his skin. The core's pulse echoed in his temples.

[Foreign Energy Saturation: 67%.]

Granny Wen entered, her face drawn. "The Veil's stable. For now. But the core's changing you faster. Another overload…"

"I'll handle it," Shen Mu said.

"You can't even handle yourself," Zhao Ling snapped, standing. "Next time, you might not come back."

That night, Shen Mu dreamt of the Maw.

It wasn't a distant god anymore. It was everywhere—in the air, in the soil, in the blood of the survivors. And it spoke with his voice.

You are mine…

He woke to the sound of screaming.

A survivor staggered through the courtyard, his body disintegrating into shadow. The Veil held, but the corruption was spreading—from within.

The system's alert burned in his vision.

[Warning: Foreign Energy Contamination Detected.]

[Source: Proximity to Core Integration Subject.]

Shen Mu stepped into the cold dawn light, the core's pulse a funeral drum in his chest.

The horizon rippled.

The Maw was done waiting.