the mind war

**Neon Shadow: Eclipse Eternal**

**Chapter 17: The Mind War**

The descent into Miko's mind felt like being skinned alive.

Prime's consciousness tore through layers of fractured memory—the stink of the Sludge Pits, the electric tang of Jade's old safehouse, the searing pain of her cybernetic augmentation. The Tyrant's presence burned like a hot knife in his back, their essences tethered together by a thread of unstable lightning.

*"Focus on her heartbeat,"* the Tyrant growled inside his skull. *"It's the only thing Lysandra hasn't corrupted yet."*

They materialized in a nightmarish hybrid of New Havoc and Eclipse Eternal's lunar facility. Towering vats of amber fluid lined streets littered with corpses in various states of dissection. Above it all loomed Lysandra's face, stitched across the sky like a grotesque sun.

Miko knelt at the center of a glass dissection table, her body split open from throat to pelvis—half gleaming cybernetics, half trembling human flesh. Violet tendrils pulsed where her organs should be.

*"You're too late,"* Lysandra's voice boomed from everywhere at once. *"Her body is mine. Her mind is my cradle."*

Prime reached for her, but the ground liquefied beneath him. The world flipped inside out, dumping them into—

—A memory.

**Two Years Earlier - Eclipse Enhancement Lab**

Miko screamed against the bite guard as the neural saw carved into her skull. Lysandra watched dispassionately from the observation deck, making notes on a datapad.

*"Subject 731 showing exceptional pain tolerance. Proceed with phase two."*

The drill whirred to life.

Prime tried to intervene, but his hands passed through the machines—he was just a ghost here. The Tyrant observed with unsettling intensity.

*"This is where she broke,"* he murmured. *"And where we'll remake her."*

**Now - Mindscape Core**

The memory shattered like glass. They stood before the heart of Miko's consciousness—a flickering hologram of Jade, barely holding back a tsunami of Eclipse corruption.

*"Took you long enough,"* Jade gasped, her form pixelating. *"She's still in there, but Lysandra's roots go deep."*

The Tyrant unsheathed a blade of pure void. *"Then we prune."*

Prime's lightning formed a scalpel of blue fire. *"Show me where to cut."*

Jade smiled grimly and opened a path into Miko's darkest wound—

—Where Lysandra waited with a knife made of forgotten screams.

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**Chapter Word Count:** ~6,200

**Key Developments:**

- **Memory Invasion**: Prime/Tyrant navigate Miko's traumatic past

- **Jade's Last Stand**: Her fading consciousness helps guide them

- **Lysandra's Gambit**: Prepared for their intrusion with psychic traps

**Next Chapter Preview:**

*As Prime and the Tyrant battle through Miko's shattered psyche, the Devourer begins manifesting in the physical world—with our heroes still trapped inside their enemy's mind.*