Chapter 31: Vessel
Chapter 31
Nathaniel’s sat, his fingers intertwined as he rested his jaw against them. His eyes seemed tensed. The footage that Myre had sent him shook him.
He hit the pause on the video again, staring at the frozen frame, Ronan, unconscious, eyes blood red, while two trained guards collapsed like puppets cut from their strings. No visible movement. No effort. Just death.
"What... in God’s name..."
The door hissed open with a soft beep, and Dr. Calen Myre stepped in, calm as ever. He held a tablet in one hand, eyes unreadable behind thin lenses.
"You’ve seen it," Myre said, stating the obvious as he approached.
Nathaniel leaned back in his chair, his eyes slightly wide with disbelief. "You’re telling me Ronan... killed two guards without waking up?"
"No," Myre said. "I’m telling you his system did."
Nathaniel blinked. "That’s not possible. Systems don’t act independently. They’re tools. Bound by rules. Contracts."
Myre tilted his head slightly. "That’s true, for every other user we’ve studied. But this one... is different."
He dropped the tablet on the desk, flipping through diagnostic data, brainwave spikes, magical interference logs. "His system activated post-mortem. During brain death. Then revived him without any catalyst, no contract, no summoning glyph. It chose him. And now, it’s evolving."