Rain’s eyes darted wildly between Julian’s cold expression and the blade still pressed against his throat. Sweat mingled with the thin line of blood, stinging as it traced down his neck.

"I’m not—I’m not one of their cronies!" he gasped, his voice cracking with desperation. "I don’t have any useful intel! You have to believe me!"

Julian’s dark blue gaze didn’t waver. The blade didn’t move. "Unlikely. As a supply conduit for their operations, you inevitably possess information. Routes. Schedules. Contacts. Names."

One of Rain’s subordinates—the electricity-wielder, now pinned to a wall by Fey’s liquid restraints—struggled violently against her bonds. "Don’t tell them anything, Rain! They’re insane! Suicide bombers who don’t care if they—"

"Can you just shut up?" Emma interrupted, her voice carrying that particular edge of irritation that preceded violence. A small flame flickered in her palm, and the electricity-wielder wisely fell silent.

Rain stared at the scene before him. His headquarters—his operation—had been systematically dismantled by five people. Five. Not an army. Not a coordinated faction strike. Just five individuals who moved with the casual confidence of predators who had long since forgotten what fear felt like.

His mind raced.

’Impossible. This should be impossible. We have numbers. We have skills. We have—’

Julian’s voice cut through his spiraling thoughts like the blade at his throat.

"You’re hesitating," Julian observed quietly. "Considering your options. Weighing survival against loyalty." His head tilted slightly. "It seems you genuinely have nothing useful to say."

The katana drew back—not away, but up, preparing for the final stroke.

"WAIT!"

Rain’s shout tore from his throat, raw and desperate. His hands flew up, palms open, fingers spread in the universal gesture of surrender.

"I’ll talk! I’ll tell you what I know!"

Julian’s blade stopped mid-swing, freezing a hairsbreadth from Rain’s exposed neck. The wind from its passage stirred Rain’s sweat-soaked hair.

For a long, terrible moment, Julian simply looked at him. Then, slowly, the katana lowered—not sheathed, not dismissed, but no longer aimed at his throat.

"Nah, see?" Fey drawled from across the ruined lobby, not even bothering to look up from her liquid manipulation. "That wasn’t so hard. People always complicate things by being stubborn first."

The bound subordinates stared at their leader with expressions ranging from horror to bitter understanding. None of them spoke. None of them could.

Rain swallowed hard, his throat working against the sudden dryness.

"Leader..." one of them whispered, the word heavy with betrayal and resignation.

Rain didn’t look at them. He couldn’t. His eyes were fixed on Julian’s face, on those dark blue depths that held no mercy.

’What the hell have I gotten myself into?’

Julian’s expression remained unchanged, but his eyes sharpened—almost imperceptibly, like a blade being honed. The katana in his hand lowered slightly, though never far from striking position.

"Speak," he said quietly. "All of it."

Rain swallowed hard, his throat bobbing visibly. His gaze flickered toward his captured subordinates, then back to Julian’s cold features. Whatever he saw there made his decision for him.

"Four factions," he began, his voice rough with resignation. "The Eclipse doesn’t operate alone. They have... subsidiaries. Puppets. Whatever you want to call them. Factions that supply what they need so Darwin doesn’t have to waste his own resources on logistics."

He paused, as if hoping Julian would interrupt. Julian didn’t.

"The first is Greenday." Rain’s shoulders sagged. "They handle manpower. Recruiting, training, population management in the eastern territories. If Eclipse needs soldiers, Greenday provides them. If they need workers for their... projects... Greenday finds them."

Emma wrinkled her nose. "Slavers. Great."

Rain didn’t deny it.

"Second is Neo." He continued, the words coming faster now, as if eager to finish. "Minerals. Metals. Anything that comes out of the ground. Neo controls the old mining operations in the mountain ranges east of here. Eclipse gets their raw materials, Neo gets protection and a cut of whatever Darwin’s researchers produce."

Fey raised an eyebrow. "So Eclipse is basically running a protection racket with extra steps."

Rain ignored her. "Third is Xlomoph." He stumbled slightly over the name. "Energy sector. Old power plants, fuel depots, anything that generates or stores energy. They keep Eclipse’s operations running—lights, equipment, their... their mutation chambers."

Dori flinched at that, clutching her weapon tighter.

"And you," Julian said. Not a question.

Rain nodded miserably. "Us. We’re the fourth. Food. Supplies. Anything consumable. We gather, produce, or steal whatever keeps Eclipse’s people fed. Without us, their whole operation starves in a month."

He gestured weakly at the scattered crates around them. "That’s what all this is. Shipments. We send them east every week. Grains, preserved meats, clean water, medical supplies. Everything they need to keep their territory running while they play with their... experiments."

Silence settled over the ruined lobby. The fires crackled. Somewhere, a piece of debris shifted and fell.

Emma broke the quiet first, her voice uncharacteristically serious. "So Eclipse isn’t just a faction. It’s a whole damn system. Darwin’s got his fingers in everything—people, materials, energy, food."

Fey nodded slowly, her lazy demeanor replaced by something sharper. "And if you control all four, you control the region. No wonder they’re the strongest. They’re not fighting for resources—they already have them. Everyone else is just scrambling for scraps."

Zoe said nothing, but her golden eyes tracked Rain’s every micro-expression, cataloging truth from lie with animal instinct.

Julian stood motionless for a long moment, processing. Then, quietly:

"Greenday. Neo. Xlomoph. And you." His gaze settled on Rain with new weight. "Four pillars. Remove one, the structure weakens. Remove two..."

He didn’t finish. He didn’t need to.

Rain’s face went pale. "You’re not... you’re not thinking of going after all of them? That’s suicide! Even if you somehow survived, Eclipse would—"

Julian’s blade twitched. Rain fell silent.

"Where," Julian said, "are they located?"

"Please—please don’t say anything more!" One of Rain’s subordinates—a young man with desperate eyes and trembling hands—struggled against Fey’s liquid bonds. His voice cracked with genuine terror. "This is treason! If Eclipse finds out we talked, they’ll—they’ll kill everyone—"

Julian moved. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Not fast. Not with visible aggression. Simply... decisively.

His katana extended in a single, fluid motion—not a slash, not a swing, just a placement. The blade found the young man’s heart with surgical precision, slipping between ribs as easily as a needle through fabric.

The man’s eyes went wide. His mouth opened, but only a wet gurgle emerged. Then his body went limp, suspended for a moment by the blade before Julian withdrew it with the same casual efficiency.

The body crumpled.

Silence.

Then, from the other bound subordinates, a chorus of horrified whispers:

"Marcus!"

"No... no, Marcus!"

"You bastard!"

Julian didn’t look at them. He flicked a single drop of blood from his katana—a gesture almost absentminded—and returned his attention to Rain as if nothing had happened.

"No interruptions," he said quietly.

Rain stared at the body. At Julian. At the body again.

His face had gone the color of old parchment. His hands, still raised in surrender, trembled visibly. His throat worked, but no sound emerged.

’This man...’ Rain’s thoughts spiraled in panicked silence. ’He didn’t hesitate. Didn’t warn. Didn’t threaten. He just... killed. Like swatting a fly. Like it meant nothing.’

The weight of that realization pressed down on him like a physical force. He had dealt with killers before—Eclipse was full of them. But this was different. This was a man who killed not out of anger, not out of fear, not even out of necessity.

He killed because the conversation required silence.

Rain swallowed hard and forced words past the terror gripping his throat.

"They’re... they’re positioned around Eclipse’s core territory," he managed, his voice rough and shaky.

He looked at Julian with desperate, pleading eyes.

"I have a map. In my office. Detailed coordinates, patrol routes, estimated troop concentrations. You can have it. Take it. Please."

Julian studied him for a long moment—long enough for Rain to feel every second as an eternity.

"That’s acceptable," Julian said finally. He glanced toward Emma. "Retrieve it."

Emma nodded, already moving toward the interior of the building.

Julian’s gaze returned to Rain. "Additionally. I’ll be taking a portion of your supplies."

Rain nodded frantically. "Take it. Take all of it. Just—"

"I’m not finished." Julian’s voice cut through Rain’s desperate agreement like the blade it so resembled. "Regarding your survival: I want you to cease all supply shipments to Eclipse. Permanently. If you comply, you live."

Relief flooded Rain’s features—raw, undeniable, pathetic in its intensity. His shoulders sagged. His breath escaped in a shuddering exhale.

"Thank you. Thank you, I—"

"But."

The single word froze Rain mid-gratitude.

Julian raised one hand. From his palm, darkness bled—not attacking, not threatening, simply... flowing. A thin tendril of shadow detached itself and drifted through the air toward Rain.

Rain flinched but couldn’t move, couldn’t run, couldn’t do anything but watch as the shadow touched his chest... and entered.

He gasped. It wasn’t painful—not exactly. But the sensation of something foreign sliding into his being, settling somewhere deep within his own shadow, was indescribably wrong.

Julian lowered his hand.

"A fragment of my skill," he explained, his tone as calm as if discussing the weather. "It will remain with you. I’ll know if you betray our arrangement. I’ll know if you resume shipments. I’ll know if you even think about contacting Eclipse to warn them."

He leaned slightly closer. Those dark blue eyes, so deep they seemed to absorb light, fixed on Rain with terrible intensity.

"Don’t do anything foolish."

Rain could only nod, mute with terror, as the weight of his new reality settled over him like a shroud.

In the background, Emma emerged from the office, a rolled map in her hand and a satisfied grin on her face.

"Got it, Juli~an!"