CHAPTER 42: CHAPTER 42 — THE FALL OF THE SILO

The night didn’t simply darken—it deepened. Thickened. Standing before the central grain silo tower, Bright Morgan felt the cold certainty of danger pool in his gut.

Larkin, the Umbral Covenant’s hidden handler—stood calmly at the base of the tower with his ink-dark veins faintly pulsing in rhythm with the night. His eyes, impossibly black, reflected nothing. Not the fire from Sector Nine, not the torches approaching from panicked guards, not the fear simmering throughout Grim Hollow.

Nothing.

Just void.

And intent.

Bright lifted his weapon, his heartbeat quick and sharp. Rolf cracked his knuckles, Lira drew her daggers, Fen clenched his fists, Juno steadied his breathing and Mara’s hands trembled.

Hailen stepped forward, blade leveled at Larkin’s chest.

"Oyesa," he said quietly, "you’ve done enough harm tonight. Surrender. Before Atheon gets here, you know what he will do to your kind"

Larkin tilted his head in amusement.

"Surrender?" His voice came out soft, like silk dragged across broken glass. "Teacher Hailen... is that what you offer to those touched by the Great One?"

He raised one hand.

Ink dripped from his fingertips, evaporating into the cold air.

"Tonight,there will be no sleep for the righteous."

Bright’s danger sense screamed.

He barely shouted—

"HAILEN—!"

—before Larkin moved.

It wasn’t speed. Or teleportation. Or any ability Bright recognized. It was something worse.

Larkin simply... blurred.

Not visually. Conceptually.

For a heartbeat, Bright’s mind refused to track him. His senses hit a wall, like staring into void too long. His vision, hearing, smell—all of it dipped.

A wave of pressure pulsed outward like a heartbeat of the earth.

Lira gasped, clutching her temples.

Fen stumbled.

Juno dropped to one knee.

Rolf snarled and forced himself upright, fighting the psychic pressure with pure stubbornness.

Mara was unaffected—her Clear Mind ability burned through the mental haze instantly, creating a bubble of clarity around her.

"Hailen!" she shouted, shielding him.

But Hailen didn’t need shielding.

He had already closed the distance.

His strike cut through the blur, forcing Larkin back. Ink splattered across the ground like spilled shadows. Because for all larkin’s bravado, he was still not a warrior. He was trained for infiltration and he excelled in that category, which could be seen from his uneasiness even with his overwhelming advantage.

Bright blinked hard. His senses realigned. He could hear again—the pounding of the grain tower’s failing internal supports, the panicked shouts from above, the crack of metal straining.

And the whispers.

Whispers crawling along the wind.

"... For the Great One...let thy ink paint this world ... the tower must fall..."

"Morgan!" Hailen shouted without turning. "Secure the tower! Prevent the collapse if you can!"

Bright hesitated only a moment.

"Squad! With me!"

He sprinted toward the base of the silo, boots hammering metal platforms. Smoke drifted from a maintenance hatch—opened forcefully from inside.

The Covenant was in the tower.

Rolf and Juno took the left flank. Lira and Fen took the right. Mara stayed back near Hailen to resist Larkin’s mental attacks, her Clear Mind aura flickering like a shield.

Bright burst into the silo’s lower hall.

What he saw froze him.

Ink.

Everywhere.

It bled from the grain intake valves, smeared on every support pillar, pooling beneath sacks of grain. And each smear formed the same eye-shaped mark.

Three cultists huddled near the central support column—chanting softly.

Their voices were low, monotone, and out of sync. It made Bright’s skin crawl.

Bright didn’t wait.

"Rolf! Take the left!"

Rolf roared and charged.

The cultists didn’t scream. They didn’t flee. They simply turned—faces unnaturally calm—and attacked.

The first swung a broken metal pipe at Rolf’s head.

Bright intercepted with a kick that cracked the cultist’s ribs.

The second lunged at Fen—who ducked, grabbed the attacker’s arm, and slammed him into a pillar.

The third cultist, a woman with jagged ink streaks across her face, ran toward a crate labeled "Stabilizers – Do Not Mix".

Bright saw her reach for the latch.

His danger sense erupted.

"LIRA!"

Lira vanished in a blink with speed and precision. She reappeared behind the cultist, dagger slicing the woman’s wrist before she could open the crate. The cultist screamed—not in pain, but in triumph.

"You are too late..."

She threw herself forward, letting the blood from her severed wrist drip onto the ink marks.

The ink pulsed.

The support column groaned.

Bright’s heart dropped.

"MOVE!"

The entire silo trembled violently as something surged through the ink symbols—an ability bright did not understand and could not comprehend.

It followed no rules and was just magical. It was also a bit weird most of the members of the covenant he had seen had powers related to ink. This wasn’t mere ink though, It was like a manifestation of something greater, corruptive and violent. The metal supports around them warped with a sickening screech.

Juno, eyes wide with panic, shouted, "b-b Bright! The symbols are reacting to blood! They’re feeding on her life force!"

Fen cursed loudly. "What kind of monster—?!"

Bright didn’t answer.

He sprinted toward the main support and scraped his boot across the nearest ink sigil. It smeared—but didn’t weaken.

"Mara! Anything!"

Mara, still outside, yelled back through the doorway, "I can’t dispel it! It’s not mental—it’s corruption!"

Rolf smashed a cultist against the floor and bellowed, "Then smash EVERYTHING!"

"No!" Bright snapped. "If we destabilize the columns too much, the tower collapses!"

A loud crack thundered through the silo.

The entire structure tilted two degrees.

Grain spilled from the upper levels in a cascading roar.

Lira’s eyes widened. "Private —we don’t stop this now, it all falls! Where the hell is reinforcement!"

Bright forced his senses outward. Through the grain dust, through the collapsing supports, through the distant echoes—

And then he felt it.

Something moving inside the central column.

Alive.

Squirming.

Bright stepped back in horror as the steel plating bulged.

"Everyone—OUT OF THE WAY!"

The column ruptured.

A massive wave of ink-soaked grain exploded outward, launching the squad off their feet.

Rolf slammed into a wall with a grunt.

Juno tumbled across sacks of grain.

Lira rolled midair and landed gracefully.

Fen hit the floor hard, the wind knocked out of him.

Bright skid across the ground, vision blurring.

And from the ruined column...

A figure crawled out.

Not Larkin.

Not a worker.

Something else.

A corpse—wrapped in ink sigils—jerking unnaturally, limbs twitching as if controlled by strings.

A puppet.

Its jaw hung loose.

Ink ran from its eyes.

It pointed a trembling finger at Bright.

"...you... see..."

The corpse convulsed.

The ink surged.

It exploded.

Not in flame.

In mental force.

A psychic blast of raw despair.

Bright screamed—only internally. His mind twisted, assaulted by visions of drowning in black water, of endless whispers, of a darkness swallowing him whole.

But something held him together.

A barrier. It was Warm but it couldn’t hold a candle to the shear might of pressure from the aberration.

Mara.

She knelt at the entrance of the silo, hands clasped together, Clear Mind ability flowing around the squad like a protective wave, it was an ability to curb the residual fear crawlers produce but here, now it was used to keep everyone from loosing their sanity.

"FOCUS!" she yelled. "I CAN ONLY HOLD IT FOR SECONDS!"

Bright forced his senses to sharpen. The psychic haze lifted just enough.

The corpse twitched again.

Ink gathered for another blast.

"MARA, DROP IT—NOW!"

Mara released her barrier instantly. Bright dashed forward with initiate-level precision and drove his blade through the corpse’s skull—

It fell still.

There was no explosion.

Just silence.

Then the grain tower groaned again.

Louder.

Longer.

The steel above them buckled, raining metal shards.

Lira shouted, "WE NEED TO CLEAR THE SIGILS! THEY’RE WHAT’S FEEDING IT!"

Rolf roared, "THEN TELL US HOW!"

Fen pointed. "The ink is concentrated at the joints! Destroy the runes on the joint plates!"

Bright nodded sharply.

"MOVE! HIT EVERY SUPPORT!"

The squad split up.

Lira blurred around the silo, carving through ink sigils with surgical cuts.

Rolf tore entire panels off with brute strength, reducing runes to twisted metal.

Fen smashed through secondary beams holding corrupted grain.

Juno kicked overturned barrels into place to block falling debris from crushing Lira.

Bright climbed the central lattice—three meters, five, ten—sliding along beams and scraping his boot, dagger, and gauntlet across every mark he found.

Below him, the tower screamed, a groaning wail like tortured earth.

And then—

Bright froze.

At the top of the support structure—

A sigil ten times larger than the others.

Freshly drawn.

Ink still dripping.

And beside it—

A small metal container humming with unstable arcane energy.

A bomb.

A catalyst bomb.

Bright’s blood ran cold.

"HAILEEEEN!"

His teacher didn’t hear—still dueling Larkin outside.

Bright alone could reach it.

He sprinted up the beam—ignoring the tower shaking violently—and reached the sigil.

The bomb pulsed. Primed to explode.

Bright ripped it off the wall.

It stuck.

The ink grabbed his wrist, trying to bind, trying to cling, trying to funnel itself inside him—

"MORGAN!" Lira screamed from below.

Bright yelled and tore harder.

The ink burned his skin.

Bright ripped it free.

He hurled the catalyst downward.

"ROLF—CATCH AND THROW!"

Rolf caught it with blistered hands and spun, launching it out the silo hatch with a feral yell—

The bomb detonated midair.

A brilliant, deafening burst of charged light shook the outpost.

The shockwave ripped across Grim Hollow like a dragon’s roar.

The tower trembled—

But didn’t fall.

It held.

Barely.

Bright exhaled shakily and slid down the support beams.

The squad gathered, panting, coughing, alive.

Fen wiped sweat from his brow. " that was insane."

Lira nodded, chest heaving. "That was reckless, good but reckless."

Juno whispered, "We’re not done... are we?"

Bright shook his head.

"No."

Outside the silo, the duel still raged.

Hailen and Larkin.

Steel against corruption.

Bright stepped through the dust and met Mara’s exhausted gaze.

"Stay here," he ordered softly. "Protect the team."

Mara smiled faintly. "Just come back."

Bright nodded once and turned.

He emerged from the silo into the open night...

...and froze.

Hailen knelt, one hand pressing against his chest, blood dripping.

Larkin stood over him—unhurt.

Smiling.

"Morgan," Larkin said softly, "come closer. The Great One wishes to see your light extinguished."

Bright stepped forward.

His squad behind him.

His senses blazing.

His resolve set.

"Hailen," he said quietly, "I’ll handle him."

Hailen lifted his head weakly.

"Bright... be careful. He’s not—"

Larkin blurred again.

Bright moved.

Faster.

Stronger.

More certain than ever before.

And the battle for leftovers truly began.