**Chapter 3 : The Unfortunate Assassin**

  The city was shrouded in darkness, its once-vibrant skyline reduced to jagged silhouettes of crumbling buildings. Zara Voss moved like a shadow, her emerald green eyes piercing through the gloom. Her raven-black hair, tied tightly back, swayed slightly with each calculated step. The faint glint of metal beneath her skin betrayed her cybernetic enhancements—60% machine and 40% human. Her face bore the marks of a life hard-lived: faint scars across her cheekbones, a cold determination in her expression, and a weariness that seemed etched into her very soul.

  Zara had been molded by a world of brutality. Born in the slums of outer wall of hope citadel, she was one of the countless forgotten souls left to rot in a lawless wasteland. The stench of decay and human misery had been her earliest companions, and the sight of death was as common as the rising sun. Her first memories were of scrounging for scraps, dodging marauders, and hiding from those who sought to exploit the weak.

  It was in these harsh conditions that her latent psychic abilities first manifested. Zara had discovered, almost by accident, that she could control non-living objects with her mind. But the power came with limitations—it required deep focus and drained her both physically and mentally. Even so, it had been enough to catch the attention of a powerful and feared organization: the Black Veil, a covert league of assassins and mercenaries.

  A world like this couldn't be forgiven. Aurelia was no longer the vibrant planet it had once been. It was now a graveyard, littered with the remnants of civilization and the horrors unleashed by humanity's greed for power. The world had been brought to its knees by the Chimera Lord, a creature of unspeakable terror born from the ambitions of mad scientists who sought to create super-soldiers.

  The Chimera Lord was a towering monstrosity, its body a grotesque amalgamation of steel, flesh, and bone. Its roar could level entire cities, and its shadow alone was enough to send people fleeing in terror. The scientists who created it had long since perished, victims of their hubris. But their legacy lived on in the form of chimeras—feral, twisted creatures that roamed Aurelia in packs, preying on anything and everything.

  Humanity’s only refuge lay in the strongholds, fortified cities built to withstand both the chimeras and the relentless chaos of a world at war. But even within the strongholds, life was a brutal hierarchy. The wealthy and powerful lived in luxury, their lives untouched by the horrors outside the walls. Meanwhile, the poor and desperate fought to survive in squalor, treated as expendable resources for the strongholds’ endless conflicts.

  At just 13, Zara was sold into slavery. The auction house where she was paraded as an exotic item was a place of horrors, its walls echoing with the cries of the desperate and the dying. Yet, in her darkest moment, she caught the eye of a Black Veil operative. They saw potential in her—a hint of energy—and purchased her not as a slave but as a recruit.

  Her training was brutal and unrelenting. Days bled into nights as she was shaped into a weapon. She learned to kill with precision, to stalk her targets like a predator, and to endure pain without flinching. When her human body reached its limits, the Black Veil began replacing her limbs and organs with cybernetic enhancements. Her legs were engineered for speed and silence, her arms capable of inhuman strength. Her eyes, fitted with advanced implants, could see in total darkness and detect heat signatures.

  By the time Zara turned 30, she had become one of the Black Veil's most feared assassins. Her missions were executed with ruthless efficiency, leaving no witnesses and no trace of her presence. Yet, despite her successes, she was plagued by a deep emptiness. The world she served was one of endless war and destruction.

  Strong holds waged wars and conflicts, reducing entire regions to ash and poisoning the planet. Climate disasters like earthquakes, toxic storms, and floods ravaged what remained, and humanity retreated into fortified cities that were little more than gilded cages.

  Darious, one of the Black Veil’s most powerful psychics, despised Zara. His envy burned brighter with every mission she completed, every accolade she received. A master manipulator, Men in dark began plotting her downfall. He whispered to the leaders of the Black Veil, convincing them that Zara was growing too powerful, too independent.

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  “She’s a liability,” he argued. “A machine like her doesn’t have loyalty—only ambition. One day, she’ll turn on us.”

  It wasn’t difficult to convince them. Zara’s strength was both her greatest asset and her greatest threat. With the organization’s blessing, Men in dark set there plan in motion.

  Zara’s final mission was supposed to be routine—a simple assassination. She had carried it out flawlessly, as always. But as she made her way back through the ruins toward the Hope Citadel, she sensed something was wrong. Her cybernetic eyes picked up faint thermal signatures ahead. Shadows moved unnaturally in the periphery of her vision.

  Her instincts screamed a warning, but it was too late.

  A sudden wave of psychic energy slammed into her, locking her in place. Zara’s body convulsed as she tried to break free, her cybernetic limbs straining against the invisible force.

  “Hello, Zara,” Men in dark said, stepping out from the shadows. His smirk was a dagger, sharp and mocking.

  “You’re a fool if you think this will work,” Zara spat, her voice steady despite the strain. Her hands twitched, trying to summon her psychic energy to manipulate the objects around her.

  “Oh, Zara,” Men in dark said mockingly, “it’s already over. Did you really think they’d let someone like you keep climbing? You’re a tool, nothing more. And now, you’ve outlived your usefulness.”

  Around him, several Black Veil operatives emerged, their weapons gleaming in the moonlight.

  Zara’s cybernetic legs powered up, propelling her forward with lightning speed. She lunged toward Men in dark, her blades slicing through the air. But he was ready. His psychic energy slammed into her again, stronger this time.

  Zara’s cybernetic limbs clashed against the operatives, her agility and strength unmatched. Her enhanced eyes tracked their movements, calculating angles and weak points. She twisted and spun, her blades cutting through flesh and steel. She hurled debris at her attackers using her limited psychic powers, keeping them at bay.

  But Men in dark was the real threat.

  With a flick of his wrist, he unleashed a wave of psychic energy that knocked Zara to the ground. Her limbs sparked and groaned as she struggled to rise. Men in dark smirked, his eyes glowing with power.

  “You’ve always been strong, Zara,” he said. “But strength means nothing when the world itself is against you.”

  He stepped closer, his psychic energy coiling around her like chains. She tried to move, but her body refused to obey.

  As the last of her strength faded,

  Zara collapsed onto the cold, blood-soaked ground. The mercenaries stood over her, their weapons ready to finish the job.

  But Zara no longer cared. The world had shown her no kindness, no mercy. In her final moments, her mind was filled with a single thought: Is this all I was meant for?“

  and grime dripped from her shattered body.

  Around her, the mercenaries circled like vultures, their weapons gleaming in the faint light. One stepped forward, a sadistic grin splitting his scarred face.

  “Look at the mighty assassin now,” he sneered, his voice laced with mockery. “Reduced to nothing but scrap metal and dying flesh.”

  Zara coughed, blood flecking her lips. She clenched the shard in her trembling hand, its glow intensifying.

  “Darious sent you, didn’t he?” Zara spat, her voice hoarse but filled with venom. “That coward... couldn’t even finish the job himself.”

  The mercenary laughed. “Darious said you’d say something like that. You should’ve stayed in line, Voss. The Black Veil doesn’t need loose ends.”

  Zara’s emerald eyes burned with fury. “Loose ends? I gave them everything! My life, my body, my soul—and for what? To be stabbed in the back by cowards like you?”

  Her voice cracked, but her anger only grew. She pushed herself to her feet, wobbling slightly. “Tell Darious this,” she snarled, “Tell him I’ll drag him to hell myself. I’ll haunt him. I’ll make him choke on his own arrogance.”

  The mercenaries hesitated, unnerved by the intensity of her words. But one raised his weapon, ready to end her life.

  “Goodbye, Zara,” he said, raising a blade.

  As the blade sliced through her neck, Zara’s mind raced. Her vision blurred, but her enhanced eyes captured everything in excruciating detail—the pale moon shining down, its light so beautiful and serene amidst the chaos.

  The last thing she thought of was how unfair the world had been to her. A life of pain, betrayal, and struggle. And yet, in her final moments, she couldn’t help but admire the moon, its light untouched by the horrors of Aurelia.

  As her head fell, she saw Men in dark’s smirk one last time. The ground rushed up to meet her, and everything went dark

  The Black Veil operatives left her body where it fell, retreating to the safety of the Hope Citadel. They didn’t bother to hide her corpse. The chimeras would take care of it, they reasoned.

  But they hadn’t accounted for the shard.

  It was a strange artifact Zara had carried with her for years, its origin a mystery even to her. As her lifeless body lay in the ruins, the shard began to glow. Its golden light spread slowly, pulsing like a heartbeat.

  The chimeras that approached stopped in their tracks, their twisted forms recoiling from the light.

  Zara’s body remained motionless, but her consciousness stirred. Her soul sucked within the shard, her rage and pain simmering like a storm.

  Far away, within the fortified walls of Hope Citadel, Men in dark and his followers celebrated their victory. They raised glasses to their success, unaware of the storm they had unleashed.

  In the ruins, the shard continued to glow, its light growing brighter with each passing moment. Zara Voss was not gone.

  She was waiting.

  There she saw her world where greed over took and destroyed every single hope on note she hears a voice in a distant voice contains energy but faint also unknown language her soul was pulled to somewhere unknown.