Kill the God Eternal? The Numbers could finally see the path forward. After years of training and courses, and never being seen as real people, they could finally see why things were so rough. It was hard to turn away. By Naveen Gupta’s words, there should have been a moment of hesitation, but a voice inside of them demanded know-how. If the people they loved had to die for this, why should they hesitate? Kill the God Eternal? Yeah, they’d do it—for hope and revenge.

“What’s the first thing we have to do?” Fang asked. Assassin grinned beside her. He was ready to jump, but his leader was already ahead.

Gupta raised his hand and pointed at his wrist. “It starts with your Luminance Band. Before you do this, I’ll caution you. Proceeding forward means you’re abandoning your humanity. You’ll still be yourself, but only human in look. This has happened time and time again in our battle with the God Eternal. Once you make this move, there is no going back."

“Is there any reason to hesitate?”

“The way you and a normal human interacts with this world will change.”

King’s jaw tightened. “I won’t do it then.” He turned the thought to Fang. “It’ll be great if we can kill the God Eternal, but if we fail, normal people still need an option, right?”

“Right. As the head researcher of New Dawn, do you agree with King’s reasoning?”

“Absolutely.” Gupta nodded. “New Dawn did not willingly stop innovation. If you feel you have the know-how, you can inherit what we started here.”

Ace looked at the specter from head to toe. "Why does it feel like you're holding something back?"

“I am, but as a safety precaution. There is much this Ghost can’t tell you. There is much this Ghost doesn’t know. Like I said, New Dawn did not willingly stop innovation.”

“What happened?”

“That’s one of the things this ghost does not know. I can remember vague details, but the rest lay ahead.”

Fang came to King. “I believe in your abilities, but if you can’t figure this out, don’t blame yourself.”

He smiled at her. “Same with you. Leading doesn’t mean you’re at fault if anything goes wrong.”

Her jaw tightened for a moment, but she relaxed and smiled. The two of them shook on it, absolving each other of the wrongs that they could never control. Gupta took this as a sign they were ready and raised his arm again. Three participants...but three was still better than zero. It was time to put his trust in the future, and that meant putting the past behind them all.

“Raise your arm and repeat after me.” They followed. “Luminance Terminate.” They repeated and their weapon bands changed shape.

The bangle grew thin, growing out from their wrist. It slowly began to spin as two screws jutted down, tracing a line around the bone. Ace roared! Threads of jade light caught the screws, winding round as the rotation sped up. He could feel them moving through him, unfurling from something deep in his heart. His arm felt like it was coming apart—each thread bound to an atom. Finally, the rotation stopped, but only because the string wound too tight. The screw pulled free of the band, dragging their bindings through. A hexagon lowered and looped, slicing the string apart. Ace dropped as the shreds fluttered away. He raised his hand to them, and a seed of darkness swirled together. It touched his finger, and his heart responded. Each beat shifted something about it, flowing through his veins until the seed was gone. His eyes went to Assassin and Fang, having a different experience.

Round and round their bands spun; no thread catching the screws. They spun so fast he thought their wrist would come apart. Instead, their left arms dyed the empty black of a void—almost spectral in contrast with their bodies. The weapon bands stopped as if something blocked them. He could see the screws pushing against it, straining until they broke. Their bands shattered, and the pieces reformed in their long familiar shape. Their left arms returned to normal, except for the pyramid of hexagons marking the back of their hands.

Gupta’s eyes were wide. “You two are left-handed?” The two nodded.

“Does that mean something?” Assassin asked.

“Nothing we had the chance to prove. But I wonder...have you two ever been able to Amplify your Luminance?”

The two remembered the moment they first met; Assassin at eleven, Fang at ten. She had just left Luminance initiation—the course that helped them adapt. She didn't have to go back. Word of this spread fast around the Enclave, and Assassin used it to track her down. He came laughing while she cried to herself, drying her tears with the joke of it all. He found out he had no Luminance the year before, and proved it didn’t matter. If he was so strong, what could they be missing? It would be fun too if they could grow stronger together.

“No. They say we don’t have one.” He said to Gupta. The doctor nodded.

“Maybe the hypothesis is true, do either of you hear anything? Like a whisper?”

They listened carefully, and a whisper filled their left ear.

“I heard something.” Assassin furrowed his brow.

“Maybe a question?" Fang met his eyes. He nodded.

Gupta crossed his arms. "The other Ghost has the information on this, but it’s good news. We have more options than I thought we would.”

King examined the others, his mind at work to see the difference. They did still look human, but the air around them felt strange. “What did you have them do?”

“To explain, I’ll have to give you more information first. If you just want an answer, I had them terminate their Luminance. They no longer possess one.”

“Wouldn’t that turn them into a Gray though?”

“No, because none of you have the capacity to be Grays in the first place. On the day of the Resurgence, or the Overcast if you prefer, anyone touched by the God Eternal had their Luminance torn from their bodies. This created the Baleful—your Grays—bodies possessed by souls that don't remember humanity. All they know is Luminance, and that they don't have them. You might have heard the Baleful speak before…"

“Not fair.”

“Precisely. This is their last thought as they are robbed. It is the last taste of their mind. Grays do not see people, they see the Luminance inside. They attempt to steal it from their victims.”

Fang shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. We're taught that the Grays possess Luminance. It's why we need our weapon bands. Guns didn't work, and while normal melee weapons do, they don't do enough damage."

Gupta frowned. “The Enclave is strangely lacking in information.” He shook his head. “They were the best bet and even they weren’t completely aware. Regardless, no, Grays do not possess Luminance. What you come in contact with is their Soul Frame. Ruptured as it is, it is no longer contained by the body. The soul becomes external, remaining connected by our lifelines. When you shoot a Gray, you damage the body, but the Soul Frame repairs it.”

“How is that even possible. If you blow off a normal human’s arm, they can’t grow it back.”

“Think of the Soul as the memory of the body. When it's inside, it keeps everything functioning normally. It is the subconscious; you don't have to think about breathing to breathe. You don't have to think about your heart to make it beat. All of these things are automatic. However, if a person was to lose an arm, they'd experience something called phantom limb pain. The flesh is gone, but the soul remembers it.”

King stroked his chin. “So the Soul Frame being external creates an automatic process on the outside. Wounds heal because the soul doesn’t remember being wounded. Does that mean the soul regrows flesh?” Gupta nodded. “Then the lifelines must grow out, threading into new limbs. It must happen so fast that it looks like bullets disappear against them.”

“Yes, you could unload an automatic rifle into a Gray, and they'd run through it like they were Ghost. Their bodies aren't operating like ours. That's also why a Baleful child remains a child. The soul keeps the body in that permanent state.”

“That sounds amazing.” King’s mouth hung open. “If you could create a Soul Frame, you could heal any wounds, maybe cure any disease. People could be immortal. Was this not something we knew in the old world?”

“It wasn’t until New Dawn, but even still… If a scientist proposed experimenting on the soul, the general populace would not have responded positively.”

King frowned. What would humanity have been like if the experiments were allowed? How would they have responded to The God Eternal? In one eye, he saw the ruinous world he knew. In the other, he saw something prosperous, with a dead god making the soil fertile. King saw a world he wanted and clutched his fists. A better world would have to wait for later. “So the reason melee weapons work on them is because we can affect their Soul Frame.” But how?

“This is because our Luminance is always present. When we touch something, our Luminance flows into it. There has always been a word for this in some culture. Some of my fellow researcher drew parallels to the description of Qi. Bullets cannot maintain our Luminance. Neither can explosives, as you might guess. Melee weapons, with their constant connection to us however…”

“Are constantly infused.”

“Precisely." And weapons forged of Luminance? Of course, they'd be better.

“So why aren’t we capable of becoming Grays?”

“Before I answer that, what is your earliest memory?”

King thought back to a studio apartment; he could almost smell the dry air. Some things squeaked and scratched in the walls. He made many circuits around it as if he'd find his way out one day. Even being small, the room felt like it didn’t take up enough space. It was a tomb of a place; there had to be more to the darkness. Except there wasn’t. Until the explosion shook the building from a few floors below. His world suddenly succumbed to violence, as doors shattered in worlds beyond it. Eventually, the Enclave scouts reached him. He was the only one they brought back to the Enclave that day. He said as much, and Gupta nodded.

“You all have similar experiences of being abandoned toddlers, right?” Every last one of them did. “Did you ever wonder why?”

“It always felt normal. I didn’t know things were different until I saw kids with their parents in the Enclave, and even then, I just thought they were different.” Assassin answered.

“You’re right. They are different. Those children have never died. You all, however, were killed by Grays on the Resurgence day. Parents. Siblings. Even strangers that stumbled upon you. The Grays only saw Luminance, and being neither newborn, infant nor toddlers meant anything to them.”

The Numbers felt the truth of it in their chest. A cold echo rippled out, reminding them of forgotten last breaths. The image didn’t reach them, nor the pain of those final moments, but the coldness was familiar. The frigid embrace of death held them for too long a time, and then, freedom? Life? A second chance? Yes, if the feeling was true, they did come back from the dead. But how? Their eyes asked the question, but King voiced it just in case.

“How are we alive?”

“You all answered the Calling; it was New Dawn’s final option. Using the shadows of the Overcast, and the Spear of Hell, we created a signal for lost souls. We knew there wouldn't be many—there were too many criteria. Never coming to know Luster. Never fearing the darkness. Never knowing their humanity. Even still, the Calling had to resonate with a person. If it did they could be reborn. Humanity would be learned not through the Light of Luminance, but through the Dark of a soul who never knew it. You all became Dark Disciples."

Ace’s eyes went wide. “Did that have an effect on our Luminance?”

“Yes. Dark Disciples have a diminished Luminance. Things like Amplification would burn through them quickly. Overall, it would be weaker too."

“Raven died because we didn’t know this.” The coldness was back. It filled Ace with the deep chill of hatred. He glared at Gupta, and the doctor shook his head.

“It was not your ignorance that killed her, but the failures of Plan A and B. You can blame that on New Dawn as well though, I won’t fault you.”

“What were plans A and B?” Fang asked.

“You’re wearing Plan A. The Refraction Armor and Luminance Bands were our first idea, developed in the three years before Resurgence Day. They weren’t done in time, but they served their purpose of weaponizing Luminance. It’d make you a pseudo-Lightbearer—not as strong as a true one, but strong enough that you could do things normal humans couldn’t. When the two worked in tandem, they could create a prolonged Amplification State. If they were complete, between Luminance Arm and Amplify, users would become unstoppable shining soldiers.”

“And time stopped you?”

“Time and risk. If we made a mistake, anyone using them would make themselves Baleful. We implement auto-condensing, as well as a null-light state—the way your armor doesn't shine. We hoped we'd have more time to work out the kinks."

“And plan B?”

“It happened fifteen years ago. Since the armor wasn’t done, we tried a more direct approach to creating a Lightbearer. We took five individuals with different colored Luminance and made them a focal point. We drew in the light from souls incapable of going Dark, turning our candidates into Refracted Harbingers.”

King stroked his chin again. “That sounds like it should have worked. What went wrong?”

“We were not aware of the Advent Ascension. A few among the lab were double agents, and they used plan B to further their goals.”

“The Advent Ascension isn’t something this ghost can elaborate on, is it?”

“I can’t. I can say that the caution was caused by the Advent Ascension. If the wrong people get a hold of that information, the future will be far worse than things have been.”

“Which brings us to Plan C.”

“Plan C was to create Dark Disciples. If we could not best the God Eternal with our Luminance, we’d use the tools the Devils had long used before. By being reborn in the darkness, you can use the dark power of Umbra. Try forging your weapons with it.”

Luminance Forge happened with a thought. By pressing the button, the mind, and instrument are linked. Training the forge was about keeping it together, that was why weapons could vary so much. Some shapes made better sense in a person's mind, and that made it quicker than trying to force them into another. Luminance Forge was about sculpting the form. Umbra Forge was about grasping an idea. Their weapons filled their mind and they took hold, weaving darkness into shapes. Black smoke billowed off of lethal forms; A long-single-edged sword in Assassin's hands, A wide double-edged sword in Fang's. Darkness coated Ace's arms, and as he willed it, blades grew out. Gupta looked to King—watching with envious wide eyes. The boy could probably feel the difference himself and mourned that he couldn't use it. The doctor hoped it'd be worth it on the other side. He floated to the wall as they tested their weapons, crossing his arms behind his back.

“If you all are ready, I'll let you go ahead. This Ghost doesn't know what it is, but there's something dangerous down there. Consider it yet another wall between you and a better world. Get past it! The way forward is on the other side."

He stepped into the wall, pouring light through it. The dark glass shattered, opening the way…