My Shard Bearer System - Elias's Legacy
Chapter 199: Stolen Shard

Chapter 199: Stolen Shard

Floor fractures knotted beneath his boots, only to knit shut again—as though the plane itself feared angering him by staying broken.

Dot’s blue glow spasmed, flickering like a dying filament, her tiny Ikona struggling against his grip, each pulse weaker than the last as she thrashed, her light dimming under the pressure.

With every stutter, loose motes of blue splashed across his knuckles, then winked out, leaving no mark—proof of how thoroughly he owned the space she could occupy.

High above, inert viewing screens flashed brief diagnostics: COMPANION FILE DEGRADATION—73 %... 77 %... the numbers climbing with brutal indifference.

In his other hand, he held half of Elias’s shattered shard, its jagged edges crackling with raw energy, the blue glow pulsing brighter in his grasp, as if drawn to his touch.

The light from that fragment painted moving bars across his torso, illuminating the red cloak‑lining in rhythmic surges that looked disturbingly like a heartbeat not his own.

He twirled the fragment once, studying it with a faint smile, sparks fizzing out where the cracks met the air, leaving soft scars in the dim light.

Each revolution sprayed a fringe of argent‑blue embers that fell, curved mid‑arc, and spiraled back toward the shard—a quiet demonstration of gravity rewriting itself to obey his whim.

"Looks like I only got half of this creature’s life force," he said, voice low, resonant, carrying a calm that seemed to press against the realm itself, bending the air around him.

The words rolled off his tongue like observation, not boast, yet the temperature dipped a few degrees in their wake; the torches above tightened into starved pinpoints.

His claws flexed slightly, Dot’s glow stuttering, her tiny form trembling as she fought to hold herself together.

A wet crackle sounded—energy shearing at molecular seams—followed by a brittle whimper so small it barely qualified as sound.

Across the arena, the Announcer’s lenses jittered between focus settings; telemetry crawled red across his HUD, HOST STABILITY: CRITICAL colliding with PROTOCOL OVERRIDE DENIED.

He tilted his head, white hair shifting like a curtain, his gaze drifting to the spot where Kikaru had vanished, as if he could still see her clutching the other half of the shard, its blue glow pulsing in her hands.

A knowing curve touched the corner of his mouth, and for one stretched heartbeat the realm felt smaller—drawn tight as fabric under a tailor’s pin—while every exit shimmered shut in unspoken anticipation of his next move.

The Announcer’s jaw tightened, his lenses flashing with a sudden intensity, the red and blue light strobing faster as he stepped forward, his polished shoes scuffing the unseen ground. "You do not belong in this place," he said, voice sharp, cracking at the edges, the forced cheer of moments ago replaced by a raw, trembling authority. "Much less talking to me in such a calm demeanor."

His hand clenched at his side, sweat rolling down his cheek, the mic clipped to his collar letting out a faint whine as it struggled to process his rising pitch. "We will defeat you when the end of time is near."

The figure’s pale eyebrows lifted a fraction, his faint smile widening, a glint of amusement in his unreadable eyes as he turned to face the Announcer fully, the red lining of his cloak catching the torchlight, painting a brief smear of color across the pale ground. "Oh, how boastful of you," he said, his voice carrying that same calm, resonant weight, each syllable humming inside the Announcer’s bones, forcing a shallow breath from his chest. "Now that I have one of your shards—even if it’s just a portion—I can learn more from it."

He held up the shard half, its blue glow pulsing in time with his words, sparks skipping across its surface like tiny lightning strikes.

"When that shard sliced in half, it sent a wave through every soul detection system and painted this pretty spot on a map, if only for a brief moment." The Announcer’s breath caught, his lenses flickering as he took another step forward, his hand trembling at his side, the mic letting out a sharp burst of static that echoed through the realm.

The feedback ricocheted off the empty stands, bounced back a half‑second later, and rattled his teeth with its hollowness.

Behind the static rose the muted thrum of the portal, like a beast circling just out of sight—waiting to pounce on any slip in his composure.

"Stop treating me like the bad guy here," he snapped, voice rising, the panic in his tone cutting through the silence like a blade.

The words tasted like copper; they left his mouth too fast, scraping vocal cords already ragged from forced bravado.

"You’re the ones toying with lives as if they are candies in a candy shop."

A vein pulsed at his temple, broadcasting how thin the veneer of control had become, but he refused to step back.

The figure’s smile faded, his gaze sharpening, the pale blue‑white of his skin glowing faintly as he tilted his head, his claws tightening around Dot, her glow dimming further, a faint whine escaping her as she struggled.

The sound was so small it might have gone unheard if the realm weren’t stripped bare of every other heartbeat.

"That’s because we will do what is needed, regardless of moral compasses," he said, voice steady, unyielding, each word a weight that pressed against the Announcer’s chest, forcing another shallow breath.

The phrase moral compasses echoed like a verdict, and even the floor’s micro‑fractures seemed to flinch at its certainty.

"What’s needed is total unification, and instead, you believed your group to be high and mighty because of your intelligence, stepping into the domains of gods. You still hunt for the perfect vessel to house the items you create."

His cloak’s red lining fluttered on some breeze the realm didn’t register, painting silent warnings across marble‑smooth ground before settling again, patient as a guillotine blade.

The Announcer’s hand clenched harder, his lenses flashing with a sudden intensity, the red and blue light strobing faster as he stepped closer, his voice trembling with a mix of fear and defiance.

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