The Thing That Hesitated

The Malice’s claws stopped a breath away from Kael’s throat.

Time stretched not slowed, but thinned, like reality itself was holding its breath. Kael could see every detail: the stitched faces across the creature’s arm, mouths trembling mid-scream, eyes filled with memories that weren’t theirs anymore.

His hand was raised.

But he didn’t activate Null Resonance.

For the first time since awakening, Kael hesitated.

Why? the voice inside him asked calmly. You can erase it.

“I don’t want to,” Kael whispered.

The Malice smiled wider.

“That’s new,” it said, dozens of voices layered together. “Most of you don’t hesitate.”

Its claws moved.

Iris slammed into Kael from the side, her shoulder driving him across the hallway. The Malice’s strike missed by centimeters, carving a deep groove into the concrete wall instead.

“Move!” Iris shouted.

She planted her feet and snapped her fingers.

The air distorted violently.

Thorns erupted from the floor, walls, and ceiling black, spiraling spikes that twisted into a grotesque garden. The hallway vanished, replaced by a warped space of shadow and steel.

Kael gasped.

“So this is an Abyss Field…” he muttered.

Iris stood at its center, eyes glowing faintly violet.

“Garden of Thorns,” she said. “Stay behind me.”

The Malice laughed.

“Oh, Iris Vale,” it crooned. “Still hiding behind pain?”

The thorns pierced the Malice repeatedly, impaling its limbs, shredding its form. But instead of screaming, it absorbed the pain. The faces on its body changed some now looked peaceful.

Kael felt sick.

“It’s feeding on it,” he said.

“Yes,” Iris replied grimly. “This one is adaptive.”

The Malice tore itself free, chunks of its body left behind, already reforming.

Its eyes locked onto Kael.

“But you,” it said softly. “You’re different.”

The Malice lunged past Iris not toward her, but through the thorns, ignoring the damage.

Straight for Kael.

Iris cursed and moved to intercept, but the Malice dissolved into mist and reappeared behind Kael.

Its hand pressed against his chest.

Kael froze.

Suddenly, the world shattered.

Inside the Memory

Kael stood in a school hallway.

Clean. Bright. Untouched.

Students laughed. Lockers slammed. Sunlight poured through the windows.

His breath caught.

“This isn’t” he began.

“It is,” the Malice said, now standing beside him in human form. “This is what I am.”

The hallway darkened.

Blood seeped across the floor.

Screams replaced laughter.

Kael watched himself another version of him standing frozen as shadows tore through students and teachers alike.

“You survived,” the Malice whispered. “They didn’t.”

Kael’s chest burned.

“This isn’t my fault.”

“Isn’t it?” the Malice asked gently. “You felt it that day. Fear. Guilt. Regret. You fed me before you ever knew my name.”

Kael clenched his fists. “You’re lying.”

The Malice smiled sadly. “I’m remembering.”

The scene shifted again.

Kael saw Eclipse agents arriving late. Too late.

Bodies covered in sheets.

A younger Iris stood among them, her face unreadable.

“You erase us,” the Malice continued. “But you never erase why we exist.”

Kael’s knees buckled.

Reality Cracks

“Kael!”

Iris’s voice echoed, distant but desperate.

The memory trembled.

“Your hesitation,” the Malice said, stepping closer, “is proof you understand us.”

Its hand rested over Kael’s heart.

“Erase me,” it whispered. “And erase this too.”

Kael screamed.

Null Resonance – Partial Activation

The world imploded.

Not erased fractured.

The memory shattered into shards of light and shadow. The Malice screamed not in fear, but in agony as parts of its body vanished while others remained.

Kael collapsed back into reality, gasping violently.

The hallway reappeared but it was wrong. Walls flickered. Thorns decayed mid-air.

Iris staggered.

“What did you do?” she demanded.

Kael looked at his hands.

They were shaking.

“I didn’t erase it,” he said hoarsely. “I… interrupted it.”

The Malice lay on the floor, half-existence, its form unstable, faces flickering in and out.

It laughed weakly.

“You broke the rule,” it said. “You didn’t kill me. You didn’t save me.”

Iris raised her weapon.

Kael grabbed her wrist.

“Wait.”

She stared at him. “Let go.”

“If you kill it,” Kael said, voice trembling, “those memories die with it.”

“That’s the point!” Iris snapped. “That’s mercy!”

The Malice looked between them.

“Is it?” it asked.

Sirens wailed in the distance.

Backup was coming.

Iris’s jaw tightened.

“You don’t get to decide this,” she said quietly. “Not yet.”

She pulled free and drove her weapon through the Malice’s core.

The creature convulsed.

Faces screamed then faded.

Silence.

The Abyss Field collapsed, thorns dissolving into ash.

Kael stared at the empty space where the Malice had been.

Something inside him broke.

Not loudly.

Quietly.

They stood on the rooftop afterward, city lights flickering below.

Kael felt hollow.

Iris wiped blood from her blade. “You hesitated,” she said. “That almost got you killed.”

“I know.”

She looked at him carefully. “But you also did something impossible.”

Kael didn’t respond.

The voice inside him stirred again.

You felt it, didn’t you?

Kael closed his eyes.

“Yes,” he whispered. “I did.”

Good, the voice said. That means you’re still human.

Iris stiffened.

“…It spoke again,” she said.

Kael nodded.

Her expression darkened.

“That’s worse than I thought.”

In a dark room far from the city, Ryo Kenzaki watched a recording of the mission footage.

He paused it at the exact moment Kael hesitated.

Ryo smiled.

“So that’s your weakness,” he murmured. “Or maybe… your potential.”

Behind him, something ancient shifted in the shadows.