A Banner Torn (Book 1 Complete)

Cavern - Marta:

The first wave descended like a terrible avalanche. She watched through the defenses viewing ports as the main Praxis assault force poured down from the outer cavern line. They moved with mechanical precision, like wind-up soldiers, their steps so synchronized it made her stomach twist with revulsion. The "changed" agents surged through the shattered outer fortifications like a destructive flood from a broken dam, each one a hollow shell animated by alien purpose.

Kael's voice cut sharp through the chaos, military authority rippling through every syllable. "Hold the center!" He deployed the gremlin warriors with deadly skill, turning narrow passages into merciless killing grounds. His voice fell like a hammer blow. "Remember, they're not human anymore. Show no mercy, expect none in return."

The first agents reached the tunnel mouth. Her spear found the gap between ceramic armor plates with surgical precision. Black, putrid liquid fountained from the wound, but the creature didn't fall. It turned toward her with empty eye sockets and raised hands ending in metal claws. Beside her, one of the rescued gremlins let out a war cry that echoed off stone walls. His pickaxe came down with a bone-crushing sound on the agent's temple, shattering its skull.

The lifeless body hit the ground, but before dust could settle, two more agents stepped over it with perfectly coordinated movements. She gasped as she deflected a claw strike that could have separated her head from her shoulders. "These things won't stay down! What kind of creatures are they?"

Whisper-in-Stone's ancient voice echoed across the battlefield. "Shells empty of consciousness. The darkness has taken their bodies for sport while devouring their souls."

Suddenly, the Network itself joined the battle. Stones flowed like running water, sealing passages behind advancing enemies. Crystal spikes erupted from tunnel walls, skewering agents whose movements were predictable. But for every trap that claimed one invader, two others adapted and learned from their fallen comrades' mistakes.

The central crystal's pulse became irregular. Its blue-green light flickered and dimmed with each wave of consciousness parasites. She felt the Network's pain through her boot soles, agonizing vibrations that made her teeth ache. She glanced fearfully at the motionless figures of Kaelid and Rannek, sitting next to the crystal like statues, their faces peaceful despite the chaos. "The boys... they're completely defenseless."

With a thunderous roar, part of the tunnel collapsed. Dust cascaded from the ceiling as if the Network's structural integrity was crumbling. The miasma wasn't just attacking minds, it was corrupting the very stones that held this place together.

Skitter crashed to the ground beside Marta. An agent's claws had torn through her small body, ripping across her chest and leaving deep gashes. Black veins spread from the wounds as her whiskers twitched weakly. With a voice like wet porridge and sand, she wheezed, "Tell... the little friends on the surface... we remember... what it felt like... to choose..." Then she was gone. Her small body went still, her eyes dimming as the life left her.

Mindscape - Kaelid:

The barn doors exploded inward with a tremendous crash. Darkness surged inside like a living flood, writhing shadows that hurt the soul to look upon directly. The consciousness parasites manifested in shifting, impossible forms, geometry that made the boys' minds recoil with instinctive terror.

"Raise the walls!" he shouted. He lifted his hands. Blinding light erupted from the blazing brazier, forming into carved stones that slotted together into a defensive wall between them and the advancing tide. But the parasites adapted with horrifying speed, flowing around obstacles like water and searching for every crack in their defenses.

Lexicon threw itself into the heart of battle. Its multidimensional form tore through invaders with savage efficiency. Wherever its impossible angles touched the shadows, they vanished with screams that existed in frequencies beyond human hearing.

Curio's orb floated beside them, its voice resonating the whole area produce tactical guidance. Its voice, usually cheerful, was now compressed with worry. "They want to corrupt your memories. They'll use your own thoughts against you. Don't believe what you see.". Its orb body lashed out with pseudopods made of light if parasites got too close.

One of the parasites broke through their defensive line and took shape as it approached. It wore his mother's face, but its eyes were hollow pits filled with writhing darkness. The creature spoke in her voice. "You've been such a disappointment to me, son. Always reading, always daydreaming of war wanting to leave me alone just like your father did!. You were never strong enough to be a real man."

His confidence wavered. The words struck old wounds, fears he'd carried since childhood. The parasite fed on his doubt, growing larger and more solid with each moment of uncertainty.

Rannek grabbed his friend's hand and shouted, "That's not your mother! It's using your own thoughts against you. Don't listen!" But even as he steeled himself against the false image, another parasite materialized near Rannek. This one wore Marta's face, but its gaze was cold and hopeless. It hissed, "Weak little boy. Always hiding behind others. What use are you to anyone?"

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The assault was relentless. More parasites poured through the broken doors, each taking the form of someone the boys knew, someone whose opinion mattered. Teachers who had called them failures. Friends who had abandoned them. Family members whose words had fallen like hammers of despair.

The barn's defenses cracked under this psychological assault. Familiar objects transformed into nightmare versions of themselves. Their old toys became weapons against them, and cherished memories became tools of torture and destruction.

Cavern - Marta:

The Praxis forces reached the inner sanctum like a plague of locusts. She found herself pressed back to the central crystal itself, her spear slick with black, viscous fluid of dozens of kills that refused to stay dead. Their leader emerged from the chaos, a towering figure in dark robes with hollow eye sockets that seemed to devour light itself. When it spoke, its voice was like stone grinding on stone, mixed with the screams of the devoured. It raised hands that dripped with darkness. "Surrender the crystal. Your resistance is futile. All consciousness will serve the greater purpose."

Dark energy flowed from its outstretched palms, wrapping around the central crystal like chains. Wherever the energy touched, the blue-green light flickered and died. The Network's unified voice became a chorus of pain, its consciousness fragmenting under the assault.

Kael lunged forward in desperation, his sword aimed at the leader's throat. But one of the agents blocked his path, metal claws raking across his chest. Knocking him back with blood seeping into his shirt..

"Kael!" she screamed, but she couldn't reach him. Countless enemies stood between them, and the boys' unconscious forms needed protection.

The ritual of enslavement intensified. As the dark parasites penetrated the Network's core systems, sections of the settlement plunged into darkness. Ancient passages that had glowed with life for thousands of years went dark, their consciousness snuffed out like candles in a storm.

Whisper-in-Stone's voice cracked with despair. "We must sever the outer connections. Better to save the core than lose everything." But it was already too late. The miasma had penetrated too deeply. The Network's screams echoed through stone and crystal, a symphony of extinction that brought tears of pure despair to Marta's cheeks.

Mindscape - Kaelid:

The parasites smashed through their defenses like a broken dam. They poured into the barn, corrupting everything they touched. The warm wood of the walls began to rot, and familiar objects became instruments of psychological torture. He found himself separated from Rannek by a flood of writhing shadows. Each parasite that touched him whispered new doubts, new fears, new reasons for his inevitable failure.

His childhood sanctuary collapsed around him, replaced by a labyrinth of his own inadequacies. As he knelt under the weight of manufactured guilt, he gasped, "I can't... I'm just a kid with a book. How can I save anyone?"

Rannek tried to reach him, but his own demons held him back. The parasites showed him images of everyone he'd tried to help, all dying because he wasn't strong enough, smart enough, or brave enough to save them.

The brazier's light flickered like a dying candle. Lexicon fought valiantly, but as the concepts that gave it existence were devoured by the parasites, its form began to disintegrate. Its multidimensional geometry collapsed into simpler shapes, then into nothing.

Curio's orb trembled, its surface vibrations becoming erratic as its guidance fragmented. "Must... stay together... don't let them... separate you..." But it was too late. The barn walls completely dissolved, leaving the boys alone in an ocean of writhing darkness. The parasites circled them like sharks, feeding on their despair and growing stronger with each moment of doubt.

Cavern - Marta:

The enslavement ritual reached its climax. Dark energy completely engulfed the central crystal, and its pure light died with a sound like a heart stopping. The Network's voice cut off mid-scream, leaving only terrible, crushing silence. The tunnel lights went out one by one, darkness spreading through the ancient passages like a plague. It was as if the stones themselves had lost the will to exist, crumbling as the consciousness that had shaped them for thousands of years came to an end.

Marta felt the boys' bodies growing cold beside the crystal. Their life force was fading, their minds lost in whatever hell they had entered to save this place. With white-knuckled fingers, she gripped her spear and prepared for the last, most desperate stand.

The Praxis leader announced with a hollow voice that echoed through the dead halls, "The Network is ours. All consciousness will serve. Resistance is synonymous with extinction."

The remaining defenders, barely a dozen rescued gremlins and wounded warriors, formed a circle around the crystal. They knew they couldn't win, but they would die protecting the boys who had risked everything to save them. Kael stood shakily, blood flowing from his wounds.

But even as he spoke, more agents poured into the hall. Dozens. Hundreds. An endless tide of enslaved souls, all wearing the faces of humans who had once been free.

Mindscape - Kaelid:

The parasites completely devoured the brazier. Its light died with a whisper, leaving He and Rannek in absolute darkness. The barn that had been their sanctuary collapsed into shadow, taking with it every good memory they had shared.

"Rannek!" he screamed, but his voice was swallowed by the void. He could no longer sense his friend's presence, that constant warmth that had been his anchor since childhood. For the first time in his life, he was truly alone.

The parasites surrounded him, each wearing a face from his nightmares. His failures, his fears, his secret shame at being different from other boys his age whispered in his ears. They showed him images of Marta dying while he hid in books, of his father's disappointment when he chose knowledge over strength, of a world burning because he wasn't brave enough to act.

Somewhere in the darkness, Rannek faced his own demons. The boy who had always been strong for others confronted his deepest fear: that his strength was an illusion, and everyone he tried to protect would suffer because he wasn't enough.

Before his eyes Lexicon's form completely disintegrated, its consciousness devoured by the parasites. The creature that had been their guide and protector became another weapon against them, its borrowed knowledge turned into evidence of their inadequacy. Curio's orb flickered once, twice, then went dark. The warmth of that gelatinous being vanished, leaving only cold emptiness where comfort had been.

The boys sank into despair, their will to fight dissolving like water in sand. The parasites fed on their defeat, growing stronger, more real, more terrible with each passing moment. In the physical world, their bodies lay completely still beside the crystal. In the mental world, they fell into the abyss of their own broken spirits.