The Gifted Divide

"Returning insult for insult is justice, returning injury for insult is injustice." ― Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)

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The halls of ESA headquarters in Zhane City glowed with a sterile calm, the hum of overhead lights like the lull before a storm.

Nightfall had settled like a heavy curtain beyond the vast windows lining the upper levels. The cityscape of Zhane stretched outward into twinkling constellations of light. It was a peaceful night, deceptively so.

Bryan stood at the central command console of the ESA Command Division, his sleeves rolled back to the elbows of his navy coat, his brows furrowed as he overlooked the swirling mosaic of status feeds, satellite pings, and operative transmissions coming in from across the country.

The screens buzzed with low urgency—patrol units reporting disturbances near the south border, confirmation of patrol route deviations, and a few red-flagged zones reporting minor infractions or curfew violations.

The recent desertions of Teams Alpha and Delta had hit the agency harder than any bullet. Morale was threadbare. Trust even thinner.

But Bryan hadn't left. He couldn't. Not yet.

"Sir," came a voice to his left. Agent Varren, one of the younger communications officers, turned from his terminal, sweat glistening at his temples. "Patrol Unit 2B just flagged a potential skirmish near District 7's outer checkpoint. They're requesting reinforcements."

Bryan exhaled slowly. His fingers tapped a rhythm against the steel of the command console. "We don't have the numbers. Not anymore. Tell them to hold. Deploy the drones. Eyes in the sky are better than none."

Varren hesitated, then nodded. "Yes, sir."

The Command Room felt thinner tonight. Only a skeleton crew manned the stations—those too loyal, too stubborn, or too disillusioned to abandon ship. Even with all the warnings, all the whispers in the hallways, Bryan stayed. Because someone had to.

That's what he told himself.

But deep down, he stayed because he knew this end was coming. And he would rather meet it head-on.

He adjusted his earpiece, scanning through the latest status briefs. For all the tension choking the air, nothing out of the ordinary had triggered his instincts. Yet.

Until…

A flash on one of the screens caught Bryan's attention. And then, a second later, the entire command tower shook violently.

BOOM.

The floor groaned, and the lights flickered. Screams from the lower levels surged upward through the intercom before being swallowed by static. Red warning strobes exploded to life overhead, casting the room in a sickly crimson wash.

"Explosion detected at the main gate!" Varren shouted, already turning pale. "Guard outpost is… Gone! It's gone!"

"Seal the lower levels. All of them!" Bryan barked, his voice slicing through the chaos as the entire room lit up in blinking alerts. "This is not an accident. Full lockdown protocol, now!"

All around him, ESA agents scrambled to their stations, shouts overlapping, alarms shrieking in tandem with the sounds of new explosions rumbling below. Another terminal burst into static.

Then came the chilling realisation.

"They're…breaching the perimeter!" Another officer yelled. "Hunters… Sir, it's the hunters!"

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Bryan's heart dropped. It had begun.

"Impossible," he breathed.

But the screens didn't lie. Real-time feeds from surveillance cameras showed it—black-clad figures storming the outer hallways, moving with lethal precision, marked by insignias Bryan had hoped he'd never see in real time. The hunters. The elite squads.

The same ones the ESA had been told were their allies.

"They're shooting everyone!" An agent cried. "Gifted, Normals… Everyone! They're not even checking IDs!"

"Council transmission! Emergency SOS incoming!" Another voice rang out from across the room. "Audio only!"

Bryan turned toward the screen as static gave way to the strained, panicked voice of a field agent stationed at the Eldario Council building.

"This is Agent Rilan! We're under attack! I repeat, hunters have breached the Council grounds! Executions, mass—"

There was the sound of a scream, before being followed by rapid gunfire. And then, silence.

The feed cut out.

Time slowed. The whir of machines faded. Bryan stared at the screen, the words echoing in his mind. Executions. Breached. Council. Hunters.

He clenched his fists, blood roaring in his ears. The country had just lost its governance.

"Evacuate." Bryan's voice came low, almost deadly calm.

"What?" Varren asked, startled.

"I said evacuate!" Bryan barked, turning to his subordinates. "Now! All of you! Get out while you still can!"

"But what about you?" One of them said, his eyes wide with fear, one hand trembling on the grip of his sidearm.

Bryan's gaze flickered toward him. "I have one last job to do. If you can, get the Director to safety. If you can't…" His voice caught. "Save yourself."

"Bryan…"

"Let's meet at the side of the Goddess," he breathed.

His agents stared at him for a moment longer, then, one by one, ran. Some cried. Others shouted names of colleagues down the hallway. None hesitated after the look in Bryan's eyes.

They knew what this meant. And they knew he had no intention of leaving.

The room emptied, with sirens howling behind the steel-bolted doors. Bryan exhaled, trembling, and turned back toward the main console. His fingers flew, tapping in a sequence etched into memory, one they were all trained never to use unless the worst happened.

The emergency override. An all-agency broadcast.

A transmission that reached every ESA agent, every terminal, and every communicator—no matter the clearance level.

As the system engaged, Bryan could already see it. Through the cameras, the hunters surged in like a swarm—systematic and merciless. The eastern wing was already in flames. Hallways were red with blood. Corpses of ESA agents were strewn like discarded debris.

They didn't stand a chance.

"They've breached the upper levels!" Bryan's voice rang out across the country. His breathing was heavy and trembling. "Someone—anyone—listen!"

This wasn't just a call for help. This was a death knell. His death knell.

"They would no doubt be listening in on this conversation and frequency, but I need to tell every ESA agent out there! The hunters… They're on the move! They're not our ally! They're attacking ESA headquarters and the Eldario Council!"

Bryan's hands shook over the controls. The hallway camera showed four elite hunters now approaching his location—armoured, cold, and almost inhuman.

"They've turned on us! They've breached headquarters, killing anyone they find—Gifted or Normal, it doesn't matter! Even those that once stood with them! They are now openly our enemy!" Bryan's voice cracked.

Another explosion rocked the building. One camera went dark. Bryan flinched.

"When this transmission ends, destroy your communicators! They've accessed the ESA mainframe! They can track you! They're watching every line of communication! We should assume that all conversations through the communicators are being monitored! Even the Director, if she made it out—" He coughed. Blood. Real blood.

Bryan's vision swam, but he kept going. "If… If anyone is still alive out there, and away from the ESA, please…! Save Eldario!"

The camera feed blinked again, and the doors behind him exploded inward. Four hunters stood in the ruined doorway. Bryan turned, unflinching, gun in hand.

"I should've guessed this would happen sooner or later," he murmured, flicking off the safety. "You can spin whatever lies you want to, but the ESA knows the truth. We know exactly what is going on in the country."

The lead hunter stepped forward. "The ESA has served its purpose. You protected monsters. Gifted filth. You're tainted by association."

"I'm still ESA," Bryan growled. "And I'm still breathing. You'll have to work for this kill."

The first hunter moved, lightning-quick, but Bryan was quicker. His gun barked once. A clean shot. Right between the eyes. The hunter dropped to the ground, his eyes wide with shock.

The second lunged. Bryan grunted as fists collided, elbow to jaw, then seized the man's neck, twisting hard. The snap echoed through the room.

But the third fired. A single shot.

Bryan staggered, the bullet tearing through his abdomen. He hit the wall hard, blood blooming beneath his coat, dripping down the concrete.

"Tonight is the night the ESA ends," The third hunter hissed. "We will bring Eldario into a new dawn."

Bryan coughed, his chest heaving. "No. Tonight is the night your delusions end. You hunters are going to be Eldario's doom, and you can't even see that."

"You side with monsters. Gifted freaks—"

"You took everyone," Bryan snarled. "Normals. Children. You used them. Tortured them. You shackled the ESA to your agenda for decades. Like puppets, just so you can do what you did today! Our comrades, the ones who have seen this coming and had left before you can kill them… They had the right idea of it. I only hope they managed to survive."

"We'll find them all. Every single Gifted and their collaborators. We'll purge them all! There won't be a single Gifted left by the time we're done!"

Bryan laughed.

"What's so funny?" The hunter demanded.

"You hunters…still don't understand anything," Bryan breathed. "Even today, have we ever figured out just how and why Gifted were born? Two parents who are Normals can have a Gifted child. And yet, their siblings might not always be Gifted either. It's a dormant gene, like the researchers figured out decades ago. But… I think it's also by the Goddess's will," he breathed. "You hunters won't get to do what you want. There will be people that will stop you. I only regret…that I won't be able to see it."

The fourth hunter raised his weapon, but Bryan lifted a hand weakly, reaching into his jacket, and drew out a compact device. Small and black, with a single red light glowing. A compact explosive—one that has enough power to take out everything within a five mile radius.

The two remaining hunters froze, their eyes fixated on the device in Bryan's hand.

Bryan grinned, blood staining his teeth. "You think you can cleanse the world. But even now, you don't understand. Gifted aren't some disease. They're born from Normals. They're chosen."

The hunters stepped back. Bryan's finger hovered over the trigger.

"There will always be more. Always. And they'll stop you." He smiled through blood and tears. "Let's meet at the side of the Goddess."

Bryan pressed onto the button, triggering it.

Then, the world exploded. And for several moments after that, there was just nothing but light. Sound. And silence.

ESA Headquarters was gone. And with it, the last sentinel of an era. The night skies of Zhane City were alight with flames that night, signalling the truth to everyone.

Eldario was no longer in a state of conflict. It was now at war.