Chapter 469: Inside rage

Hours after the elves had left and the station’s nighttime routine had begun, Noah sat alone with Sophie in their assigned quarters. The lights had been dimmed to simulate evening, and the usual background hum of the station’s systems created a white noise that should have been comforting but only made the silence between them feel heavier.

Sophie sat on the couch with her knees drawn up, watching Noah stare at nothing in particular. He’d been like this since returning from his private conversation with Commander Beaumont, lost in thoughts he hadn’t shared yet.

"Are you thinking about the elf princess?" Sophie asked, breaking the silence with a directness that was very much her style.

Noah’s head snapped up. "What? No."

"Because she was pretty obvious about liking you," Sophie continued, a slight smile playing at her lips. "Seven feet of ethereal beauty following you around like a puppy."

"Sophie, I’m not—" Noah started, then stopped, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "That’s not what’s on my mind."

"Then what is?"

Noah was quiet for a long moment, organizing thoughts he’d been wrestling with for days. "It’s not the hearing. Or at least, not primarily the hearing."

He stood up and began pacing, the movement helping him think through what he wanted to say. "Since Arthur took Bruce and Lucas, I haven’t been able to use Domain Link."

Sophie frowned. "The teleportation skill that connects you to people?"

"Yeah. I can form links with teammates, mark their position in space, and instantly transport to their location no matter where they are." Noah’s pacing grew more agitated. "But ever since they were taken into that shadow dimension, the link just... stops. Like trying to call a number that’s been disconnected."

He turned to face her. "I’ve been thinking about this constantly, trying to understand why. My theory is that Arthur’s shadow dimension is similar to my Void Domain. It’s a pocket dimension, a space that exists outside normal reality with no fixed coordinates in our universe."

Sophie nodded slowly, following his logic. "And because your Domain is a space you control completely..."

"Exactly. When I brought Arthur’s shadow soldiers into my Domain back on the Ares fleet, they couldn’t use their shadow abilities to teleport out. My dimension overrode their powers because I was in total control of that space." Noah’s hands clenched into fists. "If Arthur has the same level of control over his shadow dimension, then my Domain Link can’t reach Lucas or Bruce because they’re not in normal space anymore. They’re in a pocket reality that Arthur controls absolutely."

"Have you tried multiple times?"

"Every day since we got back," Noah admitted. "Sometimes multiple times a day. Nothing. It’s like they don’t exist anymore."

Sophie stood up and moved closer to him. "What else is bothering you?"

Noah met her eyes, and she could see genuine fear there. "When I asked Arthur’s clone where Lucas was, he sounded genuinely confused. Like he actually had no idea. What if the clone wasn’t joking? What if even Arthur’s duplicates don’t know where the real Arthur is keeping his prisoners?"

Sophie processed this for a moment, the implications sinking in. If the clones didn’t know, and Noah couldn’t use Domain Link to find them, and the shadow dimension existed outside normal space...

"We’ll get them back," Sophie said firmly, taking Noah’s hands in hers. "Lucas, Bruce, King Aurelius, Lucy’s dad—all of them. We’ll find a way."

"How? We can’t even locate them."

"We’ll figure it out. Together." Sophie squeezed his hands. "But first, we have to survive the tribunal. If we’re convicted and discharged, we won’t have the resources or authority to hunt Arthur properly. So right now, that’s what we focus on."

Noah nodded slowly, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

Sophie’s expression shifted to something more playful. "Now, back to the elf princess who was making eyes at you all day."

"Sophie—"

"I’m just saying, she was not subtle." Sophie grinned. "Following you around, pledging her eternal loyalty, offering you sanctuary on an alien world. Very romantic."

"You’re enjoying this too much."

"Maybe a little." Sophie’s grin softened into something more genuine. "But honestly? I liked her too. She’s brave, intelligent, and she genuinely cares about her people. If she wants to harbor a crush on my boyfriend, I can’t really blame her taste."

She leaned in and pecked Noah on the cheek, then pulled back with a smile. "Just don’t go running off to Raiju Prime without me."

With that, Sophie headed toward the sleeping quarters, leaving Noah alone with his thoughts and the weight of tomorrow’s tribunal pressing down on him like gravity.

---

The training hall was empty when Noah arrived near midnight. The guards had given him permission to train as long as he stayed within the restricted areas, apparently deciding that an exhausted Noah was less of a security risk than a restless one.

The hall’s lighting activated automatically as he entered, illuminating rows of combat training dummies in various configurations. Noah moved to the center of the space and took a deep breath, centering himself.

He reached for his dark chi first, the external energy that weaponized negative emotions. Unlike his void abilities that came from the system, dark chi was pure martial technique—dangerous, corrosive, and incredibly effective when properly channeled.

The frustration came easily. Weeks of failure, of watching people get taken while he stood helpless. The anger at a system that punished them for trying to save lives. The fear that Lucas was suffering somewhere he couldn’t reach.

Dark chi responded to those emotions, pulling them from his core and giving them physical form. Red and white energy began swirling around his hands and arms, crackling with barely contained power. The energy felt different from void manipulation—where void was cold and erasing, dark chi was hot and consuming.

Noah moved toward the first training dummy.

His opening strike was pure dark chi, no system abilities involved. The energy-coated punch hit the dummy’s center mass and the construct didn’t just break—it detonated. Pieces of reinforced training material scattered across the hall as the dark chi consumed the dummy’s structural integrity from the inside out.

He moved to the next dummy, this time mixing techniques.

[Void Blink - Activated]

Purple energy swirled around Noah as he teleported behind the second dummy. The dark chi still coated his hands as he drove both fists into the construct’s back. The combination of void energy erasing matter and dark chi consuming what remained left nothing but scorched floor where the dummy had been standing.

The third dummy tried to adapt, its AI systems analyzing his attack patterns. It raised defensive fields and shifted position to counter his approach.

Noah didn’t give it time to finish calculating.

[Enhanced Null Strike - Activated]

His fist blazed with concentrated void energy as he struck the dummy’s defensive field. The purple light of his null strike didn’t just penetrate the barrier—it erased the concept of the barrier entirely. His follow-through punch, still coated in dark chi, obliterated the dummy’s head.

He was moving faster now, mixing system abilities and martial techniques in combinations that flowed like water.

[Phase Step - Activated]

Multiple afterimages of Noah appeared throughout the training hall, each one solid enough to confuse the remaining dummies’ targeting systems. The real Noah moved between his own afterimages, dark chi and void energy creating a light show of purple and red as he destroyed dummy after dummy.

The fourth construct tried to counter with projectile attacks. Noah responded with void manipulation.

[Void Barrage - Activated]

His fingers formed gun shapes, and compressed void projectiles erupted toward the dummy. Each bullet moved at incredible speed, designed to erase whatever they touched. The dummy’s projectiles met Noah’s void barrage and simply ceased to exist, their matter unmade before they could reach him.

Noah closed the distance while the dummy was still processing its failed attack.

[Entropy Touch - Activated]

His hand blazed with decay energy as he grabbed the dummy’s arm. The training construct aged centuries in seconds, its reinforced materials becoming brittle and crumbling under entropy’s influence. Noah’s dark chi-coated punch to its midsection finished what entropy had started.

The fifth and sixth dummies tried to coordinate, attacking from multiple angles simultaneously. Noah’s response was to combine everything he’d been practicing.

Dark chi flowed through his body, enhancing his physical capabilities beyond normal human limits. He ducked under one dummy’s strike while his void-coated counter punch erased a chunk of its torso. A spinning kick augmented by dark chi sent the second dummy flying across the hall.

[Storm Call - Activated]

Purple-white void lightning crashed down from the ceiling, seeking the remaining dummy’s position. The construct tried to dodge, but Noah was already there.

[Void Blink - Activated]

He appeared behind the dodging dummy, both hands blazing with mixed energies. Dark chi and void manipulation combined in a strike that didn’t just destroy the training construct—it left a crater in the floor where the dummy had been.

Noah stood in the center of the ruined training hall, breathing hard, surrounded by the scattered remains of six demolished dummies. Dark chi still flickered around his hands, and void energy crackled in the air around him.

That’s when he sensed movement behind him.

[Void Blink - Activated]

Noah disappeared in a swirl of purple energy and reappeared behind the figure that had been watching him. His fist was already raised, coated in concentrated void energy that would erase whatever it touched.

Lyra stood there, completely still, staring at the glowing purple fist inches from her face.

"Whoa," she said quietly. "That was close."

Noah held his position for a heartbeat, then lowered his hand. The purple energy around his fist dissipated slowly. "Why were you sneaking up on me?"

"I wasn’t sneaking. I was watching." Lyra’s expression remained calm despite how close she’d come to having a hole punched through her face. "I didn’t mean to startle you. Since when are you so easily shook? Or did the battle with Arthur do more damage on the inside than the outside?"

Noah dropped his guard completely, the dark chi around his hands fading as he released his combat stance. "Training dummies, stand down," he said to the room’s automated systems.

The few remaining functional dummies powered down and returned to their storage positions. The hall’s emergency cleaning systems activated, beginning to clear the debris from Noah’s destructive practice session.

"I wanted to talk," Lyra said, moving closer but maintaining a respectful distance. "And wish you luck for the trial tomorrow."

"I don’t need it," Noah replied, turning away from her and heading toward the equipment storage. "If you’ll excuse me, I have more training to do."

"I’m sorry."

Those two words hit Noah like a physical blow. He stopped walking, his hands clenching into fists again as something hot and furious rose in his chest.

He turned back to face Lyra, and she actually took a step backward at the expression on his face.

"You’re sorry?" Noah’s voice was quiet, but it carried a intensity that filled the entire training hall. "You betrayed us. You worked for the enemy. You almost handed Kelvin over to people who could have killed him if not for the deal we struck at the last moment,"

"Noah, I—"

"I gave you a second chance!" Noah’s voice rose, weeks of suppressed anger finally finding a target. "I vouched for you when Diana wanted you gone. I trusted you when Kelvin had doubts. I made the team work with you because I believed you’d actually switched sides."

He took a step toward her, and Lyra backed up to maintain distance. "And what did you do? The moment we got arrested, you somehow saved yourself. Got special treatment. Walked away clean while the rest of us face tribunal for crimes we committed trying to stop Arthur’s operations."

"It’s not that simple—"

"It’s exactly that simple!" Noah’s hands were shaking with rage. "You got what you needed from us and then bailed. And now you’re here, in the middle of the night, apologizing like that makes everything okay?"

Lyra opened her mouth to respond, but Noah wasn’t finished.

"I regret meeting you," Noah said, and each word felt like a knife. "I regret trusting you. I regret ever thinking you could be our friend or our teammate. You played us all, and I was stupid enough to fall for it."

He turned away from her again, heading back toward the training dummies. "If you don’t mind, you should leave before I accidentally mistake you for a training dummy and put a hole in your face, permanently."

The threat hung in the air, backed by the very real demonstration of Noah’s capabilities that littered the training hall. Lyra stood frozen, staring at Noah’s back as he walked away from her.

He didn’t look back.

The door to the training hall remained open behind Lyra, waiting for her to leave. Noah activated another set of training dummies, their systems powering up with mechanical precision.

Behind him, he heard Lyra’s footsteps heading toward the exit. The door slid shut with a soft hiss, leaving Noah alone in the training hall with his rage and his void energy and the knowledge that tomorrow, everything would either get better or fall completely apart.

He raised his hands, dark chi and void energy swirling together around his fists, and faced the new set of dummies.

The night was long, and he had a lot of anger left to work through.