Chapter 41: Whispers of Stone
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Marcus floated above the Earth, the stone angel gripped tightly in his hands as he soared through the upper atmosphere. His superhuman senses could feel the chill of space encroaching, though it had no effect on him. He'd carried the statue out of NeoTech's laboratory, away from human eyes, determined to deal with it on his own terms. No one else needed to be exposed to whatever dark force this thing carried.
The voice of Ash'Shaytan still echoed in his mind, but Marcus pushed it aside. He was focused on the task at hand—destroying the statue, burning it down to ash in the unforgiving vacuum of space.
He gritted his teeth, feeling the oppressive energy of the statue even now. It was as though it was waiting for something, patient and knowing, its eyes seeming to follow him no matter where he turned.
"Not today," Marcus muttered under his breath, speeding up, the Earth becoming a distant ball behind him. He wasn't just a man. He had the bloodline of Superman. He had conquered disease, reshaped global power dynamics, and was on the cusp of leading humanity into the stars. He wasn't going to let some ancient entity, whatever it was, stand in his way.
As he neared the void of space, Marcus stopped. The stars blinked in the distance, but all he saw now was the stone angel, its carved wings still poised as if to take flight. But there was something deeply unsettling about its face. It looked calm, almost serene now, no longer twisted in rage. This was no ordinary statue—it was alive in ways Marcus couldn't explain, but whatever it was, it had no place in this world.
Marcus' eyes glowed red with the power of his heat vision. The space around him hummed with energy as he focused his strength on the statue. The intense beam of heat slammed into the stone angel, sparks flying as the rock began to crack and melt under the pressure. The statue's form began to fracture, tiny flecks of stone breaking off, crumbling into dust.
And then, with one final burst of energy, Marcus incinerated the statue, burning it down to nothing. The fragments scattered into the cold reaches of space, disappearing into the void.
Marcus exhaled, though he didn't need to breathe. He stared at the empty space where the statue had once been, relieved but cautious. Ash'Shaytan had spoken of watching him, of testing him. The destruction of the statue felt too easy, too simple, but for now, it was over.
He turned back toward Earth, speeding through the atmosphere, the world coming into view below him. As he re-entered Metropolis, Marcus's thoughts drifted to NeoTech. Wang and the other scientists would want an explanation, but he wasn't ready to give them one. Not yet.
Meanwhile, back at NeoTech, the scientists were buzzing with activity. They'd run every test imaginable on the statue before Marcus had removed it, and they were eager to analyze the data. Wang sat in his office, watching the security footage from earlier. The cameras had captured everything—the appearance of the statue, Marcus's arrival, and his conversation with it. But there was something wrong with the footage. The moment when the lights had flickered was corrupted, the screen distorting into static for just a few seconds.
Wang frowned, rewinding the footage and playing it again, trying to make sense of the distortion. It was almost as if the cameras had been affected by the presence of the statue, as if the very act of recording it had triggered some kind of interference.
His phone buzzed, breaking his concentration. "Wang here," he answered.
"It's Dr. Philips. You need to see something."
Wang stood, heading toward the research lab where the team had been conducting their analysis. When he arrived, Dr. Philips was standing over a table, her expression grim.
"We've been reviewing the footage and the photos we took of the statue," she said. "And… something's wrong."
Wang looked at the screen she was pointing to. It was a still image of the stone angel, but as he stared at it, a chill ran down his spine. The angel's face, which had been frozen in a look of twisted rage, now seemed different. It was subtle, but the expression had changed—it was watching them. Staring.
"How is that possible?" Wang asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"I don't know," Dr. Philips replied. "But every photo, every video we have… the statue looks like it's alive. And there's more. Two of our researchers—Jones and Marshall—left for the night after taking some of these photos. They never made it home."
Wang's heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean?"
"They were found in their homes. Both of them… their necks were twisted, broken in ways that don't make sense. And in both houses, there were statues. Stone angels, identical to the one Sir Marcus took."
Wang's blood ran cold. He stepped back from the screen, his mind racing. "Call Marcus. Now."
Across the city, similar reports were beginning to emerge. People who had taken photos or videos of the stone angel, whether they were scientists at NeoTech or security guards who had recorded footage, were found dead in their homes. Their necks twisted beyond understanding, with the only clue being the stone statues that appeared next to their bodies. The statues weren't just relics—they were spreading. A plague of stone angels haunting those who had encountered them.
Rumors started to swirl through Manhattan, then across the world. Whispers of the "Stone Curse" gripped the public. News outlets were flooded with stories of the mysterious deaths, and soon the government stepped in.
In a sweeping move, all images, videos, and recordings of the statue were banned. Anyone found in possession of such media would face severe punishment. The public, terrified, deleted their photos and purged their systems, but the damage had already been done.
Marcus, back at his office in NeoTech, was piecing together the reports when the AI system he had built pinged him.
"Sir Marcus," the calm, robotic voice said. "I have analyzed the occurrences surrounding the stone angel. There is a pattern to the deaths. Every individual who has recorded or photographed the statue has been marked."
Marcus gritted his teeth. "Marked by what?"
"I do not have enough data to conclude. But the deaths appear to be connected to the entity known as Ash'Shaytan. The statues that appear… they are a manifestation of its influence."
Marcus slammed his fist on the table, frustration boiling over. He had burned the statue in space, scattered its ashes across the cosmos, but it hadn't stopped anything. The entity wasn't bound by the physical form of the stone angel—it was something far worse. Something he didn't yet understand.
"How do we stop it?" Marcus demanded.
The AI was silent for a moment, its systems processing the data. "There is no known solution yet. But I suggest we continue to observe the phenomenon and gather more information. Ash'Shaytan is playing a game, Sir Marcus. It is testing you."
Marcus stared at the holographic screen in front of him, his mind racing. Ash'Shaytan had said it was watching. The statue had been a gift, a challenge. Marcus knew now, as the city was gripped with fear, that this was only the beginning. He will try everything is his power to stop this evil entity's scheme. He decided it was time for him to pay more attention to the system.
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