DRIFTFORCE:IGNITION

The world felt slower after the relay explosion.The city above didn't know its chains had just been severed.But the Syndicate did.

And it responded.

Midnight Sector. 1:13 AM.

Marcel stood with Ayaka on a rooftop helipad overlooking Gridline-9, where drones swarmed like angry hornets. Below, Syndicate vehicles poured from underground bunkers like blood from a broken artery.

Adrian's voice crackled in through a scrambled secure channel.

"They've deployed their contingency unit. Codename: DUSK VELOCITY."

Marcel narrowed his eyes. "What is it?"

"Not what. Who."

A rumble echoed down the skyline.Lights flickered across the megacity's spinal highway.

From the horizon, a lone car approached.

Midnight-black. No lights. No noise.It didn't drift—it glided, as if the tires weren't bound by the Earth.

The car pulled up to the helipad's edge.And from it stepped a figure in full carbon armor, helm shaped like a hawk's skull, with a glowing visor that blinked data across the eyes.

Ayaka whispered: "That's not human."

Adrian confirmed.

"He's not. He's what they made after me.He's synced to the Oracle Drive.He can see three seconds into the future. Every drift. Every move. Every mistake.""His name is Nero. The End Racer."

Nero spoke only once.

"You've entered the Ghost Protocol.Now enter Oblivion."

He returned to his machine—a custom-built hypercar named "Thantos Mk-Zero". No engine roar. Just a quiet hum that made Marcel's blood run cold.

Ravyn ran a scan.

"Vehicle analysis complete: Predictive AI. Probability-drift routing. Tire adaptation rate: 0.3 seconds. Marcel... he's already calculating your death."

Marcel climbed into his Skyline."No. He's just preloading his defeat."

The Track: Spiral Skyline – The Rooftop Circuit150 stories above ground.One mistake, and you fall forever.

The countdown ticked.3...2...1...

GO.

Sector 1: Timefall Straight

They launched like meteors—Nero's Thantos whispering through air like a phantom blade.

Marcel's Bloodshift-enhanced reflexes fired off, dancing on the edge of chaos. But every time he veered, Nero veered first. A perfect shadow.

RAVYN: "He's countering before you act. You're not racing him. You're racing your future self."

"Then I'll make the future impossible to predict."

Marcel slid into a reverse drift, switching sides mid-corner, spinning twice in one fluid move. The skyline roared with shockwaves.

Nero followed.

Almost.

His car stuttered—just a twitch.

Sector 2: Memory Falls

Holograms of past races burst from the track: Marcel's failures. Nero's victories.One panel showed Marcel's Skyline engulfed in flames. A moment that hadn't happened.

Yet.

"Ignore it!" Ayaka called out through the intercom. "He's trying to override your instincts."

Marcel closed his eyes.Let the car feel it.He didn't dodge the memories—he drifted through them.

And Thantos?It twitched again.

A second of lag. Enough.

Sector 3: Velocity Dusk

As they reached the final loop—a 720-degree spiral floating in the sky—Nero initiated his final move: the Dusk Chain.

His car split into afterimages—six mirror copies.They all matched speed. All mimicked movement.

RAVYN: "He's folded time around himself. A six-path drift loop."

"How do I beat six futures?"

"You don't. You create the seventh."

Marcel shifted the Skyline into zero traction.He let the rear tires lift.And he drifted without touching the ground.

The Skyline spun once in midair, then reconnected at the exit of the spiral.Every copy of Nero collided with its next self—confused by the path that had never existed.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Only one car emerged from the smoke.Marcel's.Drifting sideways.Like a comet rebelling against the stars.

Nero's Thantos skidded to a dead stop.

For the first time, he spoke with hesitation:

"This outcome... was not calculated."

Marcel stepped out of his Skyline, smoke rising from the tires.

"That's because I don't race to win."

He paused, wind rising around him.

"I race to rewrite the laws."