Chapter 23: Pierce the Veil

  The roar of the battlefield is beginning to settle into a low, rhythmic thrum of fire and distant screams.

  From a high ridge overlooking the carnage, Sungmin watches the final stages of the collapse. His movements are deliberate and stiff; he pulls the left side of his heavy robe up, adjusting the fabric to properly hide the thick bandages wrapping his torso. He adjusts his silver mask, his eyes cold and unreadable behind the metal.

  Beside him, Hyeonseok’s spectre glides like a ghost through the air. They share a silent, lingering look—a mutual understanding of the role they have yet to play. With a sharp nod, the spectre dives toward the fray, disappearing into the smoke.

  Sungmin remains, a silent sentinel in the distance. "Seonho..." he whispers, the name a prayer or a curse.

  On the ground, Seonho is a whirlwind of desperate motion. He Blinks into the center of a squad, his dagger finding a gap in a soldier's armor before the man can even scream. But more are coming—a legion of eight Zeal soldiers close in, weapons leveled.

  Suddenly, the soldiers are jerked off their feet. They flail in the air, suspended by an invisible, crushing force. Leeseo, her eyes burning a fierce, radiant blue, slams her palms toward the earth. The entire squad is driven into the dirt with the force of a falling building, the impact knocking them unconscious instantly.

  A Zeal scout lunges at Leeseo from the side, swinging a tanto. She raises her tonfas to block, but the blade is high-frequency—it shears through one of her weapons like butter. Leeseo doesn't flinch. She uses the remaining tonfa to shatter the man’s jaw, then uses a localized burst of telekinesis to snap his neck with a sickening crack.

  They retreat to the cover of a half-collapsed wall, sliding down to catch their breath.

  "Seonho..." Leeseo pants, her chest heaving. "You ever feel like... you’re more than something?"

  "What?" Seonho tilts his head, his face smeared with soot. "What something?"

  "I don’t know... I feel like..." She looks at her trembling hands, where blue sparks of Aion energy dance across her skin. "I’m feeling it. A power surging in me. I think..." she looks around at the devastation they’ve caused. "Is that weird?"

  Seonho rubs the nape of his neck, remembering the strange, boiling heat that had rushed through his own blood during the fight. "No. It’s not weird. I feel it too."

  Leeseo nods, her expression hardening. She tosses the broken stump of her tonfa into the dirt and picks up the tanto the soldier had dropped. She tests the edge. "It’s time I use blades."

  Seonho gives her a grim, supportive look. "Stay sharp, tiger."

  Inside the Tower

  "NOOOOOO!!!!"

  The scream is raw, a sound of pure soul-shattering agony. Haruka collapses over Kanghyuk’s body, cradling his head in her lap. She doesn't see the war anymore. She doesn't see the mission. She only sees the man who took a bullet for her.

  Pierce lets out a sharp, ragged sigh. He isn't a monster—he looks weary—but he is a survivor. He levels his energy pistol one last time, aiming directly at Haruka’s exposed head.

  "AAAAAAAA!!!!"

  A blur of fury interrupts him. Eunchae pounces with the speed of a feral animal. Her kick is so fast it startles the veteran soldier, sending his gun clattering across the floor. Before Pierce can recover, Eunchae is on him. She drives her sais into his gauntlets with pinpoint, vengeful accuracy. The mechanical components hiss and spark, the power-copying technology dying in a flurry of short-circuits.

  "No!" Pierce yells.

  Eunchae tackles him to the ground. She is sobbing, her eyes squeezed shut as tears stream down her face, but her hands are working with murderous intent. She stabs blindly, over and over. Pierce, even without his tech, is a master of CQC; he sways his body and parries her strikes, the blades only finding purchase in his arms and shoulders rather than his vitals.

  Finally, Eunchae pins him, raising her arm for a final, lethal strike to his face. "BASTARD!!!!"

  But Pierce catches her wrist. With a grunt of effort, he shoves her aside. As Eunchae scrambles to find her footing, he lands a heavy boot to her face, sending her reeling.

  Nearby, Haruka is deaf to the fight. She just hugs Kanghyuk’s lifeless form. "I’m sorry... I’m so sorry..." she whispers into his hair, her tears soaking into his uniform.

  Pierce realizes he’s weaponless and surrounded. He slams a button on his belt. A hidden wall panel recedes, revealing a narrow, high-security hallway leading to a private elevator. He bolts for it.

  Eunchae isn't done. Blood drips from her nose, but she is like a hound on his trail, her sais held tight. She sprints after him, her boots thudding against the metal.

  As Pierce nears the elevator, he looks back to see Eunchae entering the narrow hall.

  Eunchae stops. She realizes the Antibound field has ended—this hallway is outside the dampening zone. Her eyes ignite with a terrifying, sapphire glow.

  "AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

  The air itself seems to fracture. One, five, ten—clones begin to pop into existence, all of them mirroring the original's grief and bloodlust. They aren't the "cute" clones from the backlines. These are savage, screaming, and hungry for his flesh.

  "Jesus!" Pierce shouts in English, his eyes wide with genuine terror. He dives into the elevator just as the doors hiss shut.

  The clones slam into the reinforced steel, clawing at the metal with their sais, screeching in a unified chorus of rage. But the lift is already rising.

  In the center of the hallway, the original Eunchae falls to her knees. She tilts her head back and screams at the ceiling, a sound of pure, unadulterated fury that echoes through the entire tower.

  The interior of the tower was a labyrinth of cold steel and flickering emergency lights. Rin moved through the corridors like a predator, her staff leaden with the weight of her frustration. Finally, she rounded a corner and skidded to a halt. A lone Zeal soldier was slumped against the wall, his helmet discarded. He wasn't reaching for a gun; he was wailing, his body shaking with hopeless sobs.

  Rin sneaked toward him, staff raised for a killing blow, but the sound of his genuine despair made her pause. "Hey!"

  The soldier turned, falling onto his knees, his face wet with tears. "I don’t want to fight anymore... please... no more..."

  Rin stared at him for a beat, her blue eyes scanning for a trap. Seeing none, she lowered her guard slightly. "Where’s your boss?"

  The man pointed a trembling finger down the northern corridor.

  "Go rest," Rin said. She delivered a swift, non-lethal strike to his temple, knocking him out instantly. She didn't have time for mercy beyond that. She bolted in the direction he pointed, her heart hammering against her ribs. "Oh Eunchae, where are you...?"

  ***

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  On the Battlefield

  Outside, the air was thick with the smell of burnt metal. San stood amidst the wreckage of the last battery. With a final, violent surge of his Corruption, the massive machine withered into a blackened husk.

  "All cannons are down!" San roared, his voice carrying over the din of the retreat.

  Ren caught a fleeing soldier mid-stride, his blue gaze flaring as an echoing force pulse turned his punch into a physical explosion, knocking him down.

  The Flux trainees erupted into a cheer, watching the remaining Zeal foot soldiers scramble toward the wasteland. Above them, the translucent eyes of Hyeonseok’s spectre drifted silently through the smoke, observing the victory from the sky.

  San didn't join the cheering. He tapped his earpiece, his brow furrowed. "Haruka? Kanghyuk? Come in. Where are you guys?"

  Silence.

  He shook his head, a cold knot forming in his stomach. He switched channels. "Rin?"

  "I’m still looking for Eunchae," Rin’s voice crackled through, breathless. "But I think I found the path to Pierce's command center."

  "Kanghyuk went dark," San said, his voice dropping an octave. "Should I—"

  He was cut off by a thunderous thud that shook the earth. From a hidden bay in the tower, a giant robot plummeted to the ground. It was painted a clinical sky-blue, topped with a massive, rotating energy disc for a head.

  "Seonho, Leeseo!" San yelled, spotting the couple nearby. "Run inside the tower. Find Rin. Run! Don’t blink, don't use your abilities—not until you’re inside!"

  "What about you?" Seonho asked, hesitant to leave his commander.

  "I’ll take care of it," San growled, drawing his blade.

  Seonho nodded, grabbing Leeseo’s hand. They took off at a sprint, weaving through the debris toward the main entrance.

  The robot’s blue disc began to hum, a high-pitched whine that set everyone's teeth on edge. One of the trainees, emboldened by the victory, laughed. "This would be easy!" His eyes glowed blue as he prepared to launch a massive shard of ice at the machine.

  "NO!" San screamed.

  It was too late. The disc glowed with blinding intensity. A bolt of raw, concentrated energy zapped the trainee so violently that he was dead before he hit the ground. Other trainees tried to retaliate with their powers, but the aura of the disc acted like a lightning rod. One by one, they were zapped by the counter-surge, falling lifeless to the dirt.

  "STOP! Don’t use your powers!" Ren commanded. The machine was a Power Siphon—it fed on Aion energy.

  The robot whirred, extending two jagged arm-blades. It lunged at San with mechanical speed, but he threw himself backward, the blades whistling inches from his chest.

  ***

  Inside the Tower: The Dark Room

  Rin kicked open the final set of double doors, her staff held in a defensive ward. The room was shrouded in shadow, the only light coming from the pulsing consoles of a secondary command hub.

  Standing in the center was a figure she knew all too well. Shade. He adjusted his gas mask, his hand resting on the hilt of his katana.

  "Of course," Rin smirked, though her eyes were ice. "You are actually their real boss."

  "I was actually expecting someone else... not you," Shade giggled, the sound distorted and eerie through his mask.

  "You wanted San?" she mocked. Behind her, the heavy doors slammed shut with a definitive thunk, locking them in.

  "I was thinking Gaeul," Shade tilted his head, his voice dripping with malice. "But no—she’s dead."

  Rin’s face went pale, her jaw tightening until it hurt. The mention of her fallen comrade turned her blood to ice. She scowled, her grip tightening on her staff.

  "You're going to regret saying that name," she whispered.

  Rin lunges, the air whistling as she brings her bo staff down in a strike meant to shatter Shade’s skull. With a sharp metallic clink, Shade draws his katana just enough to block, the momentum causing the two of them to spiral past each other, switching places in the darkened room.

  Shade chuckles, a wet, mechanical sound behind his mask. He clicks a button on his wrist, and a thick, yellowish fog of smoke hisses from vents, scattering instantly across the floor.

  Rin begins to cough, her lungs burning, but she shakes it off, blinking rapidly. The world is turning into a hazy, gray blur. "Funny..." Shade’s voice echoes from every corner. "I waited here for hours."

  Rin spins, her staff held in a defensive ward, turning left and right.

  "I thought I was going to get the Demon boy, or the Hamster... or San."

  Suddenly, Shade dashes through the fog like a ghost. He slashes; Rin moves with instinctual speed, but the hallucino-gas is slowing her nerves. Instead of a lethal blow to the neck, the blade bites deep into her shoulder. "Hngn!"

  "Instead," Shade’s voice whispers in her ear, "I got the weakling."

  "Weakling?" Rin whispers, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

  "Yes. You are a lost cause." Shade steps out of the smoke, but when Rin swings at him, he vanishes into thin air. The gas is working; the shadows are starting to twist and take shapes they shouldn't.

  "Fancy gas, eh? It’s why I wear the mask. Fun," he laughs.

  He appears again, blocking a desperate strike from Rin and landing a heavy punch to her gut. She staggers, and by the time she blinks, he is gone. She forces her eyes to glow blue, trying to use her Precognition, but the smoke is masking his intent. She can't see the future if she can't even see the present.

  "Precognition, was it? HAHA! What a useless ability compared to telekinesis."

  "Shut up!" Rin screams, swinging at a shadow.

  "Just a little gas and it's useless."

  Rin swings and hits nothing but air.

  "Almost!" Shade mocks. "They counted on you, didn't they? And look at you now."

  The smoke shifts. Rin gasps as she sees a hallucination of Seonho weeping over a shadow of Sungmin, who is being executed. The scene flickers, and she sees Yiren, her old teammate from the past.

  "Rin... we should not split up," the ghostly Yiren says, her eyes wide with fear.

  The hallucination shifts to a younger Rin. "Trust me," the vision of herself says confidently.

  The real Rin watches as her younger self leaves Yiren behind. A second later, Yiren is mauled down, her body streaked with demon cuts.

  The real Rin shakes, tears streaming down her face as the guilt she’s buried for years is ripped open.

  "Weak," Shade whispers, appearing directly behind her.

  "AAAAAA!" Rin spins, slamming her staff with everything she has, but Shade simply moves an inch—an effortless, terrifying dodge. He brings his katana around in a silver arc.

  The blade shears through bone and sinew. Rin’s left arm falls to the floor.

  "GAAAHHHH!!" The scream is primal, a sound of absolute agony. She stares at the stump of her shoulder, blood spraying the gray fog. Shade steps forward and delivers a brutal kick to her chest, sending her flying across the room.

  "You call yourself a warrior when you can't even discipline your mind!?" Shade yells, his voice dripping with contempt.

  Rin struggles to her feet, her vision swimming. Her eyes are dark, her face pale from blood loss, but a new, cold determination settles over her.

  "I am a warrior..." Shade tilts his head as he stalks toward her through the smoke. "And I am a leader."

  Suddenly, Rin’s eyes ignite with a piercing blue light. "NOW!"

  The double doors burst open. With a violent surge of mental force, the smoke in the room is telekinetically sucked out into the hallway. Leeseo stands in the doorway, her hands extended, her face set in a grim mask of focus.

  "What?" Shade gasps, the clear air revealing him.

  Using her one remaining hand, Rin sweeps her staff low, catching Shade’s leg. He crashes to the ground. Before he can recover, she slams the staff onto his wrist, forcing him to drop his katana; it slides across the floor, out of reach.

  Rin doesn't stop. She brings the staff down on his head, shattering the glass of his gas mask.

  Shade’s real face is revealed—bleeding, pathetic, and twisted with terror. "Wait! Please, wait... don't! Minsu... that's my real name... please don't kill me!"

  Rin tilts her head, her expression cold and detached. "I don't care."

  She cracks the staff across his jaw, making him spit blood. Rin looks over at Leeseo, who is watching with a pout, her eyes filled with worry. "Rin unnie..."

  "I'm fine," Rin says, a small, tired smile touching her lips. "A single arm and a guided heart sparked by my General, Gaeul... that’s all I need to win a war."

  Leeseo nods slowly. "Kill him."

  "No... please—"

  Rin hops into the air, bringing the full weight of her staff and her Aion-enhanced strength down in one final, crushing blow.

  SLAM!

  The man known as Shade is gone.

  ***

  The battlefield outside the tower was a graveyard of heavy metal. San lunged again, his massive claymore ringing out with a dull thud as it struck the robot’s chassis. It was useless; Zeal had reinforced this machine with their hardest experimental alloys.

  San leaped, aiming a desperate impale at the glowing blue disc, but the machine was too fast. It swiped him out of the air, kicking him as he fell. San was sent tumbling across the dirt, his breath hitching in his chest. Before he could recover, the robot blurred forward. Two mechanical slashes hissed through the air—four trainees fell lifeless in front of him.

  Ren wailed. "NO!" He pushed other trainees back.

  San looked at his sword, his vision blurring with tears of frustration and grief. He couldn't let anyone else die. He scrambled to his feet and let out a roar that shook the very foundations of the tower.

  "EVERYBODY STAND BACK!"

  The trainees scrambled behind Ren as the sky-blue machine stomped forward, its disc whining with lethal energy. San stood his ground, his eyes igniting with a terrifying, absolute blue.

  "General, don't!" Ren screamed, recognizing the suicidal glow of his power. "It will kill you!"

  San ignored him. He threw his hands forward, aiming his palms at the mecha’s chest. He didn't just use Corruption; he poured his entire soul into the void. He gripped the air with both fists, literally reaching into the internal circuitry of the machine and tearing it apart from the inside out.

  As his energy hummed, the robot’s Siphon-disc reacted. A massive discharge of blue lightning envelops San’s body. The robot began to buckle and groan under the internal pressure, but San was being fried alive. He fought through the agonizing burns, his willpower the only thing keeping his heart beating.

  "AAAAAAAHHH!!!!!" The scream ripped from his lungs as he crushed the metal monstrosity, even as the counter-zap threatened to destroy him along with it.

  CRASH!

  A window on the lower level of the tower shattered. Rin propelled herself into the open air.

  "NYAAAA!!!!"

  She dropped like a meteor, her left shoulder wrapped in blood-soaked bandages, her right hand gripping her staff with a white-knuckled intensity. She didn't hesitate. With the momentum of her fall, she slammed her staff directly into the robot’s exposed core.

  The machine fractured into a pile of sparking junk. The zap died instantly. San’s eyes faded back to brown as the tension snapped. He collapsed, his body scorched and smoking.

  Rin scrambled over to him, dropping her staff to pull his head into her lap. She was sobbing, the adrenaline finally giving way to the pain. "San..."

  San gasped for air, his lungs feeling like they were filled with ash. He managed a weak, bloody smile. "Don't cry... You think I'm done?" He coughed, a spray of red hitting the dirt. "I'm still here..."

  Rin’s grip tightened as she wept harder. "San... I'm sorry... Kanghyuk... is gone."

  San’s eyes widened. He tried to speak, tried to scream, but his body was too broken to react. He simply stared at the smoke-filled sky as tears carved tracks through the soot on his face.

  The trainees rushed in with first aid kits. Ren gasped, pointing at Rin’s shoulder. "Rin... your arm."

  Rin looked at the stump of her limb and gave a shaky, tearful wink. "It’s a... new fashion choice, hehe."

  Back in the Tower.

  Inside the quiet of the inner sanctum, Seonho gently pulled a cloth over Kanghyuk’s face, laying him down with the dignity a hero deserved.

  Haruka stood nearby, her face weary and pale, but the initial hysterics had passed into a cold, hollow calm. "I think we’re going back for now—if that’s okay," she said, her voice trembling. She looked over at Eunchae, who was frozen, her small body shaking with silent tremors. Leeseo was there, gently rubbing Eunchae’s back. "She needs rest," Haruka finished.

  Seonho nodded solemnly. "Pierce is on the top floor. The last one. I'll Blink there."

  Leeseo stood up, her blue eyes flashing with a renewed spark. "Bring me with you."

  Seonho didn't argue. He reached out and took her hand.

  Haruka placed a hand on Eunchae’s shoulder. "Can you get up?"

  Eunchae looked up, her face a mask of dread and exhaustion. "Unnie..."

  "You are the strongest and bravest warrior here today, Eunchae," Haruka whispered.

  Eunchae broke then, hugging Haruka tightly and sobbing. After a moment, she pulled back, sniffing loudly. She turned to Leeseo. "Break his face, twin."

  Leeseo smiled, a dangerous, sharp expression. "Count on it."

  Haruka nodded to Seonho. "Good luck." She leaned down and lifted Kanghyuk’s body into her arms, beginning the long walk out of the tower.

  Seonho and Leeseo stood alone in the hallway, their fingers interlaced.

  "To hell?" Seonho asked.

  Leeseo’s smile widened. "With pleasure."

  BLINK.

  The top floor was a cavernous void of darkness, smelling of oil and old blood. Instead of the man they expected, a pulsating red light beamed down at them from twenty feet above.

  "I've been waiting for anyone to get here so I can crush them!"

  Heavy, mechanical footsteps echoed as a giant robot stepped out of the shadows. It was shaped like a primal, hulking monkey, its movements fluid yet heavy. Inside the reinforced glass of the cockpit sat Pierce. His eyes were bloodshot, his face twisted into a mask of pure insanity.

  "I WILL KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!"

  Seonho and Leeseo didn't flinch. In unison, their eyes burned a brilliant, defiant blue.

  The end is near.

  Commander.