A massive tremor of mana swept over the laboratory.

  The circuits in the walls bucked once, and the spell circle on the floor flickered—thin light, then darkness, again and again.

  The high priest bared his teeth. Swallowing his breath, he shouted at the subject once more.

  “What are you doing!

  Attack!

  Now—release that power!!”

  There was no answer.

  Instead···

  *KRAK!!*

  With the sound of metal being crushed, Argas stomped down.

  The impact made the circle heave once, and the vibration ran through the circuits, raking across the walls and ceiling.

  “······Orders.”

  A harsh voice spilled out—like twisting a rusted sheet of iron.

  The end of the word trembled, bent low, and that single sound made it feel like the room’s “control” was collapsing.

  The high priest took a step back without thinking.

  “······What did you just say?”

  That moment—

  KWAAAANG!!

  Argas tore through the air.

  Bloodshot eyes.

  A brutal metallic rasp spitting out with every breath.

  It wasn’t an “experiment subject” anymore.

  A beast with the shell of reason peeled off—no, something more raw than that. Pure destruction.

  “Ah—”

  He couldn’t even finish a scream.

  *Shhk.*

  Blood and flesh scattered into the air.

  The high priest’s body was cut apart in a single blink.

  Neck, shoulder, abdomen—thrown in different directions.

  Before it even hit the floor, hot blood sprayed from the severed edges, splattering across the walls and circuitry.

  “···!”

  The junior priests left behind screamed at once.

  “Th-the subject—!”

  “R-run—!”

  Before the words ended, Argas slowly lifted a hand.

  The motion of raising his fingers was slow.

  Slow—and worse for it, because the result was too clear.

  “······Quiet.”

  Then—

  KWAAAAAANG!!

  A detonation.

  The space lurched and warped.

  Compressed mana burst outward like an explosion. The mana circuits shuddered as if screaming, and the numbers that had been floating on the crystal display spiked—then the entire screen tore apart.

  “Aaa—!”

  “K-k—!”

  Bodies flew like fragments.

  Blood.

  Screams.

  Organs bursting.

  And··· silence.

  Instant extermination.

  Only wreckage, blood, and the stench of scorched metal remained in the lab.

  At first, it stabbed at the nose—then a metallic taste clung to the tongue.

  Then—

  A faint glint.

  The red bracelet around Rynel’s wrist shone—just slightly, just slightly.

  Not a flare like fire.

  A residual pulse, like a heart beating once.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  That afterglow passed through the air and brushed across Argas’s sight.

  Argas’s body twitched, stopping short.

  “···!”

  He clutched his head.

  His whole body shook.

  A scream tore out, as if something unknown were drilling into his brain.

  “GRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!”

  Mana exploded outward like it was being ripped apart.

  The wall circuits blinked off and on, and a blinding blue flash and a red afterglow overlapped in the same instant.

  Right after—

  KWAANG!!

  Argas detonated a wave through his entire body and shot up toward the ceiling.

  Red afterglow scattered through the air.

  Traces of mana shook the atmosphere in irregular ripples, and debris swayed along the path he tore open.

  Into open air.

  Somewhere.

  All that remained was the collapsed laboratory—and a boy drenched in blood.

  Rynel lay at the center of it all, unconscious and still.

  His chest rose and fell in shallow movements. His breath hadn’t stopped.

  But his mana flow was down on the floor—hanging on as if it might snap at any moment.

  ◇

  Inside the narrow passageway.

  An uneven vibration traveled up from underfoot.

  It wasn’t the floor shaking.

  It felt like something beneath their soles had *resonated.*

  “······Did you feel that?”

  Aira stopped and asked.

  Ivela inhaled without speaking.

  The stench of burning metal pricked at her nose.

  And the residue of an explosion.

  A foreign mana trace—something you didn’t get from an ordinary fight.

  “······That wasn’t just mana backlash.”

  Cold sweat beaded on Aira’s brow.

  “What was that··· an explosion?”

  Ivela turned her head. Her gaze narrowed, sharp.

  “The direction is··· that way.”

  Her finger pointed toward it.

  Past a long corridor—deep, deep into the temple.

  “Rynel······ Please. Just be alive.”

  They ran at the same time.

  No matter how hard they pulled air in, their lungs wouldn’t fill.

  The closer they got to the temple’s depths, the more mana residue scraped across their skin as they passed.

  ◇

  Near the central hall.

  Beyond a collapsed stone wall, part of the ruined laboratory showed itself through black smoke.

  A section of ceiling had been torn away.

  The spell circle on the floor had half-melted and gone dark.

  Aira probed the surroundings with magic, feeling for temperature.

  When her fingertips brushed the air, thin layers of leftover heat still clung there.

  “······Mana’s still here.”

  The residue was still alive.

  No shape—yet something like *pain* was embedded in it.

  Was the blood-soaked stone reacting to mana, or were the wall circuits breathing their last—

  She couldn’t tell.

  Ivela swallowed once more.

  “Hurry.”

  ◇

  Behind the temple.

  On a section of rooftop, Raken—standing like a shadow—narrowed his eyes.

  For a while now, he’d been feeling a wave rising from deep inside the temple.

  And then—

  KWAAAANG!!

  Part of the roof erupted into the air like shrapnel.

  Chunks of stone cut through the sky.

  “···!”

  A sky backed by a red sunset.

  What burst out of it looked human.

  But it wasn’t.

  Wings spread behind it.

  Transparent, insect-like membranes flashed as they caught the light.

  Every time the wings shivered, it wasn’t the soft sound of membrane—

  it was metal twisting.

  Raken went speechless for a beat.

  “······What was that. Was that··· a person?”

  The shadow in front of him screamed and sliced across the sky.

  Explosive mana sprayed behind it like residue.

  The trace hung in the air like a ribbon—then shattered apart.

  It wasn’t a leap.

  It was an escape.

  Raken ran along the broken edge of the roof and dropped down.

  Into the temple, slipping in quietly.

  ◇

  A collapsed corridor.

  A cracked ceiling.

  Mana residue carpeting the floor.

  Raken stepped carefully.

  The sensation of stepping on stone was wrong.

  Not rubble—something that had *hardened* under mana.

  He muttered, low.

  “······This wasn’t a simple explosion.”

  Shattered instruments.

  Half-melted spellwork.

  Blackened debris—and traces of mana glowing red-hot.

  “What the hell is this place.”

  Blood had spread everywhere.

  Mana soaked into the wreckage still clung faintly to life.

  That faintness was what felt ominous—like a final stubborn obsession that wouldn’t let go.

  Raken’s brow furrowed.

  “······What kind of thing was here.”

  He set a hand on the sword strapped to his back.

  A long, thick blade.

  Far larger and heavier than an ordinary sword.

  No scabbard.

  Fixed along his back with hardened leather straps.

  Raken loosened the strap in silence and spoke, low.

  “······It’s not over.”

  ◇

  The laboratory entrance.

  The door was already gone, blasted away.

  Inside was ruin.

  Broken chimera remains covered the floor.

  The charred spell circle barely held its shape, and smoke seeped through the cracked walls.

  And—

  “······Rynel!”

  Aira was the first to rush in.

  Between piles of debris—

  the boy lay collapsed, soaked in blood.

  A thin residue of mana still lingered around him.

  Not flame—more like ash about to go out.

  “Thank god······ He’s alive.”

  Ivela diagnosed him quickly.

  “Mana circulation is still holding.

  But he’s unconscious.”

  Her fingertips brushed Rynel’s cheek.

  Breath was there.

  But mana was near-empty—like someone had scraped the very bottom and left only an empty vessel.

  Aira clenched her teeth.

  “He did this··· alone···?”

  Ivela swept her gaze across the wreckage.

  Her eyes stopped at a worktable on one side.

  “······This is···.”

  When she cleared away fragments, a bundle of old documents surfaced.

  Charred paper.

  Experiment records stamped with magical engravings.

  Across the top, in large letters—

  『Project Name: Argas Core』

  Aira swallowed.

  “Argas······ Core?”

  Ivela turned the pages. Her expression hardened.

  “······This isn’t simple bio-modification.”

  Aira pressed her lips together.

  “Is this··· a summoning?”

  Ivela’s voice dropped.

  “More precisely—

  a rite meant to drag ‘that thing’ into this world.”

  Footsteps approached over the debris.

  Raken stepped inside.

  His eyes skimmed the documents, the ruins—then fixed on Rynel.

  “······He’s breathing.”

  Aira lifted her head.

  “Raken?

  Why are you here—”

  “Later.”

  Raken stepped over the wreckage and knelt, scanning Rynel fast.

  The smell of blood was thick.

  Thicker than that was the aftertaste of mana overheating, sunk down to the bone.

  “This trace······ Don’t tell me Rynel fought here.”

  Ivela nodded once.

  “Alone.”

  The corner of Raken’s mouth tightened—barely.

  “······That’s insane.”

  He looked back at the documents.

  Charred letters trembled in the dim light.

  Raken read, low.

  “A biological weapon known as an ancient destruction breed······ a being only spoken of in myth.”

  He surveyed the room again.

  Broken circuits.

  A split floor.

  Debris drenched in blood.

  “Even the gods couldn’t fully erase it, they say.

  A thing that repeats only destruction—pure instinct.”

  Raken’s gaze dropped to the lower section of the page.

  “Someone tried to pull it back out.

  Under the name Argas.”

  Ivela turned another page.

  “The structure is set to react to external stimulus.”

  Her fingertip traced a line.

  “The moment Rynel’s mana exceeded a certain threshold··· the core awakens.”

  Aira added, voice stiff.

  “The plan was already near completion.

  Anyone could’ve come in and ‘woken’ it···”

  Raken exhaled once, short.

  “And the moment it woke, it broke everything and disappeared.”

  The last line of the document burned into their eyes.

  『Upon completion, the Gate of Resonance opens.

  It is a door that allows the will of the sleeping entity to pass through—

  and it calls “chaos before order” back onto the land.』

  Aira murmured, low.

  “······The age before order.”

  Raken pressed the document down as if closing it.

  “Then Rynel became the ‘key’ that woke it.”

  His gaze dropped to the red bracelet on Rynel’s wrist.

  It still held a faint light.

  So weak—and yet it caught the eye. It scraped at the nerves.

  Then—

  Rynel’s finger moved, just slightly.

  Ivela lowered herself immediately.

  And his eyes opened, slowly.

  A pale blue light pooled in his pupils.

  That light searched, found focus.

  Even the act of opening his eyes showed how much it cost him.

  “······Ivela······ Aira···?”

  “Rynel!”

  Aira hugged him tight.

  “You’re awake?

  Seriously······ you’re insane, you······.”

  Rynel let out a thin breath.

  His voice came out dry.

  “······It doesn’t feel··· over.”

  Ivela nodded once.

  “Yeah. It’s not over.”

  Her teeth clenched.

  “And you barely survived.”

  Rynel looked up at the broken ceiling.

  Shattered glass. Cracked circuitry. Crushed debris.

  For a moment, the shape of Argas flickered across his eyes.

  And he felt it again—like that gaze was raking over him.

  Raken stepped closer.

  In the middle of the ruin, he spoke, low.

  “Rynel. Right now, you’re··· the only witness.”

  The moment the words landed, Rynel’s throat tightened.

  What he saw. What he endured.

  And the direction that “disaster” vanished toward.

  Rynel closed his eyes, then opened them again.

  “···I can still do it.

  If my body would just follow··· I can fight again.”

  Silence.

  Ivela turned away.

  A long breath leaked out.

  “······Don’t say something that stupid.”

  Her voice was pressed down, but everything inside was showing.

  “Do you even know what state you’re in?

  You were a step from dying. That’s what you’re saying right now.”

  Her eyes sharpened again.

  “Recovery comes first.

  Fight again?

  Don’t talk nonsense.”

  Rynel couldn’t answer.

  He lowered his head slightly, as if avoiding her gaze.

  He tried to put strength into his fingers—

  even moving one was heavy.

  Raken lifted his head, muttering like to himself.

  “······The problem is the one that got away.”

  His voice was low, but it carried weight.

  It hadn’t simply run.

  It had left with a *purpose.*

  A heavy silence settled.

  Raken spoke again, slow.

  “Even now··· it might be regaining itself, preparing for what comes next.”

  His eyes drifted past the ruin—toward the corridor where darkness still clung.

  “And if it appears again.”

  Raken pressed the last words down, quiet.

  “Will we······ be able to stop it?”