Kaori clenched her fist, her fingers tightening around the baton stick she still held. In her eyes raged a storm of emotions—disbelief, anger, and a faint yet burning flicker of hope. Ultro, the cold entity standing before them in the form of light and sound, held the one key that could either destroy everything or save it all: the truth about her brother.
Far to the south, deep within the Penal mountains, a hidden laboratory glimmered faintly under the pale glow of crystal lights. Ren Takamura—now known to some as Techno—sat at his workbench with a sharp, focused expression. His deft fingers pieced together palm-sized metal modules into the frame of a cylindrical machine. The steady clink of tools and the low hum of engines blended into a mechanical symphony only a genius engineer like him could fully comprehend.
