Blood painted the ground. Smoke rose like funeral incense. And the screams—some near, some dying echoes—never seemed to end.
Kaizen's boots were soaked in crimson mud as he stood among the fallen. Squad Umbra, or what was left of it, was regrouping near the ruins of the South Gate. The once towering steel barricade was now rubble—shattered like glass against a hurricane.
Jinro was limping, one arm hanging uselessly. Kita's eyes were hollow, her voice silent since Virk's death. Ayaka stood nearby, her hands trembling as she held a blood-stained file retrieved from the abandoned lab—evidence that everything they were told about the Bist was a lie.
But there was no time to breathe.
A horn blared through the distant hills—deep, guttural, and ancient. A war horn.
Kaizen's heart skipped a beat. "He's coming."
---
Earlier – Inside the Medical Bay
Kaizen sat on a steel bench, shirtless, his body bandaged but bruised. A nurse tried to patch a deep wound near his ribs, but he didn't flinch. His mind was elsewhere.
Flashes of Pyrrhax's death. Lena's scream. The frozen eyes of Virk.
He clenched his fists. "This is only the beginning."
Commander Vale entered, eyes sharp as knives. "You held the line longer than expected, Ryouma. But something's not right. The Bist weren't attacking randomly. They were forcing us to shift defenses."
Kaizen looked up. "They were herding us. Like cattle."
Ayaka entered next, her voice barely steady. "Sir… the files I found—Zar'Vok isn't a general. He's something… older. Created during the first generation of Bist mutations."
Vale's face turned pale. "He's not just leading them. He is the reason they exist."
---
Scene: South Gate Battlefield – 2 Hours Later
A deep fog rolled in from the forest line beyond the broken gate. The survivors gathered—forty soldiers, three functioning artillery units, and Kaizen's tattered squad.
Nael stood beside him, carrying the dog tags of the fallen.
"We'll avenge them, Kaizen."
Kaizen didn't respond. He simply looked ahead.
Then—it happened.
The earth trembled.
From the fog emerged the twisted silhouettes of hundreds of Bists. But leading them was not a beast. Not a monster.
It was a figure in dark armor, taller than any man, walking calmly with black flames licking at his feet. His face was concealed beneath a cracked helm, veins glowing like molten gold beneath.
Zar'Vok.
The air grew heavy.
Kaizen's breathing slowed. Everyone behind him froze—unable to move, unable to scream.
Zar'Vok stopped twenty paces away.
Kaizen stepped forward. His right eye flared—embers of his Veinborn power awakening again.
They stared at each other. No words.
Just silence. Tension. Hatred. Fate.
Then Zar'Vok raised his hand.
And pointed—directly at Kaizen.
The Bists roared.