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Chapter 3 - Chapter Three (Sin): Plan Of Action

Time: 130 hours later

Location: Tessia Sector

Darkness clung to the air, swallowing the night like a living maw. Yet within that void, faint pinpricks of light glimmered, lanterns strung across balconies, hex-crystals pulsing softly from their brackets, and runic streetlamps humming with contained spiritual energy. Their glow spilled down into the streets below, where the world remained restless even at this hour.

The city was alive with noise: conversations echoing between tall buildings that seemed to scrape the sky, merchants hawking wares even in the late hours, laborers calling to one another. From above, the streets seemed to beam with life, flowing rivers of people weaving through corridors.

Far above that life, perched upon the rooftop of a decaying tower, two figures remained motionless. Their bodies blended into the shadow. The only signs of them at all were their eyes, one pair glowing gold, the other gleaming silver, cutting through the darkness like a predator in the night.

Both gazes were locked on the building across the avenue. Its walls were fortified with layered runes, faintly visible to trained eyes. The large neon hex-letters shimmered red against the facade, spelling a single word that pulsed with quiet finality:

HOSPITAL

Unfortunately, this hospital sat uncomfortably close to a military installation, separated only by a narrow avenue. That meant its defenses were far more strict and compact than the average hospital, and this is the only one of two that treat purely the plague in this district.

The perimeters were packed with security. Drones hovered in steady rotations around the roof, their frames plated with dark steel and their eyes, which were simply glowing red lenses, scanned the streets and skies below. Each drone followed a specific pattern of movement that was randomly changed, exchanging one pathway with another drone randomly then resetting their coordinates to survey what they missed in the first rotation of the building, making tracking them almost impossible.

On the ground, squads of armed guards patrolled in tight formations, their weapons slung at the ready. Each wore the Solis Kingdom's steel-gray military uniform, reinforced with plated runic armor along the chest and shoulders. Runes etched across their gauntlets glowed faintly, prepared to activate at a moment's notice, while small hex-crystals dangled at their belts—likely emergency grenade-like attachments designed to unleash binding matrix or elemental suppression fields.

At every corner, stationary wards pulsed in silence. Circular hex-plates embedded into the pavement emitted faint lines of light, overlapping into grids. These would trip instantly if tampered with, either alerting the guards or erecting temporary barriers to contain intruders.

And as if that weren't enough, mounted turrets sat discreetly along the hospital's roof, half-hidden within runic casings. Their barrels gleamed faintly in the moonlight, designed to launch concentrated hex-bolts capable of piercing through a beast hide or someone fleeing away, luckily, they weren't manly armed, instead controlled by the cores inside of them… meaning they could be disarmed, temporarily.

From where they sat, the hospital appeared less like a sanctuary for those who were sick and more like a fortress disguised to protect a royal household of someone who was said to have an assassin after them or a military base guarding something extremely valuable.

Sin rested upon the railing of the rooftop, his feet dangling freely into the abyss below. He hadn't moved in some time. His eyes scanned the defenses, drinking in every detail, every flaw, every gap in the system. Everything had a weakness and Sin was the one who could figure that out, it was all a matter of planning and preparations.

Sin let out an annoyed sigh, his breath escaping like steam against the night since it was quite cold, nothing new of course, not in this district. He had spent long minutes studying the security formations, watching the drones' rotations, the guards' patterns, the wards' pulse. Finally, he glanced toward Taichi.

"It's even more packed today than usual," Sin muttered, sounding more annoyed than he intended.

Taichi didn't take his eyes off the building, his gaze reflecting the hospital's glow. After a pause, he gave a small nod. "Yeah. Security was tightened after someone got caught climbing the wall. And…" His tone dropped lower, more so in hopes the drones won't pick up on his voice and lock on the two. "Word is there's someone important inside the hospital tonight. No one knows who."

Sin turned his head fully now, studying his brother. Taichi's network of collecting rumors and gathering information had always been wider than his own. The fact that his brother knew something Sin didn't wasn't shocking, but it was impressive nonetheless, mostly given the fact the two almost never interact with people outside of their main handful of individuals who even know who they are. Sin straightened, as he focused back onto the drones, a particular drone that flew a bit too close to the building they resided on than he liked.

"Important how?" Sin asked. "Is it someone infected?"

"Nah." Taichi leaned against the railing, his arms folded. "Not Spirit Rot. Just some big shot.. Military, if I had to guess. Maybe it's someone who was supposed to be stationed here. Either way, it's got everyone on edge. Which changes things for us, but doesn't make it impossible. We can still get in and out." His chin jerked subtly toward the guards below. Their blades caught the faint light of lanterns, the runes were visible, but he still couldn't tell what kind of enchantments they had on their weapons. "They don't carry guns, but they don't need them. Those swords are nastier than any firearm."

Sin's sighed as he tracked the guards' pacing steps. The blades they carried weren't ceremonial, they were executioner's tools. His teeth clicked softly before another sigh escaped him. He turned toward Taichi, lifting a hand.

"Dammit…" He shook his head, resigned. Then, he extended his fist. "Loser goes in and gets the medicine."

Taichi's grin spread across his face. "You're on." He lifted his hand, matching Sin's gesture.

They both pumped once, twice, thrice "Rock… paper… scissors."

And just like that, Sin lost. Badly.

Taichi's grin widened as he shook his head. "Guess luck's not with you tonight, little brother."

"…Best two out of three," Sin muttered.

And just like that, Taichi beat him again. Back to back. Without hesitation, without struggle.

"Ughhhhhh…" Sin groaned.

Taichi chuckled. "I don't know why you keep thinking this is a good idea. I win literally every time." Taichi knew his little brother a little too well, so losing wasn;t gonna happen. Mostly when Sin only chooses to go one pattern everytime.

Sin scoffed. Somehow Taichi always knew what he was going to throw, as if he could see into his mind. Then again, Sin never really put effort into rock-paper-scissors, it was meaningless, something minor compared to everything else they faced. Still, the losses still felt like an itch beneath his skin.

"Whatever," he muttered, finally grabbing the mask from his hip.

It was simple in design yet unsettling to look at: a circular mask split cleanly in half. The right side was white, painted with a plain smile. The left was black, fractured with a jagged crack across it, within the crack were sharp, razor-like teeth instead of a painted grin. Two narrow eye holes completed the piece. Sin slipped it on, adjusting the fit until only his golden pupils shone through the darkness. His black clothes clung to him like a second skin, making him vanish into shadow. It was an excellent mask designed by someone in the underground market who didn't have any problem with helping both brothers in their endeavors.

Taichi smirked as he reached for his own mask. The design mirrored Sin's, except the colors were reversed, the white side where Sin's was black, the black side where Sin's was white. It created a strange symmetry when they stood together, as though they were halves of the same reflection. Through his mask, Taichi's silver eyes glowed faintly.

They didn't need the masks. No one knew their real faces, no one could identify them. But for Sin, it was principle. Better safe than sorry.

"The plan is simple," Sin said, his voice muffled slightly behind the mask.

Taichi nodded, crouching low against the railing. "I'll take the top. Disable the matrix wrapped around the building. Once I do, the blackout will cut their wards and lights temporarily. That's your window to go inside, grab the medicine, and get out. I'll keep the drones and guards busy. You'll only need to handle what's inside."

Sin nodded. The plan was clean, solid, and one taichi came up with. They weren't here for a fight, after all. No extra funny business, just medicine. In and out. But he knew too well how quickly things could spiral out of control. One mistake was all it would take.

"And no matter what goes wrong…" Sin began.

Taichi finished for him. "Don't kill unless it's necessary."

Then he rose, climbing the railing with effortless balance, crouching in a low squat beside his brother. The two figures stood together in the darkness, half white and half black, twin masks glowing faintly under the moons' light.

The silence that followed was heavy, almost ritualistic. Then, without another word, Taichi pushed off into the night.

The two brothers exchanged a silent nod, their eyes locking for a heartbeat as the drifting clouds parted, letting moonlight spill across the rooftops. At that moment, Taichi moved first.

He launched himself from the railing, boots slamming against the hospital wall. His body slid downward with controlled momentum, and just as one of the patrolling drones swept around the corner, acted swiftly.

From his belt, he pulled a small circular device, no larger than a palm-sized coin, its surface etched with faint runes. Timing his jump perfectly, Taichi lunged upward, pressing the device against the drone's glowing hex-core. At once, the red light within the hex sputtered, dimmed, and finally blacked out. The machine faltered as it dropped from the sky.

Before it could crash against the pavement, Taichi caught it, twisting in midair. Then, he tossed the disabled drone toward the rooftop. Sin caught it easily, crouching low as he set it gently against the roof, stacking it neatly beside him.

The process repeated. Taichi moved like a shadow flowing along the wall, clutching ledges with one hand while leaping to the next. One by one, the drones winked out of the sky, hijacked, disabled, and passed up to Sin and sat out of the way.

Within minutes, the once-crowded airspace thinned, the perimeter of drones reduced to only a handful patrolling the streets below. The building's aerial net had been gutted.

"Clear," Sin murmured from above, tracking the last of the drones circling far from their position.

"Good," Taichi replied. "Let's get this over with quickly. The disablers won't last long, and the absence of the drones will be noticed."

He moved again, this time upward, scaling the wall with frightening speed. It was less climbing and more running, his momentum carrying him across vertical stone like it was leveled ground. He avoided windows, slipping past panes where faint candlelight or hex-light flickered.

Sin dropped down behind him, his fingers latching onto the rough ledges of the neighboring building. He hung effortlessly with one hand, yet he didn't move an inch, waiting.

Near the top, Taichi slowed. His silver pupils began to glow faintly as he activated his Spirit Sight. To the naked eye, the wall was bare stone, but through his vision, the world lit up in a grayish color scheme, aside from different colors of different things filled with spiritual energy.

Runes littered the air in overlapping lattices, streams of spiritual energy linking hexes together in an intricate web. Each formation clearly held a purpose. Detection arrays ready to activate at the slightest intruder. Binding matrices designed to freeze unauthorized movement. Suppression fields to cut off spiritual energy altogether.

It was like a fortress disguised as a hospital.

"The detection matrix first," Taichi muttered under his breath, his eyes narrowing. "Once inside, it tracks everything that isn't registered to their system."

He balanced himself on a narrow ledge, leaning back just enough to expose the flow of energy running like veins between two glowing hex-nodes. From his pouch, he withdrew another device, a slender needle of metal etched with thin spirals of inscription. He exhaled once, steadying himself. Destabilizing an array was… gonna be a hassle.

One wrong placement. One twitch. One stray spark and the entire system would flare, alerting every guard within blocks.

Carefully, he slid the needle into the stream of spiritual energy. The current shimmered, resisting, buzzing against the foreign object. Taichi gritted his teeth, working slowly, adjusting his angle until the flow bent just slightly, shifting into alignment with the disabler's inscriptions.

The hum of the array faltered.

Taichi worked carefully. He wasn't advanced in disabling matrices, far from it. Without the tool in his hand, he wouldn't stand a chance. The device did most of the work, channeling his limited skill into something usable. Even then, all he could manage was to disrupt one array at a time. One break in the chain. It wasn't enough to dismantle the fortress woven into this hospital's walls, but it was enough to give Sin a way in.

The glowing lattice pulsed angrily as he shifted the device, moving a few of the stabilizing hexes out of alignment. Slowly, carefully, he displaced them. The current of energy streams started bending and twisting until the detection matrix faltered and collapsed.

"Got it…" Taichi whispered, exhaling through clenched teeth, though the whole process was only a few seconds long, it felt like hours for him. Then he withdrew another device, a small, round object inscribed with jagged runes along its rim. He placed it against the ledge and activated it. "Now for the main event."

The device flared silently. Then, it discharged.

A wave of disruption rolled across the building. Every rune, every hex, every enchanted crystal within its range sputtered, flickered, then died. The building below plunged into confusion. Lanterns dimmed, wards shut down, monitors inside the hospital blinked to black. For a heartbeat, Tessia Sector's most secure building was blind.

Now, it was Sin's turn to act.

He pulled himself up, perching on the narrow frame of a window. Testing his options, he tapped lightly against the glass with his knuckle, listening for the weakest section, the point most likely to give. Finding it, he clenched his fist and drove it forward.

The glass cracked like a spiderweb, then shattered inward with a muffled crash. Sin slipped inside before the sound could draw too much attention. He landed in a crouch, his boots barely whispering against the tile.

The blackout had already caused panic. Flashlights flicked on, beams darting across the room. Sin froze. A blonde-haired nurse spotted him, her eyes widening in terror as her mouth opened to scream.

He dashed forward before the sound escaped. Two fingers pressed against her neck as she gasped, then slumped into his arms. Sin caught her silently, lowering her weight with care before carrying her to one of the nearby beds. He laid her down, adjusting her posture to make it seem as though she had simply fainted amidst the chaos.

Straightening, Sin took in his surroundings. He was in the infirmary, rows of cots, cabinets of bandages, vials of minor restoratives but not what he was here for. Most of the nurses had already rushed out to investigate the blackout, leaving only a few scattered figures. Those who remained were too absorbed in their patients, infected bodies writhing under blankets, their foreheads marked with crimson lines of Spirit Rot. The stench of sickness filled the air, making Sin's stomach churn.

Good. Less attention meant fewer obstacles. He didn't need to leave a trail of unconscious staff behind him.

He scanned the room once more. The medicine wouldn't be here. Of course it wouldn't. Something valuable enough to risk their lives over would be stored deeper inside. They should have mapped the layout beforehand, but that regret was pointless now. Complaints solved nothing.

Still crouched low, Sin pressed his palm against the cold wall and began climbing upward, his body folding into the shadows as he latched onto the ceiling beams. Inch by inch, he moved across the infirmary, silent as a ghost, his golden pupils were the only thing visible amidst the darkness of the ceiling.

The hunt for the medicine had begun.

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