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The creature's screech echoed through the tunnel as it lunged again—fangs bared, claws dripping with a dark fluid. Hoshiro moved like lightning. In a single step, he appeared between Kazuki and the beast, his glowing blue aura flaring out with a crack of thunder.
With a swift slash of his energy blade, the monster's charge was halted. It collapsed in a heap, twitching, before melting into a black sludge that hissed against the stone floor.
Kazuki exhaled. "That… thing. It used to be human, didn't it?"
Hoshiro didn't answer.
They pressed deeper into the underground, navigating the maze-like corridors of rusted pipes and blinking warning lights. The Syndicate's influence was everywhere—cameras embedded in the walls, discarded syringes littering the ground, and sealed doors marked with cryptic symbols.
Reina's voice crackled through Hoshiro's earpiece. "I've hacked into the lab's lower systems. You're close to the central vault."
"What's inside?" Hoshiro asked.
"Subjects. Failed ones. And files that prove what the Syndicate is doing."Just ahead, the corridor opened into a massive chamber. Vats of glowing green liquid lined the walls. Inside them—humans, half-transformed, floating in stasis. Some still conscious. Watching.
Kazuki took a step back. "This is insane…"
Suddenly, alarms blared.
"They know we're here," Reina warned.
And from behind them, the sound of boots on metal. Syndicate enforcers.
Hoshiro's eyes narrowed. "Then we fight."
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