The explosion had reduced the buildings to a hell of flames and rubble. Ace opened his eyes in agony, every nerve screaming in pain. His breath was short, ragged, and he knew instinctively that his arm was broken, along with several ribs.
Around him, the world was ablaze. The walls groaned, swallowed by fire, the ceiling had partially collapsed, and the room had become a furnace. Ace clenched his teeth and, despite the searing pain ripping through his body, forced himself to rise. One thought consumed him: the other children. Maybe some had survived. Maybe…
He stumbled to the back of the room, and his heart shattered. Before him lay five small bodies, scattered among the wreckage. They were the children of this room. Their charred silhouettes mingled with the collapsed stone. The stench of burnt flesh fused with that of scorched wood, forming an unbearable miasma. Ace's rage surged within him, uncontrollable, blazing hot, but he refused to give in. He had to continue. He had to find someone… anyone alive.
Ignoring the protests of his shattered body, he threw himself into the burning corridors. Flames licked his clothes, smoke filled his lungs, but still he ran. Every room revealed another horror. Every corpse he discovered piled another stone onto the mountain of despair rising inside him. They were all dead. All reduced to skeletal shapes blackened with soot. Some had been torn apart by collapsing walls, their remains strewn across the ashes.
Hope gave way to a deaf, suffocating hatred—black as the smoke.
Ace wavered on the edge of madness when a faint voice reached his ears. His legs carried him toward it. There, among the ruins, Johnny knelt, his face ravaged by fire, crying invisible tears over burned flesh. When he saw Ace, his eyes shone with a flicker of hope. Despite his weakness, he rose and staggered toward him.
Ace did the same. His steps were heavy, but his arms reached out. They would meet. They would survive. But the instant their eyes locked, Johnny's head exploded.
A sharp, merciless crack. Then blood. Fragments of skull and brain sprayed into the burning air. Ace's face was splattered by a warm crimson rain that evaporated instantly in the heat. Johnny's lifeless body collapsed into his arms.
Ace froze, paralyzed, his mind fractured. Thoughts swirled, incoherent, agonizing:"What?... This is a nightmare, yes, it has to be a nightmare… It's not real… not real… NOT REAL!"
The words carved themselves into his mind, repeated endlessly, like a delirious prayer to deny reality. His body trembled, wracked with spasms. His eyes widened, drowning in madness, as a strange light burst from within. A black-and-white aura danced around his figure, flames that devoured everything. The heat became unbearable, so intense it swallowed the inferno itself. The orange fire died, consumed by this new blaze.
In the abyss of his soul, a surreal landscape formed: a black sun suspended above a pristine white ocean. The sky shifted ceaselessly from white to black, scattered with inverted stars that pulsed in rhythm with his heart. From the white sea, an onyx staff rose, climbing higher until it revealed the shape of a sword. Black in its entirety, the blade bore fine engravings of flames, separating a blazing core from a surface of pure, blinding white.
On the outside, Ace was no longer human. His aura devoured corpses, debris, even the fire itself. His eyes bled tears of blood, shining like liquid rubies. The whites of his eyes had turned to ink-black, and his silver irises glowed like cold stars in the dark.
A little farther away, a soldier in uniform, his face hidden behind a mask, watched the scene. His trembling hand gripped a walkie-talkie:— "Target in sight. Awaiting orders."The response came sharp and immediate:— "Wait for reinforcements. No risks. We don't know what these… aliens are capable of."
The minutes stretched, heavy, as the soldier stared at Ace, frozen by the sight. When reinforcements finally arrived, they moved into position and hurled tear gas grenades. The blasts were muffled. Then their eyes lifted.
Ace was staring back at them. His face was expressionless, eyes half-shut, his features almost drowsy. Then, in the blink of an eye, he vanished.
The soldiers tightened, forming a circle, weapons aimed outward. A chilling presence made them realize: he was already in the center. Ace slammed his hand into the ground. The shockwave hurled them in every direction, scattering them like rag dolls. They scrambled back to their feet, panic in their eyes, guns fixed on the figure drifting between dream and nightmare.
But Ace heard nothing. His mind was trapped in its delirious loop. His lips muttered the same words endlessly, like a broken record. Then suddenly, everything stopped. He collapsed, drained, emptied, slipping into brutal unconsciousness.
A heavy silence fell. The soldiers, startled at first, wasted no time. They rushed him, binding him with chains thick as iron serpents. One lifted his radio to his lips:— "Target secured, Captain."The reply came, vibrating with a sick, eager excitement:— "Excellent. Bring him back. We'll begin the experiments… and serve Hydra's cause."
Without hesitation, they dragged Ace's limp body, sealed him inside a cryogenic capsule, and carried him into the darkness.