The corridor leading to Klaus's office felt like a brightly lit graveyard. Every step echoed on the polished marble floor. Lena kept her grip on the energy pistol, while Kaelan walked with a new sense of conviction—Rustbucket floated a few meters behind him, its crimson engines humming low like a restless beast.
"You don't have to do this," Lena whispered, eyes scanning every corner. "We could still run."
"And let Klaus keep doing this to others?" Kaelan shook his head. "No. This ends here."
On the way, Lena suddenly slowed her pace. Kaelan noticed and frowned. "What's wrong?"
She hesitated, then sighed.
> "I should apologize. I wasn't much help to you in battle. Honestly, I was selfish—I didn't want to lose my job, so I only helped in small, safe ways. Most of the time, this pistol was just for protecting myself. But now… I'm sick of it. Sick of Klaus. Sick of all of this. And for the first time, I'm asking myself… why was the Foundation created in the first place? Who were we even fighting against? Or… is the Foundation itself the villain? With all this advanced tech, maybe it's just another tool for the government to conquer other nations…"
Her voice cracked.
> "I think I've been blind my whole life. I never even questioned it."
Before Kaelan could answer, the office doors slid open on their own. Klaus sat calmly behind his huge desk, fingers steepled. His face was composed, like a host waiting to pour tea for his guests.
"Kaelan. Lena." He nodded slightly. "I see you made it past Dr. Vex. His last batch of data was… fascinating."
"Shut up, Klaus!" Lena snapped, raising her pistol. "It's over. We have proof about Project Grit."
Klaus smiled thinly. "No, my dear. This is only the beginning."
He pressed a button on his desk. The wall behind him shifted into a massive screen, flickering to life with files and recordings.
"Look," Klaus said, rising to his feet. "You thought this was about building weapons? About an army of Grit pilots?"
The screen lit up with complex diagrams, world maps marked with red dots, and images of ancient Artifacts with strange, unknown designs.
"This is much bigger than that," Klaus's voice hardened. "We're fighting against extinction."
He pointed at an image of a colossal Artifact buried deep in a desert.
"They call it The First Artifact. And it's waking up."
Kaelan's eyes narrowed, absorbing every detail.
"For centuries, we believed only women could pilot Artifacts because of their stable Aura," Klaus continued. "But the First Artifact—he refuses control. He responds only to one thing: the primal will to survive. Grit."
Lena lowered her pistol slightly, confusion in her eyes. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying Kaelan here," Klaus gestured, "isn't just an experiment. He's the prototype. Humanity's one chance to fight the First Artifact."
But Kaelan shook his head, rage cold in his veins. "You tortured me. You killed Yena."
"Yena?" Klaus chuckled. "That pet robot? She can be rebuilt. But what we face here… is humanity's extinction."
The screen shifted again, showing satellite footage—an entire military base reduced to rubble, Artifacts lying in pieces like discarded toys.
"He's waking the others," Klaus whispered. "The First Artifact is calling every Artifact back under his control. In six months, civilization as we know it will be gone."
Kaelan stepped forward. "And you think by breaking me—by taking everything from me—you'll build a weapon strong enough to stop him?"
"It's the only way!" Klaus roared, his calm mask finally cracking. "We need something stronger than Aura. We need a survival instinct so raw, so unbreakable, that even he can't override it!"
But Kaelan only turned to Lena. "He's still manipulating us."
"I know," Lena said coldly, lifting her pistol again.
Klaus sighed like a disappointed father. "How unfortunate. I had hoped you'd understand."
He pressed another button. The ground rumbled beneath their feet.
"If you won't cooperate… then you'll serve as the final test for Subject Alpha."
The walls of the office rotated, revealing weapon racks and hidden machinery. From the ceiling descended an Artifact unlike any they'd seen—primitive yet advanced, etched with glowing spirals that mirrored the marks on Kaelan's hand and Yena's forehead.
"The Prototype," Klaus declared. "The first Artifact I managed to awaken with Grit. Let's see if you're strong enough to become our savior, Kaelan."
Rustbucket immediately powered up, its crimson glow pulsing like a furious heartbeat. Kaelan didn't hesitate—he vaulted into the cockpit, the connection stronger than ever before.
The fight for truth—and the future of humanity—was about to begin.