The alarms were not ringing anymore. They were screaming.
Sector 4 was a labyrinth of steel and reinforced glass. Red lights flashed rhythmically, bathing the white corridors in the color of blood.
Kaelen walked forward. His sword, Nightfall, dragged along the metal floor, creating a shower of sparks.
Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.
"Boss..." Bo whispered, pressing his back against the wall. "This place... it smells like a butcher shop."
It did. Underneath the smell of antiseptic, there was the heavy, copper tang of old blood.
Suddenly, the ceiling panels above them exploded.
CRASH!
Three shadows dropped down. They were not human. They were Chimeras—twisted fusions of man and beast.
One had the body of a man but the arms of a mantis. Another had scales covering its face and gills on its neck. The third had replaced its legs with mechanical spider limbs.
They hissed, drool dripping from their jaws. They wore metal collars with glowing runes: "Control."
"Intruders..." the Mantis-Man rasped, his voice sounding like broken glass. "Doctor says... kill."
Bo shrieked and hid behind a metal cart. "They're monsters! Shoot them! Burn them!"
Kaelen didn't move. He looked at the creatures.
His Dragon Eyes saw past the monstrous flesh. He saw their souls. They were dim, fractured, and screaming in constant agony. These were not monsters born of nature; they were victims. Likely the very people mentioned in Bo's ledger.
"You are in pain," Kaelen whispered.
The Spider-Man lunged, its metal legs stabbing at Kaelen's chest.
Kaelen side-stepped. He didn't slash wildly. He moved with a heavy, sorrowful grace.
"I cannot save your bodies," Kaelen said, dodging a scythe-arm from the Mantis-Man. "They are too far gone."
He caught the Mantis-Man's arm. The creature screeched, trying to cut him.
Kaelen looked into the creature's frantic, human eyes.
"But I can free your souls."
Shing.
A single, clean strike.
Kaelen severed the Mantis-Man's head. He didn't let it fall. He caught the head gently before it hit the ground.
"Rest," Kaelen murmured.
The other two creatures paused. Their animal instincts were confused. This intruder wasn't fighting with hatred. He was fighting with mercy.
But the control runes on their collars flared red, forcing them to attack.
ROAR!
They charged.
Kaelen closed his eyes for a fraction of a second.
Abyssal Dragon Sword Art: Form Three - The Silent Funeral.
Two flashes of black light cut through the red chaos.
The Spider-Man and the Scale-Man froze mid-air. Then, they collapsed, their hearts pierced instantly. It was a painless death.
Kaelen sheathed his sword. He didn't look triumphant. He looked heavy.
"Bo," Kaelen said, stepping over the bodies. "Don't look at them as monsters. Look at them as reminders."
"Reminders of what?" Bo asked, shaking.
"Of why we are going to kill the Doctor."
...
The Main Laboratory.
They reached the end of the hall. A massive double door stood before them, marked "Synthesis Chamber".
Kaelen kicked it open.
The room beyond was vast. It was a cathedral of science and madness.
In the center of the room, suspended in a massive glass tank filled with green liquid, was a woman.
She was pale, her long black hair floating in the fluid like seaweed. Her body was connected to dozens of tubes. Her eyes were closed. Her skin was almost translucent.
It was Subject 105.
Lyra. Kaelen's mother.
Kaelen stopped breathing. The world narrowed down to that tank.
She looked exactly like the portrait in the East Pavilion, but broken. Thinner. Frail.
Standing in front of the tank, with his back to Kaelen, was a man in a pristine white coat. He was adjusting a dial on a control panel.
"Fascinating," the man muttered to himself, ignoring the intruder. "The subject's bloodline is reacting to the stress. The Solar Essence is crystallizing."
He turned around slowly.
The Doctor was a handsome man. Too handsome. His skin was flawless, his hair perfectly groomed. But his eyes... his eyes were mismatched. One was green, the other was mechanical—a red camera lens that zoomed in and out.
He adjusted his glasses. He looked at the dead Chimeras in the hallway, then at Kaelen.
"You broke my toys," The Doctor said. His voice was calm, clinical. "Do you know how long it takes to graft mantis DNA onto a human nervous system? Three weeks. You just wasted three weeks of my time."
Kaelen walked into the room. His aura was eerily silent. The Void Cauldron inside him was spinning so fast it hurt physically.
"Let her go," Kaelen said.
The Doctor glanced at the tank. "Subject 105? Why? Are you a buyer? I'm afraid she is not for sale. She is the crown jewel of the Project Eclipse."
The Doctor walked toward Kaelen, tapping a scalpel against his palm.
"Her blood... it's pure sunlight. Do you know what happens when I inject it into a normal human? They burn. It's beautiful."
Kaelen took a step forward. The floor tiles cracked under his foot.
"I am her son," Kaelen whispered.
The Doctor paused. The red mechanical eye whirred, scanning Kaelen's face.
"Son?" The Doctor tilted his head. "Ah. Project 105-B. The 'Failed' offspring. Arion's boy."
The Doctor smiled. It was a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"This is serendipity! I was wondering why her vitals spiked just now. It's maternal resonance! She sensed you!"
The Doctor clapped his hands.
"Excellent! If I vivisect you in front of her, the emotional trauma might force her bloodline to fully awaken! You are the catalyst I was missing!"
Bo, hiding near the door, gagged. "You are sick! You are a psycho!"
"I am a scientist," The Doctor corrected. "Science requires sacrifice."
He pressed a button on his belt.
Click.
The floor around Kaelen opened up.
Four massive metal cages rose from the ground. Inside them were not Chimeras. They were Beast Kings.
A Fire-Armored Bear.
A Venomous Naga.
A Thunder-Tiger.
And a Shadow Stalker.
They were all Rank 3 Spirit Beasts (equivalent to Spirit Ocean Level 5-6). And they were all injected with the berserk serum.
"Entertain me, boy," The Doctor sat down on a chair, crossing his legs as if watching a play. "If you survive for five minutes, I'll let you say goodbye to your mother before I harvest your organs."
The beasts roared, shaking the laboratory.
Kaelen stood in the center of the encirclement. He looked at his mother in the tank. She hadn't moved.
"Five minutes?" Kaelen looked at the Doctor.
He reached into his spatial bag. He pulled out the jar of blue eyes.
"Mother," Kaelen spoke to the tank, ignoring the monsters. "I brought something back for you."
He placed the jar on the floor.
Then, he unleashed the Fourth Form of the Dragon aura.
It wasn't a sword technique. It was a transformation.
The black veins of the Abyssal Dragon and the golden glow of the Solar Body merged.
His skin turned into a hardened, metallic grey. His hair turned white. Two small horns began to push through his forehead.
Dragon-Human Hybrid Form: Stage 1.
The air in the room became so heavy that the glass beakers on the shelves shattered.
"Five minutes is too long," Kaelen's voice came out distorted, layered with the roar of a beast.
He looked at the four Beast Kings.
"I will kill them in ten seconds. And then, Doctor... I will show you what 'vivisection' really feels like."
The Thunder-Tiger pounced.
Kaelen didn't draw his sword. He caught the tiger mid-air by the throat.
CRUNCH.
One down.
The Doctor's smile vanished. He stood up, knocking over his chair.
"What... what are you?"
Kaelen threw the dead tiger at the Doctor's feet.
"I am the Eclipse's nightmare."
The hunt was over. The massacre began.