Old Tokyo Sewers — Sector 4
The sound was the first thing to hit them—a grinding, metal-on-rock shriek that vibrated the water in the puddles.
Then came the wall.
The concrete at the far end of the tunnel didn't just crack; it was chewed away. A massive, rotating drill bit the size of a subway car burst through the darkness, shredding rebar and stone like paper.
[THREAT IDENTIFIED: HEAVY SIEGE UNIT. CLASS: EARTH-MOVER.]
The machine was a nightmare of industrial engineering. It filled the entire width of the sewer tunnel. Behind the drill, tank treads crushed the debris, pushing the machine forward with unstoppable momentum.
"Go!" Renji screamed, firing his rifle at the machine. The bullets sparked harmlessly off the spinning drill. "Run! It's going to collapse the ceiling!"
They sprinted.
The tunnel was narrow and slick with moss. The Earth-Mover was loud, but it was fast. It was chewing up the ground behind them, gaining speed.
Kazuki ran at the back of the group. His suit wanted to go Mach 1, but he couldn't leave Aeva and Renji behind.
He looked back over his shoulder. The spinning metal teeth were only fifty feet away. Sparks showered down like rain.
"Renji!" Kazuki yelled. "You're lagging!"
Renji was stumbling. The damp air and the stress were flaring up his "Cellular Rot." He was coughing, clutching his chest.
"Don't... worry about... me!" Renji wheezed. "Keep moving!"
"Dead end!" Aeva shouted from the front.
They skid to a halt.
Ahead of them, a massive floodgate blocked the tunnel. It was rusted shut, sealed tight by fifty years of corrosion.
Aeva jammed her interface device into the control panel.
"It's rusted! The hydraulics are dead!"
Behind them, the Earth-Mover roared. It was closing the distance.
40 feet.
30 feet.
Renji turned around. He dropped his rifle. He pulled two grenades from his belt.
"Aeva, get the kid through the vent," Renji said calmly. "I'll feed this thing a mouthful of explosives. Maybe it'll choke."
"No!" Kazuki stepped forward. "You said you have six months. You're not spending them all right here!"
"Kazuki, don't!" Renji warned. "Don't engage the suit! You can't control it!"
The drill was 10 feet away. The heat was intense. The noise was deafening.
Kazuki closed his eyes.
Don't get angry, he told himself. Anger is red. Anger is the machine.
Be calm. Be blue. Be the water.
[VELOCITY CORE: 40%. STABLE.]
Kazuki snapped his eyes open. The visor glowed Blue.
He didn't punch the machine. That would be suicide.
He grabbed the Fulcrum Staff from his belt and extended it.
"Aeva! The hydraulics!" Kazuki yelled. "Where is the piston?"
"Top right hinge!" Aeva screamed.
Kazuki moved.
He entered the Zero Interval. The spinning drill slowed to a crawl. The falling debris hung in the air.
He jumped, kicking off the side wall, and vaulted toward the massive rusted floodgate.
He didn't try to lift the gate. He aimed the staff at the rusted hinge pin.
He thumbed the Kinetic Release switch.
BOOM.
The staff released the stored energy from the Silencer fight.
The blast shattered the rusted hinge. The massive steel gate groaned and fell forward—away from them—creating a ramp.
"Move!" Kazuki yelled, landing back on the ground.
Renji and Aeva scrambled up the fallen gate just as the Earth-Mover slammed into the blockage.
CRUNCH.
The machine ate the bottom of the gate, shaking the entire foundation, but they were already on the other side.
They ran up a maintenance stairwell, spiraling toward the surface.
The sound of the drill faded below them, replaced by the sound of wind.
The Surface — The Outskirts
They burst out of a manhole cover and collapsed onto wet grass.
It was dawn. The sky was a bruised purple and grey.
They weren't in the city anymore. They were in the Junkyard Sector—a wasteland of piled scrap metal and abandoned cars on the edge of Tokyo.
Renji rolled onto his back, gasping for air. His skin was pale, sweat dripping down his face.
"You..." Renji coughed, pointing a shaking finger at Kazuki. "You didn't go Berserk."
Kazuki sat on a rusted car hood, looking at his hands. The blue light faded.
"I focused on the lock," Kazuki said softly. "Not the enemy. I just wanted to open the door."
Aeva checked her scanner. "We're off the grid. The interference from the scrap metal should hide our signatures for a few hours."
Renji sat up, wincing. He looked at Kazuki with a new expression. It wasn't just respect anymore. It was... hope.
"You used the staff to target a structural weak point while moving at high velocity," Renji muttered. "That's... tactical."
"I had a good teacher," Kazuki said, offering Renji a hand up.
Renji looked at the hand. The hand of the boy he used to be. The hand of the boy who still had a future.
He took it.
"Don't get cocky, kid. You opened a door. Next time, you might have to stop a train."
Aeva interrupted them. She was standing on top of a pile of crushed cars, looking toward the city skyline.
"Guys... you need to see this."
Kazuki and Renji climbed up next to her.
They looked toward the city center.
In the distance, hovering over the skyscrapers of District 1, was a massive structure.
It looked like a jagged, black castle floating in the sky, surrounded by purple lightning. It was bleeding out of a tear in reality.
The Crimson Helix Headquarters.
It wasn't fully there yet—it was flickering like a hologram—but it was materializing.
"The Anchor," Renji whispered. "Kaelen is pulling their entire fortress through the rift."
"How long do we have?" Kazuki asked, terrified by the scale of it.
Renji checked his watch.
"Dr. Vaunt said the synchronization takes 24 hours. If that castle fully materializes... the timeline solidifies. Game over."
Renji racked the slide of his rifle.
"We don't have time to hide anymore. We have to storm the castle."
[To Be Continued…]