THE LAST KEEPER

The squad stayed hidden as they watched the last crimson sliver of sunset dissolve behind the western jagged peaks, plunging the Bleeding Gorge into freezing, impenetrable darkness.

High along the canyon rim, mountain winds whistled across the knife-edge rocks, carrying drafts of frost. Bukata crouched near the cliff’s crumbling lip, anchoring three braided silk rappel lines around a deep basalt spur before testing the tension with two firm jerks of his gloved hands.

”The lines are set,” Bukata whispered, signaling Zazarie and Ulekai to take up defensive watch positions among the loose scree. ”Team Two has five minutes to reach the generator gallery before the lower shift change begins. Keep your eyes on the gorge floor.”

Zazarie and Ulekai nodded in unison, dropping into the rock shadows with their heavy recurve bows resting across their knees.

High above the subterranean facility, the mountain stillness felt brittle, stretched tight like a bowstring ready to snap at the slightest mistake.

Kiuga adjusted his leather goggles, sliding through the narrow bronze grating of the secondary intake chimney with the silent grace of a hunting snake.

Maita and Zolinka followed immediately behind him, their bodies slipping through the vertical shaft as their soft-soled boots gripped the metal rivets.

They moved in perfect rhythm, descending into the dark belly of the stronghold without dislodging a single pebble into the flues below.

It almost felt like they were back in Galka Academy in another outer pentagon exercise.

On the eastern ledge, Sagiri and Kaka took their positions above the central cargo flue, clipping heavy steel carabiners to the main descent line.

”Ten seconds,” Sagiri whispered, his right eye glowing with a faint crimson hue beneath his forehead wrap as he monitored Kiuga’s descent through the thermal conduits.

Three hundred feet below within the rock, Kiuga dropped onto the catwalk of sub-level two, drawing his curved short-blade in the same fluid motion. The air inside the gallery was thick with sulfur and superheated steam from the converter turbines.

Two grey-coated technicians turned toward the noise, but Maita vaulted over the railing, striking both men across their throats with the flats of his twin blades before they could cry out.

Zolinka sprinted to the central geothermal console, driving his bronze pry rod directly into the master pressure regulator.

”Sever the primary steam bypass!” Kiuga ordered, leaping onto the elevated platform and driving his dagger into the main junction core.

A violent shower of bright orange sparks erupted across the gallery, followed by the deafening hiss of depressurizing hydraulic fluid. The green chemical lamps illuminating the corridors flickered violently three times before dying completely, plunging the entire subterranean facility into absolute darkness as the ventilation fans ground to a halt.

High above, Sagiri and Kaka kicked off the canyon wall, plummeting through the central cargo flue before arresting their descent thirty paces above the floor. Sagiri severed their descent cables with a single flick of Nokai, landing on the cold steel grating of sub-level three without making a sound.

Kaka landed beside him with the heavy, solid thud of an iron anvil, bringing his towering tower shield up into a locked guard stance as the floorplates vibrated under his weight.

Emergency red runes sputtered to life along the reinforced iron bulkheads, casting long, bloody shadows across the wide transport corridor.

Before the echoes of the power outage could settle, a dozen silent figures emerged from the gloom at the far end of the hallway. They wore long, charcoal-grey coats reinforced with steel scales, their faces completely concealed behind smooth iron masks without eye slits.

”Grey Enforcers,” Sagiri warned in a low hiss, feeling the total absence of emotional warmth radiating from the advancing squad. ”They do not feel fear, pain, or hesitation.”

Sagiri shifted his grip on Nokai as ink-black markings crept along his neck, awakening the latent resonance within his blood.

The enforcers charged in eerie, synchronized silence, thrusting heavy three-pronged mechanical spears designed to pin targets against the walls.

Kaka roared a fierce northern battle cry, stepping forward to meet the charge with the full kinetic weight of his massive frame. His iron tower shield slammed into the lead spearman, shattering the bronze shaft and launching the armored warrior ten paces down the corridor.

”Empty shells or not,” Kaka rumbled, swinging his broad-headed war axe in a devastating horizontal arc, ”their bones break just the same!”

The heavy steel blade cleaved through two breastplates with bone-splintering force, sending both enforcers crashing against the stone wall.

Sagiri moved beneath the reach of an incoming trident, pivoting on his left heel as four black blades separated from Nokai’s spine. The flying blades spun through the dim red emergency light, slicing cleanly through weapon straps and puncturing the hydraulic nerve regulators in their gauntlets.

Disarmed and off-balance, the remaining four enforcers collapsed onto the grated flooring, neutralized before they could sound a secondary horn.

”The corridor is clear,” Sagiri announced, retrieving the floating blades back into the central spine of Nokai with a soft metallic click.

Kiuga, Maita, and Zolinka sprinted down the emergency stairwell, their boots clattering against the iron steps as they regrouped with Team Three.

”Sub-level two generators are completely dead,” Kiuga reported, wiping a streak of dark grease from his cheek with a satisfied smirk. ”Every electronic lock from here to the central containment floor has fallen into manual bypass mode.”

Zolinka stepped up to the reinforced bronze door leading into the master laboratory, wedging his pry tool into the manual release latch. With a heavy mechanical groan, the thick double doors slid apart, revealing a cavernous chamber lined with dozens of glowing glass cylinders.

Sagiri stepped into the laboratory, his crimson gaze sweeping across rows of cylindrical cryogenic tanks filled with bubbling green chemical fluid. Inside each frosted glass tube hung the silhouette of a human subject, suspended in unnatural stasis with black ink runes branded into their flesh.

”Ancestors preserve us,” Maita muttered under his breath, his arrogant smirk fading as he stared at the horrors lining the room. ”They are growing an army of soulless soldiers down here. Hundreds of them, stripped of their will and turned into flesh puppets.”

Sagiri walked toward a central iron console illuminated by a solitary red lantern, where a heavy leather logbook lay open upon the desk. He brushed his fingers across the parchment, reading the dark ink entries inscribed with the personal seal of Sir Black.

Subject 001

Subject possesses pure dust-rose irises and primordial void resonance, immune to mental probing and psychic tracking.

Subject has undergone cryogenic thermal conditioning and Black Rot neural binding to serve as the ultimate anti-Keeper weapon.

Designation: The Apex Soulless - Kiana.

’Kiana,’ Sagiri thought, his heart tightening with profound sorrow as he read the cold, clinical documentation of a stolen life. ’She was the girl at the examination headquarters, no doubt.’

”Sagiri, look at the lower tier. Let us all search this level. You are more equipped to move alone,” Kiuga called out from the observation railing, pointing down toward the deepest floor of the complex where massive hydraulic bulkheads sealed the pit.

Before Sagiri could reply, a violent shockwave ripped through the bedrock beneath their feet, nearly throwing the entire squad off balance.

The reinforced steel grating groaned under massive tectonic pressure as the solid granite walls cracked from the floor to the ceiling.

From the black depths of the primary containment vault below, a terrifying, earth-shattering roar tore through the subterranean complex.

It was not the sound of a machine or a mortal man, but the deafening, bloodcurdling fury of a primordial apex beast unleashed in madness.

Kaka planted his boots firmly against the shaking floor, his face hardening as he locked his heavy shield in front of the squad.

”Whatever is locked inside that vault,” Kiuga warned, his voice deep and grim against the vibrating stone, ”is larger than a mountain titan.”

Sagiri drew Nokai to its full length, his twin crimson eyes burning through the shadows as heavy blast gates below began to buckle and tear open under violent blows.

Nokai hummed in his hand, ready to be released if need be. The archive hummed with intent, and sagiri’s eyes glowed even more crimson.

”Get into combat formation,” Sagiri commanded, feeling the savage beast aura rising from the abyss. ”The real battle begins now!”

The squad fell into tight formations instantly, blades drawn in front of them. They had grown even more agile since the last time sagiri had seen them.

He had grown stronger. Yet they still wanted to keep ties with him even when he was actively attacking their land. Even Kaka, most of all. The younger version of him could have tried to kill him for sure.