Triple X System

The butcher was still tied to the wall behind them. Red strings glowing faint in the dark, holding it there. But the sound didn’t stop. Even muffled, even bound, it kept saying it.

Kyle wiped blood off his arm. ”We can’t stay here.”

Yua nodded. She looked tired. The life entanglement took a lot out of her. ”The tunnel splits up ahead. One way goes to the escape chamber. The other...” She sniffed. ”The other smells worse.”

”Then we go that way,” Elara said. Her voice was quiet but steady. ”If it’s worse, that’s where they’re hiding things.”

No one argued.

They walked. The handmade earth passage kept going down. The air got colder. The smell got worse. Not just rot now. Something chemical. Something clean and wrong at the same time.

After about ten minutes the tunnel opened up.

And it wasn’t an escape chamber.

The root crystal deer in Kyle’s chest went still.

”Kyle, you’re stepping into uncharted territory. Your safety is thin.” It warned with a serious tone, which Kyle took note of.

”What you’re walking in to is a kalkai chamber.”

The word hit Kyle like a slap. He’d heard it once, from snow before they proceeded further along the path.

[Kalkai. Livestock. Breeding chamber.] Snow’s word echoed in his head.

Rows. Rows and rows and rows. Stretching so far into the dark that Yua’s red eyes couldn’t see the end.

Thousands. No millions of humans, placed in tubes. Glass tubes, tall as trees, filled with pale liquid. Each tube had a person inside. Strapped. Wires running into their arms, their necks, their heads. Monitors everywhere, hanging from the ceiling on metal arms. Displaying their vitals. Heartbeat. Brain activity. Years remaining.

Some of the people were asleep. Some had their eyes open, staring at nothing. Some were pregnant. You could see it through the glass.

Children too. Teenagers. Old people. All different. All just... there.

The floor was white tile. Clean. The walls were white too. Machines hummed. A low, constant sound that made your teeth hurt.

As a human turned demon, this sight naturally infuriates Kyle. His hands started burning black without him telling them to. The air around him dropped ten degrees.

”What the hell is this,” he said. His voice wasn’t loud. It was worse than loud.

Yua grabbed his arm. Also a human turned vampire, both for their benefit. She squeezed hard.

”Kyle. Breathe.”

He looked at her. ”Breathe? You see this?”

”I see it,” she said. ”I see it and it makes me sick too. But if you blow up right now we die here. And then who’s gonna get them out?”

He wanted to argue. He wanted to tear the whole place down. But her hand was warm on his arm and she was right. He exhaled. The black flames went out.

”Okay,” he said. ”Okay.”

Elara hadn’t said anything. She was just looking. Her face was blank but her hands were shaking.

”This is...” she started, then stopped. ”They farm people.”

Yua nodded. ”Vampires use humans in a never ending cycle for breeding and farming across several planets. This isn’t the only one. This is just one chamber. One facility.”

”Across several planets,” Kyle repeated. He laughed, but it wasn’t a real laugh. ”Of course it is.”

They started walking. The big chamber had connecting routes. Hallways branching off, each one leading to more rows of tubes. More monitors. More wires.

Some of the tubes had labels. Dates. Codes. One said ”Batch 441 - Viability High”. Another said ”Breeding Pair 12 - Cycle 3”.

Kyle stopped at one. Inside was a woman. Maybe 20. She was asleep. A wire went into her stomach. The monitor said ”Pregnancy Week 22”.

He didn’t say anything. He just kept walking.

Yua was looking at everything too. Cataloging it. ”The wires feed them nutrients. The monitors track if they’re good for breeding or blood. The ones with high years left go to blood farms. The ones with good genetics go here.”

”And then what,” Elara asked.

”Then they take the kids when they’re born,” Yua said. ”Raise them for two purposes. Blood or more breeding.”

No one talked for a while after that.

The chamber was huge. It took them twenty minutes just to cross one section. Everywhere was the same. Tube after tube. Person after person. The monitors beeped softly.

Kyle kept his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t burn anything.

Yua kept close to him.

Elara kept looking at the faces in the glass.

”This is why they took me,” Elara said suddenly.

Kyle looked at her.

”I’m still human,” she said. ”The only still human amongst the group. They probably flagged me for the breeding program. Witches have good genes or something.”

Yua didn’t answer. She just put a hand on Elara’s shoulder.

They turned down another connecting route. This one was darker. The lights here were dimmer. The hum was louder.

That’s when they heard it.

Thump drag. Thump drag.

Multiple sets.

Kyle stopped. ”Butchers.”

Yua’s eyes went red. ”Coming this way. Four of them.”

”After who?” Kyle asked, even though he already knew.

Yua sniffed. ”Elara. They smell her. The only human not in a tube.”

Elara stepped back. ”What do we do?”

Kyle looked at the hallway. Four butchers were coming. He could hear their breathing now. ”Must ki-ll.” Over and over.

He made a decision fast.

Where Kyle immediately uses his shadow walk skill on Elara to turn her into shadowy figure. He grabbed her hand. Black shadows poured out of him and over her, covering her from head to toe. In two seconds she wasn’t solid anymore. She was shadow. She could still see, still hear, but she wasn’t there.

”Stay quiet,” he whispered to the shadow. ”Don’t move.”

Then he turned.

Before blasting out with yua towards the tough challenge.

Yua was already moving. She didn’t ask. She just ran with him.

The first butcher came around the corner. Same clothes. Same hunched back. Same blood. This one had two eyes, both yellow.

It saw them and stopped.

”Must ki-ll.”

Kyle didn’t wait. He hit it with dark flames, point blank. The butcher caught fire and stumbled back.

Yua was on the second one. Red strings shot out and wrapped its legs, tripping it. She followed with a punch to the throat that sounded like wet wood breaking.

The third and fourth came at the same time.

Kyle met them. No flames this time. He was too close. He used his hands. Shadow and strength. He grabbed one by the head and slammed it into the wall. The tile cracked.

Yua was fighting the other. It was stronger than the first one they fought. It grabbed her arm and lifted her off the ground. She brought her knee up and heard something crack. It dropped her.

The shadow that was Elara watched from the corner. She couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t talk. She just watched.

Kyle finished his butcher. Tore its arms off. It kept trying to say ”must ki-ll” even with no arms. He stepped on its head until it stopped.

Yua finished hers too. Life entanglement around the neck, squeezing until it stopped moving. No blood came out.

Silence again.

Kyle turned. The shadows peeled off Elara and she was solid again. She was pale but she was okay.

”You good?” he asked.

She nodded. ”Yeah. Thanks.”

Yua was breathing hard. ”We need to keep moving. More will come.”

They went deeper into the chamber. More connecting routes. More tubes.

At one point they found a room with charts on the wall. Maps. Planets marked with red pins. Notes in vampire language. Yua translated some of it.

”Harvest schedules. Breeding rotations. This planet is listed as Sector 7. They rotate every 50 years.”

Kyle kicked a chair over. ”50 years. They’ve been doing this for 50 years here.”

”Longer,” Yua said. ”This is just the current cycle.”

They found another room. This one had kids. Small tubes. Babies. Some were crying. Monitors beeping.

Elara made a sound like she was going to throw up.

Yua went to one of the tubes and put her hand on the glass. The baby inside looked at her.

”We’re gonna get you out,” Yua whispered. ”I promise.”

Kyle looked away. He couldn’t look at it.

They kept exploring. Every hallway led to more. The scale of it was insane. This wasn’t just a prison. This was a factory.

Humans in, humans out. For blood. For breeding. For whatever else vampires needed.

At one point they heard footsteps again. But it wasn’t butchers. It was guards. Vampire guards.

Kyle and Yua took them out fast. No talking. No warning.

Elara stayed in shadow the whole time.

Hours passed. Or maybe it was only one hour. Time felt weird down there.

They mapped as much as they could. Where the exits were. Where the control rooms were. Where the worst sections were.

Yua explained things as they went. Normal human interaction, no forced words or tone. Just talking because they had to.

”My sire told me about this once,” she said. ”I thought he was lying to scare me.”

”You believe him now?” Kyle asked.

”Yeah,” she said. ”I do.”

Elara asked questions too. ”Do they ever let anyone go?”

”No,” Yua said. ”Not unless they’re too old to breed and too weak for blood. Then they just... dispose of them.”

Kyle didn’t respond to that.

Eventually they found a central control room. Big screens. All the tubes displayed there. All the vitals.

Kyle looked at the screens and felt sick. Millions of names. Millions of numbers.

”We can’t free them all right now,” he said.

”I know,” Yua said. ”But we can start.”

Elara stepped out of shadow. ”What do we do first?”

Yua looked at the screens. Then at the door. ”First we make sure more butchers don’t find us. Then we figure out how to shut this down.”

Kyle nodded. He was still angry. Still wanted to burn it all. But Yua was right. They needed a plan.

The three of them stood in the control room. Surrounded by screens showing millions of people in tubes.

Outside, somewhere in the dark, more butchers were probably walking. ”Must ki-ll. Must ki-ll.”

But for now, they had time.

For now, they could think.

Kyle looked at Yua. She looked back.

”One step at a time,” she said.

”One step at a time,” he repeated.

And they got to work.