The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

Far from the facility, another contaminated zone was being torn apart.

A creature lunged through the darkness.

Nykos’ eyes flashed with a cold light. He didn’t wait for the monster to reach him. His left hand rose, and he clenched it. The creature’s body abruptly split apart, dark fluid splattering across the ground as dark tendrils of his power crushed it.

Another monster came from behind, but he didn’t turn around. The shadows took care of it and dropped to the ground wordlessly.

”That’s the last one.”

Vince’s voice came from farther behind. Nykos glanced over. Several corrupted creatures lay scattered around the area; it was almost pitiful how they had been slaughtered in such a short time.

Amar approached, dropping his weapon to his side and pointing in a direction.

”You missed one.”

Nykos turned his head toward the far end of the cavern. A corrupted monster was crawling along the ceiling. He raised one hand, darkness wrapping around his finger and converging into a single point before shooting straight into the monster.

A strange pressure suddenly appeared in his chest. Nykos paused as the sensation grew stronger, the feeling strangely familiar.

Amar looked over. ”Is something wrong?”

He had noticed something was off with Nykos since earlier, when that light had suddenly burst out of his ring. But he hadn’t asked their commander about it while they were still engaged in a serious battle against the corrupted monsters in the contaminated zone they’d been eyeing.

Now that everything was over, Amar finally couldn’t hold back.

”You’ve been distracted the entire time,” Amar said.

Nykos looked at him. ”Was I?”

Amar nodded. ”You didn’t hear Vince try to call you earlier, and you’ve missed a couple of corrupted monsters who came at you. Vince and I took care of them.”

”I was thinking of something.”

Amar frowned. ”Care to share it?”

”No. It’s a secret,” he said, smiling.

Vince walked closer, wiping away the blood dripping from his blade. Having heard what they were talking about, he chimed in, ”Boss, are you still not fine after almost going on a Rampage?”

Nykos glanced at him. ”You’re both becoming observant.”

A faint smile touched his lips.

At the next instant, the aura of an SS-ranking Sentinel burst from his body and spread in all directions. His power surged through the contaminated zone once more, covering the area and extending into every corner.

Munch, munch.

The sound of something chewing echoed inside the contaminated zone.

None of the members of the Dark Knight Organization were unfamiliar with that sound. Those who heard it stopped fighting and moved away, leaping backward as though they were avoiding something. They landed near Nykos and Amar, where the ground was not being pervaded by his power.

Soon, the entire floor of the contaminated zone was covered in black. The darkness twisted across the ground, capturing every remaining monster still on the loose or trying to attack.

Vince was dumbfounded.

”Boss, are you trying to finish everything by yourself again?”

Amar also realized this and glared at Nykos. ”You said we’d do it together with everyone and take our time taking our loot.”

”I changed my mind.”

Nykos’ crimson eyes started to glint as his power began to eat away at everything it had held onto. The noise of something eating eerily echoed in their ears before everything fell silent.

”We have somewhere else to be.”

***

While Nykos and the others finished clearing the other contaminated zone, Aisha stepped over the woman’s body without sparing her another glance. She moved past the rows of tanks, her boots splashing faintly against pooled liquid that had leaked from cracked pipes along the floor, and made her way toward the stairwell that led below.

The stairs spiraled downward, carved crudely into the rock as though this part of the facility had been built in a hurry. The air grew colder the further she descended.

At the bottom, a single door stood slightly ajar, light spilling out from the crack.

Aisha slowed her pace, pressing herself against the wall before peering through the gap.

Inside was a wide chamber, strangely different from the floor above because only one tank stood in the center, massive compared to the others she had seen, tall enough that its top disappeared into the shadows near the ceiling. The only similarity it held to the other tanks was the black liquid swirling inside.

Her chest tightened. This had to be it. This had to be where they were keeping Zenick.

She pushed the door open and walked in, her steps echoing across the empty chamber.

Aisha approached the tank slowly, almost afraid of what she might see through the glass, bracing herself for the sight of her brother suspended there the way the others had been.

But when she reached it and looked inside, there was nothing.

The tank was empty. Just liquid, faintly glowing, swirling gently with no human inside it.

”No...” she muttered under her breath, pressing her palm against the cold glass. ”No, no. Where is he?”

She circled the tank. There was no sign of Zenick anywhere.

Suddenly feeling helpless, Aisha closed her eyes. Was it already too late? Had they already taken Zenick somewhere far?

Nykos’ shadow drifted along the wall beside her, catching her attention.

”What are you doing?” she asked weakly, feeling the adrenaline disappearing from her body.

”There’s a gap here,” he said, his shadowy form pressing against a section of the wall near the back of the chamber where the stone looked slightly uneven.

Aisha crossed the room and ran her fingers along the seam.

”It’s a hidden passage,” she said quietly, and her pulse quickened. If there was a passage here, it likely led somewhere they hadn’t wanted anyone to find. Possibly the bay where they were loading the Vessels onto the transport ship. Possibly where Zenick was right now.

Her eyes shone as hope began to bloom within her.

She reached into the pouch at her side and pulled out a small round device, its surface etched with faint markings, humming softly the moment her fingers closed around it.

The moment Nykos saw it, his shadow form flickered oddly, condensing tighter for a brief second, as though something about what she was holding unsettled him.

”Put that away,” he said, his voice sharper than before.

Aisha blinked, glancing at the shadow. ”No. It can open the wall.”

”I know it can.” There was an edge to his tone she hadn’t heard from him before. ”Don’t be reckless. You blow that here, and you’ll bring the entire ceiling down on both of us before we even get close to him. Or worse, you’ll alert the people beyond this wall, and you can say goodbye to your older brother.”

Aisha hesitated, then slowly slid the bomb back into her storage bag, trusting his judgment even if she didn’t fully understand why he was reacting so strongly against it.

”Then how do we get through?”

”Let me.”

His shadow spread across the seam in the wall, thin tendrils sinking into the cracks like ink bleeding into paper. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, with a low grinding sound, the stone along the seam began to crumble inward, not from an explosion, but as though something was quietly devouring it from the inside, eating away at the material bit by bit until a narrow opening large enough for them to pass through remained, the edges smooth and strangely clean.

Aisha stared at the opening, then at the shadow retracting from the wall.

”You could have done this before I took out the explosives.”

”I could have,” Nykos said calmly. ”But watching you fumble was more interesting.”

Aisha rolled her eyes and stepped through first.

The passage beyond was narrow and sloping downward, lit sparsely by dim lights embedded into the walls at uneven intervals. A mechanical hum grew louder as they walked further, and a low rhythmic clanking sounded like machinery working in tandem. Beneath that, the murmur of voices entered their ears.

When they reached the end of the path, it opened into a massive cavern unlike anything she had seen so far inside the facility.

A colossal teleportation array stretched across the floor, its intricate carvings glowing faintly with a pale light, large enough to encompass an entire ship that was currently docked at its center. Workers moved back and forth in organized lines, loading tank after tank onto the vessel, along with crates and containers stamped with symbols she didn’t recognize.

Aisha scanned the line of tanks being carried toward the ship, her eyes moving from one to the next.

Then she found him.

Near the end of the line, suspended in one of the tanks just like the others, was Zenick. His eyes were closed, and his body floated limp in the liquid. He looked different now. Dark lines crisscrossed his skin like maps drawn on his body; they pulsed and moved as though alive.

Several people surrounded his tank as it was being wheeled toward the ship, moving with practiced precision, and it didn’t take her long to recognize what they were.

Sentinels.