Lyss found herself standing face-to-face with the man now.
Up close, the pressure coming off him was impossible to ignore. It wasn't the kind of presence she felt from ordinary people, and it definitely wasn't the chaotic hunger of a Ghoul. It was something else entirely—something heavy, controlled, and dangerously strong. The kind of power she'd only felt before when confronting a Malform.
She raised both of her pistols and locked them on him.
"Stop right there," she called out. "Who are you?"
The man's attention shifted to her immediately. For a brief moment his expression turned serious, his eyes narrowing as he studied her stance.
Then it changed.
The tension in his face melted into a slow, confident grin.
"Hahaha!" he laughed, the sound rolling out easily. "Well, look at that. Another one."
His eyes ran over her quickly, sizing her up.
"And this time it's a pretty young lady," he added casually. "Maybe you'll be a better lead than the last guy. That one was completely useless."
Lyss kept her aim steady, refusing to lower the weapons.
"I asked you a question," she said firmly. "You're going to answer it."
The man didn't look impressed by her confidence. If anything, he seemed amused by it.
"Alright," he said after a moment. "I'll answer you."
He lifted one thick finger as if he were setting the terms of a game.
"But only if you answer mine first."
His grin widened slightly.
"You tell me where she is."
The words landed heavier than she expected.
Lyss frowned, trying to make sense of what he meant. "Who is 'she'?" she asked, tightening her grip on the pistols. "Who exactly are you looking for?"
The man didn't answer right away. Instead, he slowly crossed his broad arms across his chest, still watching her with that same confident smile.
The man let out a short breath through his nose, shaking his head slightly.
"Ah… not this again."
He looked at her more carefully this time, his gaze moving over her stance, the pistols, the way she held herself despite everything that had just happened.
Then his grin returned.
"Wait," he said, almost amused. "You're just a student."
He tilted his head a little, like that realization actually interested him.
"Well, that's something." His eyes flicked briefly toward the shattered wall where the Vanguard's body had landed before returning to her. "You're a lot braver than the Vanguard I killed earlier."
The grin widened slightly.
"I like that."
Lyss didn't lower her weapons.
"Yeah," she replied. "I am. So what?"
Her voice stayed steady, even if her pulse hadn't.
"Now answer me," she continued. "Who are you? And why did you kill him?"
The man glanced back toward the body she mentioned, then casually extended an arm, pointing a finger toward the crushed Vanguard lying among the debris.
"That one?" he said.
His shoulders lifted in a careless shrug.
"He wasn't useful to me. So I got rid of him."
His attention returned to her slowly, the amusement in his expression darkening just a little.
"I'll do the same to you," he added calmly, "if you keep dodging my question."
His voice lowered, but the threat in it became sharper.
"I'll crush you until every bone in your body snaps." He smiled again, like the thought genuinely entertained him. "And trust me… I'll enjoy it."
Lyss kept her pistols trained on him, but her attention flicked around the street for a moment. The plaza that had been packed with people minutes earlier was now almost empty, the echoes of panicked footsteps still fading somewhere in the distance.
A bead of sweat formed at her temple.
It slowly rolled down along the side of her face, sliding past her cheek and disappearing along the curve of her neck. She barely noticed it. Her mind was busy trying to make sense of what he had said.
"She. Who's he talking about?"
She didn't recognize the person. There hadn't been any briefing about a woman tied to something like this. Nothing about a human with resonance like his.
The man suddenly swore under his breath.
"Goddammit."
He dragged one hand across his face, fingers pressing hard against his forehead as if the memory itself made him sick. His jaw tightened, and when he lowered his hand again the anger in his eyes was clearer than before.
"The woman," he said, voice rough with resentment, "the one who experimented on me."
His head shook slowly, like he was trying to force the image out of his mind.
"She did it without my permission."
The last part came out louder, the hatred finally breaking through.
He stepped forward, his boot striking the pavement with enough force to crack the surface beneath it. The sound echoed sharply through the empty street.
Lyss instinctively lifted her chin, the words finally connecting in her head.
"Experiment."
Her grip on the pistols tightened.
"Wait," she said, the realization hitting her all at once.
"You're talking about an experiment?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at him.
"…Project Zero?"
The man's expression shifted the moment Lyss mentioned it. A slow smirk spread across his face, the kind that looked more satisfied than amused.
"Yeah," he said quietly, almost pleased she understood. "Now we're getting somewhere."
He straightened slightly, his eyes never leaving her.
"That's right. Project Zero." His voice dropped into something heavier, more personal. "The woman who put me through that… she's the one I want."
For a brief moment, the grin faded and something darker replaced it.
"There's nothing I hate more than that woman."
His shoulders rolled once as if he were shaking off the memory. When he looked back at Lyss, the confidence had returned.
"You're a student at the Institute," he continued. "That means you move around those halls. You hear things. You know people."
He lifted his chin slightly.
"So tell me where she is."
Lyss didn't lower her weapons. Her mind was still racing, trying to understand what he was saying and how much of it could possibly be true.
"Why would I tell you anything about someone I've never even heard of?" she replied. Her voice stayed steady, though the tension in her grip tightened. "And I don't know what the Institute has to do with whatever happened to you."
Her gaze flicked briefly toward the wreckage behind him where the Vanguard's body lay.
"But you just killed someone because he didn't have the answer you wanted," she said. "That's murder."
The smirk vanished from the man's face.
For a moment he simply stared at her, his expression tightening like the word itself irritated him.
"Innocent?" he repeated quietly.
He shook his head once, a low sound of disbelief leaving his throat.
"You think that man was innocent?"
His eyes narrowed, the red glow in them sharpening.
"You've got the wrong idea, kid." His voice dropped, harder now. "Nobody from the Vanguard Institute is innocent."
His gaze held her in place.
"And that includes you."
He took a step toward her.
Then another.
"If you're not going to tell me where she is," he said calmly, "then you're just another loose end."
Lyss didn't wait for him to get any closer.
Her hand moved quickly, flipping the pistol in her grip as she reset the chamber. The motion was practiced and automatic. A second later she pulled the trigger.
The gunshots cracked loudly through the empty district.
The bullets crossed the short distance between them and struck his body. One hit his shoulder. Another punched into his side. A third tore through the muscle near his ribs. Each impact forced blood to spray across his shirt and onto the pavement.
But the man didn't stop moving.
He didn't even slow down.
A rough laugh slipped out of him as he continued walking forward.
Lyss's eyes locked onto the wounds. The torn flesh around them began pulling itself together. The bleeding stopped first, then the skin sealed over as if the damage had never happened.
Within seconds, the bullet holes were gone.
Her breath caught.
He noticed the look on her face and laughed again, louder this time.
The voice in her earpiece cut in sharply.
"Lyss, disengage immediately. That's an order. Get out of there."
Her jaw tightened. She knew what that meant. Whatever he was, this wasn't a fight she was meant to take head-on.
Without another shot, she turned and ran.
Her boots hit the pavement hard as she sprinted down the street, putting distance between them as quickly as she could.
Behind her, the man's attention locked onto her movement.
"You're not running from me," he shouted.
His foot slammed into the ground as he launched forward.
The pavement cracked under the force of the push, fragments of concrete breaking loose as he accelerated after her with terrifying speed.
Lyss glanced back once.
That was enough to see him lift off the ground entirely.
He rose high into the air, his massive arms pulled back above his head like a hammer about to fall.
A split second later he came crashing down.
Both fists slammed into the street with crushing force.
The impact sent a violent shockwave tearing through the pavement. The ground split outward from the point of impact, chunks of concrete exploding upward as the force rippled beneath the surface.
The street beneath Lyss's feet buckled.
The eruption caught her mid-step.
The ground gave out under her and the shockwave threw her violently off balance. Her body lifted into the air before she could recover. A moment later her back slammed hard into the edge of a nearby building.
The impact bent her spine backward with a sharp cry of pain.
She dropped to the ground a second later, landing heavily on her front. For a moment she couldn't breathe. Her arms trembled as she tried to push herself up, struggling through the pain just to get back onto her hands.
To be continued...