Rain fell harder as Aaron Ray left the central district and moved quickly toward the east. The narrow streets grew darker with every step. Streetlights flickered behind him and died one by one, as if the entire city was holding its breath. He had just escaped the facility. His body was still weak, sedation lingering in his veins. But something else pushed him forward.
〈There is someone being hunted. Close. Very close.〉
Aaron stopped. "Who?"
〈You know her. Your body recognizes her heartbeat.〉
His heart sank. There was only one person in the laboratory who had ever treated him like a human being. Not a specimen. Not an object.
Lyra Veridine.
The young assistant. Quiet. Brilliant. The only one who ever slipped him water when guards were not looking. The only one who whispered... "If you can hear me, Aaron... I hope you are free someday."
And now... she was being hunted.
Aaron quickened his pace, following the faint pull guiding him. Lyra's heartbeat echoed like a distant beacon. The entity interpreted the distance, but it did not take control.
It only pointed the way.
The trail led him to an empty sector between abandoned industrial buildings. The lamps were dead. Cold wind scratched against the skin. Rough footsteps echoed from a narrow alley ahead.
Aaron approached silently.
A shadow among shadows.
He found three armed men from the facility cornering a girl in a torn lab uniform. Her silver hair was drenched with rain, plastered to her cheeks. A dark bruise marked her skin.
Lyra.
She tried to stand, but her knees buckled.
"Let go..." her voice trembled.
"Shut up," the first man said, shoving her back to the ground.
The second man laughed. "Jackpot tonight. A high-tier lab girl. Months of boring work... finally something fun."
The third man seized her jacket and dragged her until her back struck the concrete wall. Lyra gasped. Her whole body shook. She knew exactly what would happen if they succeeded.
"Don't..." she whispered.
The three men grinned like wolves circling prey.
"What's wrong? Afraid?"
"You think anyone's coming for you?"
"The facility erased your identity. You're no one."
Lyra closed her eyes, wishing death would come quickly. But one man crouched down and pulled at her collar. His movements were slow, deliberate, predatory. His fingers hooked the fabric... then yanked.
Sriiip... sriiip...!
Lyra jolted, her whole body freezing. Her eyes widened like a deer awaiting a wolf's bite. Fear crushed her voice into silence.
The man leaned closer. His pale eyes gleamed faintly in the dark. His hot breath cut through the sound of rain. He smiled... not a smile, but a confession that her terror pleased him.
"I like..." he whispered, savoring each syllable. "...watching someone lose hope piece by piece."
He raised his hand. His fingers lowered slowly... intentionally slow... giving her every second to drown in fear. Lyra backed up until her spine pressed against damp concrete. No escape. No exit. Only rain falling like prison bars.
His hand drifted lower. Not touching her... not yet... but close enough to choke the space between them.
Lyra shut her eyes tight. Rain faded into a distant hum. All she heard was her heartbeat.
da thum... da THUM... da tHUM...!
His palm hovered inches from her last scrap of protection. One more breath... and her dignity would be gone.
Then...
The air changed.
Not wind.
Not sound.
Not movement.
Just... a shadow that did not belong.
A long silhouette stretched across the ground behind him, thickening like spilled ink. Rain touched the earth but did not land on that shadow. Something unnatural had arrived.
The man noticed nothing.
He was too absorbed in Lyra's terror.
Lyra opened her eyes slightly... and saw it.
A figure stood behind him. Tall. Motionless. Silent. Watching with an intensity that pierced through darkness.
Lyra's breath vanished.
A tiny gasp caught in her throat.
The man pressed his hand to her clothing...
…but before he could push...
a thin sound sliced the air.
Slash.
The man froze. Lyra stared. His hand was still suspended midair... but something was terribly wrong.
A single drop of blood slid from his shoulder.
drip... drip...
Then something fell with a dull wet impact against the concrete.
His hand.
It lay on the ground like discarded meat. The fingers still stiff... unaware they no longer belonged to a body.
Silence swallowed everything. Even the rain felt muted. Then the scream tore through the alley.
"A AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
He clutched the stump where his arm had been. Blood mixed with rainwater, spreading in dark streaks across the concrete.
Behind him, the shadow vanished. As if it had never existed. Only Lyra understood that something had risen from the darkness to sever the fate intended for her.
The other two men panicked. "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!"
Before they could run...
…the second man's hand hit the ground.
…then the third's.
Three severed hands lay like butcher scraps.
Lyra opened her eyes fully. All three men fell to their knees, gripping the bleeding stumps. Their faces drained white. Blood splashed against the ground, a dark stain spreading in the rain.
No door had broken.
No explosion.
No blur of motion.
Just... severed.
The first man looked to his left... and saw someone standing one meter away.
Tall. Soaked in rain. Dark eyes reflecting the storm.
"You..." he stammered.
Aaron Ray stood there.
Posture relaxed.
Expression unreadable.
Lyra blinked, recognizing him instantly. She had seen that face through observation glass. The jawline... the dark hair... the quiet eyes that once stared at the ceiling like he was waiting for the world to break.
"Aaron?" she whispered.
Aaron did not answer.
He looked at the three men. Terror filled their eyes. They still did not understand how their hands had vanished.
"We... we didn't know she mattered to you... please..."
Aaron took one step.
Just one.
The air compressed around them, crushing their organs. Real pressure. Real force. No mist. No spell. Just speed beyond human comprehension.
The first man vomited blood. The second man's jaw convulsed. The third tried to crawl away, but his leg twisted with a sickening crack.
Lyra covered her eyes, trembling. She had never imagined the silent boy in the experiment chair possessed power like this.
But Aaron was not finished.
"P please..." the first man cried.
Aaron knelt in front of him. His face blank.
"If you touched her..." his voice was soft but merciless. "...you do not deserve to live."
Aaron flicked his wrist.
A small, clean motion.
The man's skull cracked.
He died instantly.
The second man shrieked. "I DIDN'T TOUCH HER I SWEAR...!"
Aaron looked at him.
No rage.
Only emptiness.
"You intended to."
A swift movement.
His neck snapped.
The third man crawled away, screaming. "I DIDN'T I DIDN'T I DIDN'T...!"
Aaron walked toward him.
Unhurried.
Collected.
He tapped the wall beside the man. A massive fracture shot across the concrete. The man stared at the crack... then at Aaron... and understood.
"Please... I'm sorry... I swear..."
Aaron tilted his head slightly.
"You did not touch her."
His voice was calm. Too calm.
The man nodded rapidly.
"But you intended to."
Aaron touched his forehead. A silent, invisible force hurled the man into the wall. His spine shattered.
Silence returned. Rain poured. Lyra cried without sound, trembling violently.
Aaron turned toward her. His eyes... once empty... softened.
He removed his lab coat and placed it gently over her shoulders.
"Stand," he said quietly. "We need to move before their backup arrives."
Lyra looked at him with shock and something deeper... something that only appears when someone meets a savior just as terrifying as monsters.
"Why... why did you help me?" she whispered.
Aaron looked down. Words failed him.
The entity answered inside his mind.
〈Because she is the only human who makes you feel alive.〉
Aaron did not deny it.
He simply said:
"Because you do not deserve to be hurt by anyone."
Lyra held the coat closer, eyes soft and frightened.
"...Thank you, Aaron."
〈Protect her... and you will kill many more.〉
He ignored it.
"Can you walk?"
Lyra nodded.
He supported her and guided her toward the eastern route. An old storage sector. The safest escape path.
But once they arrived...
something worse than soldiers awaited them.
Failed experiments.
Old models.
Abandoned.
Hungry.
Lyra covered her mouth. "Aaron... what is that...?"
Aaron stepped forward without hesitation.
The creature lunged.
One swing of his hand.
No weapon.
No explosion.
Just pure precision.
The creature halted... then split apart slowly. Black blood dripped onto the ground.
Lyra gasped softly.
Aaron turned back to her, expression cold.
"We're not safe yet. Stay close."
He would protect her to the last drop of blood.
And the facility would not stop until both of them were captured... dead or alive.