WHOOSH!Their landing was anything but graceful.Elios and Vera slammed into the surface of toxic wastewater from a height of ten meters. The thick black liquid flooded their noses and mouths, tasting like molten sulfur mixed with leaking batteries.They sank briefly into pitch darkness, then fought their way back up, coughing violently.“Hack! Gagh!” Vera vomited the black sludge, her eyes burning in agony. Her helmet visor had been torn away during the fall, leaving her face fully exposed to the poisonous air.“Don’t drink it, Sister! That’s not holy water!” Elios grabbed the back of Vera’s collar and dragged her toward the slick concrete edge.Above them, from the opening they had jumped through, tactical flashlight beams swept downward. Then small cylindrical objects clattered as they fell.Ting. Ting. Ting.Elios’s eyes went wide. “Flashbangs!”“Cover your eyes!”BLAAAM!A blinding white explosion detonated inside the vertical shaft, followed by a concussive blast that made their

The rain that night did not wash away the city’s sins. It dissolved them into black sludge that flowed through the gutters.The Eastern Branch Cathedral rose majestically at the heart of the Business District. Unlike the main headquarters where Valdos usually resided, this building was a logistics fortress. An armory, a storage site for “samples,” and a secondary data center. The Gothic-Industrial structure was protected by three layers of perimeter security: electric fences, automated turrets, and two platoons of fully armed Paladins patrolling with cyborg dogs.Across the street, on the rain-soaked roof of a parking structure, Elios stood motionless. His tattered leather coat was drenched, clinging to a body covered in wounds. But he did not shiver. The fire in his chest burned too hot to let the cold in.Beside him, Vera crouched low, typing rapidly on her cracked tablet, which was wired into the parking structure’s transmitter antenna.“Perimeter security is level five,” Vera repo

Ctrek. Jleb.The crack of an industrial staple gun shattered the silence inside the rusted van.“Argh… bastard…” Elios snarled. Cold sweat the size of corn kernels streamed down his temples.He was slumped in the passenger seat of the stolen van, his leg kicking the dashboard every time a wave of pain tore through him. In his hand was a furniture stapler he had found in the tool box at the back, its metal jaws pressed against the gaping wound in his left shoulder.“Elios, stop it! You’ll get tetanus!” Vera screamed hysterically, gripping the steering wheel with trembling hands. Her eyes darted between the slick, rain-soaked road and the horrifying state of her partner.“Shut up… and drive…” Elios gasped.He drew in a long breath, held it in his lungs, then pulled the trigger again.Ctrek!A steel staple punched through skin, forcing torn flesh together after the explosion at the Cathedral. Fresh blood seeped out, but the wound closed.“Three… good enough.” Elios tossed the stapler ont

The acid rain over the Undercity was coming down harder now, hammering against the corrugated metal roof of the safe house they had just entered with a deafening clatter. The place was cramped, a single studio room on the second floor of an abandoned apartment block Grimm had provided as part of their escape package.There was no electricity. Only the red neon glow from a brothel sign across the street bled through the torn curtains, staining the room in the color of blood.Elios slid down against the wall, breathing heavily. He clutched his freshly stitched shoulder. The cheap anesthetic from Grimm’s dentist was wearing off, and the pain came back biting like a rabid dog.“Lock the door. Jam it with the chair,” Elios ordered without opening his eyes.Vera obeyed. She dragged a rusted metal chair beneath the door handle, then turned to look at Elios. The agent’s face looked exhausted, filthy, and for the first time… afraid. Not afraid of demons, but afraid of the unknown.“Grimm menti

The rooftop of a Sector 7 tenement was not an ideal dance floor, especially when your dance partner was a three hundred kilogram demon dog whose mouth spewed fire.GROAAAARR!A Hell-Hound lunged from behind a chimney. Its blazing claws tore through the air, aiming straight for Elios’s throat.“Sit. Dog.”Elios ducked at the last second. He planted his right foot forward, bracing his momentum, then smashed the shotgun’s stock into the beast’s snout with all his strength.KRAK!The sound of a shattered nasal bone cracked sharp and clean. The hound howled and staggered back. Elios gave it no time to recover. He spun, shotgun in his left hand, Kukri in his right.BLAM!A point blank blast tore into the hound’s belly. Guts spilled out. Before the corpse could hit the ground, Elios kicked it off the rooftop, where it crashed into two other Hell-Hounds climbing the wall below.“One down. Plenty more!” Elios shouted toward Vera.Vera was pinned behind a concrete water tank, bullets raining do