The wail of sirens ripped through the fragile peace that had only just settled over Sub-Terra Prime. The calming blue neon lights instantly shifted to a blood-red glow, flashing violently throughout the underground city."Bram! Evacuate! Now!" Clive roared as he spun away from the balcony. Thick black miasma began coiling around his left arm, dripping with the deadly aura of the Void.Bram still clutched a holographic blueprint, his face drained of color."B-But, Clive! Those Sky-Reapers... they're carrying bunker-buster lasers! There are hundreds of meters of rock above us, but those lasers were built to melt granite like butter! The whole mountain could collapse on top of us!""I know! That's why I'm stopping them up there before they drill any deeper!" Clive grabbed Bram by the collar. "Where's the fastest way to the surface? Don't tell me I have to climb another frozen cliff.""The Central Ventilation Shaft!" Bram pointed toward a colossal pipe structure as wide as a football fiel

The alarm in the Sub-Terra Prime Control Room let out a long, deafening wail, filling the chamber and turning the lights blood-red.Bram slammed into the console, his fingers flying wildly across the Aetherium crystal keyboard. The young engineer's glasses had slipped to the tip of his nose, which was slick with cold sweat."Damn it! Fuck! Benedict has completely lost his mind!" Bram slammed his fist against the desk. "Clive! The surface radar picked up three Lumerian ballistic missiles passing through the stratosphere! But they aren't Sun-Flares!"Clive, who had been sitting back in the control room's throne-like chair, slowly opened his eyes. His pitch-black gaze locked onto the holographic display."If they're not giant lasers, then what are they?""Chemical bombs!" Rina, who had just entered carrying medical supplies, covered her mouth in horror as she read the data on the screen. "Phosgene-Aether warheads! The most corrosive acid ever created by Lumeria's Research Division!""Aci

The ancient cargo lift descended through the darkness with the deafening groan of rusted chains.Clive stood alone on the ten-square-meter steel platform. The air grew heavier with every passing second, dense with the pressure of pure energy that made his skin crawl. There were no blue neon lights down here. Only the natural glow of raw Aetherium veins clinging to the walls of the vertical chasm.Sector Minus Zero.The deepest foundation of Sub-Terra Prime, a place that did not even exist on Bram's blueprints."Boss, I swear to God, I really don't like this place," Lycus whispered tensely from inside Clive's chest. The parasite was not thrashing around. Instead, it was hiding like a stray dog that had wandered into a tiger's territory. "The smell... this creature's scent is older than Lumeria's civilization. This isn't some ordinary wild Spirit Animal. It's an elite monster.""I know." Clive rolled his neck. The scars covering his body still throbbed painfully whenever he moved, but h

The blue neon lights lining the streets of Sub-Terra Prime, which had once shone brightly, now flickered dimly like the final breaths of a dying man. Every so often, the entire sector would plunge into darkness for several seconds before red emergency lights came on with a painful buzzing sound.In the Control Room, Bram wiped his oil-stained face with a filthy rag. The engineer looked like he had barely slept for three days straight.“The reactor’s power output has plummeted, Clive,” Bram reported in frustration. He pointed at the holographic graph that continued to decline. “The energy from the blood and miasma you pumped into the pillar yesterday was only a jump-start. A temporary boost. A city this size needs a constant supply of Aetherium to keep the obsidian shield on the roof running and the air machines circulating. If we don’t find a new power source within twelve hours, this entire city is going to shut down. We’ll all suffocate together.”Clive stood against the steel wall,

At the uppermost boundary of Sub-Terra Prime's structure, between the gaps in the granite cliffs and the city's newly formed protective shell, forty-five elite Lumerian Reconnaissance soldiers moved stealthily.They were a special unit trained to move without making a sound, clad in lightweight black armor that absorbed light. In their hands were state-of-the-art laser drills and directional explosives."Focus the drill on this point! We need to know how thick this damn obsidian layer is!" Captain Vargo ordered in a whisper over the communication radio. He ran a hand across the cold black armor. "Lord Benedict wants a sample of this shell. The moment we create an opening, we plant the explosives and blow their roof apart!""Captain, our thermal radar is malfunctioning," one of his lieutenants reported, tapping the device on his wrist. "The temperature beneath this layer is too extreme. There's some strange radiation interfering with the signal.""Forget the radar. Keep drilling!"TAP.