"My time is running out, Axel," Rena whispered. Her lips were pale and cracked. Her voice was barely audible. It sounded like someone speaking from the bottom of a deep well. "If this container breaks down, the corrosion will eat away everything within a one-kilometer radius from this bridge. Everyone along the riverbank will die."Axel held his breath. Beneath the cramped damp underpass, the ground around Rena’s feet began to boil slowly. It melted into a thick black liquid that reeked of rotting metal. Discarded plastic bottles nearby crumbled instantly. They turned to dust just from being exposed to the residual energy seeping out through her skin. He watched as every lifeless object around them slowly corroded. It was as if an invisible acid was eating through everything it touched."Don’t give up, Rena. I will find a way," Axel said. His hand trembled as he reached out to touch her shoulder. He pulled back halfway. "There has to be something I can do. Anything.""Our energies are

"You are too late. This serum is far too precious to waste on ordinary humans like you."Before Axel could move the needle drove deep into Baskoro’s neck. The bright red liquid surged into his veins. In an instant the old general began to change. His muscles swelled tearing through his fine silk shirt. Wrinkles vanished from his face replaced by taut skin that glistened unnaturally like molten metal cooled solid."What have you done to yourself?" Axel raised his fully extended spear aimed straight at Baskoro’s chest. The grey tip trembled answering the foreign power that suddenly filled the room.Baskoro laughed but the sound no longer belonged to a man. It carried a heavy echo as if rising from depths no one had ever touched. "We do not conquer demons. We harvest them." His eyes now burned bright yellow staring at Axel with ancient hatred. His pupils narrowed to vertical slits like a serpent ready to strike. "This blood holds the secret to absolute power. We do not seek long lives. W

"We have been waiting for you, Rian. Or more accurately, we have waited for your body to return," the leader of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 said flatly from behind his white porcelain mask. No expression showed through only two dark empty eye holes. "Grandmaster Henderson sent us to ensure nothing remains of this rebellion."Axel gripped his spear tight and positioned his body over Rena where she lay on the wet concrete. "You are not going anywhere," the leader continued his tone as calm as if reciting a death notice. "We are 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺. We never fail. And you Subject Nine are an anomaly that must be erased."They were the Order’s finest executioners sent straight from Switzerland to wipe away anything that defied the rules. They moved without sound and radiated such thick spiritual pressure that Axel’s knees grew heavy and hard to hold up. Even standing still they pressed down on him with a wave of unspoken dread."Who is running?" Axel growled his fingers tightening around the

"Axel... wake up!" Rena shouted. Her voice cracked against the drumming rain lashing the swamp ground. She crawled closer, fingers trembling as she touched his shoulder. The heat rolling off his skin nearly burned her fingertips. Thick black smoke reeking of sulfur hissed from his pores, scorching the mud around him until it dried and split open.The black bone spear beside him pulsed with ancient energy. It rejected every trace of the Order’s holy power left in his cells, stoking a deadly magical fever. Axel’s skin glowed like burning coal. Muffled gasps tore past his cracked lips between ragged, racing breaths."It burns... my whole body is on fire," Axel groaned. His eyes stayed squeezed shut. Sweat beaded on his forehead only to vanish instantly before it could fall."Axel, I know it hurts," Rena bit her lip, holding back the pain still throbbing through her unhealed body. Her gaze locked on the black veins spreading up his arm. "But you have to hold on. Don’t let this energy take

The national news broadcast glowed faint in the dim corner of the room. "Jakarta on Red Alert due to Monsoon Storms and Extreme Weather Events." The public had no idea those thick black clouds were not natural at all. They were formed by millions of bound demon essences the Order had released into the world."Do you hear that?" Rena gasped, shivering on the cold concrete floor. Her eyes locked on the flickering screen showing a map of Jakarta swathed entirely in glowing red. "Henderson is using this storm as a cover. They will sweep every block claiming it is an evacuation and no one will suspect a thing."Axel helped Rena move slowly toward an abandoned old cement factory on the city’s edge. Outside Jakarta was paralyzed. Flash floods swept through the streets and the Order used the chaos to move freely without raising suspicion. The smell of wet earth and drying cement hung heavy in the air bringing back memories of the underground laboratory halls that had once been his prison."Th