The Manaless King Of Sigma

Chapter 6

The gate dropped halfway before grinding to a halt.

The technician swore.

"It's jammed again!"

The creature was almost upon them.

Mateo's vision flashed.

Blue lines appeared beneath the creature's armor. For an instant, he saw the same bright irregularity near its shoulder that he had noticed on the Stalker.

Then pain stabbed behind his eyes.

The lines disappeared.

Mateo stumbled against the wall.

"Mateo!" Lucía caught his arm.

"I'm fine. Get everyone back!"

The creature lunged through the narrowing gap beneath the gate.

Marcos stepped forward and swung his wrench.

The blow struck the creature's armored head and bounced off.

The impact nearly pulled Marcos off balance.

The creature snapped at him.

He barely managed to retreat.

"That didn't work!" Marcos shouted.

"No kidding!" the technician replied.

Mateo looked at the half-lowered gate.

If they could force it down, the creature would be trapped on the other side. But the mechanism was jammed, and the technician could not reach the control panel without exposing himself.

Mateo noticed a narrow metal rod protruding from the gate's track.

It was bent at an angle.

The gate was catching on it.

"Marcos!" he shouted. "Hit the rod near the bottom. Not the creature!"

Marcos glanced at the gate.

"Are you sure?"

"No. But it's the only thing I can see that's stopping it!"

Marcos raised his wrench and struck the rod.

The first blow bent it slightly.

The second knocked it loose.

The gate dropped several centimeters.

The creature thrust its head through the opening, snapping at the air.

"Again!" Mateo shouted.

Marcos struck the rod a third time.

The obstruction fell away.

The gate slammed shut.

The creature crashed against the other side, sending a deep vibration through the metal.

Everyone stepped back.

For several seconds, the only sound was the creature's furious scraping.

Then it stopped.

The team remained silent, listening.

The gate held.

Mateo leaned against the wall, breathing hard.

They had contained the creature without killing it.

But the mission was not complete.

The other monsters remained near the truck, and the strange energy readings beneath the road had not disappeared.

Lucía approached the gate and examined the control panel.

"We've blocked the service passage, but we haven't secured the road."

Mateo nodded.

"Agreed. We need to determine whether the creatures can reach the residential district by another route."

The maintenance technician looked at the closed gate.

"There's another tunnel beneath the station. It connects to the old drainage system."

Mateo felt a chill.

"Does it connect to the residential district?"

The technician hesitated.

"Yes."

Mateo closed his eyes briefly.

Of course it did.

The mission was not asking them to close one gate.

It was asking them to understand the threat well enough to keep the road safe.

And they had only begun.

The team returned to the upper-floor building to reassess their options.

Marcos was angry, though he seemed more troubled by the fact that the plan had nearly failed than by the danger itself.

"You knew those creatures were there," he said to Mateo.

"I suspected."

"And you still brought us close."

"Because we needed to understand the threat before choosing how to contain it."

"We could have died."

"Yes."

Marcos stared at him.

Mateo did not look away.

"We could have died if we charged them. We could have died if we ignored the mission and let them reach the shelter. We could have died if we tried to close the gate without checking the mechanism. There was no risk-free choice."

He pointed toward the station.

"But now we know the creatures are attracted to sound, the service gate can be closed, and there's another tunnel that might allow them to bypass it. That's more information than we had an hour ago."

Marcos rubbed his face.

"And what do we do with it?"

Mateo turned toward Lucía.

She had been examining the system readings on her tablet.

"I think the creatures are gathering around the blue marks because of the energy concentration beneath the road," she said. "If we can locate the source, we might be able to determine whether the tunnel is safe to approach."

"Can you do that from here?" Mateo asked.

"Not accurately. But I can compare the readings from the street with the sensor records we recovered earlier."

She worked for several minutes.

Then she pointed to a cluster of readings on the screen.

"The strongest concentration is not at the gate. It's farther south, beneath the transit station's maintenance level."

Mateo remembered a room below the station.

A service chamber containing an old power regulator and several maintenance terminals.

In his previous life, he had passed through it months after the Awakening. The chamber had been damaged, and strange blue light had leaked through cracks in the walls.

He had never understood why.

Now he suspected that the rift was connected to it.

"We need a closer look at the station," he said.

Marcos shook his head.

"That's where the creatures are gathering."

"Which is why we shouldn't go in blindly."

Mateo studied the map.

The station had three entrances, two maintenance corridors, and a service tunnel leading toward the drainage system. If they approached from the south, they might reach the maintenance level without passing the creatures near the truck.

But they would still be entering an unknown area.

He looked at the mission timer.

TIME REMAINING: 3 HOURS, 41 MINUTES.

They did not have long.

"Here's what we'll do," Mateo said. "The technician will mark the service gate's location and prepare to close the secondary passage if necessary. Marcos will take two people back to the shelter and report what we've found. Lucía and I will investigate the southern maintenance entrance with one volunteer."

Marcos frowned.

"You're splitting the team?"

"We need to protect the shelter and investigate the source. If everyone comes with us, nobody will be ready to respond if the situation changes."

"And if you find something dangerous?"

"We retreat and report it."

Marcos studied him for several seconds before nodding.

"Fine. But if the system gives us another mission, I'm not letting you decide everything alone."

Mateo almost smiled.

"Good. I wouldn't want you to."

It was the first time Marcos had agreed with him without turning the discussion into a contest.

Perhaps they could work together after all.

The southern maintenance entrance was hidden behind a row of abandoned delivery vehicles.

Mateo, Lucía, and the volunteer approached cautiously.

The air grew colder as they descended the concrete steps. The strange blue markings became more frequent, spreading across the walls like veins beneath translucent skin.

Mateo could feel the pressure in his chest increasing.

He tried not to focus on it.

Lucía noticed his discomfort.

"You're feeling something again."

"Yes."

"Does it hurt?"

"Not exactly. It's more like pressure."

"Then we shouldn't go farther if it gets worse."

Mateo nodded.

They reached a heavy maintenance door.

The door was slightly ajar.

Beyond it lay a narrow corridor illuminated by flickering emergency lights.

A low vibration came from somewhere deeper inside.

Mateo raised a hand, signaling the others to stop.

He had seen this kind of corridor before.

In his first life, he had entered countless dungeons and abandoned structures, searching for resources and information. He had learned that the most dangerous places were often those that looked empty.

He listened.

A faint clicking sound echoed from beyond the door.

Then came another.

Lucía whispered, "What is that?"

Mateo did not answer.

He was watching the blue markings on the wall.

For a brief moment, the lines seemed to shift.

Three silver rings appeared in his vision.

A fractured center.

A pulse of blue light.

His headache returned, sharper than before.

He gripped the doorframe.

A message flickered across his sight.

ANOMALOUS TRAIT: PARTIAL SYNCHRONIZATION

FOREIGN PATTERN DETECTED

ANALYSIS INCOMPLETE

The words vanished.

Mateo stared into the corridor.

Something inside the maintenance level was connected to the same pattern he had seen in his chest.

He could not tell whether it was a source, a reflection, or merely another symptom of the anomaly.

But he knew they had found something important.

Then a new system notification appeared.

REGIONAL MISSION UPDATE

Threat containment: PARTIAL

Safe passage: NOT ESTABLISHED

Additional objective unlocked: Locate the source of the regional disturbance.

Lucía read the message from her own display.

Her face tightened.

"The system is changing the mission."

Mateo nodded.

"It means closing the gate wasn't enough."

"Then we need to know what's inside."

Mateo looked down the corridor.

He wanted to understand the anomaly. He wanted to know why the system was reacting to him, why his chest carried the same strange pattern, and why his perception changed whenever he approached these blue markings.

But curiosity was not a reason to risk everyone's life.

He glanced at the volunteer.

"Stay near the entrance. If anything moves, retreat and warn the others."

Then he turned to Lucía.

"We go only as far as we can see clearly. If the pressure gets worse, we leave."

She nodded.

"Agreed."

They stepped through the doorway.

The clicking sound stopped.

For a moment, the corridor was completely silent.

Then something moved in the darkness ahead.

Mateo raised his hand.

A pale blue light appeared at the far end of the corridor, illuminating a circular shape embedded in the wall.

Three silver rings surrounded a dark center.

The same symbol.

The same fractured pattern.

Mateo felt the pressure in his chest surge.

His vision blurred.

And somewhere deep inside the maintenance level, a voice-like vibration passed through the air.

Not words.

Not yet.

But unmistakably a response.

The symbol brightened.

Then every light in the corridor went out.