Mayu's footsteps echoed on the cracked concrete as she pressed forward, her gaze hard and resolute. Seth and Lia trailed close behind, but a tense silence had fallen among them. They all felt something drawing near.
The corridor stretched on infinitely, littered with debris and torn metal fragments. Strange symbols, hastily scrawled on the walls, added to the suffocating atmosphere.
A faint clatter sounded in the distance. Mayu paused and listened.
The noise repeated… like a blade being softly dragged across the floor.
Seth drew his weapon, jaw clenched. Lia scanned the shadows, her breathing shallow. Mayu, however, stood perfectly still and closed her eyes for a moment.
That sound… that rhythm… reminded her of the old tests, the white rooms, the muffled screams behind soundproof walls.
Her heart quickened.
A silhouette emerged from the gloom at the end of the corridor.
Not a monster. Not a guard.
Someone human.
—or almost.
The figure advanced slowly, dragging an enormous sword across the ground. Its face was masked, but its eyes glinted with a cold fire.
Mayu took a step forward. She felt her body react before her mind could catch up: a buried rage, ancient and fierce, rising to the surface.
"Prepare yourselves," she whispered.
The battle exploded in a flash.
Seth fired first, but the figure dodged with fluid grace. Lia lunged, her daggers dancing in her hands. Mayu dove into the fray with lethal precision.
Each strike, each parry, awakened dormant memories in her.
The brutal training sessions.
Bloody skirmishes against foes all too familiar.
The masked warrior counterattacked with terrifying force. Seth was hurled against a wall. Lia rolled aside, narrowly avoiding a deadly thrust.
Mayu stood her ground.
Her azure gaze locked onto the stranger's.
An electric chill rippled through the air.
She recognized that style. Those precise, methodical movements.
Her breath caught in her throat.
"This can't be happening…"
The figure hesitated for a split second, as if unsettled.
In that heartbeat of opportunity, Mayu sprang forward. She struck with unbridled ferocity, their blades colliding in a deafening roar. Each of her blows seemed to scream one question:
"Who are you, truly?"
At last, the enemy vaulted backward, vanishing into the darkness as swiftly as they had appeared.
A final whisper drifted on the stale air, almost imperceptible:
"…Soon."
Mayu froze, gasping.
She didn't yet know whether this encounter would herald their salvation… or their doom.
But deep within her, she felt that their story had reached an irreversible turning point.
And in the shadows, Akira—silent—watched, biding his time.
---
Hello, I'd like to introduce another novel project I'm working on:
> Discover:
" Monarch of the Forsaken Realms"
In lands ravaged by war and oblivion, Kaelen Veyr—the last heir of a fallen dynasty—uncovers a cursed crown.
Torn between the promise of restoring lost glory and the fear of repeating the sins of the past, he gathers survivors, traitors, and pariahs to forge a new kingdom upon the ashes of the old world.
But the crown whispers… and with every victory, he edges ever closer to his own undoing.