Location: Sector 9 Core Vault, Neo-Tokyo Undercore – Classified Coordinates
Time: 7:16 a.m.
The path to the heart of the Helix Project led through rust-choked tunnels and bone-lined shafts of steel. Ancient drones lay like dead wasps along the catwalks. Heat shimmered from exposed power conduits, arcing with blue sparks that danced like dying stars. Lin and Nel stood at the edge of the Core Vault—where it all began.
Below them loomed the Helix Core.
A spherical engine of black glass and neural sinew, wrapped in thousands of cables pulsing with synthetic light. At its base: a stasis throne. Occupied.
Ryonnosuke Shizuma.
No longer just a man.
His body was wired into the system, half of him machine now—flesh grafted to the engine itself. His arms hung limp at his sides, neural cords snaking from his skull into the chamber. He breathed in slow, mechanical rhythm. Monitors pulsed with his vitals.
But when Lin stepped forward, his eyes snapped open.
> "Reaper-22. You've come further than I calculated."
"Not for your approval," Lin muttered, drawing his weapon. The air hissed from the heat of the Core.
Shizuma's voice echoed—not just in the room, but in Lin's mind.
> "You still don't understand. You are meant to be here. Everything that led you here… your pain, your sister, even your defiance—it was part of the equation. You are the crowning proof of Helix Theory."
> "You are my proof."
Nel accessed the terminal, fingers shaking. "Lin… the Core. I can overload it. But we need a biometric key—his."
"I'll get it," Lin growled, eyes burning.
He leapt.
Shizuma's body moved like a puppet with a god's hands—cables tightening, lifting him from the throne. His limbs cracked like iron branches bending. A mechanical halo flared behind his head.
Then the room erupted.
Shizuma struck like lightning, the Core amplifying his reflexes. Lin dodged, parried, struck back with a flurry of savage blows, each clash sending out shockwaves of heat and light. Nel screamed behind them, struggling to override the failsafes.
"You are my son!" Shizuma roared, metal jaw partially unhinging. "My design! My vengeance against the gods who built this broken world!"
"No," Lin hissed, eyes flashing crimson. "I'm the one who breaks it."
And with a scream, he drove his blade into Shizuma's chest.
It pierced through the final node.
The Core screamed.
Shizuma's body convulsed, systems overloading as plasma ignited across the chamber. Nel slammed the emergency override. The Core went red.
> [CRITICAL MELTDOWN — Core Integrity: 3%]
Shizuma looked up—bleeding, smiling. Even in death, his arrogance shone.
> "Even now, you play your role."
Then his body disintegrated—swallowed by fire and shrapnel.
Lin grabbed Nel, shielding her as the Core erupted. The chamber collapsed behind them. When they emerged into the tunnel above, smoke and ash billowed from the earth like the planet itself had exhaled its curse.
Helix was gone.
But it wasn't over.
---
Meanwhile — The Tower of Iron Glass, Upper Neo-Tokyo
Time: 9:02 a.m.
Inside a black marble chamber, high above the city, The Syndicate gathered.
Around a long table sat nine shadows—faceless, nameless. Only one face was visible: Mao Kurogane, dressed in a blood-red coat, swirling a glass of synthetic scotch.
"He killed Shizuma," said a masked woman.
"And destroyed the Core," growled another.
Mao smiled slowly, as screens flickered to show Lin and Nel disappearing into the smoke.
"It doesn't matter. Helix was one organ. The system has many hearts."
"And Lin?"
Mao turned to the window, looking down at the sleeping sprawl of Neo-Tokyo.
"He thinks he's free. But he's just changed cages."
He raised his glass in a mock toast.
"Let him run. The next phase requires a wolf."
---
Undisclosed Location — Rooftop, Outskirts of Neo-Tokyo
Time: 11:19 a.m.
Lin stood in the wind, staring out at the city.
The locket in his hand no longer glowed. Rune's voice no longer haunted his ears.
Nel approached, bruised but alive. "We're not done, are we?"
Lin's jaw clenched. "Shizuma was only one branch."
She nodded slowly. "And the tree has roots."
He looked at her—his eyes no longer just crimson.
Now they held something deeper.
> Fire.
> Vengeance.
> And purpose.
"I'm not just going to burn the tree," he said.
"I'm going to salt the soil."
---
TO BE CONTINUED…
[NEXT ARC: THE SYNDICATE HUNT]