The deeper they ventured into the Blind Spot, the more the architecture shifted. The rusted, industrial grating of the upper levels gave way to pristine, sterile white hallways that looked disturbingly out of place in the bowels of the earth.
This was a high-tech facility. Syndicate money. Syndicate aesthetics.
Alvian moved silently, his [Vestnts of the Void Monarch] rendering him nearly invisible in the dim ergency lighting. Valeria walked behind him, her heavy boots surprisingly quiet. She had recovered so stamina thanks to a potion Alvian had tossed her, but her mana was still critically low.
"Check your corners," Alvian whispered. "Automated defenses are likely."
As if on cue, a turret dropped from the ceiling ahead.
[System Warning: Sentry Turret - Mk IV]
[Damage Type: Mana Bolt]
Before it could charge, Alvian threw a shard of ice. He didn’t use a skill; he just used his monstrous Strength stat to flick a piece of debris he had frozen.
"PING!"
The ice shard pierced the turret’s lens like a bullet. The machine sparked and powered down.
"Nice throw," Valeria whispered.
"Physics," Alvian replied.
They reached a set of double doors labeled "Processing - Sector B." Alvian placed his hand on the panel. The anomaly clearance on his ID, combined with the [Key to the Genesis Forge 1] data he had absorbed, allowed him to brute-force the lock.
"Open."
The doors hissed apart.
The sll hit them first. It wasn’t rot anymore. It was worse. It was the sterile, chemical sll of a hospital mixed with the copper tang of fresh blood.
Valeria gasped, stepping back.
The room was vast. Lining the walls were hundreds of cylindrical glass tanks filled with green stasis fluid. And inside the tanks were people.
Students.
Most were unrecognizable, twisted into monstrous shapes by forced mutations. Limbs elongated, skin turned to scales, extra eyes grafted onto torsos. But so... so were still human.
"That’s..." Valeria walked to a tank, her voice shaking. She placed a gauntleted hand on the glass. "That’s Marcus. From the Vanguard. He went missing two weeks ago. We thought he dropped out."
Inside the tank, a young man floated. Tubes were inserted into his skull and chest. His eyes were open, blank and staring, but his mouth was moving silently. Screaming.
[Status: Subject 402]
[Condition: Mana Draining / Host Integration 40%]
[Brain Activity: Minimal]
"They’re harvesting them," Alvian said, his voice devoid of emotion, though his grip on his lance tightened until the tal groaned. "Using their bodies as incubators for the corruption. Or as batteries."
He walked to a central console. He hacked it instantly.
[Project Logs: Subject Zero Acceleration]
[Note: Student biology provides excellent resistance to Void Corruption. The Vanguard bloodline is particularly resilient.]
"Bastards," Valeria hissed. She drew her claymore. "We have to let them out. Break the glass!"
"If you break the glass, the shock will kill them," Alvian stopped her. "They’re on life support. The only way to save them is to shut down the main sequence."
He downloaded the map data from the console.
"The Control Room is three levels down. Past the Chira pens."
"Chira?" Valeria asked, tearing her eyes away from Marcus.
"Project Chira," Alvian read from the screen. "Fusing monster parts with human hosts to create super-soldiers. Like Lysander, but stable."
Suddenly, the lights in the lab turned red.
[Alert! Unauthorized Access in Sector B.]
[Deploying Containnt Unit.]
"We triggered an alarm," Valeria said, raising her shield.
"Good," Alvian said. "Stealth was getting boring."
A side door blew open. A squad of soldiers marched in. But these weren’t standard Syndicate grunts. They were armored in white, sleek suits that humd with magical energy.
[Enemy: Syndicate Bio-Guard]
[Level: 38]
[Equipnt: Mana-Dampening Rifles]
"Targets acquired," the lead guard stated chanically. "Neutralize."
They raised their rifles. These weapons fired beams designed to disrupt mana flow—lethal to mages.
Alvian stepped in front of Valeria.
"Mana dampening?" Alvian scoffed. "Cute."
He activated [Klaus’s Upgrade].
[Blessing Active.]
"[Runic Aegis 2]: Offensive Configuration."
Fourteen runes appeared. But Alvian didn’t keep them close.
"Scatter."
The runes flew out, positioning themselves around the room like satellites.
The guards fired. Blue beams of disruption energy struck Alvian.
His mana bar flickered. The beams were draining him. -100 MP per hit.
For a normal mage, this would silence them in seconds.
Alvian checked his regen. 4,500 MP/sec.
The drain was a drop in the bucket.
"Is that it?" Alvian asked, walking through the hail of fire. The beams bounced off his [Vestnts].
He snapped his fingers.
The fourteen runes, positioned behind the guards, detonated simultaneously.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
[Reactive Force: Remote Detonation.]
The guards were thrown forward by the explosions, right into Alvian’s range.
Alvian spun his lance. It was a harvest.
"Slash. Thrust. Crush."
He moved with brutal efficiency. He didn’t use flashy skills. He used the sharp end of a Legendary weapon powered by 135 Strength. Armor was cleaved like paper.
One guard tried to crawl away, reaching for an alarm panel.
Alvian pinned his hand to the console with the lance.
"AHHH!"
Alvian leaned over him.
"Where is Subject Zero?" Alvian asked calmly.
"You... you can’t stop it..." the guard wheezed. "It’s already awake... it’s hungry..."
"Hungry," Alvian mused. "It seems to be a recurring the down here."
He pulled the lance out, ending the guard’s misery.
[Experience Gained: 140,000.]
[Level Up!]
[Level 33.]
Alvian looted the bodies. He found a [Keycard: Level 3 Access] and several high-grade mana grenades.
He tossed the grenades to Valeria.
"You like explosions," Alvian said. "Use these if anyone gets too close."
Valeria caught them. She looked at the devastation he had wrought, then back at the tanks holding her friends.
"Alvian," she said, her voice hard as steel. "We kill everyone in this facility. No prisoners."
Alvian looked at the map leading deeper into the darkness s.
"Agreed," Alvian said. "Let’s go say hello to the manager."
They left the lab, leaving the silent screams of the students behind, marching toward the heart of the nightmare.
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