The spiral ended.They fell.
Air ripped past them. The shaft roared like a storm.Noah heard the echo break—a hollow crack below."Brace!" he shouted.
They hit a heartbeat later.Stone burst under their boots; shockwaves ran through their bones.Fire, ice, and force collided, scattering rock in every direction.A hole opened beneath them, and they plunged through into a buried hall.
Dust rolled in waves. Stones kept falling from above, sealing the hole.When the noise faded, they stood in a wide chamber buried under layers of rock.The last bits of gravel trickled down. Then silence.
Ethan lifted a hand, conjuring a cold flare of light.The blue glow reached forward, stretching down the corridor.Then, without warning, the ceiling strips came alive—cold white lights snapping on one after another, spreading deep into the passage.
The team froze.
Rows of glass tanks lined both sides of the corridor.Inside each tank floated something twisted—part human, part animal, part unknown.Gray skin, scaled flesh, bones bent the wrong way.Faces that didn't match their bodies, limbs where there shouldn't be any.The liquid inside the tanks shimmered as air pressure shifted.
Broken consoles beside each cylinder still glowed with fragmented data lines:
SPECIMEN 217 – GENETIC BASE: HUMAN / AMPHIBIAN HYBRIDSPECIMEN 402 – DNA SEQUENCE: 73% HUMAN / 14% FELINE / 13% UNKNOWNSPECIMEN 511 – SOURCE CODE: FAILED MERGE – UNSTABLE STRUCTURESPECIMEN 603 – MATERIAL ORIGIN: DEEP-SEA MUTAGEN SAMPLE
The numbers blinked in rhythm, green against the fogged glass.The smell of metal and chemicals filled the air.
Everyone stared.Their breathing grew shallow. The sound of it echoed between the glass walls.Ethan swore under his breath. Caleb muttered something that never became words.Marcus swallowed hard. His jaw tightened as he forced himself to look away.
"We move," he said. His voice came out low and dry. "Stay alert."
They walked in a line, holding their breath as they passed the tanks.No one wanted to look longer than they had to.
Adrian stirred. "You can put me down," he said quietly.
Damian glanced at him. "You sure?"
He nodded. "I can walk."
Damian set him on his feet.
The young man straightened.His head no longer hurt. His body felt light, too light.Heat spread through his chest and arms, pulsing stronger with every breath.
He flexed his fingers. The power inside him pressed outward, sharp and heavy.He braced one hand against a metal beam beside him—
CRACK.
The beam split from base to joint. Dust rained down.
Everyone turned.
Ethan blinked. "What the hell—"Caleb let out a nervous laugh. "Guess he's one of us now."Marcus exhaled through his teeth. "Congratulations. Looks like we've got ourselves another Warrior-type Esper."
Ethan nodded. "Awakening hit fast. D-rank at least. With work, maybe C."
Damian didn't speak.He watched the fractured beam, his mind blank.
A Warrior Esper.Not a Psionic.
Damian stared at the cracked beam, disbelief crawling up his throat.In his last life, this man had been a mutated Psionic—one of the strongest mental users in history, able to kill with a thought.Now he was just… a Warrior.
It didn't make sense.None of it did.
The corridor stayed silent except for the hum of machinery.Damian let out a slow breath. "Right," he said. "Another warrior."
But the thought stuck in his chest like a stone.Something in the world had shifted—and he didn't know why.