In the mobile command center on the surface, Captain Elara Kane stood in a room so silent, she could hear her own heartbeat. The tactical map was a mess of contradictory data: three S-Rank signatures, stationary and "non-hostile," one B-Rank signature (Jera), and one new civilian signature (Seraphina). The apocalyptic "Bleed" signature was gone.
"Aegis-7," Kane's voice was a strained whisper into her comm. "Report. What... is your status? Is the target... neutralized?"
A long, static-filled pause. Then Aegis-7's voice, hollow and stripped of all its previous bravado, came through.
"...Negative, Commander. The... the situation is... complex."
"Complex?" Kane gripped the console. "Did you engage?"
"We engaged," Aegis-7 said. He was looking directly at Jera, who was now awkwardly helping Seraphina to her feet, his back still steaming. "He... he disarmed us, Commander. All of us. In seconds. He... he took my shield, Velocity's daggers... and Conduit's will to fight."
Kane felt the blood drain from her face. "He disarmed... three S-Ranks?"
"Then... we fired the Disruptor. Full-charge. It was a direct hit. He... he took it. To his back. To protect the civilian. His armor was vaporized, but... he's... he's regenerating, Commander. As we speak."
Kane sank into her command chair. The room was spinning.
Aegis-7 continued, his voice shaking. "And the Bleed entity. The SSS-Rank threat. Walker didn't summon it. He killed it. He... he used my shield as a... a railgun. He weaponized it. Commander... he is the only reason we are alive. We were wrong. We were catastrophically, suicidally wrong."
Another long, terrible silence. Kane's mind, a tactical engine, was broken. It was trying to process a set of data that did not belong in her reality.
Her voice was barely audible. "...What... is he?"
In the tunnel, Jera heard Kane's distant, tinny question. He looked at the comm in Aegis-7's hand. He was tired. His back burned. And he was done with the "Cain Walker" mask.
He walked over to the S-Rank, his steps heavy. He was just Jera, a man in a ruined, smoking undersuit.
"She's not a civilian," Jera said, his real, human voice cutting through the tension. The S-Ranks flinched; it was the first time they'd heard it. "She's an Oracle. And she's the only one who knows what's really happening."
He looked at Seraphina, who was still pale but had found her footing. It was a silent request. Help me. Explain. I don't know how.
Seraphina understood. She stepped forward, her small, cloak-covered form now the center of attention for the S-Ranks in the tunnel and the acting-Commander of the Hunter Bureau.
"Commander Kane?" Seraphina's voice was soft, but it carried an authority that eclipsed everyone. "My name is Seraphina. I was a prisoner of the Midnight Auction. Jera... Cain Walker... he rescued me."
"Rescued...?" Kane's voice was a whisper.
"I am an Oracle of the First War," Seraphina said, her voice gaining strength. "I can read the Runestones. I can see the truth. The Ascended... they weren't just leaders. They were anchors. They were the seals holding the dimensional cage shut."
A collective, sharp intake of breath from the S-Ranks.
"The Auction," Seraphina continued, her voice trembling but fierce, "it was an accident. He broke the portal to save me. He didn't know he was unhooking the anchors. But he did. Commander... the cage is open. The Bleed is here. That thing Jera just killed... it's the first wave. It's happening everywhere, right now."
A new alert pinged on Aegis-7's comm. A global one.
"Sir... she's... she's right. Mass-corruption events just triggered... in London. In Rio. In Tokyo. The Bleed is surfacing."
The world was ending. Just as she'd said.
Seraphina looked at Jera, then back at the comm. "Your 'traitor' isn't just the only one who can fight it. He might be the only one who caused it. But he's the only hope you have."
Elara Kane's world had been rebuilt and re-shattered in thirty seconds.
She wasn't fighting a war against a demon.
She was in an apocalypse, and her "demon" was her only S-Rank.
"...Jera," Kane said, her voice now cold, but with a different kind of cold. It was the cold of absolute, desperate focus. "Walker. What... is your status? What do you need?"
Jera looked at the three S-Ranks. They were no longer enemies. They were just... three more terrified people.
He looked at his hands. They were still clenched, but the rage was gone. The hunter's high was gone. All that was left was the crushing weight of his mistake.
"My armor is gone," Jera said, his voice flat. "And I'm still not strong enough."
"Not... strong enough?" Aegis-7 sputtered. "Walker, you just bent my S-Rank shield with your bare hands!"
"It wasn't enough," Jera snapped, his human frustration boiling over. "I can't punch the Bleed. I can't touch it. My mana feeds it. My Inventory can't store it. The only thing that worked was... was physics." He looked at the shield, now a ruined piece of scrap in the far wall. "I need... I need more. I have to get stronger."
"What are you talking about?" Velocity asked. "You're already beyond us!"
"I'm Level 88," Jera said.
The S-Ranks stared.
"...Level 88? What, like... in a game?" Conduit asked.
"My System," Jera said. "It's my power. I need to reach Level 100. I need to Ascend. It's the only plan I have. It's the only way I might get a power that can actually fight this."
He looked at Seraphina. He looked at the S-Ranks. He looked at the hole in the world he'd just punched.
"The world is dying. And I am stuck at Level 88."
The S-Ranks finally understood. This wasn't an Overlord. This was a man on a desperate, cosmic grind.
Aegis-7, the S-Rank tank, the man who had ordered Jera's execution five minutes ago, made a decision. He turned to Jera, his face grim. He wasn't talking to a B-Rank. He wasn't talking to a traitor. He was talking to the only thing on the board that mattered.
"This dungeon is dead," Aegis-7 said. "You've sucked it dry. Where to next?"
Jera looked at him, surprised. "...What?"
"You need to level. You need A-Rank and S-Rank dungeons to farm for XP. The Bleed is surfacing everywhere... which means every major dungeon on Earth is about to become a 'Corrupted' zone."
Aegis-7 looked at Velocity and Conduit. "We're not a kill squad anymore. We're an escort."
"Wait," Jera said, holding up a hand, his human side reeling. "You... you're going to help me?"
"You're the only one with a weapon that works against the Bleed, Walker," Aegis-7 said, gesturing at the still-smoking, melted tunnel. "That... 'railgun' trick. And you're the only one who... who ate... who stored... my shield. You're our only trump card. The world needs you at Level 100. Yesterday."
He tapped his comm. "Commander Kane. We are officially enacting Protocol: Aegis. We are attached to the anomaly. We will... assist... him in his objective. Find us the biggest, nastiest, A-Rank-and-above infestation on this continent."
Kane, from her war room, looked at the global map, which was now lighting up like a diseased Christmas tree.
"...I have one," she said, her voice hollow. "St. Louis. A gateway dungeon. It just went... black. The Bleed is pouring out of it."
Aegis-7 nodded. "We're on our way."
He looked at Jera. The power dynamic had completely, and permanently, inverted.
"Lead the way... Walker. We'll clear your path."