D-Animal
Lucas left the infirmary wing in silence, his footsteps echoing softly along the metallic corridor of the bunker. The air inside carried that constant scent of a place too sealed to still be called safe — a blend of cold metal, faint ozone from active systems, and old antiseptic soaked into the walls. He walked without haste, but with a racing mind, searching for two specific faces.
He found them in the training room.
The moment he opened the door, his eyes narrowed and a reddish eyebrow arched automatically. The scene before him was… far too familiar. Elara still stood near the punching bag, her knuckles slightly reddened, her breathing more controlled now, yet her body still held tension. Rafael remained a few steps behind, leaning casually to the side, arms crossed, posture relaxed only in appearance — like a predator that never truly rests.
Lucas closed the door behind him carefully.
He looked from one to the other, lingering a second longer than necessary, as if assessing something he already suspected. Then he shook his head slightly, a short, resigned gesture.
— "Alright." — he said at last. — "Did I interrupt something?"
Elara shot him a quick look.
— "Depends." — she replied. — "Did you come to complain or to warn us?"
— "To warn you." — Lucas crossed his arms. — "And it's not something small."
Both of them shifted instantly.
Lucas took a deep breath before continuing, choosing his words carefully.
— "I saw a D-Animal rat in the ducts. It wasn't Ferus. It wasn't wild." — he made a vague gesture with his hand. — "It had a pattern. Red eyes, too much focus… it was observing. Waiting."
The silence that fell over the room was thick.
Elara and Rafael exchanged a look without saying a word. They didn't need to. The conclusion was too obvious to ignore.
— "Human affinity…" — Elara murmured, more to herself than to the others.
— "A spy." — Rafael finished, his jaw tightening hard. — "And not an amateur."
Without hesitation, both of them raised their wrists almost at the same time.
Silent mental commands were issued.
Visio answered first.
The owl appeared out of nowhere, materializing with a faint metallic shimmer before beating its wings and spiraling upward through the open ceiling space, slipping effortlessly through an upper ventilation exit. Seconds later, Cain did the same — the black falcon emerging in absolute silence, slicing through the air with surgical precision before heading in the opposite direction.
The bunker seemed to shrink as the vision split.
Elara felt the world expand through Visio's eyes — external corridors, dense vegetation surrounding the Green Fortress, thermal sensors being analyzed in real time. Rafael, in turn, received Cain's cold, calculated data stream, tracking minimal movement, electrical signatures, anything that fell outside natural patterns.
Lucas watched the two of them in silence.
There was something strange about seeing them like this — connected, alert, synchronized. Not as blood siblings or temporary allies, but as parts of the same system, already functioning without explanation.
— "I…" — Lucas started, then stopped.
He ran his fingers through his curly hair, pulling it back in a nervous motion that only made it messier. He let out a quiet sigh.
— "I just wish I were with our parents right now." — he murmured, almost embarrassed by the confession.
Elara pulled part of her focus away from the shared vision and looked at him. Her mismatched eyes softened just a little.
— "I know." — she said simply. — "Me too."
Rafael said nothing. But the look he gave Lucas was different from usual — less harsh, less guarded. A silent acknowledgment.
Outside, Visio expanded the field of view, focusing on upper ducts and blind spots along the forest's edge. Cain crossed the perimeter in absolute silence, tracing ever-widening circles.
If someone was watching, they wouldn't remain invisible for long.
Lucas stayed there, quiet, watching his sister and Rafael track the unseen.
And in that moment, he understood something he couldn't yet put into words:
The Green Fortress could be strong.
But the true defense…
was the three of them.
Lucas remained still for a few seconds after speaking, his gaze dropping slowly to the metal floor of the training room. The surface reflected the ceiling lights diffusely, casting pale, cold patches beneath his feet. He thought — not clearly, but like a thought that slips in uninvited — about how his life might have been if everything had been different.
A normal school.
Boring classes.
Exams.
Friends complaining about teachers.
The day of the D-Armilla Ritual arriving as a distant event, not a premature sentence.
Maybe that would have been it. Maybe it would have been… normal.
He closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and then heard the sharp click of Rafael's tongue — a short, impatient sound that cut through the silence like a blade.
— "Stay here." — Rafael said, already turning away.
His footsteps echoed heavily as he left the training wing, moving through the corridor with a haste that wasn't recklessness — it was decision. Lucas lifted his gaze, following him, while Elara kept her attention split between him and the shared vision with Visio.
Rafael didn't slow down.
He headed straight for the bunker exit, sensors recognizing his presence automatically. Before even reaching the main gate, his voice came out firm, low, laced with command:
— "Kaine. Open."
The spiders obeyed.
Small metallic silhouettes detached themselves from the shadows of the panels, sliding with surgical speed toward the access systems. A subtle interference hum ran through the reinforced gate, and the internal locks began to rotate. The deep sound of gears echoed through the entry chamber until the gate opened just enough for a man to pass through.
Rafael crossed.
The second his feet touched the external ground, the gate slammed shut behind him with a dry, definitive impact, isolating him from the Green Fortress.
The forest air hit him at once — humid, thick with living earth, crushed leaves, and resin. He inhaled deeply once, then raised his wrist.
— "Kaiser."
The response was immediate.
The liger materialized in a cascade of metallic particles and compressed energy, its heavy body hitting the ground with an impact that made the earth tremble slightly. The dorsal plates locked into place with sharp clicks, the core pulsing a deeper red than usual.
Rafael mounted without hesitation.
— "Full autonomy." — he said, his voice low, cold. — "Hunt authorized."
That wasn't just an order.
It was permission.
Cain flew high above, silent, its eyes slicing through the treetops with absolute precision. The shared vision flooded Rafael's mind with data — irregular movement, fractured energy signature, unstable Nexus trail.
— "Go." — Rafael whispered.
Kaiser answered with a deep growl, internal engines roaring as white vapor burst from its metallic nostrils. Then it launched forward.
The forest tore open under the liger's charge. Branches snapped, leaves were hurled into the air, the ground ripped apart by paws that now revealed retractable blades — four per paw, long, curved, razor-sharp like industrial knives.
The roar that echoed wasn't just sound.
It was a warning.
Ahead, at the edge of Cain's monitored zone, a small, thin man stumbled in panic. A dwarf, his body misaligned, eyes far too wide for such a narrow face. He had lost the connection to one of his two rat D-Animals — the bond severed abruptly, leaving a screaming void in his Nexus.
When he heard the roar, the man turned just in time to see nothing but metal, shadow, and death rushing toward him.
He screamed.
A scream so sharp, so desperate, it seemed not to belong to that adult body. A thin, broken sound that echoed through the forest like the shriek of a cornered animal.
The man threw himself sideways on pure instinct.
Kaiser's claws passed mere centimeters from his body, tearing through the ground where he had been a second earlier. The force of the impact made the earth explode into fragments, leaves and roots ripped free.
He rolled, landed on his back, tried to crawl.
He couldn't.
Kaine was already there.
The spiders emerged from the shadows like a coordinated swarm, surrounding him before he could scream again. Sensors, filaments, small blades and needles deployed, cutting off every possible escape.
The man looked down.
His pants were soaked.
The acidic stench of urine mixed with damp earth and raw fear. His body shook so violently his teeth rattled, his wide eyes reflecting the red glow of Kaiser's core as it approached slowly now, without any hurry.
For that man, in that moment, there was no longer any difference between a D-Animal and a natural predator.
He was prey.
And Kaiser…
had no reason left to be merciful.