Far away from the quiet river town, in a remote region surrounded by dense wilderness, nearly fifty men stood in stunned silence.
They were all dressed in black camouflage military uniforms. Each of them was armed; each of them was trained to adapt to any situation.
Yet none of them knew how to react.
"…What the hell…?" the man at the front muttered under his breath.
Before them lay their headquarters.
Or rather…
…what used to be their headquarters.
The compound had once stretched across thousands of meters. It was less a base and more an estate, complete with fortified buildings and deep underground structures.
Now there was nothing.
Every building had been reduced to rubble.
Large sections of the earth itself had been ripped apart, exposing the underground facilities beneath. The ground was blackened and cracked as if something monstrous had torn through it.
Flames still burned in scattered places.
Thick smoke rose slowly into the darkening sky.
Bodies were everywhere. Dozens of them lay across the ruined compound, their black uniforms soaked in blood. Some were half-buried beneath debris. Others lay twisted in unnatural positions.
None of them moved.
None of them breathed.
The only sounds left in that place were the crackling of dying fires and the low whisper of smoke drifting into the air.
Everyone was dead.
Everything had been destroyed.
The man at the front clenched his fists.
"…Who could have done this?"
Suddenly—
A hand burst out from beneath a pile of rubble.
"Move!"
The soldiers reacted instantly. They rushed forward and began pulling away broken concrete and twisted metal. Within seconds, they uncovered a body buried beneath the debris.
The leader stepped forward.
He opened his mouth to question the survivor—
Then froze.
"…A… Asura?"
His voice trembled. The man lying before them was someone they all recognized.
He wasn't just their superior officer, but a figure of terrifying power and authority within their organization.
For someone like him to be reduced to this state…
It was unimaginable. Asura was barely alive.
Chunks of flesh had been torn from his body. Several of his ribs had collapsed inward, puncturing his chest. One of his eyes was gone, leaving behind an empty socket.
And at the center of his chest…
…was a massive, gaping hole.
No human should have been able to survive such wounds. Yet he still breathed.
His remaining eye slowly focused on the soldiers around him.
Blood filled his throat as he struggled to speak.
The leader leaned closer, waiting. All he needed was a name, just a word.
The Demon's lips trembled. With the last strength left in his broken body, he forced out a single word.
"…Jan…var…"
His head fell to the side. The last breath left his body.
He was dead.
Silence fell over the ruined compound.
The leader of the soldiers stared at the corpse in disbelief.
Shock. Fear. Then rage.
His entire body began to tremble.
"How… dare you…"
Tears ran down his face as he looked across the destroyed headquarters once more.
"…After everything we built…"
His voice rose into a furious roar.
"How dare you do this to us?!"
The soldiers behind him remained silent, their faces dark.
The leader wiped his eyes roughly before turning toward his men.
His voice was cold now.
"We're going to Lion."
Several of the soldiers stiffened. That name carried enormous weight.
The leader's eyes burned with fury.
"Now."
***
He groggily opened his eyes, then shut them. Then opened them again.
'So I even survived that?' He thought plainly, and then sighed. He tried to move his body, but a sudden sharp pain around his head stopped him midway.
Then he tried to move his body, but another blinding pain that shot through his body stopped him.
Enduring the pain, he blinked in confusion and looked around. 'Where am I?'
A faint disinfectant smell wafted past his nose, a soft beeping sound drifted past his ears, and white casts and bandages were wrapped tightly around his body.
Then he turned to the side, albeit with struggle.
Just beside the bed he was on was a tall machine with several tubes and wires connected to his body.
Those few things were enough to tell him where he was,
'Hospital?' Confusion flashed across his face. 'But who—'
"He…He is awake."
A piercing scream echoed, cutting through his thoughts and snapping his attention in place. Before he could strain his head to get a full picture of this figure, they had stormed out of the ward.
'I wasn't the only one in the room? Are people here to get me?' He thought calmly. Instinct took over. Even lying flat on the bed, his eyes instinctively measured the room.
Window, ventilation shaft, Scalpel tray, and a pair of scissors
Two possible escape routes. Two weapons.
It wasn't hopeless.
He endured and grunted through rampant pain around his body and reached for the pair of surgical scissors. As soon as he grabbed them and tucked them into his hospital gown, underneath the blanket covering him.
He emptied the foreign thoughts in his head and patiently waited.
In the next minute, the doors to his room swung open, revealing three figures.
However, the moment he sighted them, he didn't see visitors.
He only saw three moving threats entering the striking range that he needed to take down before they took their next step.
'Now,' His body whirred into motion, sharply pulling out a pair of scissors from underneath his blanket.
The pain created a massive disconnection with his body, dragging his movement to a snail's pace. He was just about to pull it out and raise it when his hand trembled.
'Hmm?' His eyes narrowed. Something was wrong.
His body…had hesitated. It was something that had never happened before.
The hesitation hadn't come from him. It had come from this body.
His hand trembled again in recognition.
It wasn't his own.
His gaze settled on the woman standing in front.
This body knew her.