Lloyd awoke the next morning to the sound of wind whipping against the wooden roof of the house.
The storm had subsided a little, but the cold still felt as if the night hadn't ended.
He rose slowly and opened the door to look outside.
The village was covered in a thick layer of snow, the small houses huddled together as if sheltering from the elements.
People moved cautiously, clearing snow from their doorways and lighting fires in front of their homes.
The villager who had taken him in stepped forward and said,
"If you plan to travel today… wait until midday. The roads in the morning are treacherous."
"Is the north farther than here?" Lloyd asked.
The man pointed toward a towering mountain range barely visible through the mist.
"That's where the lands no one goes begin… even the hunters stop before it."
Lloyd gazed at the mountains for a long time.
He felt a strange pull in that direction, a feeling that wasn't mere curiosity… it was as if a part of him already knew the way.
He went back inside, took his coat, and strapped his weapon to his back.
"I'll stay until noon, like I said," he told the villager before leaving. "But after that, I'll continue on my way."
The villager shook his head without comment, as if he understood that convincing him to turn back was impossible.
Lloyd sat by the window, waiting for the weather to improve, but his eyes weren't on the village...
They were on those distant mountains.
Suddenly—
He felt a slight tingling in his left arm.
The faint markings he carried began to appear for a moment, then disappeared.
He clenched his fist and whispered,
"Looks like I'm getting closer..."
Outside, a heavy cloud drifted over the mountains, revealing for a few seconds a strange shape there—like a huge structure buried in the ice.
But it vanished quickly, and everything was as it had been before.
Lloyd didn't smile... but he knew that his real journey was about to begin.
To the west…
The landscape was completely different from what Lloyd had seen to the north.
There were no violent storms, only a vast, eerie silence.
The trees were tall, dark, their branches twisted as if they hadn't seen the sun in ages.
Mizuno Kaino walked cautiously between the narrow paths, observing the ground more than the road ahead.
The tracks here… were not those of ordinary animals.
He stopped abruptly.
Footprints… but irregular.
Sometimes they looked like human tracks, sometimes like those of a creature dragging its claws across the ground.
He bent down to touch the soil with his hand and noticed that the snow in this area was slightly warmer, as if some hidden heat emanated from within.
He muttered,
"This isn't normal… there's no reason for the earth to retain heat here."
He continued forward until he began to hear a faint sound… a persistent hum, like the strain of an old machine.
He hid behind a large rock and peered through it.
Below, nestled among the trees, lay a structure half-buried in the ground.
Not a village… not a camp.
An old metal frame, thickly rusted, but with some parts still functioning.
Pipes emerged from the earth, emitting a thin mist.
Mizuno's eyes widened.
"A facility…? Here?"
He cautiously approached, noticing faint symbols etched on the metal walls.
The same symbols Seiko had described when speaking of past experiments.
But this place… wasn't completely deserted.
Suddenly, a light switched on automatically.
Mizuno froze.
Then he heard a faint mechanical noise emanating from within the facility, as if an ancient system had detected a new presence.
"…Activity…detected…" the intermittent voice said.
Mizuno took a step back, realizing something ominous:
This wasn't just a relic from the past… Something was still operating. He raised his head towards the sky and said in a low voice, "Lloyd… it seems we've found a real lead this time."
Up north… at the same time.
Lloyd had left the village after the storm had subsided a little.
The road toward the mountains was indistinct, just an endless white expanse, and the cold wind whipped as if trying to pull him back.
But the feeling inside him grew stronger with every step he took.
He stopped at a rocky outcrop and looked down.
There… between the layers of snow and ice, the remains of something unnatural were visible.
Straight lines that nature couldn't have created.
Metal protrusions protruding from beneath the snow, as if an ancient structure had been buried there long ago.
He approached cautiously and pushed aside the snow with his hand.
A cold, metallic surface was revealed, covered with faded symbols.
And suddenly—
He felt the same tingling in his left arm, but this time it was stronger.
The faint tattoos began to glow, and his heart raced strangely.
He took a step back, whispering,
"This place… reacts to me."
At that moment, a faint sound was heard from beneath the ice.
Not the wind… but a deep tremor, as if something inside had awakened from a long slumber.
The ice cracked slightly, and a cold vapor escaped.
Lloyd clenched his fist, his eyes sharpening like those of a predator preparing for a fight.
Far away to the west, Mizuno stood before a facility that was starting to function again… and to the north, Lloyd stood atop another facility that was beginning to respond to his presence.
It was as if the two places were connected.
As if someone… had been waiting for them to arrive together.
Lloyd slipped through one of the broken metal gates in the old facility.
The gate creaked softly with every movement, as if it hadn't been opened in ages.
He descended a narrow passage that led him down… until he found himself inside an underground structure.
The lighting was dim and intermittent; some lamps flickered on and off, leaving the place in heavy shadows.
The floor was covered with dust and snow seeping through cracks, and the walls were riddled with the marks of time and decay.
Lloyd began to walk cautiously, his steps measured, his eyes scanning every corner.
The place seemed almost deserted… but not entirely dead.
There was a feeling that something had passed through here long ago… and left its mark.
He entered a large room containing overturned metal tables and open cabinets.
He approached one of them and found old files scattered inside.
He picked up some and began to examine them.
The papers were worn, but still legible.
Reports… diagrams of the human body… notes on "stimulating dormant genes"… and signatures of scientists who had worked on the project.
Lloyd's eyes widened as he read one of the pages, at the top of which was written:
"Experiment 27 — Biogas Test."
He pulled the paper taut.
It wasn't just a rumor… or a village legend.
It was documented fact.
The poison gas wasn't an accident.
It was a deliberate project.
He quickly flipped through more until he found an old map indicating several other similar sites, scattered to the north and west… and even further afield.
"So… there wasn't just one," he whispered to himself.
Suddenly, he heard a faint metallic noise echoing in the corridor behind him.
It was as if an old system had begun to function again…
Or as if his presence had awakened something that shouldn't have been.
He slowly raised his head and turned toward the darkness.
The place he thought was deserted…
Perhaps it wasn't.
Before Lloyd could leave the room…
A sharp noise echoed down the corridor, followed by a slight tremor in the floor.
The lights suddenly flickered to a dull red, and the warning light began to flash slowly.
Lloyd froze.
Then came an old, mechanical, intermittent sound, as if emanating from a device unused for centuries:
"...Activate...the...protection...system..."
From the end of the corridor, something began to move.
A huge shadow appeared, gradually approaching, and with each step, the scraping of metal against metal could be heard.
It wasn't a living creature…but an old robotic guard, designed to protect the facility.
Its body was covered in rust, and some parts were broken, but its glass eyes glowed with a dull blue light.
On its chest was the old project emblem, the same one found in the documents.
The guard stopped a few meters from Lloyd, then let out a robotic voice:
"Unclassified Item Detected…
Status: Intrusion."
Lloyd clenched his fist and slipped the documents back into his coat.
"Even after all this time… they're still guarding their secrets," he said quietly, his eyes following the machine's movements.
The guard moved suddenly with unexpected speed, raising its metal arm.
Lloyd jumped aside before the arm slammed into the floor, cracking the tiles and sending dust flying.
Lloyd stood up again, his breathing becoming ragged.
That mysterious energy within him responded to the threat, and marks gradually appeared on his arm.
This wasn't a fight with a monster…
but with the remnants of a world that had tried to create monsters.
Lloyd looked up at the guard.
"If you want to stop me… then you'll have to bear the consequences of what you yourselves have created."
Then he lunged at him.