The descent was agonizingly slow.
The elevator hummed as it carried the 3rd Unit deeper into the underground, the dim, flickering lights inside the cramped space casting distorted shadows on their faces. They remained silent, their breaths controlled, their hands resting near their weapons. No one knew what awaited them below.
But they had already decided.
Tonight, this place would burn.
The soft ding of the elevator broke the silence. The doors slid open, revealing the horrors hidden beneath the white walls of the hospital.
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The underground facility stretched into the distance, far larger than any of them had expected. Metal walls gleamed under sickly yellow light, the sterile scent of chemicals barely masking the underlying stench of blood, decay, and suffering.
Rows of surgical tables lined the area, each one occupied by frail, unmoving figures—children, their bodies strapped down, eyes hollow and lifeless. Some were missing limbs, their wounds hastily stitched with black sutures, their flesh marred with glowing runes.
To the left, tubes of thick glass held writhing figures, silhouettes barely resembling humans anymore. Their bodies twisted and malformed, caught in various stages of transformation. Some had elongated limbs, others jagged, bony protrusions piercing through their flesh.
The beeping of machines, the dripping of fluids, the distant murmur of scientists working—it all created an eerie symphony of horror.
Hearing about it from Vance had been one thing. Seeing it was another.
April was the first to break.
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She vanished in an instant, a burst of Early Rank 3 essence igniting the air as she shot across the lab. A scientist, scrambling away from the frail body of a chained child, turned in terror just as she appeared before him.
He opened his mouth to scream.
The halberd fell.
Fire erupted from the blade, consuming the air in its wake. The strike cleaved through his neck with such force that his head barely had time to detach before the pressure ignited it—
—it exploded into embers.
His body crumpled, blood pooling beneath it, while the child, too weak to scream, could only blink up at April with dull, glassy eyes.
"They did this… to kids." Her voice trembled with fury. "We're killing every last one of them."
A panicked scientist stumbled back, pressing a shaking hand to a control panel. "Shit! They already wiped out the top floor?!"
Another scientist, paler and far calmer, only scoffed. "That's the 3rd Unit for you." He turned to a subordinate. "Get all the Scions available. We evacuate."
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A switch was flipped. The walls hissed and parted.
Cells, hundreds of them, slid open.
And from the darkness, they emerged.
A grotesque horde—over 200 Scions—poured forth, their bodies shuddering with raw, unstable energy. Their limbs twitched unnaturally, their jaws unhinging too wide, rows of jagged teeth snapping hungrily. Their eyes, or what was left of them, burned with endless hunger.
And then, they charged.
"Dante, seal the walls!" Garrick ordered.
"I can't! This place is built with synthetic material—I barely have any earth to work with!" Dante cursed.
There was no choice. They had to fight.
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Vance cracked his knuckles. His shock gauntlets roared to life, arcs of lightning dancing between his fingers. His knuckle braces ignited, flames licking at his wrists.
His sparrow drones dove, their razor-sharp beaks piercing through Scion skulls.
As a Scion lunged, Vance ducked low, drove his fist upward into its ribcage, sending lightning coursing through its body. The creature twitched violently before collapsing, charred beyond recognition.
Selene clapped her hands together. Her sniper pistol floated into the air, and three identical replicas materialized beside it as the floated around her protecting her from all four corners.
She closed both eyes.
And then, the bullets rained.
Ice-infused rounds tore through the horde, each one freezing their targets mid-motion before shattering them into bloodied shards.
Not a single shot missed.
April wove through the chaos, her halberd spinning in a blur of steel and fire. Each swing cut through multiple Scions at once, the sheer heat incinerating their wounds as they fell.
One lunged at her from behind.
She twisted, the blunt end of her weapon crushing its skull before she spun back, severing another's head in one clean motion.
From his spatial ring, Dante retrieved a massive jar. The jar looked ancients as he flung it behind him. From it sand flowed out.
The sand writhed looking alive.
With a flick of his fingers, a tendril of sand coiled around a Scion's throat, twisting violently until its head popped.
Another formed into a massive blade, cutting through multiple enemies at once.
Corbin raised his hands. Wind coiled around his fingers, feeding into the flames now erupting from his palms.
He slammed them together.
A tornado of fire exploded outward, consuming the nearest Scions, their screams drowned beneath the roaring inferno.
But they kept coming in overwhelming numbers, any other team would have already been done for but the 3rd unit, after several battles could hold their ground.
________________________________________
Garrick ignored the Scions. His spear tore through them as if they were nothing, his focus locked onto one man.
The head scientist stood unfazed, typing away at his console below the scion in a special looking vat as the meter read 87%.
Garrick reached the exit, where the last of the lab staff were trying to escape. He obliterated it, and quickly dispatched the scientists with ease as he turned his gaze towards a particular direction.
Only the head scientist remained. He sensed the aura the man gave off as it flickered blue, a mere mid rank 2 warrior as he prepared his charge to end it all in one motion.
Garrick lunged—his spear aimed for the scientist's head.
But the expected head popping sound and flesh wriggling about didn't come as the blade stopped.
A mere inch away from the back of his head.
The scientist barely glanced up and turned around then, he chuckled.
A chilling feeling welling up in Garrick as he had a terrifying thought cross his mind:
"You, are you the Ashborne" he asked his mind trying not to think of the worse case but the scientist just stopped laughing and looked at him beginning to laugh as though he had heard the worst joke possible: "Me, an Ashborne, nah, not possible" he said waving his hand away like that was a heretical statement.
"An Ashborne is someone way stronger than I am, with a lot of accomplishments towards our goal, but me, I am only an ember" he said as the spear was still trying to break through the barrier.
"Then, this should be impossible. You shouldn't be strong enough to stop my strike" Garrick still trying to by pass the barrier as he applied more force, but the scientist stood there laughing putting his hand on his head:
"Well, I should have guessed, everyone gets shocked too at first by my innate ability. It is called Infinite Space. You see, I decide the distance at which I want anything, any attack, be it liquid, solid or gas, I can decide at which point it would stop, as if I will it, your attack can get this close" he said as the spear began to advance slowly reaching his very face
"Or I can take it this far" he suddenly repelled, as the spear was flung several meters back as Garrick couldn't get 2 meters near him.
Garrick's eyes narrowed. "Who the hell are you?"
"Dr. Ferris Isadore. Well you can just call me Ferris" the man responded returning back to his work as Garrick still attempted to break through but Ferris shook his head:
"You should know that it is futile trying anything, well unless you are as strong as an Ashborne that is to say, then that would be another story. But you…" he said slowly as he turned back to type: "You are just two weak"
Garrick's aura exploded.
Royal purple essence flooded the room, crushing the remaining Scions in an instant.
Ferris seeing this rather than being scared only smiled:
"Well don't be too mad captain Garrick of the 3rd unit we have been expecting you"
Hearing this it felt like, cold water was poured on Garrick his danger senses tingling, as the elevator sound was heard as it opened up revealing a new entrant.
And then, the elevator behind them dinged.
The doors slid open.
A cloaked figure stepped out.
A woman. A smiley mask covering her face.
No aura. No presence.
But Garrick knew.
She was stronger.