Time: 3:25 PM – [Redacted Location, Near the Black Coast Borderline]
The hum of the convoy echoed over the dust-slick roads.
Three black vehicles, windows tinted, unmarked, tore across a dry basin near the Black Coast—an ungoverned strip between former Eastern Bloc territories and the fractured remnants of the Euro-African Shield.
Inside the lead vehicle, Ryoji's eyes didn't leave the map. He spoke quietly, like every word cost breath.
"Welcome to the Killcode Zone."
Aiko glanced up. "You mean that's what they call this country?"
"No," Ryoji replied. "This wasn't a country. It was a server farm."
He zoomed the map. A labyrinth of underground complexes spread across the border—abandoned, scorched, and forgotten.
"Fifteen years ago, this was where Division Zero ran blacksite experiments in neural warfare. Remote conscience transfer. Memory bleeding. Thought-loop assassination programs. The Kill Programs were born here."
Miura looked out the window. The horizon was cracked and jagged—black towers half-collapsed, solar arrays torn like spiderwebs.
"You think Black Echo came from here?" she asked.
Ryoji nodded. "I know he did. But he wasn't the first."
He pulled a photo from a worn dossier. The image was blurry—an emaciated figure with wires sunk into his spine, eyes completely white, mouth wide in a scream.
Caption:
PROJECT: VANTABLACK // KILL PROGRAM-00
Miura recoiled. "That's not human."
"It was," Ryoji said. "Kill Program Zero. The Director's first test subject. They called him 'Null.' No personality. No emotion. Just raw kill logic."
Aiko shivered. "And they're still making more?"
"They never stopped."
The convoy slowed.
They had arrived.
Half-buried in the sand stood a jagged fortress—part machine, part ruin. Metal ribs stuck out from the earth like broken wings.
Above the gate, faded words in multiple languages:
NEXUS CRADLE – NO ENTRY WITHOUT VITALSIGN CODE
They stepped out.
Silence pressed around them like a vice.
Miura raised her weapon. "We sure it's empty?"
Ryoji exhaled. "It better be."
They approached the gate.
Then—a click.
Ryoji stopped. "Tripwire."
Too late.
Boom.
A directional mine blew the sand wide. Shrapnel rattled past them. Smoke. Screams. Aiko pulled Miura down. Ryoji covered her, eyes already scanning the ridge—
Movement.
Not machines.
People.
Five figures moved like shadows from the structure, each armed, masked in custom exo-rigs.
And leading them—
A man in a coat stitched with kill tags, his face exposed, scarred, left eye replaced with a glowing optic. He raised a hand.
"Ryoji. Thought you were dead."
Ryoji froze. "…Marek?"
The man smiled, a hunter's grin.
"I was."
Aiko stepped closer. "Who is he?"
Ryoji's voice was low.
"Ex-Division. Kill Program handler. He trained the originals… and defected."
Marek's tone stayed amused. "You've got her, don't you? The girl with the Seal."
Miura raised her weapon. "We're not here to fight."
Marek chuckled. "You are. You just don't know it yet."
Behind him, his squad locked in.
"No one enters the Cradle," Marek said. "Not unless you're ready to face what Division Zero left behind."
Aiko stepped forward, her voice calm.
"I'm not here to enter," she said. "I'm here to finish it."
And the Seal on her palm began to glow—faint silver this time.
Marek blinked. And for the first time, he didn't smile.
"…You don't know what you're carrying," he whispered.
Ryoji's eyes narrowed. "Then tell us."
Marek turned, walking toward the gate. It slid open behind him with a groan of rusted metal.
He looked over his shoulder.
"Come in, then," he said. "Let's see if the last bloom survives the cradle of death."
To be continued... Chapter 49....