Several hours had passed since the battle.
The rain still poured outside. But the underground base was silent—like a steel tomb. The main lights were dimmed. Only one source of light remained: a large hologram screen displaying the VORDA system's rotating data feed and one graph that kept shifting erratically.
Josepo had returned to his workroom. Quiet. Silently repairing the damaged equipment from the earlier conflict, as if only his hands needed to stay busy to keep his mind from rebelling.
In the central chamber, Adilof Broxtler stood by the wall, staring at a black pane of glass reflecting his armored figure. On the other side of the room, Shyblance sat with damp hair, still in her high-tech combat suit—now dulled by blood, grime, and sweat.
No words passed between them for several minutes. Just the soft hum of machines and the occasional drip of water from the metal ceiling.
Adilof finally broke the silence.
"I saw how you fought back there."
Shyblance didn't look at him, but her shoulders tensed.
"Your movements weren't those of someone learning from scratch," Adilof continued. "Your reflexes… your instincts… Even when you held back, I knew you could've killed faster than you did."
Shyblance exhaled slowly, closing her eyes.
Adilof watched her.
"I want to know… who you really are. Before all of this. Not the front you show us. But what you keep buried when no one's looking."
It wasn't a command. But it wasn't just curiosity either. It was the kind of question asked only by someone who truly needed the answer.
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧
Shyblance stood slowly. She walked toward a dead power panel where the light touched only half her face.
"There's not much to tell," she said quietly.
Adilof remained silent.
"I grew up in District F-6. A place not even listed on the government maps. Drones rarely fly there—deemed politically unprofitable. In that place, people don't live… they're just allowed to keep breathing so poverty stats don't hit zero."
She stared at her hand. At a still-healing scar on her wrist.
"My mother sold food in the alley markets. Not fresh food. Leftovers from elite restaurants, reprocessed and reheated. My father… gone. Maybe dead. Maybe vanished. Maybe just a name in a digital file."
The air felt colder. But her voice became steadier.
"One night, two men who called themselves police came to our shelter. Said we violated some emergency housing code. I didn't understand. But one of them shot my mother. Right in the chest."
Adilof clenched his fists but stayed quiet.
Shyblance glanced at him, then continued.
"They didn't notice the small knife I kept on my waistband. When one of them got close… I stabbed him. Three times. Stomach, throat, eye. I… don't remember exactly how my body moved. But I didn't stop."
Silence filled the room, heavy and still.
"I ran. Hid in the underground. Learned to survive. To steal. To fight. Because that was the only way not to become just another forgotten number. Every night, I trained my body to move before my brain could think. Because in our world, if you think too long… you die."
She looked down.
"And that was who I was before the night you saved me. Before you crushed five men who thought I was just an object."
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧
Adilof stared at her for a long moment.
"Then… you weren't saved that night," he murmured. "You were just given a pause."
Shyblance met his gaze.
"And that pause… was the only time in my life when I felt… not a predator. Not prey. Just… human."
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧
Adilof walked slowly toward her.
He stopped a few steps away, close enough to see the light in her eyes beneath the open-lens mask.
"You know," Broxtler said, "I've met many types. Cops. Agents. Informants. Thieves. Killers."
Shyblance waited.
"But not many can kill without losing their way… and still choose to stand in the silent corners."
Shyblance gave a slow nod.
"I don't know if I still have a direction. But if I'm going to fight this world… at least now I'm not doing it alone."
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧
The lights brightened. The system alarms stopped.
On the central screen, a structural analysis of the enemy's base began to form.
But neither of them moved.
Because that night, for the first time, two people broken by the world… stood as allies who saw each other's wounds.
And perhaps, from those wounds… came a power no history book could ever record.
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧
EXECUTION OF THE GOVERNOR
The base was now free of hesitation.
Josepo stood before the central screen. Two faces were displayed:
Governor of Ascadra, Diren Kalvoth, and his digital stronghold inside the city's tallest building—Tower of Transparency, a 142-story spire infamous for its lies.
"He's not just a politician," said Josepo. "He's the puppetmaster. The financier. The switch that controls life and death in this system. Every VORDA route traces back to him."
Adilof stood near the exit. His armor flawless, with micro-weapons embedded in his gloves.
Shyblance adjusted her digital lenses, electrified gloves, and two tactical capsules at her belt.
"The tower has four security layers," Josepo added. "But you two… are not ordinary."
Adilof simply said:
> "Target: central control. Eliminate the governor. Clean. No warning."
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧
00:41 – Tower of Transparency, District A-0
Clouds filled the sky. No rain.
Shyblance and Adilof zipped across from a nearby building—landing on the 97th floor. Not a single alarm triggered.
> STEALTH MODE: ACTIVE
Inside, the guards were busy updating security protocols. They didn't notice the shadows slipping between them—silent, precise.
Two guards dropped—stunned by electric strikes.
Floor 98: digital control room—disabled with Shyblance's data-poisoning tool. All cameras went dark.
Floor 102: motion sensor center—burned out by one signal-wrecking capsule.
Adilof outpaced every detection system.
Shyblance followed like a shadow with no seam.
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧
01:06 – Governor's Office
The main door exploded from within—micro charges.
Smoke flooded in.
Three elite guards attacked—two were dead before their guns lifted. One fired… too late. The bullet bounced off Adilof's core plate.
Diren Kalvoth stood behind his transparent desk.
Sweat poured from his brow. He tried to hide it with a weak smile.
"So this is your moral crusade?" he stammered. "Murder?"
Adilof stepped forward.
Shyblance stayed behind—recording everything.
"This isn't murder," Adilof said quietly.
> "This is the furnace."
"You… you can't—"
BANG.
The bullet pierced Kalvoth's skull.
No pause. No speech. No drama.
His head hit the desk. The glass cracked. He fell.
> The system lost its spine.
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧
01:11 – City Systems Shutdown
All surveillance systems went blank.
Drones froze.
VORDA networks fractured.
Subway stations disconnected from central control.
The public didn't know yet. But within a week, they'd realize… the head of power had been severed.
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧
BACK AT BASE
Adilof and Shyblance returned like silent ghosts.
Josepo watched the screen—now void of Diren Kalvoth's face.
"It's done?"
Adilof replied, "One of many heads. But this one… was the core."
Shyblance leaned against the wall.
Her digital eyes flickered, then dimmed.
> "If justice won't descend from above… we'll raise it from below. Even with bloody hands."
And that night, Ascadra lost its king.
But no one knew yet who would take the throne next.
✦ ✧ ✦ ✧