Inside the medical ward where Meyra was being treated, the neon lights flickered lazily, as if reluctant to witness the two girls struggling at the threshold.
"Let me go, Rey! How dare you hold me back?!" Meyra screamed.
Reyna locked her arms around Meyra's waist with all her might, anchoring her friend as if pulling her back from the edge of a deadly abyss.
"Reyna! Do you really want to see me lose my mind, huh? Let go! I have to see Amae and Nugia!"
The pure, long-haired girl could only shake her head. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her face deathly pale as if she were staring at a ghost. Reyna remained mute; only the desperate shaking of her head answered each of Meyra's explosive outbursts.
"Wa-it... Zil-la..." Reyna whimpered softly, her voice nearly swallowed by the chaotic noise of the corridor.
***
Outside, the long corridor walls echoed with the lingering trace of the word "Snake," hanging cold in the air. Scarlett stood frozen, gripping the hem of her silver cloak. A faint tremor shook her fingers—unnoticed by the naked eye, yet heavily palpable in the atmosphere.
"Aren't you going to ask what I desire?" Snake broke the silence, his voice slicing through the stillness.
"Snake, what is it that you truly want?" Scarlett stared deeply into his eyes, searching for a crack beneath that predatory gaze.
"Shhh... Shhh..." Snake removed his glasses with agonizingly slow precision, wiping them with the edge of his scientist uniform, which contrasted sharply against Scarlett's silver cloak. The gleam in his eyes betrayed a foul, rotten ambition.
"Do you desire this child?" Scarlett asked, casting a sharp glance at Nugia. "Stop it, Snake! What do you plan to do to him?"
"This boy possesses an unusual mana," Snake shuddered, a brief flash of genuine terror crossing his face before a wild, manic laugh burst from his throat. "I actually had to utilize an anti-radiation stone just to repel the sheer pressure of the mana he unleashed yesterday at The Hollow Rim!"
The laughter cut off instantly. Scarlett and Snake locked eyes, as if they were mutually siphoning the very oxygen out of the room. The atmosphere grew stiflingly thick.
Zilla tried to move, tugging at Nugia's arm in desperation. "Nugia, let's go!"
Yet, Nugia did not budge. He stood there, rooted to the spot, as though the corridor's gravity answered to him alone. Zilla pulled with all her strength, but it felt like trying to move a mountain with a single thread of twine.
Nugia didn't look back. He merely tilted his head slightly—a mechanical, sickening gesture—and stared blankly at Snake.
"Why are you all so loud?" Nugia's voice was flat, cutting through Snake's laughter like a surgical scalpel. "I am listening to Amae's erratic heartbeat. It is distracting."
Nugia's voice delivered the quietest finality, consuming everything. But suddenly, a piercing shriek from the end of the hallway shattered the air like a cannon blast.
"NUGIAAAAA! AMAEEEE!"
Meyra rounded the corner, gasping for breath, dragging a miserable Reyna behind her. Her hair was a disheveled mess, her face still pale from her recent treatment, but the fire blazing in her eyes was enough to incinerate the cold atmosphere Snake had manufactured.
"You—do you guys think you can just die without my permission, huh?!" Meyra charged forward, completely ignoring Scarlett's piercing gaze. With one hand still heavily wrapped in bandages, she grabbed the collar of Nugia's uniform and shook him violently. "Nugia! Answer me! Why are you just standing there like some cheap statue in this lab?!"
The abrasive interruption worked like an antidote. The dark mana that had begun to seep from Nugia's pores receded instantly, drowned out by the pure, chaotic noise of a panicking girl.
"Meyra, you need to look at Amae," Nugia murmured softly. His voice returned to normal—flat and lethargic—as if the terrifying entity from moments ago was nothing more than a collective hallucination in the dark corridor.
"Amae?! What about her? You guys almost made my heart stop!" Meyra yelled again. Her eyes swept the surroundings in search of Amae until they inadvertently landed on Snake. "And you, Mr. Mad Scientist! Don't you dare touch them again, or I will personally blow this lab to pieces with my own hands!"
"Shh... Shh... Shh... What an incredibly fascinating girl," Snake remarked, letting her insults wash over him as mere entertainment.
Reyna finally caught up, catching her breath beside Zilla. Her eyes locked onto Nugia with profound anxiety—a look that implied she knew that whatever she had just witnessed beneath the shadows was no mere illusion.
Behind the cold, arrogant glass wall, Meyra and Reyna stood frozen. Their vision locked onto Amae, who looked painfully small amidst a siege of medical tubes—plastic lifelines that were now the sole guarantors of their critically fading friend.
"Amae..." Reyna whimpered softly. Her voice broke as tears began to blur her vision, wounding her heart deeper than anything else ever could.
Meyra clenched her fist until her knuckles turned stark white. Her eyes, previously ablaze with fury, now dimmed, leaving only a heartbreaking sorrow in the silence of the room. The violent trembling of her hand signaled that her defenses were completely shattering, forcing Zilla to step closer, ready to brace her.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!!
Meyra slammed against the glass frantically, as if that clear barrier were the wall of destiny separating them from Amae's life, completely disregarding her heavily bandaged hand.
"Meyra, stop! You're only going to disrupt her healing process!" Zilla shouted. She grabbed Meyra's arm, trying to halt the brutal, futile tantrum.
"Why did nobody tell me?! Why did you all let Amae end up like this?!" Meyra barked. Her face turned upward, her usually intimidating eyes now flooded with tears—a holy water she rarely ever exposed to the world. She was broken, and her wounds ran far deeper than mere physical flesh.
Behind them, Nugia could only lower his head. The darkness that had nearly consumed him earlier was replaced by a silent, suffocating ache.
"Children, stop..." Scarlett stepped forward, her voice hoarse under the weight of her grief. She approached Meyra, pulling the shattered girl tightly into her embrace. "I promise I will heal her. Trust me... please, trust me just this once."
The corridor fell silent once more, save for the low hum of medical machinery filling the void. Scarlett shot Snake a look of restrained hatred before stepping away briefly. She returned holding an Access Card—a magnetic plastic sheet that finally unlocked the barrier separating them from Amae.
However, beneath the lazy flicker of the neon lights, the remnants of that earlier darkness did not truly vanish; it still pulsed beneath their skin, flowing through their veins. They might have survived today, but something inside them had died. They were no longer the same children who had first stepped into this corridor.
Their innocence had been stolen, replaced by the cold scent of steel and betrayal.
***
Deep within the recesses of PETERUMMAN, an isolated territory awaited. There, the law of the jungle was the only code of conduct.
The Abyss Glosum. A place where the final light of Unit 009 might be extinguished forever.
At the very heart of that cursed domain, a weathered wooden sign hung crookedly over a creaking iron door, displaying faded lettering: 'Glosum's Maw'.
A man equipped with a Second Skin V2 and a custom-modified air mask stood there. He didn't utter a single syllable, yet his sheer presence silenced the entire bar.
Black, "The Ghost Shadow," had finally arrived at his lair, waiting for his prey... or perhaps, waiting for the doomsday that had just knocked on his door.
"Halt!" his voice grated, raspy and heavy, like shards of broken glass grinding together.