SPRRRUUUGHHHHH!!!
Black blood erupted violently, coating Kaivan's body. The monster convulsed before its grip slowly weakened, then collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud.
"Ngghh…"
It tried to speak, but its shattered throat released only meaningless rattles. Its eyes—once blazing red with ferocity—dimmed slowly, like the last torch blown out by a merciless night.
Its body trembled before every system shut down. The giant fell silent, sinking into destruction.
Kaivan stood atop its chest, breathing heavily. Blood dripped from his temple onto the white ground, staining it red. His gaze remained sharp, piercing through mist and cold. Snowy winds swept through his hair, soaked with blood and sweat, fluttering the torn fabric clinging to his body.
Above him, the gray sky hardened in silence. Dark clouds hung low, carrying the A promise of another storm. Fog swallowed the battlefield, and footprints, blood, and fragments of metal slowly vanished beneath the falling snow.
In the middle of a collapsing world—snow, steel, fire, blood, and a silence that hung like an eternal verdict—Kaivan stood alone.
The only witness to his victory was Lyra, who had watched him from the very beginning until the end of the battle.
Kaivan stood trembling, his body drenched in blood—some his own, some not. Deep wounds burned beneath his skin, blazing from within. His breathing was heavy and broken, each breath turning into white mist that dissolved in the cold air. He was standing only because of the last remnants of stimulants from his combat bracelet. Now, even that was gone.
With shaking hands, he reached for an iron rod half-buried in the snow. Gathering the last of his will, he used it to support himself. Before him, among shattered metal and broken panels, lay Lyra's body—only her head and part of her torso remained. Burned cables hung from the missing sections, and the edges of her metal plates had melted under the heat of the final explosion.
But her eyes were still alive.
Lyra's emerald-green eyes gazed at Kaivan as if trying to touch him without words. Within them was a mixture of pain, worry, and regret.
"Kaivan…" Her voice cracked, barely audible. "Why did you save me? I'm just a machine. What were you really looking for… to go this far for me?"
There was no answer.
Kaivan stood still. His eyes were empty, as if the world had vanished and only a vast hollow remained. The spiral blade on his wrist loosened and returned to its bracelet form, like a hero finally laying down his weapon.
The wind swept snow down from the surrounding cliffs, covering the ground with a new layer of white. Yet the scent of blood still lingered in the air.
Lyra kept staring, hoping Kaivan would look back at her. But all she found was silence. The expression on his face was no longer anger or sorrow—it was emptiness.
Suddenly, Kaivan moved.
Slowly, almost collapsing, he crouched and grabbed a strap from a broken backpack near a corpse. With careful hands, he tied Lyra's body to his back. He was not rushed. He was not rough. Instead, his movements were gentle—like someone holding onto the most precious thing in a world that had already rejected him.
Lyra trembled, not from the cold, but from confusion. "H-Hey! Kaivan, what are you doing?!" she cried in panic.
Still, there was no reply.
Kaivan tied the final knot. Blood from his hands stained Lyra's metal body. He took a long, hoarse breath, gripped the iron rod, and began to walk. Each step was heavy, dragging through the snow, leaving red traces behind.
"Kaivan! Answer me, idiot! What are you planning?!" Lyra shouted, her voice shaking in the storm.
Kaivan remained silent. He staggered forward, every footprint marked with crimson—a long line of blood across the snow. The eastern wind howled, pressing against his lowered body, testing both his strength and the weight of Lyra slowly warming on his back.
"…You're cold, aren't you?" Lyra whispered softly. Her tone shifted from protest to warmth. "Even if my body can't move… I can still… keep you warm."
Using the last energy in her core reactor, she raised the temperature of the metal plates on her back to fifty degrees. She only wanted to keep Kaivan from freezing.
Kaivan trembled slightly, but he did not stop.
Step by step, he moved forward, disappearing into the thickening fog that wrapped around the sky and the world. Two dying beings, supporting each other at the edge of existence.
Several minutes earlier, after the roar of a missile tore through the snowy sky and exploded in midair, the rescue team moved swiftly.
Combat helicopters maneuvered sharply, their searchlights cutting through the storm. Below, armored convoys climbed the steep slopes under the command of Levan—a man with a hardened face and eyes as sharp as blades.
"We cannot leave Kaivan behind," he said firmly from the helicopter's command seat. His voice echoed through the narrow cabin, filled with metallic creaks and engine noise. "He's not just an ordinary human. He's a vital subject. If we fail to bring him back, all of this will be meaningless. The sponsors will not accept failure."
No one answered. A tense silence hung in the air, showing that everyone understood the weight of the order. Their war machines pushed forward through the storm, scanning the vast battlefield for a single weak signal blinking like the last candle in a pitch-black night.
Meanwhile, in a hidden valley, Kaivan collapsed. His body, torn apart by cold and wounds, finally gave in. A small block of ice was enough to break his balance. He fell forward, rolling together with Lyra, who was tied to his back. Their world spun—white and red blending—before everything ended in a brutal impact. Kaivan's body crashed into the snow like a lifeless sack of flesh.
Lyra was thrown aside. Her android body—only a head and torso left—was dragged across the snow, carving a trail beside Kaivan's freezing blood. She opened her emerald-green eyes, trembling as she looked at his motionless form.
"Kaivan! No! Don't leave me! Don't die! There are still so many things you have to answer!"
Her voice broke—restless, hoarse, filled with pain. Her artificial resonance echoed through the biting silence. There was no reply. Only the cold wind and endless quiet. Kaivan's chest rose and fell faintly, his breath fading like mist. The blood in his wounds froze into dark red crystals—beautiful and terrifying.