"W-What do you mean!?"
Vira screamed frantically, trying his absolute best not to move too much and worsen the pain surging through his very being from the machine.
Winston chuckled before continuing,
"Don't worry. Whether or not it results in your death is up to you and your resolve."
Whirring echoed throughout the room, and Vira felt an indescribable amount of pain radiate through him. His shrieks were drowned out by the sound of the machine tearing itself from his abdomen.
Winston looked over at the control panel and sighed.
"Bear with us, these... machines are decrepit."
Vira's face went pale; compared to the agony before, this felt almost merciful. His throat ran dry from the continuous wailing.
After what seemed like an eternity, the pain finally stopped, but by that point, Vira barely had consciousness.
"Wha...-What exactly are you d-doing to me?!"
Hyperventilating and wheezing, Vira could feel his lungs desperately straining for any source of air.
Winston's face grew with confusion, shortly after he realized:
"Ah... No one actually informed you of your purpose here. Well, allow me!"
Vira started coughing vigorously, still suffering from whatever that machine was doing to him.
Looking at his hand, he noticed he had blood dribbling from his mouth.
"Don't worry, that's just a side effect from the siphoning. You'll be fine after a day's rest."
Looking up, the strange man somehow had gone from the window to being right in front of Vira.
"Now... You, Subject 98234, are a VERY special specimen. Your abnormalities are unlike anything we've ever seen."
Vira wiped his lips and continued staring at the man as he seemed to pull a screen out of thin air.
"You... are a Nullborn, and not at the same time. You somehow have a singularity within you and its scale is unlike anything we've ever come across."
Vira slowly rose to his feet and wheezed.
"A… A what?"
The man corrected his glasses and cleared his throat.
"Before we get into your future, I'll introduce myself. My name is Winston Lawfield, I am a scientist at The Axiom Directorate, and you 'Vira' are my subject."
Winston's hands clench as he swiped the strange screen away and sauntered toward Vira, his shadow seeming to lag behind him the closer he got.
"Although soon… That will change. Out of my love for humanity and its future research I give you my utmost best wishes in the hopes of your survival."
Vira's vision blurred.
The room around him distorted into streaks of pale light and dragging shadows as the pain and exhaustion finally overtook his body.
The last thing he saw was Winston smiling.
Not kindly.
Scornfully.
Three Shadowfalls later.
The air smelled like ash.
It wasn't foreign, but it still wasn't pleasant.
Vira slowly opened his eyes to the distant howling from the wind and crumbling metal groaning somewhere around him.
His body felt… wrong.
Lighter.
Stronger.
But hollow, like a void.
Bandages wrapped tightly around his torso, though beneath them faint black veins pulsed against his skin and throughout his body like something alive was buried underneath it.
Across from him stood two armed figures wearing the insignia of The Axiom Directorate.
Only one moved.
Tossing a paltry rusted blade at his feet.
"You're being transferred back to The Remnants."
Vira's throat tightened.
He still remembered the horrors lurking in The Remnants.
He had absolutely no inkling as to how him and his mother survived for so long.
There were no walls.
No protection.
Only more of the vile beings that took her away from him.
The Nullborns.
"Your survival rate will determine future production viability."
Vira stared blankly.
"…Production?"
The second guard finally spoke.
"Every Nullborn you kill generates usable residue for your singularity, That's how you creatures grow stronger."
Silence.
Then:
"You are no longer considered a civilian. Any step toward these walls will result in immediate execution."
The guards turned away.
Vira's stomach plummeted.
"W-Wait…"
Neither stopped.
Panic surged through him.
"WAIT!"
He stumbled forward before collapsing on the cold sand, his weakened and abused body barely able to support him.
"Please… please don't leave me here…!"
His voice cracked violently and echoed through the wasteland.
The guards continued toward the massive steel gate in front of them as if they hadn't heard the pleading child behind them.
"I-I'll die out there!"
Silence.
Vira's breathing became frantic
"Please… I don't want to die…"
One of the guards finally paused.
Hope flashed across Vira's face and light ignited in his pupils.
Then:
"Your survival is no longer our concern."
The words hollowed him out.
The enormous gates began grinding shut behind them.
Vira scrambled forward desperately, fingers burying themselves into the coarse grain.
"NO— WAIT! PLEASE!"
His screams reverberated uselessly against the metal walls.
"I can't do this alone!"
The gap between the gates grew smaller.
Smaller.
Smaller.
Until the last thing Vira saw was the emotionless stare of the soldiers beyond them.
Then darkness.
Silence consumed everything.
Vira's body trembled unbearably.
His breathing hurt.
His chest hurt.
Everything hurt.
Yet beyond the silence… something moved.
Slowly, Vira lifted his head.
The Remnants stretched to what seemed to be infinitely before him.
Collapsed buildings disappeared into the black fog, rusted skyscrapers leaned like rotting corpses against the pale crimson sky.
In the distance, faint shapes wandered between the ruins.
Too tall, too thin.
Wrong.
Then came a ear splitting sound.
A distorted screech echoed somewhere deep within the dune, another after it.
And then another.
Then another.
Vira's blood ran cold as tears welled in his eyes, he wasn't looking at where he was raised.
He was looking at his grave.