The path from Unit Four's building to the towering central dome should have been familiar, but something was very wrong. The townspeople who should have been bustling around were lying motionless everywhere—some slumped over vendor stalls, others stretched out on the grass like their souls had been yanked out all at once.
"What the hell..." Cyrus muttered, rushing to shake the nearest person. No response.
The others tried waking up the sleeping townspeople too, but got nothing. They were breathing fine, but no amount of calling or shaking would wake them up.
Panic started setting in. They ran straight for the central dome. The closer they got, the more disturbing it became. Even the kids who were usually training in the dome's practice yard—normally full of shouting and clashing weapons—were lying peacefully on the ground, training equipment scattered around them.
"This is fucked up!" Cyrus swore, sweat beading on his forehead.
No time to waste wondering. They headed straight for Kim Min-sae's office. If anyone knew what was happening, it had to be her. But when they got there, the office was empty. No sign of the Witherborn's female leader anywhere.
"We should try Dr. Irin," Shion suggested, her amber eyes blazing with determination.
Without hesitation, the group left the office and headed down to Dr. Irin's underground lab. The cold metal stairs descended into darkness. The deeper they went, the clearer strange sounds became... scraping... like a knife hitting bone...
Cyrus raised his trusty rifle, sharp eyes scanning the area. The others readied their weapons too. The tension ramped up with every step.
At the bottom of the stairs, the heavy iron door was cracked open slightly. Pale blue light seeped out along with the usual disinfectant smell, but stronger than normal. And underneath it, the faint scent of blood.
Cyrus pushed through the door carefully. What they saw made everyone's eyes go wide.
A pink-haired woman in a white coat stood with her back to them, hunched over a small form lying still on a metal operating table. That form... was a child! Surgical instruments gleamed in her hands.
"Dr. Irin..." Cyrus called out tensely. But then... images started flashing through his head. Memories he never knew he had... a different name... a higher rank...
"Wait...?" he whispered to himself, eyes widening in confusion. "Chief...?" The words slipped out without thinking. "Unit Two Chief... Irin!"
The pink-haired woman jumped and spun around to face them, eyes wide with shock behind her thick glasses. "Huh... you... you remember me?"
"I don't know..." Cyrus shook his head slowly, memories churning. "Suddenly I just remembered... In my memory, Dr. Irin was just a scientist, not a unit chief..." He looked at Shion and the others. "What's going on... what Raven said... was it true?"
"Ha ha ha!" Cold laughter echoed from a dark corner of the lab before Kim Min-sae stepped out of the shadows. "Irin... is your 'medicine' ready yet?"
Dr. Irin jerked violently, like she was having the same episode as Cyrus. Her face went pale, eyes wide with terror. "Yes... I'm Unit Two's chief... and I'm helping... no... I'm..." She looked at the child's body on the operating table with shaking eyes. "What... what am I doing..." The instruments clattered to the metal floor.
"How surprising, Irin," Kim Min-sae said calmly, but with an underlying chill. "That you'd fake Leon's test results for me." She looked at Cyrus's group. "Well, it's probably because several of you used your special powers at the same time. That's what caused this side effect." A thin smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. "You Unit Four kids are really persistent."
As soon as she finished speaking, Kim Min-sae snapped her fingers!
Massive roars thundered from all directions across Crafter. The vibrations reached even down into the underground lab!
Then she snapped her fingers again!
In moments, the townspeople and other Witherborn members who'd been sleeping above started groaning and stirring. They were waking up!
"This time... I'll let you go for now," Kim Min-sae said. Her form began to twist and distort. Light flashed before her appearance slowly changed, becoming a young woman with snow-white hair and mysterious purple eyes staring at them. Her clothes seemed to dissolve away with the transformation, revealing her naked form in the lab's dim light.
Cyrus's eyes went wide. He quickly looked away, heat rushing to his ears. Even in this tense situation, he couldn't help feeling flustered.
"Who... who the hell are you!" Shion demanded, her amber eyes blazing with anger and confusion, trying to ignore the woman's condition.
The white-haired woman just smiled thinly, the corner of her mouth curving provocatively. "Thanks for the excellent 'raw materials'." With that, several jet-black threads shot from her fingertips toward the boy's body on the operating table. They wrapped around the small form and pulled him back to her quickly. The child's body floated effortlessly into the mysterious woman's arms.
The massive roars echoing across Crafter forced the fierce battle between Xiao Yan and Ling Tian to pause. Both men separated, staring toward the central dome in surprise.
"Hmm?" Ling Tian raised an eyebrow slightly, his black eyes thoughtful. "Change of plans? Why... just when I was about to finish you off." He muttered to himself before glancing at Xiao Yan. "Can't be helped..."
With that, Ling Tian swung his Traitor's Execution Blade, sending a wave of dark energy crashing into Xiao Yan! At the same time, his body shot away like an arrow, heading straight for the central dome.
Xiao Yan deflected the sword wave just barely, but the impact threw him off balance. He wasn't about to let his enemy escape easily. He raised a finger quickly, and one of the floating weapons around him shot after Ling Tian at high speed!
Ling Tian, racing toward the dome, sensed the killing intent pursuing him. He spun back to deflect the incoming blade with a quick strike. Metal rang against metal, but the sword kept coming, its tip grazing his cheek by a hair!
"Tch..." Ling Tian frowned in annoyance before picking up speed. Xiao Yan kept close behind.
Ling Tian reached the central dome first. He saw the same white-haired woman in her naked state carrying the boy's body as she walked out of the dome's main entrance.
"My lady... shouldn't you find something to wear first?" Ling Tian said evenly, though with a hint of awkwardness. Even if he wasn't shy, the woman's condition made him feel strange.
The white-haired woman glanced at Ling Tian briefly before looking toward the nearby training hall, where the kids who'd been sleeping were starting to wake up. "Let's go, Ling Tian. There's no more good raw material left here."
"Hurry up. 'It' will catch up soon," she urged before starting to walk away.
Xiao Yan burst onto the scene just then. He saw Ling Tian's back and the mysterious woman about to leave, his sharp eyes focusing on the child's body in her arms.
Back in the underground lab, tension mounted again after the mysterious woman and the child's body vanished. The roars of Vine-born that Kim Min-sae had summoned still echoed outside.
Then something crashed through the broken entrance! A Vine-born! It looked like a massive tiger that walked on two legs, its muscular body bristling with power, razor-sharp claws, and blood-red eyes staring hungrily at Cyrus's group.
"Another one! First that elephant thing!" Shion groaned in frustration, raising her massive sword. Her amber eyes burned with fighting spirit.
Cyrus, still trying to process everything that had just happened, looked at the tiger Vine-born, then at Shion with confusion. "Elephant thing?" He couldn't follow her random comment.
Shion wasn't paying attention to Cyrus's confusion. All her focus was on the monster in front of them. The tiger Vine-born roared again before launching itself at them with terrifying speed!