The battlefield was not a place.
It was a feeling.
It was in the air—thick, oppressive, electric. The sky had turned a deep crimson, stained by the coming war. Storm clouds curled like monstrous serpents overhead, casting jagged shadows across the dark valley where Kaizen and Squad Umbra now stood, staring into the gaping abyss that had torn open the land before them.
The Howling Abyss.
An ancient rift, long believed to be sealed, now roared with otherworldly voices and the twisted growls of the Bist army. Kaizen clenched his fists as he gazed into it. From within the darkness, eyes glowed—hundreds of them—waiting, watching, eager to spill blood.
Ayaka stood beside him, her face pale but determined. "This is where it ends?"
Kaizen shook his head, flames flickering in his pupils. "No. This is where it begins."
---
The squad moved with purpose. Rune, Gale, Lira, and the others knew this wasn't just another battle. It was the battle. The one that would decide whether the world above would survive—or be consumed by what slithered in the depths below.
"Scouts reported massive energy signatures beneath the ravine," Gale said, checking his glowing sensor. "This isn't just a Bist den. It's a hatchery. They're breeding something—something… ancient."
Kaizen looked down into the swirling dark and exhaled slowly. "Nerovar wants to unleash a Veinborn prototype. Something that was sealed away centuries ago. Something even the first humans feared."
Rune raised a brow. "What kind of prototype?"
Kaizen turned, his voice low. "One that was created using my bloodline. Before I even existed."
---
As Squad Umbra began descending into the Abyss, the temperature plummeted. The air grew thick with the stench of decay. Bones littered the walls—some human, some... unidentifiable. The silence was shattered by whispering. Low, twisted voices brushing against their ears, indistinguishable yet familiar, like ghosts murmuring secrets.
Ayaka gripped Kaizen's arm tightly. "I can hear them."
Kaizen nodded grimly. "The Abyss remembers all who've entered it. And it feeds on them."
Suddenly, Lira stopped. "There. Movement!"
From the shadows, creatures began to slither forward. These weren't ordinary Bists. Their skin pulsed with glowing red veins, their forms mutated, their faces stretched into permanent screams.
"Umbra Formation—defensive!" Rune shouted.
But before anyone could move, one of the creatures launched itself toward Kaizen with impossible speed. Kaizen's body reacted on its own. In one swift motion, flames exploded from his back, his entire right arm transforming into burning obsidian-veined armor. He caught the creature mid-air and crushed its skull with one hand.
The squad froze.
Even Ayaka.
"Kaizen…" Gale whispered. "What the hell are you becoming?"
Kaizen didn't answer.
His eyes were fixed forward, toward a pulsating red light deeper in the Abyss.
Something was calling him.
---
The deeper they went, the more unstable reality became. Time seemed to warp. The walls pulsed like they were alive. Ayaka began seeing flickers—memories that weren't hers. A woman crying in a field of fire. A child being dragged by soldiers. A monstrous figure watching from a throne of flesh.
Then they reached the heart of the Abyss.
A massive chamber, its ceiling lost in darkness. In its center stood a cocoon of dark crystal, beating like a heart, bound by thousands of chains forged from blood and bone.
And beside it stood him.
Nerovar.
Draped in tattered ceremonial robes, his face partially hidden behind a shattered mask, Nerovar emanated a presence so suffocating that the squad nearly dropped to their knees from instinct alone. His eyes glowed with the same color as Kaizen's flames—an eerie, ancient orange-red.
"You came," Nerovar said with a smile that wasn't human. "Good. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten your destiny."
Kaizen stepped forward, fire building around him.
"I didn't forget," he growled. "I just stopped letting you write it."
Nerovar chuckled. "Still clinging to that human pride, I see. But you've grown strong, Kaizen. Strong enough to see... the truth."
He waved a hand toward the cocoon.
"This is what we were meant to become. The final form of Veinborn evolution. Not protectors. Not hybrids. But gods. This creature… this Prototype… carries the purest version of the Flame Vein. The original flame. The one that birthed all power."
Kaizen's flames blazed around him. "Then I'll burn it to ashes."
"You'll try," Nerovar whispered—and snapped his fingers.
The cocoon shattered.
And from within it emerged the Prototype—a towering, grotesque fusion of Kaizen's body and something inhuman. Six flaming arms. A burning halo. A skull-like face with Kaizen's own eyes staring back.
"Meet your brother," Nerovar said. "The first attempt. The imperfect god."
The Prototype let out a scream that shattered stone.
Kaizen didn't wait.
He charged.
---
The battle exploded in chaos.
Kaizen met the Prototype in the center of the chamber, flame clashing against flame, fist against claw. Each blow shook the chamber. Squad Umbra scattered, trying to avoid the shockwaves. Ayaka screamed as a flaming limb nearly tore her apart, only to be shielded by Lira's barrier.
Nerovar watched with calm delight. "Let him burn. Let him see that destiny is not a path, but a cage."
Kaizen's attacks were fierce but lacked stability. The Prototype matched him, mirrored him, like a twisted reflection. Every strike Kaizen landed was returned threefold.
He was losing.
Until Ayaka's voice pierced through the madness.
"KAIZEN! You're not alone!"
And that single cry—raw, human, real—cut through the chaos.
Kaizen's eyes widened. The Prototype lunged—and Kaizen didn't block.
He embraced it.
Veins of flame burst from Kaizen's chest, wrapping around the creature. Not to kill it.
But to absorb it.
"No more monsters," Kaizen whispered. "No more lies."
In a surge of pain and power, Kaizen dragged the Prototype's flame into his own core. His body convulsed. Screamed. Split.
And then—
Silence.
---
When the dust settled, Kaizen stood alone.
His body glowing faintly.
The Prototype was gone.
Nerovar stared, stunned. "You… absorbed it?"
Kaizen raised his head.
And smiled.
Not with malice.
Not with vengeance.
But with peace.
"I am the last flame now. And your time… is over."
---
End of Chapter 55