Karsinium, capital of the KarsianEmpire, stood like a crown smeared with false light.
From afar, the city looked magnificent—towering with crystal spires, glowing magitek rail lines,
and a transparent dome shielding its skies from interference.
But the closer one came, the less grandeur they felt—and the more pressure they bore.
Jainal stood beneath the shadows of the outer fortress walls, his face hidden behind his steel mask.
He did not arrive as a guest, nor a wandering adventurer.
He came as a shadow.
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I. An Unofficial Entrance.
With help from an informant named Kryss—an agent of the neutral intelligence group The Tongue Without a Mouth—Jainal infiltrated the city through old sewage tunnels, remnants of a forgotten waterworks project.
> "Karsinium doesn't have a bright side. Just one that glows better than its darkness."
— Kryss, before vanishing after completing his task.
Jainal moved slowly, the scent of iron and lingering magic heavy in the air.
Soul-scanning runes had been installed across nearly every major gate.
But he knew their flaw: they only worked for identities recorded in the system.
And he… had never existed in their records.
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II. A City That Holds Whispers.
For the first two days, Jainal moved through the city in various disguises—
a janitor, a cargo handler, even a rubble cleaner in the northern district.
He memorized the city's rhythm: patrol schedules, mage gathering points, and most critically—the logistics maps of military movement.
From behind the crowd's murmurs, he caught fragments:
> "...the lower doors under the western hospital aren't to be opened without Vauld's authorization."
"...the children brought from the west can't speak anymore."
"...they're still using the Lambda pattern—but now with a 'new catalyst'."
Jainal recorded everything.
Karsinium was not just a capital—it was a living laboratory.
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III. The Meeting with "M".
On the third night, a forged memo lured him into an underground archive—disguised as a religious relic storage chamber.
There, he met an old woman in a silver-black cloak, seated calmly in a magitek wheelchair.
> "You must be Else's student. I know those eyes. Sharp… and tired."
The woman was Mavelle—former high arcane researcher, ex-coder of council structures, and an old friend of Gujarat.
Mavelle gave him a map: the internal structure of the Imperial Mage Council's factions.
She pointed to one name, circled in red: Vauld.
Below it, a single note:
> "Cannot be defeated within the system.
Must be unraveled from the outside."
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IV. The Facility That Never Sleeps.
Jainal made his way to the Western Hospital, the site linked to rumors of "test children."
He infiltrated at night, bypassing sensors and guards.
The underground chamber wasn't a ward—it was a lab.
Within the stasis capsules lay three unconscious children.
But one—a small girl with silver eyes—opened her gaze slowly as Jainal approached.
In a barely audible whisper, she said:
> "...Ruu… still alive…?"
Jainal froze.
Before he could extract them all, an arcane alarm triggered.
He managed to grab only one child—who fainted again—before unleashing a burst illusion spell and escaping through the tunnels.
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V. Leaving the City, Entering the Self
As night fell once more, Jainal hid in the lower fringe of the city's understructure.
He looked down at the child—her face was not Ruu's,
but behind her ear was a scarred rune mark—just like Unit5.
A new subject.
Evidence that the Lambda experiments had continued—
right in the heart of the Empire.
Omega sat quietly beside him.
> "They haven't stopped."
"And they won't… if only one person keeps fighting."
Jainal looked up at the sliver of sky above the stone ceiling.
> "Then it's no longer about fighting from the outside.
It's time to destroy them… from within."