Chapter 11 – Echoes Beneath the Academy (Part 3)
The lab burned with light – not fire, but Riftlight, pulsing in waves that made the air shimmer like liquid glass. Taro's hands trembled as arcs of unstable energy crackled between his fingers, his breath uneven. Kairo and Reika fought beside him, blades flashing and spells colliding against the monstrous phantom that called itself Dr. Kareth.
Each strike illuminated the chaos – fragments of metal, sparks, the echo of screams that didn't belong to the present. Every time the phantom's voice rang out, Taro flinched, because beneath that layered distortion was the voice he remembered from the experiments. The one that whispered, "Smile, Subject 9. The pain means you're still alive."
Kairo slammed his blade into the ground, sending a shockwave of Riftlight that forced the phantom back. "Reika, now!"
Reika's spell formed midair – a circle of runes spinning around the creature, binding it in a cage of shimmering gold. The phantom roared, its form distorting.
But Taro barely heard it. He was somewhere else.
The light faded, replaced by dim corridors and the sterile scent of antiseptic. The floor beneath him turned from metal to tile. The cold voice of a researcher echoed faintly through the memory.
"Subject Nine…cognitive instability detected. Begin recalibration."
He was small again – ten, maybe eleven. His wrists were bound in straps, and his eyes were fixed on the ceiling. He could hear the hum of the machine overhead.
"Do you feel pain?"
"No," he whispered back then. "Not yet."
"Good. Then we can begin."
He remembered the burn of the injection, the cold fire spreading through his veins, the laughter that tore out of his throat not because it was funny, but because if he stopped laughing, he'd start screaming.
He laughed every time they hurt him. He laughed when they erased the others. He laughed because it was the only sound that reminded him, he was still human.
The flashback dissolved with a snap – Reika's voice bringing him back. "Taro! Focus!"
The phantom was breaking through her seal fragments of Riftlight cutting through the golden runes. Kairo was already bleeding from a wound across his arm, his teeth clenched. "We can't hold it much longer!"
Taro blinked, shaking the visions away. "Right…sorry. Just had a little trip down nightmare lane."
He forced a grin, though his voice trembled. "Guess I'm still the comic relief, huh? Even in hell."
Kairo shot him a look – not anger, but resolute. "You're more than that, Taro. You're proof that we survived what they couldn't."
For a heartbeat, Taro's smile faltered – replaced by something raw, unguarded. Then he nodded. "Alright then boss, lets finish this one for the kids who didn't make it."
He closed his eyes. The Riftlight around him dimmed, then condensed into a single sphere of pure blue energy hovering above his palm. His hair flickered with light, his veins glowing faintly through his skin.
"Reika, drop the seal!" he shouted.
She hesitated. "It'll hit you too!"
"Yeah," Taro laughed. "That's kind of the idea."
The moment the seal vanished, Taro threw the sphere forward. The energy exploded in a flash that swallowed the entire lab, ripping through the phantom and surrounding machinery.
The world fell silent.
When the light faded, the lab was in ruins – smoke curling from the collapsed consoles and shattered glass. Kairo coughed, his ears ringing, scanning through the haze. "Reika…?"
"I'm fine!" she called from behind a broken pillar. "What about –"
Her words cut off when she saw him.
Taro stood at the centre of the wreckage, his clothes torn, his arm bleeding – but smiling. The Riftlight had faded from his skin. The phantom was gone.
"See?" he said, breathless. "Told you I could handle it. I just had to…make a little noise."
Kairo exhaled, lowering his weapon. "You nearly killed yourself."
Taro grinned, leaning against a wall. "Yeah, but imagine the ratings."
Reika rolled her eyes, but her expression softened. "You're impossible."
"Damn right I am."
Kairo walked closer, his tone low. "You remembered who you were down here, didn't you?"
Taro's grin wavered again. "Yeah. I did." He looked around the wrecked lab – theplace where his childhood had ended. "But maybe…that's not a bad thing anymore. I think it's time I stopped laughing at ghosts and started living for real people."
Reika smiled faintly. "Then let's start by getting you out of this place."
Taro looked back one last time, whispering something too quiet to hear – maybe a goodbye. Then he followed them out into the corridor, the ruins of St. Kareth's fading behind him.
But as they left, Kairo noticed something on the wall – a fragment of an old inscription, almost erased by time:
"St. Kareth's Academy – For the Advancement of Humanity."
He stared at it for a moment, then turned away. "Yeah," he muttered under his breath. "You really did advance us…right into hell."
The corridor lights flickered once more and then went dark.
They didn't look back.