Yin Lie emerged from the city's depths like a spirit clawing its way out of the grave. The air in the financial district was clean, cold, and tasted of electricity and money. Before him, Veridian Corp Tower tore a hole in the night sky. It wasn't just a building; it was a monument to power, a spear of black glass and steel that seemed to absorb the city's light and give nothing back. This was the dragon's den.
The exhaustion from the tunnel battle was a heavy cloak on his shoulders, but the clarity in his mind was sharper than ever. The two forces within him were no longer at war. They were a single, harmonized engine of purpose. The wolf's predatory focus guided him, and the ice's logic analyzed the path ahead.
He found a vantage point in a darkened alley across the street, a sliver of shadow between the omnipresent glow of holographic advertisements. For ten minutes, he simply watched. He didn't just see the tower; he sensed it. He heard the whisper-quiet hum of its sophisticated security grid, the rhythmic patrol patterns of guards whose heartbeats were unnaturally steady, and the faint, cold scent of ozone from hidden defensive systems.
The front door was a death sentence. The lower levels were a fortress. That left one way in.
Up.
He retreated deeper into the alley, finding the maintenance access ladder to the roof of the adjacent, smaller building. From there, the sheer glass face of Veridian Tower was a sheer, impossible cliff. But to the wolf, every surface was a potential foothold. To the ice, every imperfection was a tool.
He took a running start. The leap was inhuman, carrying him across the gap between the buildings. He hit the glass wall with a force that should have shattered it, but his fingers found the minute seam between two panels. He held on, the city sprawling beneath him like a carpet of fallen stars.
Then he began to climb.
It was a slow, vertical dance. The wolf's strength held him fast, his senses picking out the network of structural supports beneath the glass skin. The ice was his grip. He would touch the glass, and a thin, impossibly strong layer of frost would form, a temporary handhold for a gloved hand or the toe of a boot. He moved from one anchor point to the next, a phantom scaling the dragon's teeth, leaving behind a trail of fleeting, star-like patterns of ice that vanished moments after he passed.
---
"He's climbing the west face."
In the Directorate's mobile command center, hastily established two blocks away, Chief Inspector Valen watched the grainy thermal image on the main screen. A single, cold spot was making its slow, inexorable way up the side of the tower.
"We have Specter units on the roof," an officer reported. "But Qi Yan's internal security is a fortress. They've locked down the entire airspace. Our drones are being jammed or shot down."
"He's locking the doors after the wolf is already in the house," Valen growled, his frustration palpable. "Qi Yan has a private army in that building. He has illegal bio-weapons. This is no longer just about a rogue variant. This is a siege." He slammed a fist on the console. "I want every schematic of that building on screen. I want to know every vent, every power conduit, every weakness. The moment one of them makes a mistake, we go in hard. I will not have a private war erupt in the heart of my city."
---
Yin Lie reached the 44th floor—a darkened, empty office level, according to the building's public schematics. He found what he was looking for: a recessed maintenance vent. He focused a pinpoint of intense cold on the lock mechanism. Metal contracted, groaned, and with a faint click, the lock shattered from the inside.
He slipped inside, his feet silent on the polished floor. The air was recycled and sterile. He was in. The Keystone echo was a throbbing, physical presence now, pulling him downward, deep into the building's foundations.
He moved through the empty office space, a ghost among ergonomic chairs and dark computer monitors. But he wasn't alone for long.
A soft hiss. Metal panels slid open in the walls, revealing four figures. They weren't the hulking Reavers. They were human, dressed in sleek gray combat gear, their faces hidden by ballistic masks. They held advanced pulse rifles, their movements economical and precise. Qi Yan's elite guard.
They didn't fire. Instead, the leader raised a hand, and a device on his wrist emitted a high-frequency wave.
Yin Lie's head exploded in pain. The wolf howled, and the ice wavered. The sonic frequency was designed to disrupt variant neurology, to tear at the harmony he had just found.
He dropped to one knee, gritting his teeth. The guards advanced, their formation perfect, a closing net.
Balance. The word was a mantra. He couldn't overpower the frequency, so he adapted. He let the wolf's resilience absorb the brunt of the pain, turning the agony into a sharpening focus. He let the ice flow outward, not as an attack, but as a change to the environment.
The sprinklers on the ceiling suddenly frosted over, the water inside them freezing and expanding. With a series of sharp cracks, the pipes burst. A torrent of freezing water and a thick, vision-obscuring mist filled the room.
The guards' perfect formation broke. Their sonic weapon was useless if they couldn't find their target.
Yin Lie moved through the mist, a predator in its element. He didn't need to see them; he could sense the heat of their bodies, hear their quickening heartbeats. He struck from the fog, a blur of motion. One guard was disarmed, his rifle frozen to the wall. Another found his leg encased in a block of ice from the knee down, trapping him.
He was a force of nature, using their own tactics against them. He was in and out of the fight in seconds, leaving behind a scene of chaos—a frozen, misty room and four incapacitated, but living, elite soldiers.
He found the central service shaft. The pull from below was overwhelming now, a siren song of corrupted power. He pried open the elevator doors and looked down into the abyss.
The hunt was over. He had reached the heart of the web. Now, all that was left was to face the spider.
He dropped into the darkness, the cables hissing past him as he descended into the dragon's maw.