Chapter 1 — Smoke and Shadows
Birthland — Iron District
Steam poured endlessly from the towers of Birthland.
Pipes crawled along rooftops like metal veins, hissing as pressure valves released clouds of white vapor into the night air. Gears turned behind factory walls, pistons slammed like the beating heart of the city, and steam-powered patrol automatons marched slowly through the iron-lit streets.
Birthland was a kingdom of progress.
And of power.
Here, machines served men… but it was the soul that ruled them all.
Some nobles commanded Guardian Beasts strong enough to shatter armies. Others built steam constructs and iron soldiers to compete with that power. Between technology and the soul, Birthland had become one of the most dangerous nations in the world.
But power like that created shadows.
And in those shadows, men like Akai Firstand made a living.
Akai sat alone on the rooftop of a three-story factory, watching the city through drifting steam.
Below him, the Iron District was alive even at midnight. Workers moved between foundries. Cargo trains rumbled along elevated tracks. Mechanical patrol units clanked through the streets, their brass joints squealing with every heavy step.
Akai ignored them.
His attention was fixed on a warehouse across the street.
A faint light burned inside.
The meeting point.
He exhaled slowly.
Mercenary work wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t honorable either. But it paid well enough to survive in Birthland — a city where even breathing felt taxed by iron, steam, and the ambitions of powerful men.
Bootsteps echoed on the metal stairwell behind him.
Akai didn’t turn.
“You’re early,” a rough voice said.
The man who stepped onto the rooftop was broad-shouldered and heavily armored. A scar split across his jaw like a permanent sneer.
Captain Gregor.
The man organizing tonight’s job.
“Contract’s simple,” Gregor said
Gregor continued.
“Birthland Security Corps posted a bounty this afternoon.”
That made Akai look up.
Gregor pulled a folded metal badge from his coat and flipped it once in the dim light.
B.S.C.
The kingdom’s enforcement arm — part military, part police, the ones who hunted smugglers, rebels, and anyone foolish enough to break Birthland’s laws.
“They flagged an illegal convoy leaving the city tonight,” Gregor said. “Unregistered transport heading through the eastern forest road.”
Akai glanced back.
Gregor shrugged.
“The Corps doesn’t want the paperwork.”
Akai closed the case slowly.
“What are we retrieving?”
“Cargo,” Gregor answered.
Akai raised an eyebrow.
“What kind of cargo needs mercenaries?”
Gregor leaned against the rusted railing.
“The kind they don’t want escaping the city.”
Akai studied him for a moment.
“Guarded?”
“Light escort.”
“Destination?”
Gregor gave the same answer as before.
“Not your concern.”
Steam drifted between them as the city roared quietly below.
Akai stood.
“Fine.”
Gregor smirked.
“I knew you’d say yes, Shadow.”
Akai hated that name.
But in the mercenary circles of Birthland, that was what people called him.
Shadow.
The man who worked in the dark… and disappeared when the job was done.
Akai wasn’t the only mercenary Gregor hired for the job.
By the time he returned to the rendezvous point near the eastern gate, the rest of the team had already gathered beside a rusting cargo platform where steam trains once loaded freight.
Six figures waited under the dim glow of a flickering gas lamp.
Closest to the tracks stood Ciela, a lean woman with sharp eyes and dark braided hair. A thin dagger spun lazily between her fingers as if she were bored. Her Guardian Beast was known among mercenaries as the Biter Snake — a fast and venomous partner that granted her terrifying speed and the ability to manifest poison-coated claws through Beast Cloaking.
Beside her was Moraq, easily the largest of the group. The ground almost seemed to complain beneath his weight. His Beater Cow Guardian Beast made him a walking fortress, allowing him to cloak himself in heavy iron-like armor and form massive horned charges strong enough to smash through steel doors.
Leaning against a steam pipe nearby was Ku, quiet as usual. A thin man with messy hair and a permanent half-smile. His Guardian Beast, Mauler Dog, allowed him to cloak himself fully into a beast-like form — turning him into something closer to a hunting hound than a man.
The rest of the mercenaries spoke quietly among themselves, adjusting weapons and gear as the steam lantern hissed overhead.
Akai stepped into the light.
The group fell silent for a moment.
“Look who finally crawled out of the shadows,” Ciela said with a smirk.
“Shadow himself.”
Akai ignored the comment and looked over the team.
Akai let his eyes move past the three he already knew and toward the remaining mercenaries waiting under the weak gaslight.
Near the edge of the platform stood a tall man wrapped in a long mechanic’s coat, his hands stained with oil. Several metal cylinders hung from his belt like tools rather than weapons. His name was Rhett, and his Guardian Beast was the Shooter Hawk — a soul companion that allowed him to manifest compressed air bolts through his Soul Armor, striking targets from distances most guns couldn’t reach.
Not far from him sat a woman crouched on a crate, slowly sharpening a curved blade against a whetstone. Sparks jumped with every slow drag of metal. She was Lysa, bearer of the Cutter Mantis, a Guardian Beast known for forming scythe-like arm blades capable of slicing through armor plates as if they were cloth.
The last one leaned against the cargo rail with his arms folded, watching everything without speaking. Brann. Older than the rest of them, his face marked with old burn scars. His Guardian Beast was called the Guarder Tortoise, granting him the ability to manifest heavy defensive barriers and dense shell-like plating when cloaked.
Seven mercenaries.
Seven Guardian Beasts.
Akai counted them again without meaning to.
Too many for a simple job.
Gregor stepped into the circle of dim gaslight, the steam drifting around his boots as he approached the crate in the center.
“Some of you know me,” he said calmly. “For the rest… Gregor Vance.”
He tapped the heavy metal emblem hanging from his belt.
“Guardian Beast… Breaker Bear.”
The name carried its own reputation. A Breaker Bear wasn’t subtle — when Gregor entered Beast Cloaking, walls, doors, even armored vehicles tended to stop being obstacles.
Gregor then unrolled a folded map across the rusted crate.
“The job is straightforward,” he said, pointing to a narrow road leading out from the eastern industrial gate of Birthland.
“A transport convoy will pass through this route before midnight.”
His finger moved slightly along the map.
“You will intercept it here… disable the escorts… and secure the cargo being transported.”
Gregor looked around the group slowly.
“Disable the escorts. Secure the cargo. And don’t damage it.
Questions slow the job down, so keep them to yourself.”
Ciela let the whetstone’s scraping pause the moment Gregor finished.
For a second, only the distant hiss of steam pipes filled the platform.
Then she chuckled softly.
“That’s a nice speech,” she said, twirling the dagger again. “But you skipped the most important part.”
Her eyes lifted toward Gregor.
“The reward.”
Moraq shifted his weight, the metal plates on his harness groaning.
“Convoys mean guards,” he said. “Guards mean risk.”
Ku tilted his head slightly, his half-smile returning.
“And seven mercenaries isn’t cheap.”
Ciela rested the dagger against her shoulder.
“So let’s ask the real question.”
Her gaze sharpened.
“Are you actually telling the truth about the reward… Gregor?”
Gregor didn’t answer immediately.
The steam lantern above them hissed again, the light flickering across his scarred face.
Then he reached into his coat.
A small metal case landed on the crate with a heavy clack.
Gregor opened it.
Inside were rows of polished payment chips — guild-issued, stamped with the sigil of the Birthland Mercenary Exchange.
Even from a distance, the amount was obvious.
A lot.
More than a normal escort interception would ever pay.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Ciela’s dagger stopped spinning.
Ku’s half-smile faded slightly.
Even Moraq leaned forward a little to look.
Gregor closed the case again.
“Half now,” he said calmly.
“The rest when the cargo is delivered.”
He looked around the group slowly.
“Split seven ways.”
Ciela raised an eyebrow.
“That’s… generous.”
Akai said nothing, but something in his chest tightened.
Jobs that paid this well usually came with one of three things.
A hidden danger.
A hidden lie.
Or both.
Gregor snapped the case shut.
“Good,” he said. “Then we move.”
The eastern forest road of Birthland was quiet compared to the Iron District.
No factories.
No steam towers.
Only a long metal roadway stretching through dark forest, illuminated by tall pressure lamps that released thin streams of vapor into the night.
Akai crouched on a rusted signal tower overlooking the road.
Below him, the rest of the mercenaries were already in position.
Ciela waited in the branches of a dead ironwood tree, her body almost invisible in the darkness.
Moraq stood hidden behind a collapsed cargo barrier, his massive frame barely concealed.
Ku was gone.
Or more accurately… already cloaked.
Somewhere in the forest, a low animal growl echoed once.
Akai exhaled slowly.
Then he whispered.
“Bat.”
The air around him darkened.
His Guardian Beast — Hider Bat answered.
Black vapor spread across his shoulders like wings made of shadow. His body blurred, his presence fading as if the night itself had swallowed him.
Beast Cloaking.
To most eyes, Akai simply vanished.
Below the tower, Gregor raised one hand.
A distant rumble answered.
Steam engines.
The convoy appeared moments later.
Two armored transport trucks rolled along the metal road, their engines coughing clouds of white vapor. Four mechanical escort walkers marched beside them — tall brass machines with rotating gun barrels.
Ciela muttered from the trees.
“Light escort, he said.”
Akai watched the formation carefully.
Then Gregor lowered his hand.
That was the signal.
The road exploded.
Moraq charged first.
“Iron Cloak!”
His Beater Cow Guardian Beast surged over his body, forming thick metal-like armor across his shoulders and chest. Two massive horn constructs formed above his head.
He slammed into the first escort walker like a living battering ram.
Metal screamed.
The machine flipped sideways and crashed into the forest.
At the same time, a blur shot across the road.
Ku.
Or rather… the beast he had become.
His Mauler Dog cloak had fully transformed him into a black hunting hound nearly the size of a horse. He moved low and fast, jaws snapping onto the leg joints of the second walker.
With a violent wrench—
CRACK.
The machine collapsed.
Then came Ciela.
She dropped from the tree like a falling knife.
“Snake Cloak.”
Green venom energy wrapped around her arms.
Her Biter Snake manifested long poison claws that gleamed under the steam lamps.
She landed on top of one of the trucks and slashed downward.
The driver inside screamed as the claws sliced through the armored roof like paper.
The convoy erupted into chaos.
Gunfire roared.
One of the remaining escort walkers rotated its cannon toward Moraq—
—but a sharp whistling crack cut through the air.
Rhett.
From somewhere far behind the road, his Shooter Hawk power fired compressed air bolts like invisible bullets.
Three strikes.
The cannon barrel shattered.
The walker staggered.
Then Gregor moved.
“Breaker Bear.”
His body expanded under the surge of power.
Massive spectral bear arms formed around his shoulders as he rushed forward.
One punch.
The final escort machine folded in half.
The entire ambush had taken less than twenty seconds.
Steam drifted across the road.
Metal wreckage burned quietly.
The convoy was stopped.
Akai dropped silently from the tower roof, his shadow cloak fading as his boots touched the road.
Around him, the mercenaries regrouped.
Ciela wiped venom from her claws.
Ku returned to human form, breathing heavily.
Moraq cracked his neck.
Gregor walked toward the transport trucks.
“Good work,” he said.
Then he placed his hand on the cargo door.
“Now let’s see what we just risked our lives for.”
Akai didn’t rush in like the others.
While Moraq smashed the first walker and Ku tore down the second, Akai moved differently.
Silently.
From the moment Gregor gave the signal, Hider Bat had already wrapped around him. Black vapor spread across his body like folded wings, swallowing his outline in shadow.
To most eyes—
Akai simply disappeared.
He dropped from the signal tower without a sound.
Instead of charging the machines, Akai went straight for the rear escort guards riding the final transport.
One of them turned slightly at the sound of Moraq’s impact.
Too late.
A thin black blade slid from Akai’s sleeve.
Thk.
The strike landed beneath the helmet.
The guard collapsed instantly.
Akai caught the body before it hit the ground and lowered it gently against the truck wheel.
No alarm.
No noise.
The second guard had already grabbed a signal flare.
Akai stepped from the steam behind him like a phantom.
One precise strike.
The flare slipped from the man’s hand and clattered harmlessly across the metal road.
By the time Moraq destroyed the first walker and the convoy erupted into chaos—
the rear escort was already gone.
Akai moved again.
Shadow slipping between bursts of steam and scattered gunfire.
One of the escort walkers rotated its cannon toward Moraq.
Akai appeared beside the machine’s control hatch.
His blade stabbed into the exposed valve line.
A violent burst of pressurized steam exploded outward.
The cannon mechanism seized instantly.
A heartbeat later—
Rhett’s compressed air shot struck the barrel.
From a distance, it looked like Rhett had destroyed the weapon.
But Akai knew the truth.
He was already gone again.
By the time the last walker collapsed under Gregor’s monstrous punch, the ambush was finished.
Twenty seconds.
Seven mercenaries.
Four machines destroyed.
Two trucks captured.
Steam drifted slowly across the wreckage.
Akai dropped lightly onto the road, his cloak dissolving back into the night.
Ciela wiped venom from her claws and glanced sideways at him.
“…You always steal the quiet kills.”
Ku chuckled weakly while catching his breath.
Moraq cracked his armored knuckles.
But Akai didn’t answer.
His eyes were already fixed on Gregor.
The captain stood in front of the transport truck, hand resting on the cargo door.
Waiting.
Akai felt it again.
That small knot in his chest.
The one that appeared whenever a job felt too easy.
Gregor pulled the door handle.
“Now,” he said.
“Let’s see what we just risked our lives for.”
Gregor pulled the cargo door open.
The metal latch released with a heavy clank.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the doors slowly creaked outward.
Steam drifted into the dark interior of the transport truck.
Akai stepped closer with the others.
Inside the cargo hold were rows of metal containment cages bolted to the floor.
Small ones.
Too small for weapons.
Too small for machines.
Akai’s stomach tightened.
Then he heard it.
A quiet sound.
Crying.
Not loud. Not screaming.
Just the weak, exhausted sob of someone who had been crying for too long.
These weren’t smugglers.
They were children.
Smugglers he understood.
Weapons he understood.
But children in cages…
That wasn’t a job.
That was something else.
Ciela froze.
“…What the hell…”
Gregor didn’t say anything.
Moraq stepped closer to the nearest cage.
Inside sat a small boy no older than ten. Dirt covered his face. His wrists were bound with iron cuffs etched with glowing suppression runes.
The boy looked up slowly.
His eyes widened at the sight of armed strangers.
Then he shrank back in fear.
Ku’s smile vanished.
“…Those are suppression seals.”
Akai already knew.
His eyes moved across the cargo hold.
More cages.
More children.
Some unconscious.
Some staring silently.
Every single one of them wearing the same rune-etched restraints.
Restraints designed for one thing.
Guardian Beast users.
Ciela’s voice turned sharp.
“Gregor.”
The captain didn’t look at her.
“Yeah.”
Her dagger stopped spinning.
A soft hiss cut through the air.
Akai’s instincts screamed.
He moved without thinking.
A thin dart sliced past his cheek and buried itself into Ciela’s neck.
She barely had time to react.
“What—”
Her voice slurred instantly as her body collapsed to the ground.
Another dart struck Moraq in the shoulder.
The giant barely had time to turn before his legs buckled.
Ku staggered backward, blinking in confusion as a third dart pierced his collar.
Within seconds the mercenaries were dropping one by one.
Akai twisted aside as another tranquilizer round snapped past his ear.
His eyes narrowed.
Not from the convoy.
From behind them.
His blade flashed into his hand as he turned toward Gregor.
“Gregor,” Akai said coldly.
“What are you doing?”
The captain slowly turned.
Then he smiled.
But something about that smile felt… wrong.
The skin of Gregor’s face rippled.
Like heat distortion.
Like smoke moving beneath flesh.
Akai’s grip tightened.
Gregor’s features twisted and melted, dissolving into drifting gray vapor.
The broad shoulders shrank.
The beard vanished.
The armor loosened as the body reshaped itself.
When the smoke cleared, a woman stood where Gregor had been.
Long dark hair.
Sharp golden eyes.
A playful smile that did not reach those eyes.
Akai stared.
“…Gregor?”
The woman chuckled softly.
“Gregor?”
She tilted her head.
“Oh… he’s been dead for days.”
Her grin widened. She gave a small theatrical bow.
“Allow me to introduce myself.”
“Sicilia.”
“The Cheater Fox.”
“A member of the Hollow Brand.”
Akai’s heart sank.
The Hollow Brand.
One of the most dangerous criminal syndicates in the western territories.
Sicilia folded her arms casually.
“You’re probably wondering why.”
Her eyes flicked toward the truck filled with cages.
“Simple.”
“That cargo was always ours.”
She sighed dramatically.
“But the BSC started sniffing around the smuggling routes.”
“So we needed… an untraceable plan.”
Her gaze returned to Akai.
“And mercenaries make wonderful disposable tools.”
A faint voice crackled through a damaged convoy vehicle nearby.
“L-Lady Sicilia…”
A battered survivor was speaking through a communicator.
“Recording… complete…”
Sicilia glanced over lazily.
“Good.”
She smiled sweetly.
“You can die now.”
A small suppressed shot echoed.
The voice on the radio cut off instantly.
Sicilia clapped her hands once.
“Perfect.”
Akai’s instincts suddenly flared again.
Danger.
Behind him.
He moved—
Too slow.
A massive hand seized him from behind.
A cloth pressed over his mouth.
A sharp chemical smell filled his lungs.
His vision blurred instantly.
From the dark forest surrounding the road, another group emerged.
Silent.
Organized.
Dozens of them.
Akai tried to fight.
His limbs felt like stone.
Sicilia’s voice echoed through the haze.
“Take them all.”
“They’ll make excellent laboratory rats.”
One of the masked soldiers nodded.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Akai’s vision darkened as the mercenaries were dragged away one by one.
An hour later.
Armored vehicles bearing the crest of the Beast Suppression Corps rolled into the abandoned road.
Floodlights swept across the wreckage.
A BSC investigator knelt beside a destroyed convoy truck.
“Captain!”
One of the soldiers raised a data slate.
“We recovered a recording device from the wreck.”
A young woman stepped forward.
Sharp eyes.
Commander’s coat.
Captain Elena Virel of the BSC.
“Play it.”
The device flickered to life.
The recording showed the final moments of the ambush.
The mercenaries.
The children.
Gregor opening the cargo door.
Then static.
Elena watched silently.
One of her officers asked quietly,
“Do you recognize them?”
She nodded slightly.
“Yes.”
“Local mercenaries.”
Her finger tapped the paused image of Akai.
“That one is Akai.”
She began listing the others.
The officer frowned.
“Mercenaries?”
“Yes.”
Another officer crossed his arms.
“Then who hired them?”
Elena didn’t answer immediately.
Instead she stared at the image of Gregor on the screen.
Her voice became colder.
“Gregor Valen.”
The officer blinked.
“The smuggler?”
Elena slowly shook her head.
“No.”
Her eyes hardened.
“That’s the problem.”
She turned toward her team.
“You’re telling me we outsourced the job…”
“…so we wouldn’t dirty our own hands…”
“…and now the mercenaries, the cargo, and the handler have all vanished?”
Silence filled the road.
Then Elena exhaled slowly.
“…Find them.”
Her voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.
“Before whoever did this disappears completely.”
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