Chapter 2 — The Hollow Laboratory

Akai woke to darkness.

Not the quiet darkness of night.

The heavy kind — thick with the smell of chemicals, rusted iron, and stale air.

Pain pulsed behind his eyes.

For a moment he didn’t move. Years of mercenary instinct held him still, letting his senses wake before the rest of his body did.

Cold metal pressed against his back.

Chains.

His wrists were pulled behind a steel chair, bound by thick iron restraints. The metal was etched with faint glowing lines — suppression runes.

Akai tested them once.

The chains rattled softly.

A sharp pulse shot through his arms immediately, like needles driven into his nerves.

He stopped.

Not normal restraints.

Guardian Beast suppression.

Akai exhaled slowly through his nose.

Then he reached inward.

Normally, the presence of Hider Bat lived just beneath his thoughts — a quiet shadow resting inside his soul.

Now it felt distant.

Muted.

Like something trapped behind a sealed door.

Still there.

But barely.

Akai opened his eyes.

Dim white lights hummed overhead, casting the room in a pale industrial glow.

The place was enormous.

Iron walls stretched upward three stories high, lined with metal walkways and pipes that carried steaming liquids through thick glass tubes. Strange machines filled the chamber — humming generators, spinning pressure cylinders, mechanical arms tipped with surgical tools.

And glass tanks.

Dozens of them.

Tall cylindrical containers filled with cloudy liquid.

Shapes floated inside.

Human shapes.

Akai’s eyes sharpened.

Some were adults.

Some were small.

Too small.

Children.

Thin cables ran from the tanks into a large machine in the center of the room — a towering structure of brass rings and crystal conduits. Energy pulsed faintly through it, flowing like slow lightning.

Akai followed the cables with his gaze.

They connected to iron cages on the far side of the chamber.

More children.

Each one wearing the same rune-etched cuffs he had seen in the convoy.

Suppression seals.

A quiet sound echoed across the laboratory.

Crying.

Weak.

Exhausted.

Akai’s jaw tightened.

Movement caught his attention to the left.

Another chair.

A massive figure slumped forward, chains wrapped around both arms.

Moraq.

The giant’s head hung low, thick iron restraints locking his shoulders against the chair frame. Even unconscious, he looked like a restrained war machine.

Beyond him lay another cage.

Ciela.

She was awake.

Barely.

Her sharp eyes flicked toward Akai the moment she noticed he had moved.

“…You alive?” she whispered weakly.

Akai gave the smallest nod.

Her gaze shifted toward the machines across the room.

“Bad place,” she murmured.

Across the chamber, another familiar voice groaned.

Ku sat inside a reinforced containment cage, rubbing his temple as he slowly woke.

“…Well,” he muttered hoarsely.

“That could’ve gone better.”

Akai said nothing.

His eyes moved across the laboratory again.

Counting exits.

Counting guards.

Studying the machines.

Every instinct in his body was already mapping the room.

Then he reached inward.

Toward the place where Hider Bat normally rested within his soul.

The suppression runes dulled the connection, like thick walls placed between them. Most of the presence was gone — sealed away by whatever restraints they had used.

But not completely.

Deep beneath the pressure of the seals…

something stirred.

A faint pulse.

Not a voice.

Not words.

Just the quiet presence of a creature that had shared his soul since birth.

Still there.

Still waiting.

Akai exhaled slowly.

Good.

That meant the suppression wasn’t perfect.

Above them, metal doors slid open with a heavy mechanical hiss.

Footsteps echoed across the upper walkway.

Someone had come to inspect their new prisoners.

A moment later, footsteps echoed down the corridor. The metal door slid open and Sicilia stepped into the dim cell, her boots clicking against the concrete floor.

“Bad news, guys....” she said casually, leaning against the bars with a faint, almost amused smile. “Turns out your friend was a pretty bad rat. They died during the first extraction.” She shrugged lightly, as if talking about broken equipment. “Too bad.... hope you can survive a little longer.”

The room fell silent. Now only Ciela, Kai, Moraq, and Ku remained alive.

Ciela slammed both hands against the bars.

“What did you do to them?!” she screamed, her voice echoing down the narrow corridor.

Sicilia tilted her head, almost bored by the question. “Huh? Oh.... you know.... extracting their Guardian Beast or something like that.” She glanced across the cell, her eyes settling on the largest figure inside. “You know what? Now it’s your turn.... and that big guy over there.”

Two armored guards stepped forward and unlocked the cell. They rushed in immediately, grabbing Ciela and Moraq by the arms. Both of them struggled hard—Ciela kicking and twisting, Moraq trying to wrench free with brute strength—but the guards were ready, locking heavy cuffs around their wrists.

Akai stepped forward instinctively, muscles tightening, ready to move.

A sharp crack split the air.

Something invisible sliced past his head and shattered against the wall behind him, spraying dust and stone fragments.

Akai froze.

Sicilia lowered her hand slowly, a faint smile forming. “Relax, boy....” she said calmly. “You’ll get your turn later.”

Akai’s hands tightened into fists.

“Did you do the same thing to the children?” he asked, his voice low but shaking with anger.

Sicilia blinked once, as if surprised by the question. “Children...?” Then she let out a short laugh. “Of course not. Did you know that when they’re still young, their Guardian Beasts aren’t fully developed yet? So what’s the point of extracting them?”

She waved her hand casually.

“We just do a little brainwashing.... and make a few modifications to their Guardian Beasts.” Her smile widened slightly. “Maybe they’ll grow up with cute ones. Something like mine.”

A shimmer of pale energy appeared beside her shoulder.

From the light emerged a sleek fox made of faint silver-blue soul energy. It had two long tails, both drifting like smoke behind it, its narrow eyes glowing with unnatural intelligence.

“My Guardian Beast.... Cheater Fox,” Sicilia said proudly.

The fox floated beside her, its tails swaying slowly in the air.

Sicilia then shrugged again, her tone returning to that same careless indifference. “Or maybe they fail and die during the process.... or turn into mutants.” She tilted her head slightly. “Who knows?”

Sicilia raised a hand lazily.

“Enough chit-chat.... see you later, boy.”

She turned and walked away. The heavy metal door slid shut behind her.

Clang.

The corridor fell silent again.

For several seconds, no one spoke.

Then Ku’s voice broke the silence.

“Kai....”

Akai looked over.

Ku had pulled his knees to his chest in the corner of the cell. His shoulders were shaking.

“W-what are we going to do, Kai?” he whispered. “I... I don’t want to die....”

No one answered.

Silence swallowed the cell.

Ku’s trembling hadn’t stopped by the time the guards returned.

The metal door screeched open and two armored men stepped inside. One grabbed Ku by the arm, the other yanked Akai to his feet.

“No time to wait,” one of them muttered. “Extraction room’s ready.”

Ku panicked immediately.

“Wait— wait! Please! We’ll cooperate—!”

The guard slammed a baton into Ku’s ribs. The impact folded him in half.

“Move.”

Akai tried to steady himself as they dragged him down the corridor. His head still throbbed from earlier, and the smell of oil and antiseptic grew stronger the deeper they went into the facility.

They passed a heavy steel door.

Through the small window, Akai saw it.

An operating table.

Metal restraints.

And a machine above it — a cage of rotating rings filled with glowing tubes and needles.

Dark stains covered the floor.

The guards forced Ku inside first.

Akai was shoved into another chair nearby, wrists locked in place.

Ku was strapped down to the table.

“Relax,” one of the technicians said without looking at him. “If your soul separates cleanly, you’ll be dead before you feel it.”

Ku began screaming.

The machine activated with a rising mechanical hum.

Rings spun.

Metal needles lowered toward Ku’s chest.

The moment they touched him—

Ku’s body arched violently.

A horrible sound tore from his throat.

Not just pain.

Something deeper.

Something being ripped away.

A faint spectral shape began to form above his chest — the blurry outline of his Meller Dog Guardian Beast.

But it wasn’t stable.

The technicians frowned.

“Synchronization unstable.”

“Output dropping.”

The machine forced more power through the needles.

Ku’s scream turned into a wet choking sound.

Then suddenly—

The spectral shape shattered like glass.

The machine sparked.

Ku’s body went limp.

Flatline.

One technician sighed.

“Another failure.”

Akai stared at the body.

His fists clenched inside the restraints.

“Dispose of it,” the technician said casually.

A guard dragged Ku’s corpse off the table like broken equipment.

Then they turned to Akai.

“Next.”

They strapped him down.

Cold metal locked around his arms, chest, and legs.

Akai forced himself to breathe slowly.

The machine lowered.

Needles pierced his chest.

The pain exploded instantly.

His vision went white.

It felt like claws digging into his soul — not flesh — something deeper being torn apart.

Above him, a faint shape began to appear.

A small winged silhouette.

His Hider Bat.

The technicians leaned closer.

“Small beast.”

“Low combat classification.”

“Still usable.”

The machine increased power.

The Hider Bat shrieked silently in the air, its form stretching unnaturally as the device tried to force it out of Akai’s body.

Akai’s heart pounded.

His mind filled with one thought.

Survive.

But something went wrong.

The machine flickered.

The bat’s form blurred violently.

A pulse of unstable energy burst through the rings.

One technician cursed.

“Resonance spike!”

“Shut it—”

The machine detonated with a sharp electrical crack.

The rings stopped spinning.

Smoke filled the room.

Akai’s body went limp in the restraints.

No heartbeat detected.

One guard checked quickly.

“Dead.”

The technician shrugged.

“Another failure. Toss him with the others.”

They removed the restraints and dragged Akai’s unmoving body away.

No ceremony.

No concern.

Just another failed experiment.

Minutes later—

A metal door opened somewhere deeper in the facility.

The guards threw Akai’s body onto a growing pile of corpses.

Mercenaries.

Subjects.

Children.

All dumped together in a cold disposal chamber where failed experiments were left before incineration.

The door slammed shut.

Silence returned.

Steam pipes hissed softly overhead.

For a long time, nothing moved.

Then somewhere within the pile of bodies—

Akai’s fingers twitched.

The disposal chamber was cold.

Not the natural cold of winter air, but the artificial chill of a room meant to slow decay before incineration.

Rows of steel pipes ran across the ceiling, dripping condensation onto the concrete floor. A faint red warning light blinked slowly in one corner, painting the piles of bodies in dull pulses of crimson.

Mercenaries.

Prisoners.

Children.

All discarded together like broken tools.

Akai lay buried among them.

His body should have been dead.

His heart had stopped.

His lungs had stopped.

But somewhere deep inside him—

Something refused to let go.

At first it was only a faint twitch in his fingers.

Then a shallow breath.

Pain followed.

Not the sharp pain of wounds, but a deep, burning pressure spreading through his chest, like something inside him was struggling to exist.

Akai’s eyes opened.

The world was blurry. His vision swam between shadows and red light.

For a moment he didn’t understand where he was.

Then the smell hit him.

Blood.

Burned flesh.

Chemicals.

Memory crashed back into him all at once.

Ku screaming.

The machine.

The needles tearing into his soul.

Akai tried to move.

His arm shifted slightly, sliding against another body.

Ku’s body.

The young mercenary’s face was pale and still, eyes half open but empty.

Akai froze.

A slow breath left his chest.

“…Ku…”

No answer.

Of course there wasn’t.

Akai forced himself to sit up.

The movement sent a wave of agony through his entire body. His muscles barely responded, like they no longer fully belonged to him.

But something else was happening.

Something wrong.

Something new.

The air around him felt… heavy.

Like pressure building inside a sealed chamber.

Then he saw it.

Faint wisps of pale energy drifting from the bodies around him.

Thin threads of light leaking from their chests.

Guardian Beast residue.

Fragments of soul energy left behind after failed extractions.

Normally, that energy would fade into nothing.

But here… in this chamber…

It wasn’t fading.

It was gathering.

And it was moving.

Toward him.

Akai’s breathing slowed.

The energy curled through the air like mist drawn by gravity.

Toward his chest.

Toward the place where his Guardian Beast had almost been torn away.

Then it touched him.

The moment it did—

Pain exploded through his body.

Akai gasped and collapsed forward.

It felt like fire spreading through his veins.

No.

Not fire.

Voices.

Echoes.

Fragments of broken instincts and dying Guardian Beasts.

Claws.

Fangs.

Wings.

Fear.

Rage.

The last desperate emotions of creatures ripped from their hosts.

Akai’s mind screamed.

His body convulsed against the cold floor.

The energy didn’t just touch him.

It poured into him.

Through the wound in his chest where the extraction machine had broken something.

His own Guardian Beast reacted instantly.

The faint shape of the Hider Bat appeared above him.

Small.

Weak.

Barely formed.

But it wasn’t alone anymore.

The drifting fragments of other Guardian Beasts began to merge into it.

Not cleanly.

Not naturally.

They tore into the bat’s form like wild animals fighting for survival.

The bat’s wings twisted.

Its shape stretched.

Its small body expanded as more fragments forced themselves inside.

Akai clawed at the floor.

His vision blurred as the pressure in his chest grew unbearable.

He felt something inside him change.

Not growing stronger.

Not becoming whole.

Becoming something else.

The bat shrieked silently as its form mutated.

One wing grew larger than the other.

New jagged shapes formed along its body.

Its eyes burned with a deep crimson glow.

Not pure.

Not stable.

But alive.

A creature born from broken souls and unfinished deaths.

Akai collapsed completely.

The last thing he saw before darkness swallowed him again—

Was the mutated shadow hovering above him.

A twisted Guardian Beast that should not exist.

A scavenger born from the remains of the fallen.

Ravager "Bat"

And somewhere deep within the silent facility…

The alarms had not yet noticed

that one of the dead

was no longer dead.