The chamber was alive with sound. Not the sound of breathing, footsteps, or even machinery—it was the pulse of something massive, something older than the lab's steel skeleton itself. The colossal bio-mechanical guardian stirred, its form a grotesque marriage of human sinew and engineered plating. Hydraulic veins pulsed like arteries, glowing with crimson light, each beat reverberating through the floor.
Lin stood at the front of the trio, shoulders squared, though his body ached from the last battle. His breathing was measured, but his knuckles whitened as he clenched his fists. Keller's hand twitched near his gun, though both of them knew bullets would do little against something of this scale. Min-joon staggered back, his mind already unraveling at the sight of the creature that seemed to crawl out of hell itself.
