Ryu couldn't believe what he was seeing. That beautiful woman he had saved days ago had just ruined his interrogation with the mayor's Sombro.
He had given the order for the Cobalt Flames to attack the Sombros in the meeting room, while he himself had decapitated the vice mayor in a single strike.
The mayor's Sombro tried to flee, and Ryu went after him. The Cobalt Flames were tasked with eliminating the Sombro guards in the corridor who had begun to attack. The lights in the shelter went out, and he knew it could only be the work of Nefaris infiltrated in the monitoring room.
Ryu cornered the mayor's Sombro in an empty room, and the two fought for long minutes. The Sombro was strong and fast, but no match for the Hinoken leader.
Soon, Ryu had the creature pinned to the floor, his right knee pressing against its head. The blue light activated on Ryu's uniform was the only thing illuminating him and the Nefari in that room. His Lumen was also active, and with his abilities, he could easily fight in the dark against a creature made of shadows.
The Sombro clawed at the floor and thrashed, now in its original form, emitting high-pitched growls. But Ryu wasn't going to kill it.
Not yet.
Not until he uncovered everything about the resistance group from Xingguo and how they had allied with the Nefaris.
For that, Ryu used torture techniques—severing parts of the Sombro's body to force it to answer his questions.
The creature resisted for quite a while before it began to give up bits of information. Ryu, now standing with only one foot keeping the creature pinned to the floor, listened closely and mentally noted everything that was being revealed.
Just as he was about to learn something valuable—like the name of the resistance leader behind the attacks—both Ryu and the Sombro were caught off guard by a loud kick that shattered the door.
And there she was… the same woman he had saved days ago, now about to ruin everything.
She shot the Sombro in the head without hesitation, before Ryu could protest. Black blood sprayed through the air, splashing even across the face of the Hinoken leader.
He was stunned… and very, very angry.
As he stood and wiped the dark blood from his face with his uniform sleeve, his eyes locked onto Amara with the cold stare of a predator ready to strike.
"Mr. Tsukishiro? Are you okay? We came here to help and—"
"HELP?" Ryu shouted, startling Amara and Miyu, who stood just behind her with a flashlight. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?!"
"I… I…" Her hands trembled around the rifle she had just fired.
"It was the guy in the monitoring room who told us to come here, Mr. Tsukishiro! He said the Cobalt Flames were in danger!" Miyu rushed to explain, her hands also shaking in the face of the furious leader.
"The guy in the monitoring room?" Ryu repeated in disbelief. "That room was taken over by infiltrated Nefaris! How could you believe a Nefari so blindly?!"
The two friends were struck by the deepest horror.
"But he… he was human. He didn't smell like a Sombro," Amara said, turning to Miyu, who nodded in agreement.
"HE WAS A VAZCAR!" Ryu couldn't hold back his scream. "That Sombro you killed was giving me all the information about their plan—he even said there are multiple Vazcars infiltrated here too… But then you barge in and kill him without thinking twice, just because you believed whatever crap a Vazcar told you!"
Amara and Miyu dropped to their knees at once and lowered their heads.
"Mr. Tsukishiro, please forgive me! Miyu only came with me—she had nothing to do with my mistake. Punish only me!" Amara hurried to plead.
"I'm guilty too. We both trusted the Sombro—I mean… the Vazcar who urged us to interrupt the interrogation. Please, sir, don't punish only Amara. I'm to blame too!"
"SILENCE!" Ryu shouted again, frightening the two girls even more. "I don't want to hear your voices anymore. You'll stay here in this room until I return and decide what to do with you. Understood?"
They both nodded silently, not daring to speak again, until the storm that was Ryu stormed out of the room, slamming and locking the door behind him.
Amara and Miyu held each other and cried, while the blood of the dead Sombro pooled more and more across the cold floor where they knelt.
______ 🌙 ______
Meanwhile, on the other side of the shelter, with a mental order inaudible to human ears, the Vazcar commanded his fellow Vazcars to attack. Many were already inside dormitories, possessing the bodies of family members—bodies whose families hadn't even noticed the difference. And from there, chaos erupted.
Next, the cunning Vazcar gathered all his theatrical skill to issue a desperate alert through the loudspeakers:
"Citizens of Mizuri, run immediately to the main gate! The shelter is overrun with Sombros! Save yourselves, run, run…"
With a massive grin, the Vazcar delighted in the chaos spreading through the shelter as Sombros joined the Vazcars in the massacre that was part of the plan. He spread his arms wide and laughed maniacally.
It was all thanks to those naïve girls who believed his act and stopped the Hinoken leader from uncovering the full plan at stake.
People began fleeing the dorms in desperation, only to reach the main gate and find it sealed shut. The Hinoken army, on the outside, tried desperately to break it down and enter the battle—but the material was far too strong, and all efforts were in vain.
The Vazcar's joy quickly faded from his face as he watched through the security cameras: the Cobalt Flames were fighting and easily taking down every Nefari in their path. One of them—a young man with twin swords—ran to the elevator that led to the monitoring room. That's when the Vazcar realized his part in the plan was over.
He drained the life from the man he had been possessing in an instant, leaving the body limp and dying, then fled from it—jumping into the body of a tiny mosquito, too small for the warrior to notice.
The Vazcar flew over the warrior's head just as he entered the room and escaped the chaos of the shelter in his new and temporary form.
The plan hadn't gone exactly as expected, but they had still achieved something great that day.
Something the Hinoken army—and all of Aokai—would never forget.
Now he, Kuro Shin, had to prepare for the next attack in which he would play his part…
And it would happen soon.