The air shifted the moment they crossed into Hollowmark.
Kael felt it in the dirt — a weight beneath the soil, like the land itself remembered violence. The ruins here weren't like the rest of Ashfield's jagged remains. They were cleaner. Sharper. Collapsed deliberately. Bullet scars lined the stone. Blast marks still etched the roads like blackened tattoos.
This wasn't a collapse by nature.
This was a cleanup.
"They burned the records here," Kyo said, crouching near a pile of melted frames and charred identifiers. His voice was quieter than usual. "And they buried whoever asked too many questions."
Kael said nothing.
The two of them moved through the dead town without banners or system flares. Their HUDs stayed dim — no quest lines, no level gates. Just the constant ping of latent system energy and a growing sense of tension that buzzed like electricity beneath the skin.
Kael adjusted Kureha across his back. The blade felt heavy today — not from fatigue, but anticipation.
They were hunting ghosts.
No.
Worse.
They were hunting Vipers.
---
They found the first body near the cratered post office.
Not new. But not old, either.
A young man—no older than Kael—still armored in scavenged plates, with the mark of the Viper Guild branded onto his neck like a collar. His eyes were glassy. His mouth frozen mid-scream.
Kael knelt beside the corpse. Checked the position of the limbs. The wound.
"A single puncture," he murmured. "Back of the skull. Fast."
Kyo nodded. "Execution style. Professional. Not a raid."
They weren't the first ones here.
But they might still be the last.
---
They advanced into the center of Hollowmark, weaving through scorched alleyways and broken courtyards. The sun barely touched this place — like the sky itself had forgotten it.
Kyo moved like someone who had returned to familiar ruins. His steps were precise. He scanned the corners before turning. His fingers never strayed far from the daggers holstered across his chest.
Kael finally asked, "Have you been here before?"
Kyo didn't answer right away.
Then: "Once. A long time ago. When the Guild still smiled in public."
Kael looked over. "You were Viper?"
"No," Kyo said. "But I knew someone who was."
A pause.
"He didn't make it out."
Kael didn't press further. Not yet.
---
They reached the plaza at Hollowmark's heart — a cracked circle of stone, its centerpiece a broken monument to the first players who survived the System's emergence.
That statue had been decapitated.
In its place stood a metal spike.
Six heads hung from it — all fresh. All branded.
Kael's jaw clenched. Kyo didn't flinch.
"There's still movement in the area," Kael said. "They wouldn't leave a warning this recent without staying close."
"Agreed," Kyo said. "But we don't make a lot of noise. Not here."
Kael tapped the side of his HUD, lowering the visual noise to minimal.
> [Stealth Mode: Active – External Emissions Dampened] [Heartbeat Sync: 78 BPM] [Draw Cut Sync: 36.2% – Holding]
They faded into the ruins.
---
It took an hour before they spotted the bunker.
It was embedded beneath a collapsed church, shielded by fragmented data plates and camouflaged debris. No official System markers. No questline flagged.
But Kael saw the faint shimmer of a kinetic barrier. And the dried blood near the entry.
"Underground outpost," Kyo whispered. "Unregistered."
Kael's voice was steady. "Viper cache?"
"Or worse," Kyo replied.
They waited.
Watched.
Movement came — three figures in mismatched gear, Viper tattoos half-scrubbed off. Not high-ranking. Grunts. But still armed, still scanning.
One of them stopped and lit a flare — a chemical one, no system trigger.
Kael's eyes narrowed.
"Disruptors," he said.
"Yeah," Kyo confirmed. "They're keeping the System out. No tracking. No broadcast."
Kael stepped back from the ledge. His voice was ice.
"This isn't a cache."
Kyo nodded.
"It's a black cell."
---
They moved at nightfall.
No HUD support. No field map. Just the memory of the ruins and the path they traced by instinct. Kael took point — silent, efficient, blade ready. Kyo mirrored him, a shadow among shadows.
The first two guards never saw them.
Kael dropped his with one clean motion — Kureha through the spine, no wasted sound. Kyo slit the other's throat with a flick of obsidian steel.
No words.
No hesitation.
They slipped inside.
---
The bunker smelled like rust and gunpowder.
Files burned. Walls blackened with smoke. But deeper inside, they found it: a single room still running on emergency power, a terminal cracked open with a dozen broken memory chips still smoldering.
Kael picked one up.
"Encrypted," he muttered.
Kyo scanned the room. Then stopped.
There, on the far wall — carved in blood — was a name.
Four lines scratched in a jagged hand:
>"She still screams."
"We tried to save her the right way."
"The System refused."
"So now we take what it owes her."
Kael stared at the words. His hands trembled.
But it wasn't fear.
It was heat.
Rage.
Purpose.
He turned to Kyo. "This is where it started."
Kyo nodded. "And it's where we start ending it."
---
They left Hollowmark before sunrise.
No loot.
No fanfare.
Only fire — Kyo had burned the bunker behind them. Whatever secrets it held were ash now. But the scars they carried didn't fade.
As they reached the ridge above the ruins, Kael finally spoke.
"You said someone you knew was Viper."
Kyo paused.
"He was my brother."
Kael looked over. Quiet. Waiting.
"They made him kill a village," Kyo said. "Said it was corrupted. Said the System approved."
Kael's voice was low. "Was it?"
"No."
Kyo's eyes were hard. "It was a test. One he failed. He broke ranks. Saved a child. They executed him while he begged."
Silence stretched between them.
Kael said only one thing:
"Then we don't stop."
Kyo's voice came like a blade unsheathing.
"Never."
---
📍Checkpoint: Hollowmark Ridge – Viper Outpost Scorched 📊 Kael Draven – Status
Level: 16
Class: Ronin (Unique)
CP: 482
Draw Cut Sync: 36.2%
Ash Memory: 16%
Reputation: 12
Mental Clarity: 14
Resolve: Hardened
🗡 Kyo Added to Party (Temporary)
> Passive: Silent Retaliation
Reduces ambient noise radius by 25% when Kael is near. Improves Kael's counter-timing in stealth-based strikes.