Chapter 72
It ends (3)
Before the explosion.
Mirin and Taye were walking side by side, halfway to the mission hall.
This was their usual routine. Around this time, their team would gather there to check what missions were available. If there was no compulsory assignment, they'd discuss the most suitable one from the current list—based on threat level,and known information on the Deadline creature, if there was any at all. After that, they'd head to the physical class halls or one of the other training halls to train for the specific creatures or creature they would be facing.
Even if no mission was taken, they'd still train. That was the rule. It kept their teamwork sharp. It made them feel prepared. Safe.
Taye always insisted on being early—five to ten minutes, minimum. She said it was about discipline. And by now, Mirin had learned not to argue. Besides, she didn't mind. The mission hall was always warm, always busy with movement and information and plans. It made her feel important.
And so, the twins walked through the final corridor, mid-conversation.
Mirin was speaking. "What type of girls do you think IAM l—"
When the speaker systems crackled to life.
A sharp electric hiss echoed through the Hold, cutting through every hallway, training chamber, and even the open walkways between buildings.
A voice. Warped. Cold. Multi-layered like something unnatural speaking from behind glass.
"It ends… now."
Mirin stopped walking.
The words hovered in the air like smoke.
Taye's brows furrowed. "What the hell was that?"
Before she could move—
The explosion hit.
The world didn't just shake—it detonated.
From somewhere deep within the Hold's core, a blinding flash of light erupted outward, followed by a wall of sound that shattered the still air.
The shockwave tore through the air like a god's scream.
The sound was unbearable. The sky cracked. The ground split. Light devoured everything in a blinding flash—white-hot and violent.
Mirin had no time to scream.
Taye moved first. Reflex. She lunged to cover her sister just as everything turned white. Heat punched them. The ground cracked. The air howled like a dying beast. Debris ripped through the air with deadly force.
Time became meaningless.
When they opened their eyes again, they were on the edge of what was left of the mission hall. Everything was burning.
A thick cloud of black smoke filled the air, choking and gritty.
The ground was unrecognizable—splintered with unnatural cracks that leaked dark, whispering steam, like fractures in the world itself. Blood ran down like ink.
They were bruised, bleeding, and disoriented.
Coughing, they pushed themselves up from where they had landed behind a partially collapsed display stand.
Mirin coughed. Blood in her mouth. Her ears rang. Her leg was bent wrong.
Taye pushed herself up slowly, bleeding from a cut across her scalp. She looked around in a daze.
"T-Taye… what the hell happened?" Mirin whimpered, her hands trembling, cuts across her arms.
But Taye's eyes were fixed ahead.
Carnage.
All around them, the base was in chaos.
Smoke choked the sky. Screams rang from every direction.
Corpses.
Bloodied. Torn. Smoking.
They were everywhere.
People they had seen just this morning, people who had laughed and eaten and yawned beside them—now reduced to meat.
Flames licked up one wall. The acrid stench of burning wires and scorched flesh filled their noses.
But worse—far worse—were the figures moving through the wreckage.
Moving with absolute purpose. Like they knew exactly where to strike.
Dressed in plain black cloaks. Hoods up. Faces hidden.
One dragged a long, hooked chain through the rubble, stepping over a dying novice and slamming it down with such force that the novice's spine split in two.
Another figure grabbed a screaming girl by her hair and slammed her face into a protruding rebar. There was a crunch—then a horrible, wet snap. The rebar pierced through her skull and kept going.
The body spasmed once. Then went still.
Another grabbed a corpse—and used it like a club. Slamming it into a wounded soldier so hard the body broke both of their necks.
One of them walked up to a limping novice—just a boy. Maybe fifteen. No weapon in hand.
The cloaked figure stabbed a knife directly into their own heart—yet it was the novice who collapsed, dead from a wound that didn't exist.
Screams echoed from the other side of the hall. The more experienced soldiers were fighting—but even they were struggling. Their Path methods were weakened.
Mirin retched, crawling backwards, eyes wide with terror. Her leg was bleeding badly.
Taye forced herself in front of her sister, her own knees trembling.
"Don't look," she whispered, voice cracking. "Don't look, don't look…"
One more death unfolded.
A novice—maybe older than them—raised his hands to fight, only for a figure to slice his throat with something too fast to see. His head slid off a second later, bouncing twice before rolling into the dirt.
It was a massacre.
"W-where are the others?" Taye whispered. "Where's IAM? Jason? Kepa? Loria?!"
She turned in every direction.
But the smoke offered no answers.
There were no familiar faces.
Only death.
Taye gritted her teeth, forcing herself to her feet. Her arm was dislocated. Her side burned. But she stood tall and pulled Mirin with her.
"Come on," she whispered. "We have to move."
Mirin nodded, tears already falling.
Guts. Bone. Pus. Blood.
It was all on display.
Taye kept Mirin close, pressing her against the still-warm rubble. Her voice was low, desperate.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you. I promise."
Every movement hurt. Their injuries screamed. But still—they stood. One foot. Then the other.
A few more steps.
And then...
CRACK.
A huge flail swung from behind them.
The metal ball crashed into their skulls simultaneously, bones crunching like fruit underfoot.
Their bodies collapsed in sync—one landing over the other.
The cloaked woman who had killed them laughed—a high-pitched, shrieking giggle—and dragged her weapon away, pieces of scalp and blood still clinging to the spikes.
Then she stepped over their corpses and moved on to her next victim.
The smoke swallowed them.