The corridors narrowed as Ka-nar and the Protector ran deeper, their footsteps echoing between metallic walls. The air grew colder, filled with the tang of steel and chemicals.
"Where are we going?" Ka-nar asked, trying to keep pace.
The Protector didn't answer immediately. He stopped before a reinforced wall, his gloved hand brushing across its smooth surface. His aura shimmered faintly as if sensing something beyond. Then, with a sudden push against a concealed panel, a section of the wall hissed open.
A hidden passage revealed itself, steep stairs spiraling downward into darkness.
Ka-nar's Lens flickered.
> Unauthorized passage detected. Access level: Unknown.
"An underground facility?" he whispered.
The Protector glanced back, his mask glinting under the red alarms. "This company is a shell, Ka-nar. What you've seen above is just a distraction. The real truth is buried beneath."
They descended.
The deeper they went, the more the silence pressed against Ka-nar's ears. At last, they emerged into a vast chamber—cold, sterile, lit by pale white lights that hummed faintly.
Ka-nar's breath caught.
Rows of cylindrical glass pods stretched across the hall, each filled with a greenish liquid. Inside floated half-finished humanoid shapes—muscles, nerves, and mechanical implants woven together like grotesque sculptures. Some twitched. Others stared blankly with lifeless eyes.
"This… this is…" Ka-nar's voice trembled.
"Exo-Skeleton prototypes," the Protector said grimly. "But not the kind you saw on Satsujin. These… are hybrids. Part flesh, part machine. Experiments that should never exist."
Ka-nar's stomach churned. His Lens automatically scanned the nearest pod—
> Subject: Failed Human Weaponization Project. Scientist: Hiyoro Goto.
"Hiyoro Goto… again," Ka-nar muttered. The name burned into his memory like a curse.
They moved deeper into the lab. On one side, massive blueprints lined the walls—sketches of skeletal armor fused directly to spines, diagrams of brainwave control interfaces, and red-marked corrections signed in an elegant hand: Dr. Hiyoro Goto.
At the far end stood a sealed vault door. Unlike the crude labs around them, this door gleamed with precision engineering. Its surface bore a faded inscription:
"For the next bearer of the Lens."
Ka-nar froze. His pulse thundered. "This… this has my name written all over it…"
The Protector studied him, his voice unusually low. "Do you feel it? The Lens reacts."
Indeed, Ka-nar's Neno Lens pulsed violently, glowing with lines of data. A prompt blinked across his vision:
> Access possible. Risk level: Extreme.
Ka-nar raised his hand toward the scanner, his palm shaking. But before he could make contact, the ground trembled.
From the shadows above, mechanical hatches opened. Drones descended in swarms, armed with bladed appendages and pulse rifles.
The Protector's aura blazed to life, golden energy flowing around him like fire. "They've found us."
Ka-nar staggered back, torn between fear and the vault door that called to him. His Lens flickered with warnings, with possibilities.
Do I open it now? Or run?
The Protector drew his twin blades, his masked gaze fixed on the swarm. "Ka-nar, whatever's in that vault—it's connected to you. Decide quickly. I can only hold them off for so long."
The first wave of drones screeched, diving down.
Ka-nar's eyes locked on the vault, his chest rising and falling. Something deep inside urged him—The answers are there. The truth about Sato Akira, the Lens, and my fate… all of it.
With trembling fingers, Ka-nar placed his palm against the scanner.
The vault hissed.
A deep rumble echoed through the chamber as ancient mechanisms unlocked, steam escaping from hidden vents. Slowly, the massive door began to part, revealing a blinding light within—
And as the Protector clashed with the swarm, sparks flying in every direction, Ka-nar stepped into the unknown.