Duswanth pushed forward, his boots crunching over broken concrete and rusted metal debris, the faint hum of his electric blade guiding their path.
Every step echoed through the hollowed ruins, and the mist clung to their faces like a living thing.
The ruins of this place had long lost their name.
Once a city of lights and hub of technology, now it stands as a graveyard of cyber monsters and moss.
Buildings leaned like broken teeth, wrapped in vines, and the ground was still damp from the old flood that never truly went away.
The air reeked of decay and electricity, the scent of something alive yet dead at the same time.
"Are you sure we should be going deeper?" Devan asked, voice tight.
"This place… it's crawling with things we've never even seen."
Duswanth didn't glance back. "There's something here that I must need at all costs. If we leave now, we'll never know it, and someone else will."
Varsha folded her arms, tilting her head. Her eyes narrowed as she studied him.
"You're always looking for something, Duswanth. Always chasing… What is it this time? One of those monster cores? Or some weapons to fight back monsters?"
Duswanth's jaw tightened. "I'm not chasing. I'm finding. And if you want to survive in this world, you'd better learn the difference."
Kaviya glanced at him, worry and curiosity mingling in her eyes.
"What is it this time, Duswanth? You never look this serious unless…" She trailed off, sensing the weight in his words.
Even Arul, usually quiet and cautious, whispered under his breath, "I have a feeling he's right. There's something down here… something important."
The others exchanged glances, a mix of skepticism and unease. Yet despite their doubts, they followed.
Duswanth's insistence carried an unspoken authority, a sense that this path, however dangerous, was the one chance to uncover something that could change everything.
As they moved deeper, the ruins grew darker, the shadows stretching like tendrils.
The faint buzzing of distant mutated creatures reached their ears, but Duswanth's focus never wavered.
Every instinct screamed the answer to the thing he was hunting just ahead.
Varsha muttered, almost to herself, "He's always like that… always one step ahead, always thinking two moves further. I wonder what he's hiding this time."
Duswanth didn't answer. He didn't need to.
The aura of purpose around him was enough to make even the most skeptical of his companions fall in line. The deeper they went, the more the air seemed charged, like the ruins themselves were watching, waiting.
Duswanth's eyes flicked from cracked walls to shattered beams, his mind piecing together something no one else could see.
"This is it," he murmured. "Something's here… and I intend to find it before anyone else does. This will definitely change our life here onwards."
The team fell silent, the only sounds the distant dripping of water and the soft hum of Duswanth's blade.
Whatever lay ahead, everyone felt it, a secret buried in the ruins, one that could change everything.
Duswanth adjusted the dial on his electric blade until it gave a faint whirring hum.
That sound always grounded him as a reminder that as long as the blade worked, he was still alive.
Around him, his small group of survivors advanced cautiously through what used to be old business district, now just a labyrinth of cracked concrete and strange fungus.
"Varsha," he called, scanning the fog, "anything moving out there?"
No answer from her. Only the hiss of the wind slipping through broken glass.
Duswanth frowned.
Varsha was the team's scout with sharp eyes, sharper instincts. She never stayed quiet this long.
Something about her silence made the hair on his arms rise.
The silence broke with a distant screech that echoed across the ruined street. A moment later, pairs of glowing red and blue eyes began appearing in the shadows; one set, two, then dozens more.
It was like the darkness itself was waking up.
Devan cursed under his breath. "Oh, hell… not these things again."
The first of them came crawling out a massive rat with glistening fangs and patches of metallic scales covering its body.
Then another. And another. Within a few seconds, the entire alley came alive with movement.
"Fanged Rats," Duswanth muttered. "There's at least twenty."
He raised his weapon. "Positions! Don't let them surround us!"
The swarm attacked like a tide of claws and teeth.
Electric blades screamed through the fog, bolts and arrows zipped through the air, and the ruined streets erupted into chaos.
Duswanth slashed one of the beasts across the jaw, the electric blade burning through its flesh in a spray of sparks.
The creature's chest burst open, revealing a throbbing red crystal core that flickered like a dying ember before shattering to dust.
But more kept coming. The ground trembled beneath their claws.
Kaviya crouched behind a piece of fallen concrete, panting heavily, mud streaking her face.
"Duswanth! Why are they faster than before?" she cried out.
"They're not just mutated anymore," he said, parrying another lunge.
"They're adapting. Something's controlling them."
He caught Varsha's shadow in the corner of his eye — she was standing on a car roof, bow ready, but she wasn't firing.
Just watching. Her eyes were scanning the horizon, not the fight.
"Varsha!" Duswanth shouted between strikes. "You didn't warn us about this area being infested. What the hell's going on?"
She looked down briefly, expression unreadable.
Then she smiled faintly. "Must've slipped my mind."
He froze for half a second. That wasn't a mistake. That was a choice.
Before he could press further, Kaviya screamed, "Arul's gone! My brother he was right behind me!"
Duswanth turned. The space where Arul had stood was empty. Only his cracked communicator blinked weakly in the dirt.
No sound. No struggle. Just… gone.
Something cold twisted in Duswanth's stomach. They were being hunted not just by beasts, but by something smarter.
The ground began to tremble again, heavier this time.
Every rat froze mid-motion, turning in the same direction as if hearing a silent command. And then the earth split open.
A metallic roar shook the sky as a massive creature emerged from the underground tunnel twice the size of any Fanged Rat, with half its body made of steel.
Cables and broken circuitry hung from its spine like veins, glowing with violet energy.
Its claws dug into the soil, leaving burning marks where it stepped. The glowing red core on its chest pulsed like a living heart.
Kaviya's voice trembled. "It's… it's a Cyber Rat…" Her voice cracked as she added, "A Cyber Cosmic Virus."
The name fit too well.
A living machine born from the cosmic explosion flesh fused with technology, commanding its kin like soldiers in a hive.
Before anyone could move, a sharp twang echoed from above.
An arrow whistled down and embedded itself in the dirt beside Duswanth's foot. He looked up.
On the broken flyover, Varsha stood with the rest of the squad, and they raised their weapons, eyes cold.
Duswanth's chest tightened. "Varsha… what are you doing?"
She didn't flinch.
"You lied to us," she said, her voice calm but cruel. "You've been keeping a monster core for yourself. Hoarding them. You don't deserve Aurora."
"That's not true!" Kaviya shouted, stepping in front of Duswanth.
But another arrow came down, grazing her shoulder.
Duswanth's rage boiled up. "You idiots! You think I'd risk your lives for greed? We're all trying to survive!"
Varsha didn't answer. She simply raised her bow again and fired.
The Cyber Rat lunged at that moment. Duswanth barely rolled away, sparks flying as its claws tore through a concrete slab.
He swung his electric blade upward, slashing through its neck plating, but the creature barely flinched.
It roared, eyes blazing with purple fire.
He knew this was suicide, but he had no choice. If he turned his back now, both the monster and his former allies would kill him.
He charged. "Come on, then!" he shouted. "You want Aurora's location? You'll have to fight me for it!"
His blade struck sparks off the creature's armor. Every movement sent pain through his already battered body.
He ducked under a tail swipe, kicked off a rusted car, and plunged his blade deep into the monster's side.
The air lit up with a flash of violet energy.
"Duswanth!" Kaviya's voice cut through the roar. She threw a small capsule into the ground.
Smoke exploded everywhere with thick, grey, and suffocating. The battlefield vanished in seconds, but duswanth remained confused about what and why they were behaving like this.
Kaviya stumbled through the haze until she found Duswanth slumped against a wall, blood running down his arm.
"Why are they doing this?" she cried. "Varsha, Devan… they were our friends!"
Duswanth's voice came out rough and low. "Power does worse things to people than hunger ever could."
She tried to stop his bleeding, but he caught her wrist gently. "I came here to collect an Aurora Fragment," he said, coughing.
"To give it to them. To make us all stronger. But now…"
He looked at her with half a smile, eyes dimming. "…you're the only one I can trust."
The Cyber Rat roared again somewhere beyond the smoke.
Every sound of its mechanical limbs scraping against the ruined buildings echoed like thunder.
"Duswanth, we need to move," Kaviya whispered. "You can't fight anymore."
He nodded weakly. "If you can carry me… I'll lead you to the location. Then we can have aurora ourself."
Her hands trembled as she helped him to his feet, sweat and soot streaking both their faces.
"I'll carry you… no matter what it takes," Kaviya whispered, voice cracking under the weight of exhaustion and fear.
Duswanth nodded weakly, letting her lift him. Together, they vanished into the fog, the ruins swallowing them in its cold, damp embrace.
Behind them, the flickering violet core of the dying Cyber Rat pulsed one last time, then went dark.
Deep within the shadows of the ruined city, something stirred.
They reached the warehouse at last an old, rusted structure half-sunken in debris. Its massive doors were sealed tight, reinforced with layers of steel and complex locks.
Smoke and dust from the Cyber Rat battle still hung in the air.
Kaviya frowned. "We have to destroy the door lock. There's no other way. It's locked… we can't get in."
Duswanth gritted his teeth, pain stabbing through his back with every movement.
"Destroy it?" he rasped, one hand clutching his wound. "No… I can open it." His fingers traced the embossed keypad near the door.
"Watch and learn."
He took a deep breath, his voice low but firm.
"#EMPLOYEE CODE 420 – gate open."
The heavy doors shuddered, then slowly creaked open, gears grinding as ancient mechanisms stirred back to life.
A soft hiss escaped from inside as the locks disengaged completely.
Duswanth leaned against the wall, grimacing from the wound, but a faint, satisfied smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
Kaviya stared at him, wide-eyed, a mix of shock and awe filling her.
"You… you really knew how to open it, but how in the world did you do that?"
Duswanth nodded, his breathing heavy. "I told you… I've been preparing for this moment. Every step, every hunt… it all led here."
Duswanth calmly asked, "We all survived every nightmare, every monster, every lie… So tell me one thing, why are you all trying to betray me?"
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AUTHOR'S NOTE – KNOWN INFORMATION
Cyber Cosmic Virus:
A hybrid mutation of organic and mechanical evolution, created after the cosmic explosion. The "Cyber Fanged Rat" acts as a hive controller, commanding other infected beasts within its signal range.
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