The blast doors did not merely open; they were erased.
A high-frequency thermal pulse shrieked through the lab, vaporizing the reinforced steel into a rain of molten droplets. Through the swirling, sickly yellow haze of the neuro-lytic gas, four silhouettes emerged.
They moved with a synchronized, rhythmic clanking—the heavy, industrial sound of **The Iron Lungs**. These were the Empire's specialized internal security, men whose original respiratory systems had been surgically hollowed out and replaced with pressurized brass bellows. Their masks wheezed with every step, a mechanical *hiss-thump* that sounded like the heartbeat of a dying factory.
***Li Wei*** sat cross-legged atop the central surgical table, his left wrist still bolted into the **Med-Tech 4000** unit.
The silver wires from the machine were no longer just connected to him; they were 'integrated'. They pulsed with a rhythmic, violet luminescence that matched the frantic thrum of his **Dead Heart**. He looked less like a doctor and more like a human spider, perched at the center of a complex web of neural signals and shadow-matter.
---
"Wei, their plate-mail is coated in 'Anti-Void' salts," ***Xiao Chen*** warned, her voice vibrating with the strain of filtering the heavy interference.
"The Shadow-Qi will slide off their surface like water on oil. Direct strikes to the chest or head will be wasted energy. Your stability is at 82%. You cannot afford a prolonged engagement."
Li Wei did not open his eyes. He didn't need them.
Behind his closed lids, he saw the world in high-definition anatomical schematics. He could see the General standing five meters ahead of him—a towering specter of obsidian ink. He could feel the tension in Hanzo's shadow-limbs, a coiled spring of 'Void-Hunger' that was begging to be released.
"General," Li Wei's voice echoed through the telepathic bridge, cold and devoid of any human warmth.
"Do not fight the steel. The Empire built them to be fortresses, but every fortress needs to breathe. They are dependent on the **Exhalation Valves** at the base of their throats. We will be the 'Embolism' in their machine."
---
The lead Iron Lung raised a massive hydraulic pulse-hammer. The weapon groaned as it gathered kinetic energy, the air around it shimmering with heat. As the hammer began its descent, Li Wei's fingers flickered over the virtual interface of the surgical arm.
*Shift. Overclock. Inject.*
Inside Hanzo's 'Shadow-Marrow', the silver threads turned white-hot.
The General did not dodge the hammer; he 'collapsed'. His shadow-form shrunk into a single point of infinite density, allowing the hammer to whistle through empty air, smashing the stone floor into powder.
Before the guard could recalibrate, the point of density exploded outward. Hanzo appeared directly inside the guard's guard-zone, his shadow-fingers elongating into needle-thin filaments of Void-Qi.
---
Li Wei watched the 'Surgery' from his mental throne.
"Now... the entry point," he whispered.
Hanzo's shadow-filaments did not strike the brass armor. Instead, they flowed like liquid smoke into the guard's **Exhalation Port**—the small, grated opening beneath the helmet designed to vent carbon dioxide.
The guard's mechanical wheezing stopped instantly.
The Void-matter entered the brass lungs and 'solidified'. Inside the suit, the guard's biological remnants—what little flesh was left—were flash-frozen by the absolute zero temperature of the shadow-matter.
The man didn't even have time to scream. He simply stood there, a hollow suit of armor filled with black ice, before toppling over with a heavy, metallic clang.
---
The remaining three guards froze. Their sensors couldn't track a target that moved between the layers of reality.
"Anomaly is using internal bypass tactics!" the second guard shouted, his voice a distorted mechanical growl.
"Switch to **Flame-Purge**! Burn the shadows out!"
The guards triggered the flamethrowers mounted on their forearms, bathing the lab in a sea of chemical fire.
The heat was agonizing. Li Wei felt his own skin begin to blister as the thermal feedback traveled through the neural bridge.
"Hanzo... absorb," Li Wei commanded, his teeth cracking under the pressure.
"Convert the heat. Use their own energy as 'Biological Fuel'."
---
The General didn't recoil from the flames. He stepped into them.
The violet glow of his shadow-body turned a violent, angry orange as he 'inhaled' the thermal energy. The Void-Qi acted as a heat-sink, pulling the calories from the fire and using them to 'Overclock' Hanzo's muscular density.
The General's shadow-claws grew, turning into jagged blades of solidified heat.
He moved like a blur of scorched air.
*One strike.* The second guard's **Brachial Plexus** was severed through the armor gaps.
*Two strikes.* The third guard's **Femoral Artery** was pinched shut by a shadow-clamp, causing his brain to stroke out from the sudden blood-pressure spike.
---
But as the fourth guard fell, Li Wei felt it—the **Void Hunger**.
Hanzo didn't stop. He stood over the dying guard, his shadow-mouth opening wide, a dark vortex swirling within. He wasn't just killing; he was trying to 'Consume' the man's residual life-force, his **Vitality-Qi**.
*"More..."* Hanzo's voice echoed in Li Wei's mind, a primal, ancient roar that threatened to shatter the neural bridge.
*"I am... empty, Surgeon. Give me... the light."*
"No!" Li Wei snarled, his hand slamming onto the surgical interface to trigger the 'Sedative-Pulse'.
"You are a Blade, Hanzo! Not a beast! If you drink from them, you become them!"
The feedback hit Li Wei like a physical blow. He vomited a mixture of blood and silver bile, his heart stopping for three full seconds before the **Dead Heart** jump-started itself with a violent spark.
---
The General shivered, the orange glow fading back into a cold, disciplined violet.
The 'Hunger' receded, leaving behind a silence so thick it felt like physical pressure.
The four Iron Lungs lay scattered across the floor—not as warriors, but as 'Failed Cases'.
Li Wei slumped against the mechanical arm, his vision swimming. He had won the battle, but he had felt the abyss staring back at him through Hanzo's eyes.
"Wei... look at the vault's primary terminal," Xiao Chen said, her voice unusually soft.
"The guards weren't just protecting medicine. They were protecting 'The Ledger'."
---
Li Wei forced himself to stand, his legs shaking as he disconnected the wrist-ports.
He walked to the glowing terminal at the back of the vault. On the screen was a document that bore his Master's digital signature—a file titled **"The 2,691: Anatomical Vulnerabilities of the High Court."**
It wasn't just a list of names. It was a 'Kill-Map'.
His Master hadn't just built the Emperor's army; he had mapped every single weakness in their bodies, every flawed graft, every unstable meridian.
The Master had known this day would come. He had left the 'Scalpel' in the hands of the only person who knew how to use it.
Li Wei's fingers trembled as he downloaded the data.
"2,691," he whispered, his obsidian eyes reflecting the scrolling names.
"The diagnosis is complete. Now... the extractions begin."
**Target Count: 2,691 (Remaining).**
***