The winds above the capital city whispered across the towers like ghosts in mourning. But below—the air was still, stale, and cold. Far beneath the glossy perfection of Descovinio-controlled Echelon City, a hidden complex thrummed quietly with forgotten power.
This was Level Null, a subterranean relic containment and research facility built during the First Consolidation. Officially, it didn't exist.
Unofficially, it housed the minds the regime could not kill—but refused to let walk free.
---
Enzo crouched atop a maintenance beam, masked as Zero, cloak rippling gently from the airflow ducts. Blue lights flickered below in rhythmic pulses—security patrols, drones, biometric locks. His contact had been right: the layout was labyrinthine but predictable. Decades-old defense routines were still hardcoded.
His voice crackled softly in his earpiece. Mira.
"Main chamber up ahead," she said. "Four drones. Suppression-grade. Don't let them tag you."
"Copy. You tracking the pulse?"
"Solace's relic signature is faint, but yes. Something's interfering. Possibly the power dampeners."
Zero moved, leaping silently across the metallic span. CAIN pulsed faintly at his hip, sensing tension. His mind stayed grounded. Focused.
---
Back at the hideout, Mira stared at the flickering interface of the scanner. Her pale fingers danced over dials, adjusting the relic harmonics. Even now, the strange lines of memory in her eyes betrayed her constant internal calculations.
She hadn't spoken much since joining AGILA, but when she did, it was always with eerie precision.
Her relic compatibility was beyond normal. Not built for combat, but for understanding. She could sense relic behavior, disruptions, instability.
The others called it a gift. Mira called it a side effect of survival.
---
Inside Level Null, Zero disabled the final drone with a precision strike. It crumpled to the floor, sparking.
A hiss echoed behind him. Doors unlocked—old, heavy, hissed open like something exhaling its final breath.
The room beyond was circular. Walls lined with relic cores—sealed, labeled, abandoned.
At the center, strapped to a medical framework, sat an older man with cybernetic implants branching down his arms like veins. His skin was pale, but his eyes burned bright.
"Solace?"
The man turned slowly. "Depends. Are you here to kill me, or break me out?"
"Break out," Zero replied.
Solace smiled. "Then shut up and cut me loose. I hate long goodbyes."
As Zero moved toward him, CAIN twitched. A pulse surged through his spine. Time blurred.
---
The walls shifted. Blood. Screams. Flames.
He was seeing a battlefield—people he'd never known. A woman with a similar saber. Her voice—
"You mustn't let the blade define you—"
The vision snapped.
He gasped and nearly dropped the saber.
Solace raised an eyebrow. "First time?"
Zero nodded. "Memory bleed."
"They all bleed, eventually," Solace muttered. "But that one? That saber's different. CAIN remembers everyone it's ever killed. And it never forgets."
---
Back in the hideout, Mira stiffened. "Enzo. Your pulse spiked. You saw something."
"Not now," he said through clenched teeth. "We're exfiltrating."
---
They moved quickly through access shafts. Solace, though older, kept pace. The man had seen war. His knowledge of Level Null's infrastructure proved useful—he redirected Zero away from the electrified causeways just in time.
But security had noticed. Alarms shrieked. Drones flooded the shafts.
Zero activated CAIN.
Blink.
One second ahead. Two.
More visions. A girl screaming. A hand covered in fire.
He staggered, slicing through steel to regain momentum.
"Keep it together!" Mira's voice echoed in his comm.
"I'm fine!"
They breached the outer duct. A rush of clean air slammed into them. Zero hoisted Solace and leapt onto the extraction zipline.
As they soared above the dark rooftops of the underground city's slums, Solace looked back at Level Null.
"Do you know why they kept me alive?" he asked.
"Because you know something."
Solace nodded. "I know about Project Harrow. I know what your father's building beneath Echelon Tower."
Zero narrowed his eyes.
"I know this rebellion of yours?" Solace said, voice low. "It's not the first."
They vanished into the skyline.
---
That night, Mira stayed alone in the relic chamber, observing CAIN.
Its pulse had changed.
She placed her hand gently near it and whispered, "What have you shown him?"
But CAIN did not answer.
It only waited.