Veil of Corruption

Lucas and his team retraced their steps back to the staging bay.

The dazed soldier and Lieutenant Carter were now moving. Whatever had happened to them was no longer affecting them.

Lieutenant Carter attempted to contact the command center through his datapad, but something was blocking the connection.

"The communication center has been destroyed by something; it's completely nonfunctional," Lucas said, his voice hollow and lifeless.

Soon, the team that had gone to the Administration Hall returned, perplexed expressions on their faces.

"The Administration Hall was eerily empty. Everything was perfectly in place, yet no one could be found. There were no signs of a struggle or conflict. It was as if everyone had simply vanished into thin air," remarked a member of the administration hall team.

Lucas nodded with a deadpan expression.

Carter had stopped putting any effort into the brick that used to be a datapad. He moved towards them and said, "The departure bay leads directly to the exit. Let's move."

Lucas and the rest of the team saw Carter and nodded. Despite having just witnessed dozens of mutilated Sundered corpses left by some unknown entity, the presence of a lieutenant Sundered was enough to ignite a faint glimmer of hope.

Darkness engulfed the hallway leading to the departure bay, so thick that even Carter struggled to find their way. They relied on the fire sparked by Carter's ability to illuminate the path, but the light seemed to shrink away from the darkness, as if it were being consumed by it. Somehow, they managed to reach the departure bay, but as they stepped inside, a chilling cold shot through them, dimming the flame. The cold was unnaturally intense; even if the buffer zone had failed, no mountain winds could bring such a biting chill. This darkness-filled cold seemed to devour every trace of warmth it could find.

Suddenly, through the peripheral vision, he noticed someone approaching them from the side of the buffer zone. He was pale, with long white hair trailing behind him as he walked. His eyes were lifeless, hollow, as though there was nothing behind them. He came closer, stopping just a dozen meters away.

Carter and the rest of the squad tensed up, moving cautiously toward the pale child. Carter spoke up.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The child smiled back at them.

.............

The one who took her hand, clean and swift, was Ben—or what was left of him.

Before she could thrust her rapier at Ben, who no longer had his lower body, the complex shook. She grabbed the wall to steady herself but didn't halt her attack. The rapier continued its path toward the target, but before it could reach, a massive darkness enveloped Ben. The arm in the mouth was flung away, and the rapier, swallowed by the darkness, kept sinking until it reached the hilt. Before her hand could enter the pool of darkness, Silia pulled it back. Quickly, she grabbed the severed arm and used the crimson dome to reattach it, but the arm remained useless, hanging lifelessly without giving her any control. Without a proper healer, it wasn't going to work.

Slowly, the pool of darkness subsided. Silia watched tensely, charging her crimson beam to strike the abomination that would rise from the shadows. However, the darkness didn't vanish completely; a small chunk lingered, resembling a mass of thick black goo. Suddenly, it moved toward the cabin. Silia chased after it, but it was much faster. The black goo headed toward another pool of darkness where Ben's lower half should have been. Silia stopped at a distance, ready to fire. As the darkness cleared, it left behind a huge pile of dark goo. She shot her crimson beam, but this time the goo absorbed it. Undeterred, Silia activated another relic—a black ring with an eye etched on it—channeling her Aether to launch a new attack. Before she could, the black goo began to shift, forming into a figure. It mirrored a black-clad woman wearing relics similar to Silia's. Her hair was white, her face scarred. It was Silia's clone.

....................

Emily had already manually locked Site 0. All the rooms were secured, and the containment unit had blocked access for everyone, including the captain. However, Room 0 couldn't be overridden as its control still remained with the captain. Emily now needed to alert the other departments about the situation. Her destination was the communication unit in the Maintenance Bay. She had already seen the state of the communication department; there was nothing left for her there anymore since Briggs had destroyed the network unit. However, not all hope was lost—the Maintenance Department workshop had a genius among them. They would have a solution; she just had to reach them.

.......................

James Muller sneezed uncontrollably and quickly cleaned it up.

"Is the heater not working?"

In the maintenance bay, they had no idea what was happening outside. They rarely ventured out unless work demanded it.

One of the workers asked, "The team that went to fix the wall, they didn't come back, did they?"

"Yeah, the drone team said the wall damage was massive, like a monster went on a rampage."

"Yeah, right. If it were a monster, they'd have locked it up at Site 0."

"Shhh... don't mention that place. It's bad luck. Nothing good ever comes from talking about it."

"Speaking of bad luck... I heard Muller had a commission. Who would seriously invite misfortune from the old man?"

"It was the new lieutenant Jaden, I believe. Maybe he just didn't know any better."

"Ahh, right, that makes sense. Well, that haughty dude seriously deserved a beating from me; the bastard treated Gabi like crap."

"Dumbass, it was the new instructor, Seth, or whatever his name was. Dude's not a lieutenant—lieutenants wear uniforms."

"Yeah, I mean him. Dude was seriously giving me bad vibes."

.................

Seth sneezed.

Malo glanced at his teacher. "Are you alright?"

Seth wiped his nose. "Someone must be talking behind my back."

Malo frowned in confusion. "What?"

Seth scrolled through his datapad, muttering, "Nothing."

'There's no new information about the breach. Damn it, Emily, at least tell me what's going on.'

Seth stood up and walked toward the exit.

Malo called out from behind, "Where are you going?"

Without turning his head, Seth replied, "On a date with a beautiful lady."

Malo, confused, muttered, "Date?"