They sprinted down the corridor, the sound of battle echoing behind them. The undead carrying Neo followed close, its bony feet clanging on the steel floor.

After a few turns, they reached a room made entirely of reinforced steel. The air was cold, thick with dust and oil.

"Left! Let's go left!" Raito shouted. They darted down the hallway.

As Raito turned a corner, his eyes caught a CCTV camera blinking red in the corner. He froze for half a second, someone was watching.

Then a speaker crackled to life.

"Well, well… looks like you're still breathing," Itoshi's voice echoed through the corridor, smug and mocking. "You can stop running, you know. Surrender now and we'll make it quick. Try to keep running, and the monsters in that sector will do the job for us."

Raito glanced at Kira, both pale and silent.

"You're heading into the back sector," Itoshi continued. "Behind the Black Gem containment zone. It's crawling with monsters, failed experiments, hungry and waiting. But hey, surrender now, and maybe we'll just kill you fast. A clean death. What do you say?"

The speaker crackled again.

Raito snarled. "That bastard…" He jumped, smashing his boot into the speaker. Sparks burst out as the device shattered. "What kind of 'deal' is that?!"

They kept running.

Kira panted beside him, voice trembling. "Then what now? That place, behind the Black Gem sector, it's suicide. We don't even know what kind of monsters are down there."

Raito didn't slow down. "We don't have a choice. If we wait, we die. If we surrender, we die. So we'll fight, till we can't anymore."

Kira's jaw tightened. "Then we fight till we die, huh?"

"Just shut up," Raito growled. "Let me think."

They sprinted deeper into the steel corridor, the sounds of metal clashing and undead screams fading behind them. But ahead, something else was waiting. A deep rumble echoed from the darkness, like the growl of something massive waking up.

Raito's grip tightened on his dagger. Whatever was ahead, it wasn't human.

Raito kept running, breath sharp and steady, the echo of their footsteps bouncing through the metallic corridors. Kira stayed close behind, silent but tense. They turned a sharp corner, sprinting at full speed, until Raito suddenly froze.

He blinked, his pupils flickering faintly blue. Through his undead's vision, he saw something, then nothing. One of his undead, which had been scouting ahead, vanished from his perception in an instant. The last thing it saw was darkness, and then a massive blur crushing it into fragments.

"What the hell…" Raito muttered, his voice low.

"What happened? Is there a problem?" Kira asked, skidding to a stop beside him.

Raito's jaw tightened. "I'm not sure. The undead guiding us took a turn into another passage, then something shattered it. Completely. Whatever did it moved too fast to see."

Kira's eyes darted around the dimly lit hallway. "Something strong enough to destroy one of your undead instantly? That's not good, Raito."

"I know," Raito said, scanning ahead. "But we don't have a choice. The undead died near the exit. If we want to get out of here alive, we'll have to face whatever killed it."

Kira swallowed hard, then nodded. "Fine. Then we fight it together."

"Exactly," Raito said. "And when we defeat it, we'll break through that exit, no matter what's waiting on the other side."

They resumed running, faster this time, the metallic air humming with tension. After a few seconds, they reached a massive steel door, partially open, light flickering faintly from within.

Raito and Kira exchanged a glance, then slipped inside.

The sight before them froze them in place.

It wasn't a normal room, it was a chamber, over a hundred feet high, the ceiling lost in shadow. The walls pulsed faintly with red veins of light, and the ground trembled like something alive beneath it.

And standing in the center, three colossal figures, their bodies made of blackened stone and molten light, were Golems. Each one nearly scraping the ceiling, their eyes glowing like burning cores.

Kira took a step back, her face pale. "T-Three… King Golems…?"

Raito's expression stayed cold, focused. "Yeah. I see them."

Kira clenched her fists. "Each of those is rank B. I could maybe take one… but three? We'll be crushed before we blink."

Raito smirked faintly, stepping forward, eyes glinting. "Have you forgotten who you're talking to? These things are nothing to me."

"Nothing…?!" Kira started, but Raito was already moving.

He charged.

One of the King Golems roared, its molten eyes locking onto him. It raised a massive arm and slammed it down. The air cracked with the force, the impact shaking the entire chamber.

But Raito didn't fall. He raised his arm and caught the blow, his dagger in one hand, his other palm braced against the giant's fist. The floor beneath him cracked open from the pressure, but he didn't budge an inch.

With a surge of energy, Raito shoved upward, his aura flaring like a storm. The Golem's entire body lurched backward, crashing several meters away and skidding across the ground with a thunderous boom.

Kira's eyes widened.

Who is this guy? she thought, stunned. He's… stronger than a King Golem. Not just strong, something beyond human.

Then the lights in the massive chamber began to flicker, twisting and dimming one by one until the whole room was drenched in darkness. It wasn't just darkness, it was void, thick and alive, as though the shadows themselves were watching.

Kira's eyes darted around, her pulse quickening. In the flashes of light that remained, she caught glimpses of the horror around them, rows of cages, metal bars glowing faintly red, and inside them were monsters. Dozens of them. Some radiated heavy pressure, A-rank beasts, barely contained. Others were B-rank, snarling, clawing at their cages as if they could sense blood in the air.

"What is this place…" Kira whispered.

A thunderous boom tore through the silence. One of the King Golems swung its massive arm toward Raito.

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