The magnetic freight hauler hissed as it settled into the red dust of the Western Wastes, the sound dying almost instantly in the thin atmosphere. Aurelius Marakā stepped out into air that felt brittle and unnaturally cold. It wasn't a natural winter; it was the lingering frost of decades of GHC energy testing that had sucked the thermal life out of the soil. He pulled his collar up, feeling the grit already beginning to settle in the creases of his gear.
Ahead of them, Sub-Facility Rho-7 sat like a bruised eye in the earth. It was a half-buried dome of reinforced concrete and lead-lined plating, mostly forgotten by the world but still humming with a lethal, invisible energy. The GHC called it the Seed Vault, a name that felt too hopeful for a place that housed their most violent scientific failures.
Aurelius didn't look for guards. He knew better. "The threat isn't GHC patrols," he said, his voice sounding flat in the thin air. "It's the automated defense. The facility is ringed by high-frequency Aura Suppressor Fields."
Lena didn't look up from her sensor array, her fingers dancing over the holographic interface. "He's right. These fields are designed to overload and neutralize any mana usage that isn't pre-registered. White, Black, or Elemental—it doesn't matter. If you even think about a Zenith-Burst or try to flare the Stigma for defense, the feedback will cause an instantaneous neural collapse. You'll be brain-dead before you hit the ground."
Aurelius looked down at his hands, then at the Chains of Oblivion wrapped tight around his forearms. "It forces Absolute Discipline. I can't rely on raw power here. I have to use the Chains for controlled, infinitesimal negation. It's a needle-threader's game. I have to keep the Black Aura output so low the fields just see it as background noise, not a threat."
Before they could even start their approach, Lena's display flared a harsh, rhythmic crimson. A massive, structured pattern of kinetic signatures was bloomimg on the edge of the long-range scans. They weren't just moving toward them; they were surrounding them with terrifying mathematical precision.
"GHC mobilization," Lena announced, her voice tightening. "But the movement is weird. It's following a highly specific, predictive path. They aren't searching for us, Aurelius. They're closing off the sectors we haven't even gone to yet."
Aurelius didn't need to see the screen to know who was behind it. "Izumi Kaelen," he muttered. The name felt like a weight. "She isn't hunting a man. She's hunting a flaw in my geometry. She knows I rely on the Unseen Paths—those gaps in reality my father taught me to find. She's sealing the exit points before I even step toward them. She's trying to box me into the dome."
He knew they had no time for a long debate. Aurelius reached into the assignment packet and pulled out a small, heavy device—a pre-war kinetic drill. It looked like an antique compared to GHC tech, but it was purely mechanical, which was exactly why they needed it.
"We can't use brute force to get in," Aurelius explained, gesturing for Aoi and Lena to move closer. "The Suppressor Fields register volume. If we blow the door, the whole sector goes into lockdown and the GHC drops a kinetic strike on our heads. We have to use Negative Space."
His plan was a gamble based on the extreme precision his father had beaten into him during years of training. He looked at his companions, trusting them with his life as he always did. "Aoi, Lena, you two are the lure. I need you to create a localized Kinetic Dissonance Field about a half-mile east of here. Make it messy. Make it loud. I want the GHC sensors to think a small army is trying to break through the perimeter. Draw their eyes away from the dome."
While they played the part of the distraction, Aurelius would be the ghost. "I'll use the drill to make a single, needlepoint hole in the dome's casing. Just enough for one person to slip through. I'll use the Chains to negate the Suppressor Field's frequency, but only at that one tiny point. If my focus slips for a second, the field catches me and it's over."
He adjusted the fine, dark material of the Chains on his arms. He could feel the cold Black Aura humming beneath the surface, wanting to roar, but he held it back with an iron grip. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his father's old silver coin, pressing the cold metal against his temple for a moment to center his mind. The chaos of his core settled into a sharpened point.
"Lena, initiate the Dissonance Field in three minutes," Aurelius ordered. "Aoi, you cover the acoustics. Make sure they don't hear the drill."
Inside that dome, the Purple Aura specimen was waiting. It was the ultimate prize, a remnant of a power that could change everything, and it was guarded by a perfect shield of GHC order. Aurelius took a deep breath of the freezing air, feeling the familiar hum of the Chains. He was ready to walk into the lion's den.