The path ended where even the slums ceased to exist. We were far out. Beyond the last inhabited shacks, beyond the scrap heaps of Sector 9. There was no neon light here. Not even the pale gray of the smog clouds. Here, there was only blackness.
The ground beneath my boots changed. It was no longer made of concrete or metal plates. It was made of ash. Fine, gray dust that kicked up with every step and settled like a shroud on my clothes. The air tasted metallic. Bitter. Like blood that has been kept in the mouth for too long.
Rioji walked ahead. He wore a heavy coat with a high collar and his hands were buried deep in his pockets. He did not look like a teacher taking his student on a field trip. He looked like a gravedigger who wanted to do his work.
Before us, it loomed. Sector Zero.
It was not a building. It was a huge, gaping maw in the rock massif that supported the outer shell of Prime Eden. A massive steel gate, surely ten meters high, blocked the entrance. It was covered with warning signs whose paint had long since peeled off. A huge wheel, like that of a submarine or a bunker, sat in the center.
Rioji stopped. He kicked a pile of ash. "Welcome to the end of the world," he said dryly.
I stared at the gate. A cold feeling crawled up my neck. It was not fear. It was the instinct that screamed Run away. "What is this place?" I asked. My voice was almost swallowed by the wind.
Rioji turned to me. He leaned casually against the cold steel of the gate and played with an old lighter. Click. Clack. The flame danced. "The Ash Grave," he said. "Fifty years ago, this was a mine. They dug for Resonance Ore. Too deep. Too greedy."
He snapped the lid of the lighter shut. "There was an accident. Gas leaked out. Resonance contamination. The workers... they did not die. At least not in the way you think. They changed."
He knocked on the metal. It sounded hollow. Deadly. "The government sealed the sector. Everything in there is dead. Or wishes it were dead."
Rioji reached into his coat pocket and pulled something out. He threw it to me. I caught it reflexively. It was heavy, made of rubber and glass. A gas mask. It looked old. The visor was scratched and the rubber at the edges was porous. "Put it on," he ordered.
I pulled the mask over my head. It smelled of old sweat and chemicals. Breathing became harder and the visor immediately fogged up slightly. I looked at Rioji through the cloudy glass. "And what do I fight with?" I asked. "Where are the weapons? A knife? At least a pole?"
Rioji laughed. It was a short, barking sound that sounded like a shot in the silence. "Weapons?" he repeated mockingly. "You are going in there to learn how to become a monster. A monster needs no weapons."
He stepped toward me until his face almost touched my visor. His dark eyes bored into mine. "You have the strongest weapon in your damn blood, Shinsei. If you need metal, then make your skin into metal. If you need a blade, then become the blade."
He grabbed the huge wheel on the gate. His muscles tightened under the fabric of his shirt and the dragon tattoo seemed to writhe. With a groaning sound, the mechanism began to turn. Rust trickled down. A hiss sounded as the pressure equalization began. "Listen," Rioji said while he continued to turn. "The air in there is pure poison. Resonance toxin. It decomposes your lungs in minutes."
He pointed to the mask on my face. "The filter in that thing is old. It might last two days. 48 hours. That is your grace period."
Two days. My heart hammered against my ribs. "In these two days, you must learn to adapt your body. You must use the resonance to harden your lungs. You must filter the poison before it enters your blood. If you do not manage that before the filter gives up the ghost..."
He shrugged his shoulders. "Then you will choke on your own blood."
The gate swung open a crack. Darkness poured out like black smoke. A draft hit me and even through my clothes, I felt the cold and the malice of this place. "And the food?" I asked in a panic. "Water?""There are rats in there. And water drips from the walls. If you are hungry, hunt. If you are thirsty, drink."
He grabbed me by the shoulder. His grip was hard and relentless. "You wanted to become strong, Kyro. You wanted to break the chains. This here is the anvil."
He pushed me forward. Toward the black gap. "Wait!" I cried. Rioji did not listen. He gave me a powerful shove. I stumbled. I fell into the darkness. Behind me, I heard the grinding of metal. The gate fell into the lock. The wheel turned shut.
The last thing I heard was Rioji's muffled voice through the thick steel "See you in half a year. Or never." Then there was silence.
I was alone. Absolute darkness surrounded me. I felt for the wall and my fingers found cold, damp stone. I breathed hastily through the mask. In. Out. In. Out. Two days. I had two days to find a solution. I had to stay calm. Zayne had said: "Panic kills the mind."
I took a step forward. My boots crunched on something that sounded like bone. Then it happened. I took a deep breath. And I started to cough.
It was no normal cough. It was a cramp that contracted my entire chest. My throat burned as if I had swallowed acid. I tore the mask from my face and stared at the filter. It was empty. There was no cartridge inside. Only an empty housing filled with a few scraps of cloth. "That bastard!" I gasped.
He had lied. No two days. No 48 hours. Now. The mask was junk. A placebo. A cruel joke. The air of the Ash Grave entered my lungs. It felt as if a thousand small needles were piercing my lungs. My vision blurred. Red dots danced before my eyes. I sank to my knees. I gagged and spat saliva that was already colored pink. Blood. The toxin worked immediately.
I am dying, I thought. I am dying here in the dirt not even five minutes after I arrived. I thought of Rioji's words. "Learn to stop breathing."
Anger flared up. Hot, burning anger at this sadistic son of a bitch. He wanted to see me dead? I would not do him that favor. "Think!" I screamed at myself internally. "Isolate it!"
What had he said? Use the resonance. Harden your body. Red. Kōtai. I crouched on the ground and pressed my hands to my burning chest. I had to find the red. Not in my fists to strike. Not in my legs to run. In my lungs.
I closed my eyes. I ignored the pain, the burning, and the feeling of suffocation. I searched for the spark. There. A small glow amidst the chaos. I reached for it. I pulled it to me. I imagined that my lungs were not made of soft tissue, but of steel. Of iron. Invulnerable.
Ignition.
A jolt went through my body. Heat spread in my chest. It hurt differently than the poison. It was a pressing, heavy pain, as if someone were tightening my lungs in a vice. But the burning of the acid subsided.
I breathed in. Carefully. Shallowly. The air flowed in. It still tasted disgusting, like sulfur and death. But it no longer killed me immediately. The resonance formed a barrier. A thin layer of energy that protected the tissue and burned the poison before it could enter the blood.
I coughed once more and spat out a lump of blood. Then I breathed out. I was alive. But I knew As soon as I lose concentration, as soon as the red light in my chest goes out... I am dead. I was not allowed to sleep. I was not allowed to rest. I had to breathe. Fight for every single damn breath.
I sat in the dark. Hours passed. Or minutes. I could no longer estimate the time. I got used to the darkness. My eyes adapted, strengthened by the survival instinct. The Ash Grave was not an empty space. It was a huge cave, crossed by stalactites that looked like the teeth of a predator. The ground was covered with a layer of gray ash, ankle deep.
And it was not silent. There was a sound. A scraping. Scratching. Like metal on stone. Krrrrrt. Krrrrrt.
I froze. I held my breath and immediately had to force myself to keep breathing to maintain the resonance. The sound came closer. Out of the mist, outlines emerged.
They were not animals. They were beasts. They walked on four legs, but their movements were jerky and wrong. Their skin was gray and cracked like old concrete. Where eyes should be, there was only smooth skin. They were blind. But their limbs... there, where hands or paws should be, long, jagged blades grew out of bone and metal. Ash Blades.
They sniffed. They could breathe the toxin as if it were spring air. One of the creatures turned its head in my direction. It opened its mouth. Rows of needle-sharp teeth, dripping with black slime. It emitted a click. Sonar.
I pressed myself against the cold rock wall. I had no weapon. My hands were empty. I was tired. My lungs burned from the effort of holding the barrier. The creature came closer. It caught my scent. Or it felt the vibration of my resonance. "Monsters need no weapons," Rioji had said. "Become the blade."
I stood up. My legs trembled, but I forced them to stay still. I had no choice. Escape was impossible. The gate was closed. Attacking was suicide. But waiting was certain death.
I raised my hands. I did not know how to fight. I only knew how to survive. The creature hissed. It tensed its muscles, ready to jump. I fixed my eyes on it. In my head, there was no plan. No chessboard like with Zayne. Only a single thought: You or me.
The beast jumped. The blades on its front legs flashed in the dark. I moved. Not away. I went toward it.
The fight for my life had begun. And this time, there was no referee to blow the whistle.