Chapter 64: The Road to the Old Capital

The ruins of the second plant collapsed behind them.

A tower of red light rose beneath the city, then folded inward with a sound like a distant scream. Streets cracked. Buildings leaned against one another. The rain carried ash instead of water.

Kai stood at the edge of the destroyed district, breathing through clenched teeth. His side was wrapped with a strip of cloth Sarah had torn from her robe, but the bandage was already dark with blood.

The nameless man stood several steps away, his black coat untouched by the rain.

"Where are they taking my family?" Kai asked.

"The old capital."

"How long until they arrive?"

"Less than an hour."

Kai looked toward the eastern road. It disappeared beneath the rain and the smoke rising from the broken streets.

"Then we leave now."

Kael stepped beside him. "You can barely walk."

"I’m walking."

"You’re limping."

"That is still walking."

Sarah tightened the bandage around Kai’s waist. "If you keep moving like this, the wound will open completely."

Kai looked at her. "If I stay here, my family disappears."

Sarah held his gaze for a moment, then pulled the knot tighter.

"Then don’t die before we reach them."

Jax leaned against a broken wall, one hand pressed to his wounded shoulder. "I would like to point out that all of our plans have become worse since meeting him."

The nameless man turned toward Jax.

"You are welcome to stay behind."

Jax straightened. "I would also like to point out that I never said I wanted to stay behind."

Kael picked up his sword. "How do we reach the old capital?"

The nameless man raised one hand and pointed toward the ruined water station.

"Through the buried road."

"There’s no road there," Sarah said.

"There is one beneath it."

Kai looked at the cracked pavement. "A tunnel?"

"A path made before the Tower was built."

Dorian stepped out from the shadows behind them. His face was gray, and black marks covered his neck. He had survived the collapse, but every breath looked painful.

"You’re not taking us through that road," Dorian said.

The nameless man looked at him. "You know what waits there."

"That is why I’m telling them not to go."

Kai turned to Dorian. "What waits there?"

Dorian hesitated.

"The old capital was not built by ordinary people. It was the first city connected to the Company’s network. Every road, every building, and every family line was recorded there."

Kael frowned. "You mean the capital is a prison?"

"No," Dorian replied. "A prison has walls."

He looked toward the eastern road.

"The capital has no need for them."

Kai began walking toward the water station.

Dorian caught his sleeve. "If you enter the capital, the Company will see every step you take."

"They already see me."

"They will see everything inside you."

Kai stopped.

For a moment, the red needle in his stomach pulsed. He felt a faint pressure behind his eyes, as if someone had placed a hand against the back of his skull.

His memories shifted.

His mother’s kitchen.

Elara’s voice.

The nameless man’s mask.

The face of the man he used to be.

Kai touched his temple.

"What exactly is inside me?"

Dorian lowered his eyes. "The Company’s mark."

Sarah stared at him. "He has a mark?"

"The needle is not a weapon," Dorian said. "It is a tracking seal. It tells them where he is, what he sees, and which memories he tries to hide."

Kai looked at the wound in his side.

"So they have been watching me this entire time."

The nameless man spoke from behind him.

"They have been watching since before you entered the Tower."

Kai turned sharply. "What does that mean?"

"It means your family was not the first thing they used to control you."

Kai stepped toward him. "Explain."

The nameless man did not move.

"The body you woke in was already marked."

The words silenced everyone.

Kael looked from the masked man to Kai. "What body?"

Kai’s expression changed.

Dorian looked away.

Sarah’s voice became quiet. "You knew this?"

"I suspected," Dorian answered.

Kai grabbed the nameless man by the collar.

The movement reopened his wound. Blood ran down his side, but he did not release him.

"What do you know about Kai’s body?"

The masked man looked down at Kai’s hand.

"You are not the first mind to live inside it."

Kai’s grip tightened.

"Who was here before me?"

"Someone the Company needed to disappear."

A tremor passed through Kai’s fingers.

The memories he carried had always felt incomplete. Fragments of a childhood. A mother’s voice. A sister’s face. Long periods of blank darkness that no explanation could fill.

He had assumed the trauma had damaged the memories.

Maybe someone had removed them.

"Was Kai alive when I arrived?" he asked.

The nameless man did not answer immediately.

"That depends on what you mean by alive."

Kai released him.

The black-masked man adjusted his collar and turned toward the water station.

"Save your questions for the capital."

Kai stared at his back.

He wanted to demand more. He wanted to force the truth out of him. But a distant horn echoed through the ruined district.

The Company had found them.

Kael looked toward the western street. "How many?"

Jax climbed onto the broken wall and scanned the rain.

"More than we can handle."

"Give me a number."

"Enough to make the answer depressing."

Gray soldiers emerged through the smoke. Their armor was heavier than the previous squad’s, with red lines running across the chest plates. Behind them came three enormous creatures resembling armored hounds. Their heads were covered with silver cages, and every step cracked the pavement.

A woman in gray armor walked at the front.

She carried no weapon.

"Asset Kai," she called. "You have damaged Company property and interfered with an authorized purification. Stand down."

Kai looked at the burning district behind him.

"Your property was people."

"The people were assigned resources."

Sarah raised her staff. "You’re not taking him."

The woman looked toward her. "You are not registered for this operation."

"I don’t remember asking permission."

The woman lifted her hand.

The three armored hounds charged.

Kael moved first. He met the largest creature in the center of the street and blocked its claws with his sword. The impact drove him backward, boots digging into the mud.

"Little help!" he shouted.

Jax vanished into the rain. A dagger struck one of the hound’s eyes, but the creature barely reacted. It turned toward the rooftop.

"Those things don’t have eyes," Jax shouted. "Why did I aim there?"

Sarah released a wave of light. The hound’s armor glowed white, but the creature kept moving.

Kai grabbed the crimson sword and ran toward Kael.

His legs were weak. The red needle burned through his stomach. He knew he could not overpower the creature.

So he watched its feet.

The hound moved with four legs, but the red lines around its armor forced the joints to move in perfect sequence. Every attack began with the left front leg. Every turn followed the rear right leg.

The creature raised its claws.

Kai stepped between them and struck the red line beneath its front shoulder.

The crimson sword cut through the connection.

The hound froze.

Kael drove his blade into its chest.

The creature collapsed with a roar that shook the street.

"Good strike," Kael said.

Kai staggered. "I’m full of those."

The second hound attacked from behind.

The nameless man appeared beside Kai and cut its front legs with one motion. The creature fell before it could reach them.

The third hound leaped toward Sarah.

Dorian stepped in front of her.

The hound’s claws struck his chest. Dorian caught its neck with both hands and held it back, but the force drove him to one knee.

"Dorian!" Sarah shouted.

"Break the line!" he roared.

Sarah aimed at the red connection around the creature’s throat. Her spell struck the mark and severed it.

Dorian pushed the dead weight aside.

The gray-armored woman watched the fight without expression.

"You are wasting time," she said.

Kai turned toward her. "You’re not trying to stop us."

"No."

"Then why send soldiers?"

"To keep you moving in the correct direction."

The ruined water station behind Kai began to glow.

The woman smiled faintly.

"The old capital is ready."

The pavement split apart. Stone stairs appeared beneath the broken station, descending into a tunnel filled with pale blue light.

Kai stared at the entrance.

The nameless man stepped toward it.

"Do not listen to anything you hear below."

Kai followed him. "You say that as if I have a choice."

"You always have a choice."

"Then why does every choice end with someone I love getting hurt?"

The nameless man stopped at the top of the stairs.

For the first time, his voice lost its emptiness.

"Because you keep choosing people over yourself."

Kai looked at him.

The man continued down the stairs.

"That is why they can still use you."

Behind them, the gray-armored woman did not pursue.

Kael noticed it too. "She’s letting us enter."

"Of course she is," Dorian said.

Sarah looked back at the soldiers. "Then why aren’t they following?"

The woman in gray answered from the street.

"Because no one enters the old capital twice."

The tunnel doors began closing.

Kai looked at the image of his family that still floated faintly in his mind. His mother and Elara were being carried toward the capital. The Company wanted him to follow.

He stepped inside.

Kael, Sarah, Jax, and Dorian followed.

The doors shut behind them.

For several seconds, there was only darkness.

Then the tunnel lights turned on one by one.

At the end of the passage stood a massive city beneath the earth. Its towers rose upside down from the ceiling. Its streets were empty, but thousands of windows glowed with pale faces watching from inside.

A bell rang across the buried city.

The nameless man stopped walking.

Kai stood beside him.

"What is this place?"

The man raised his black blade.

"The first draft."

A voice echoed through the city.

"Kai has returned."

Every window opened at once.

The faces turned toward him.

Some were strangers.

Some were dead.

One of them had Kai’s face.

It smiled from a tower window and whispered:

"You took my life."

Kai stared upward.

The nameless man tightened his grip on the blade.

"Now," he said, "you finally get to meet the person whose body you stole."