Time: 6:45 AM — Edge Sector Outskirts
The world moved in slow motion.
Ashwalker's massive form tore through the haze, each step crushing debris into ash. His eyes—if he even still had eyes—glowed behind a visor scorched black, cracked down the center like the mask of a fallen god. He raised his weapon, dragging it behind him until it locked into place with a sharp mechanical clank.
Then he charged.
Ryoji shoved Aiko aside just as the ground exploded. Ashwalker's blade slammed into the concrete where she'd stood a moment earlier, slicing a crater clean through the road. Sparks rained. Shockwaves rippled through the air.
Aiko hit the ground hard, the Seal on her palm burning.
"Aiko, get back!" Ryoji roared, firing round after round into Ashwalker's torso. The bullets sparked off the armor uselessly—Ashwalker didn't even flinch.
Kane barreled in from the side, axe glowing with a plasma edge. He swung once—twice—burying the blade deep into Ashwalker's side.
The prototype turned.
His fist came up like a piston, smashing Kane backward into a wall. The sound of bones breaking echoed sharp across the street.
"Kane!" Zhenya screamed, diving into cover to lay down suppressing fire. "We need heavier weapons—this thing's not going down!"
"No," Miura growled, her eyes locked on Aiko. "This thing wasn't meant to go down. It was meant to end us."
Ashwalker lifted his weapon again. The air around it shimmered—thermal energy bleeding off its edge. Then he swung it horizontally.
The building behind them split in half.
Steel beams shrieked. Glass exploded outward. A tidal wave of dust and concrete swallowed the sky. Ryoji grabbed Aiko and ran—no hesitation—dragging her through a collapsing alleyway.
"You have to use it," he said, voice strained. "The Seal, whatever it's doing to you—you need to unlock it now."
"I don't know how!" she shouted, heart pounding.
"Yes, you do." His voice cut through the noise like a blade. "That's why they've been chasing you since the beginning. That's why Division Zero marked you. Why the Seed called you Bloom."
She looked down at her hand. The Seal shimmered, alive, humming with power now visible beneath her skin. Intricate patterns spun outward—glowing circuitry like veins beneath the surface.
The program is alive.
Ashwalker broke through the wall behind them.
Aiko turned around.
Something clicked inside her—a silent trigger. The moment she accepted it, the Seal unleashed. A radius of invisible force rippled outward in a split-second pulse.
Ashwalker froze.
Not from pain—but from a sudden pause, like something inside him had been overridden.
The red glow of his armor flickered.
"...Protocol mismatch detected," a distorted voice muttered from within his chest.
Aiko stepped forward slowly, her eyes glowing faint silver. The Seal hovered above her palm now, like a holographic interface unlocking layer by layer.
"What are you doing?" Ryoji asked, breathless.
"I think I just found the backdoor."
Ashwalker staggered, then dropped to one knee. His blade hit the ground with a clang.
Aiko raised her hand higher, accessing a deeper layer—one buried in her memory since birth. Data streamed through her vision. Names. Coordinates. Faces.
And a list.
Project: BLOOM—Status Report
• Mirrorflower-01: Koharu — Active
• Mirrorflower-02: Aiko — Active
• Mirrorflower-03: ??? — Status Unknown
• Kill Agents Assigned: Ashwalker, Black Echo, Cradleknight
• Director Override: ENABLED
She gasped. "There were more."
The Seal flared violently.
And that's when the air behind them fractured.
A cold wind swept through the alley, and something stepped out from a swirling black distortion—tall, fluid, wrapped in segmented armor like an obsidian spider. No eyes. No face.
Just a voice.
"Aiko. Mirrorflower-02. You've been activated outside protocol. Termination sequence authorized."
Ryoji drew his blade in a flash. "We've got incoming."
"Who is that?" Miura shouted as she rejoined the alley.
Ryoji's face was stone. "Another killer."
The figure raised its hand—blades extended like claws—and time seemed to slow again.
Black Echo.
The second of the Kill Program.
And they weren't done yet.
To be continued... Chapter 46....