Present Day – Zenithar City
Wind rushed across the rooftops, pulling at the edge of Raiga's hood as he lay stretched out near the edge of a high-rise. His arms were folded behind his head, his eyes half-closed, watching the sky glow with soft neon light.
"Two hours late. Typical."
The mission briefing was supposed to start at midnight. It was already pushing two.
Below him, Zenithar sprawled like a fractured kingdom—two cities trapped in the same dying heart.
The surface was chaos barely held together by steel and fear. Dominion patrols roamed the streets in armored squads, clashing constantly with the criminal networks that ruled block by block. Different factions fought for control, and the Dominion… they bent the rules for whichever side paid more, believing they were choosing order over chaos. Or maybe just pretending to.
Beneath that, buried under layers of rusted infrastructure and collapsed history, was the undercity—where the real people lived. Civilians. Survivors. The forgotten. Neon signs flickered against walls of concrete rot, while artificial lights mimicked daylight for a population that hadn't seen the sun in generations.
And from where Raiga stood, it all unfolded beneath him—like a machine with broken gears, still trying to turn.
This city never slept. But he did.
He shut his eyes. Just for a moment.
"Just a moment..."
…
Warm sunlight filled a peaceful mountain village, the air fragrant with pine and woodsmoke. Home. His grandfather stood smiling gently at the doorway, eyes bright with familiar warmth.
Then came the screams.
Fire engulfed the homes in an instant, blood soaked the earth crimson, and desperate cries filled the air. Raiga's grandfather lay broken and twisted on the ground, agony etched deeply into his face as he dragged himself painfully forward.
"Raiga," the old man gasped, voice weak, strained by unbearable pain. "You must… save him… You have to save… A—"
The name twisted and vanished, swallowed by shadow.
"Save who?" Raiga shouted, panic tightening his chest, tears burning his eyes. He lunged forward, but the earth shifted, dragging him backward.
The old man's mouth moved silently, forming a name now distorted by something dark, alien, and incomprehensible. The air trembled, reality splintered like shattered glass.
"You must… save… your—"
Darkness consumed everything.His breath caught.
The dream twisted—collapsing in on itself, slipping through his fingers like sand.
Then, all at once—
…
"Raiga… RAIGA!! What the hell are you doing!?"
The voice hit him like a lightning bolt.
He snapped his eyes open, his breathing still uneven.
Liara.
The only fragment of that past that was still real. The only thing he had left.
She was in their hideout, deep within the underground city of Zenithar.
"Don't tell me you're sleeping…"
Raiga let out a quiet sigh, running a hand through his dark hair.
"I wasn't sleeping. I was tactically unconscious."
Liara crossed her arms with an expression somewhere between irritated and incredulous.
"I can't believe this… Raiga, can you take this seriously for once!? Sooner or later, I'm going to find you splattered on a sidewalk!"
Raiga stretched lazily, taking his time, and let out a sigh.
"Can you stop yelling? You're worse than the curfew…"
"And you're worse than a drunken old man!!" she snapped, planting her hands on her hips. "Move it! The target is close."
He stood, cracked his neck, then glanced down at the flickering skyline.
"No need to tell me. I never fail."
"Ugh… So arrogant. Next time, I'll send an explosive drone to wake you up."
Raiga smiled—a genuine smile, one he rarely allowed himself.
Liara sighed and shook her head, hiding a smile of her own.
Zenithar was hell.
But at least they faced it together.
The mission was clear: retrieve the device and return to the hideout. But they both knew it would never be that simple.
Liara spoke again, this time with a more serious tone.
"Listen, we grab the device and get out. Clear?"
Raiga remained silent for a few seconds. His eyes dimmed slightly.
"I'll do my best."
She sighed.
"Let's hope your 'best' doesn't mean leaving a trail of corpses. I don't want to see another bloodbath."
Liara was inside the hideout, an old warehouse converted into a high-tech operations center. Her fingers moved rapidly over the controls, her eyes locked onto the screens in front of her.
"Convoy arriving in 30 seconds. Three armored vehicles, eight armed soldiers."
Raiga was in position.
The target? A classified intel device—technology used exclusively by Dominion high command. It contained sensitive data on their operations, movements, and strategic deployments. If he secured it, every future mission would change.
"Raiga, grab it and get back. Don't get carried away."
Silence. Then his voice came through the earpiece.
"Copy that."
Every time she heard him speak with that coldness, a shiver ran down her spine.
Raiga moved silently through the shadows. His body was an extension of the darkness, every muscle taut, every fiber of his being ready to strike. His piercing blue eyes locked onto the convoy with the focus of a predator.
Without a word, Liara launched into action—fingers flying across her wrist console as her drones activated with a sharp buzz, lifting into the air like silent sentinels ready to strike.
She watched the convoy on the monitors, her fingers poised over the controls.
"Full blackout in 3… 2… 1…"
BOOM.
An electromagnetic pulse, launched by one of Liara's drones, spread like an invisible wave down the road.
In an instant, all the lights went out.
Engines dead. Radios silent. HUDs blacked out.
An unnatural silence fell like a leaden shroud over the side street.
One of the soldiers shouted, jumping down from the vehicle with his rifle aimed into the darkness.
"What the hell just happened?!"
"Blackout in the district," another replied, but the uncertainty in his voice was palpable.
What they didn't expect was the fury that was about to descend upon them.
Raiga adjusted his grip on the railing. Muscles tense. Focus narrowed.
The moment arrived.
He jumped.
Liara's breath hitched.
BOOM
His body crashed onto the roof of the armored vehicle with devastating impact. The metal buckled under his feet.
"ON TOP OF THE VEHICLE!!"
The weapons snapped up. Gunfire erupted. Bursts of bullets tore through the darkness—but Raiga was no longer there.
Raiga weaved through them like a phantom, a blur of motion too swift for the eye to follow.
A vicious strike to the back of the neck sent a soldier crumpling to the asphalt, another soldier tried to raise his rifle, but Raiga was faster.
The blade of his sword carved a perfect arc through the air.
A clean cut. The weapon split in half. The soldier's body pierced by the razor-sharp metal.
"WHA—WHAT THE HELL…?"
Liara stood frozen before the monitors, eyes wide as the night-vision feed revealed Raiga tearing through the enemy.
The remaining soldiers staggered back, paralyzed with terror.
They had seen fighters before.
But this was different.
Raiga turned slowly, his blue eyes gleaming like those of a hungry predator.
One of them fired in sheer desperation.
A bullet grazed him—but before the soldier could pull the trigger again, Raiga moved.
A powerful front kick sent him crashing into a wall with the force of a steel battering ram. He passed out instantly.
One by one, the soldiers fell under his fury.
The last one, trembling, tried to run.
He tripped, falling to the ground, hands raised in panic.
Raiga let him crawl back, taking his time.
"P-please… no… I don't want to die…!"
The boy stepped forward, silent as death.
Then, he placed a foot on the soldier's chest, pinning him down.
He raised his sword.
And slowly, without hesitation, he drove it into his throat.
He watched the life drain from his body.
Liara closed her eyes. Her breath grew heavy.
This version of him…terrified her.
"Raiga… what the hell?" she asked, her voice shaking.
Raiga remained silent.
His hand still gripped the hilt of his sword, blood dripping from the blade.
He wiped the weapon clean on the dead soldier's uniform.
Then, he looked at his reflection in the blade.
The eyes staring back at him…
…were they really his?
"Retrieve the package. I'll see you at the hideout."
Liara cut the connection.
She ran a hand over her face, her heart heavy.
She tried to convince herself that he was still Raiga.
But him…
He didn't even flinch.
Raiga blew open the vehicle's hatch, grabbed the cargo, and secured it to the transport drones.
The machines hummed in the air, lifting into the night sky.
Without a word, Raiga turned.
And vanished into the darkness of the night.
Behind him, only blood and death.
From the shadows of a nearby alley, something stirred. Cold, calculating eyes studied the battlefield, lingering on the trail of bodies left behind.
A man approached the lifeless bodies, kneeling beside one of them.
His fingers brushed against the still-warm blood.
A slow smile curved his lips.
"I've found him."
⸻
[To be continued.]