Dark lore, twisted science, and a deeper dive into Kaizen's origin...
The sky cracked with violet lightning over Bastion HQ.
Kaizen sat in silence on the rooftop, away from Squad Umbra, away from Ayaka, away from the world that was slowly drowning in questions he couldn't answer.
The spark he saw in Chapter 30—that vision—had burned itself into his memory. Not just a prophecy, not a dream. It was a piece of himself.
His body still trembled with the aftershock.
"Kaizen," a voice interrupted.
It was Dr. Halrik—the Vein Research Division lead. Cold, calculating, and never seen outside the lab. If he had come in person, it was serious.
"You need to come with me. There's something… you must see."
—
Sublevel 17 – Restricted Core Archive
Kaizen followed Halrik deep below the earth, passing doors sealed for centuries. The silence was thick. The lights flickered red. And then, the door opened—to a hidden vault.
Inside: dozens of suspended shards… but one stood out.
A pulsating golden-black crystal in a chamber surrounded by time-locked glyphs.
"This," Halrik said, "is Project V-0."
Kaizen's heart skipped.
"The first artificial Veinborn prototype," Halrik continued. "The one we failed to control. The one whose essence was too powerful to destroy. So we locked it in time."
Kaizen stepped closer, his veins tingling. The shard... called to him.
Suddenly—a pulse. A shockwave.
The glyphs shattered.
The containment cracked.
And a voice echoed in his mind:
"Kaizen… you were not the first. You were what came after me."
Scene Shift – Somewhere unknown
In a collapsing ruin buried under black ice, Nerovar stood before a dying flame altar. His eyes, hollow yet burning, narrowed.
"He's awake... too soon," Nerovar muttered.
He stared into the flame, and it twisted, showing Kaizen.
"Let the boy learn. Let him remember... before I erase everything he loves."
And then—
He disappeared into the flame. Time bent around him.
The past, the future, the now—burned and bent at his will.
Final Scene – Umbra Barracks
Ayaka jolted up from her sleep, sweat running down her neck.
She'd seen Kaizen.
Not as he is.
But as something else. Someone ancient.
Wearing a crown of flame.
Holding a blade made of stars.
And behind him—a world on fire.
"Who are you really, Kaizen?" she whispered.
Ye lo bhaii chapter 31