The bright, unwavering light emanating from the rectangular bulbs embedded in Calg's office ceiling cast long, sharp shadows across the meticulously organized space. He sat hunched over a formidable stack of reports, the crisp rustle of paper the only sound breaking the otherwise sterile silence. His brow was furrowed in concentration, his gaze fixed on the dense text, absorbing every detail with an almost photographic memory. The world outside the reinforced walls of WanlingXin H.Q. seemed a distant, irrelevant hum, and for now, that was precisely the sanctuary Calg sought.
As Calg's focus deepened, the rhythmic hum of the building's ventilation system, a constant white noise he usually ignored, was subtly disrupted.
A faint shift in the atmosphere, almost imperceptible, brushed against his heightened senses. His eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly as he felt a subtle disturbance—a fleeting ripple in the very air around him, like a phantom breeze in a sealed room. The sensation was ephemeral, a mere whisper, but it was enough to snag the intricate web of his attention. His pen stilled, hovering above the report, his mind instantly alert.
Outside his secure office, a shadow detached itself from the deeper darkness of the corridor, moving with an unnerving silence toward the guarded healing area where Mikimo, Liu, and Kaijo lay in their regenerative slumber.
The figure was cloaked and hooded, their garment ragged at the edges, trailing behind them like a physical manifestation of a dark omen. Calg's instincts, honed by years spent navigating treacherous landscapes and facing unseen enemies, flared with an urgent warning. Something was profoundly wrong.
Months prior, with a foresight born of experience and a deep understanding of the myriad dangers their burgeoning group could potentially face, Calg had discreetly arranged for a rotating guard detail to be posted around the healing area. It had been a seemingly excessive precaution at the time, a quiet measure to ensure the vulnerable trio's safety.
Now, witnessing the silent approach of the hooded figure, that foresight felt less like paranoia and more like a desperate necessity. He watched the figure's fluid, almost ethereal movements on the security monitor feed, his eyes sharp and calculating, dissecting every subtle shift in posture, every hesitant step.
The hooded individual reached the perimeter of the guarded zone and raised a hand. A visible darkness began to coalesce around them, swirling and thickening like viscous ink in water. The dark energy intensified, compressing into a dense, pulsating black sphere of what Calg's instincts screamed was raw, volatile dark matter.
Calg's heart skipped a jarring beat in his chest as the full weight of the immediate danger slammed into him. The figure was poised to strike, aiming the ominous sphere directly at the two unsuspecting guards stationed at the entrance of the healing chamber.
But then, a chilling question wormed its way into the forefront of Calg's racing mind—why had they been spotted? Their approach had been cloaked in an unnatural silence, their movements fluid and seemingly untraceable. Calg's mind raced, a cold, unsettling realization beginning to dawn. Whoever this was, they were not operating blindly. They knew the stakes. They knew someone was watching. Their deliberate appearance within view of the security cameras felt less like a mistake and more like a calculated move, a silent challenge.
Suddenly, one of the guards, a young man named Ren with exceptionally keen senses, stationed near the entrance to the healing area, caught a fleeting flicker of movement in his peripheral vision. His instincts, finely tuned by rigorous training, kicked in before his conscious mind could even fully process the visual input.
With a swift, almost reflexive motion, he drew the razor-sharp blade concealed beneath his uniform and charged silently toward the hooded figure, his movements a blur of controlled aggression.
But just as Ren lunged, his blade aimed at the figure's heart, the cloaked form seemed to dissolve into the air, the solid mass of their body dissipating like black fog caught in a sudden gust of wind. The dark sphere of matter, the tangible threat of moments before, vanished with them, leaving only a lingering sense of cold dread in the air. Ren skidded to an abrupt halt, his boots squealing on the polished floor, his eyes wide with disbelief and confusion.
The shadowy form that had threatened them, the palpable presence of malevolent energy, was now nothing more than a dissipating wisp of darkness, fading into the dimly lit corridor as if it had never truly been there at all.
Calg, watching the impossible scene unfold on his monitor, his knuckles white as he gripped the edge of his desk, clenched his fists. The mysterious figure was no ordinary threat, no run-of-the-mill infiltrator. Whoever they were, whatever it was, they possessed abilities far beyond the scope of their known adversaries. They had a clear and dangerous purpose—and they had just slipped away with an unnerving ease, leaving behind nothing but a cold, unsettling silence and a profound sense of unease.
"Who was he?… What was he?" Calg wondered in the silent confines of his mind, his gaze fixed on the now empty spot on the monitor where the hooded figure had just stood, a phantom imprint burned into his vision.
The entire encounter had been too quick, too fleeting, too utterly bizarre for him to gather any clear answers, any tangible clues. His thoughts raced, a frantic torrent of questions and half-formed theories, trying to make sense of the strange, shadowy presence that had appeared and vanished without a trace, defying the very laws of physics as he understood them.
Every instinct screamed at him that this wasn't just another rogue operative, not a simple enemy to be dealt with through conventional means.
There was something fundamentally... otherworldly about it.
The raw, palpable dark energy that had crackled around the figure, the impossible way it had dissolved into nothingness—it wasn't something any ordinary opponent could wield, not with that level of control, that inherent unnaturalness. And whoever or whatever it was had been deliberately cautious, almost preternaturally aware of the security precautions he had so meticulously put in place.
Calg rose swiftly from his ergonomic chair, the leather creaking softly beneath him, his mind sharp and heavy with unanswered questions and a growing sense of foreboding. The unease from what he had just witnessed lingered like a persistent shadow, gnawing at the edges of his usually unflappable composure. He moved with a decisive urgency toward the door of his office, each silent step echoing the growing disquiet within him.
He couldn't shake the chilling feeling that this brief, unsettling encounter wouldn't be the last time the hooded figure would strike, that this was merely a prelude to something far more dangerous.
His hand grazed the cool, metallic surface of the door handle, and with a firm, almost violent twist, he opened it and stepped out into the dimly lit hallway. The fluorescent lights flickered overhead, casting long, distorted shadows as he made his way with purposeful strides down the corridor toward the guarded healing area.
His thoughts were already racing, strategizing, calculating potential threats and necessary countermeasures. If the figure had appeared once, with such blatant disregard for their security, they would most certainly return, emboldened by their initial success.
When he arrived at the healing area, the two guards, Ren and a more seasoned operative named Kael, snapped to attention, their faces tense but trying to mask their underlying concern. Calg's sharp eyes scanned the surroundings, searching for any lingering traces of the dark energy, any subtle anomaly in the atmosphere. Nothing but the usual sterile stillness remained, but he knew better than to trust the deceptive calm.
"Stay alert," Calg ordered, his voice low but firm, each word carrying the weight of his authority and his growing apprehension.
"This isn't over. We can't afford to be caught off guard next time."
The guards nodded in unison, their faces hardening with a renewed sense of resolve. Calg lingered for a moment longer, his gaze sweeping over the seemingly undisturbed area once more, his mind replaying the impossible vanishing act on the security footage.
He had a sinking feeling in his gut, a cold premonition that the hooded figure had only shown a fraction of their true power, and that they were only just getting started.
"Sir?" Ren, the younger of the two guards, spoke up, his voice laced with a hesitant uncertainty but tinged with a genuine fear.
Calg turned to face him, his expression unreadable, his gaze intense. "What is it?" he asked, his tone still firm but not without a trace of the concern that gnawed at him.
"I don't think that guy was human…" Ren exclaimed, his voice barely above a whisper, tinged with disbelief and a palpable fear.
"He vanished… he just vanished when I attacked him!"
Calg's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly at Ren's words, his mind racing to reconcile the guard's terrified account with the unsettling images on the monitor. He had suspected something was deeply wrong about the figure, but hearing it confirmed by a direct encounter only deepened his unease, solidifying his growing suspicion that they were facing something far beyond their usual adversaries.
Ren continued, his hands still shaking slightly despite his attempts to appear composed.
"I—I lunged at him, my blade ready, and he just... dissolved into the air. Like black smoke dissipating in the wind. There wasn't even a trace left, sir. No scent, no residue, nothing."
Calg stood silent for a long moment, the weight of Ren's disturbing description settling heavily on him. A being that could vanish without a trace, defying the very laws of the physical world as they understood them. A dark, shifting presence that moved with an unnatural fluidity, wielding an energy that felt inherently wrong. It wasn't like anything Calg had encountered before, and the implications were deeply unsettling.
"This isn't some rogue operative we can deal with quickly or efficiently," Calg muttered under his breath, more to himself than to the guards, the words a grim acknowledgment of the unprecedented threat they now faced.
"Whatever it is, it's more than human. We need to figure out what we're dealing with before it strikes again, before it targets Mikimo, Liu, or Kaijo in their vulnerable state."
His fingers clenched into tight fists, his mind already calculating the necessary steps, the urgent protocols that needed to be enacted. This wasn't just a threat—it was a deliberate intrusion, a chilling warning from something far more dangerous than they had anticipated. And Calg was going to find out what, or who, it was before they all became its next target.
"Soon," Calg declared, his voice now resonating with an unwavering determination that belied the gnawing fear within him, his tone sharp and full of a steely resolve.
"Soon, we'll find out exactly who this guy is!"
He turned his intense gaze toward the two guards. "We won't let this slip through the cracks. I'll track him down, no matter what it takes. We can't afford to let something like this roam free within our walls, threatening those under our protection."
The guards nodded, a newfound fire igniting in their eyes, their initial fear replaced by a shared sense of purpose. They could feel the weight of Calg's unwavering resolve, and it fueled their own determination. They weren't going to let the shadow that had haunted them slip away again.
Calg took one last, lingering look at the quiet healing area, his gaze sweeping over the still forms within the transparent tanks, before turning sharply on his heel. There was no room for hesitation, not with something this dangerous lurking in the shadows, its motives still shrouded in mystery.
Whatever was coming next, he was ready to face it head-on, to stand as a bulwark against the unknown, and to protect the vulnerable trio at all costs.