Hsssssh…
The main laboratory's steel door, sealed shut for years, finally opened, releasing a cold mist and the thick scent of ozone.
Slow yet heavy footsteps echoed through the corridor.
No Name stepped out from the darkness.
His face hadn't changed at all, as if time itself had stopped flowing for the Nameless Devil.
But his aura… it had grown denser, deeper, and far more lethal than before.
In front of the door, two towering figures had been waiting.
Tora, standing nearly two meters tall with perfectly developed muscles, crossed his arms over his chest.
Beside him, Scyte, now possessing a deadly athletic build, leaned casually against the steel wall.
Their master now appeared far smaller compared to the two fully grown pawns before him.
No Name stared at them without expression.
His gaze scanned the wild aura radiating from Tora and the sharpened instincts hidden within Scyte.
A faint smile formed on No Name's lips, barely visible.
"Good… very good, Tora, Scyte. You've learned quickly," No Name said, his heavy voice echoing. "Now go. Find the rest of your companions. There's something I need to discuss."
Tora grinned widely, revealing his fangs. "Heh. So you finally came out, No Name. I thought you were planning to rot in there."
"Watch your mouth, Tora. If the boss wanted, he could flatten those muscles of yours with a single finger," Scyte teased with a chuckle as he stepped away from the wall. "Come on. It's been a while since we've seen the archer and the sword kid."
Before leaving, they stopped by the weapon storage room.
Scyte walked toward a dim corner.
He picked up his old wooden scythe.
The metal blade at its end looked dull and rusted.
Scyte only smiled faintly.
He spun the scythe in his hand, then channeled dense energy from his palm into the entire weapon.
Sring!
The rust peeled away instantly, crumbling into dust.
The blade shone once more with terrifying sharpness, emitting a cold killing aura.
"A simple weapon is always the most loyal," Scyte muttered with satisfaction.
On the other side, Tora retrieved his twin axes from a special rack.
Back then, these axes were so large and heavy that he struggled just to lift them.
But now…
Tora spun the massive weapon with one hand as if it were a light stick.
"This thing used to feel like it would break my spine," Tora laughed softly. "Now it feels so light… like a toy. Let's go, Scyte. No Name sent coordinates to Sector 12's Giant Forest Area."
On the way…
The midday sun burned intensely, piercing through the polluted sky outside the city.
Tora and Scyte walked side by side through Sector 7, a bionic scrapyard district that separated the city center from the outer wilderness.
Dry winds blew, carrying dust and ash from factory waste.
Tora walked with heavy yet relaxed steps, resting his twin axes, now as light as branches, over his broad shoulders.
His massive, muscular body caused nearby vagrants and low-level criminals to lower their heads, too afraid to meet the gaze hidden beneath his black cloth.
"So hot," Tora grumbled, wiping sweat from his neck. "That boss of ours… we control all these assets, yet we're told to walk to Sector 12's forest. No helicopter or anything?"
Scyte chuckled beside him.
He lightly leaped over a puddle of dirty oil, his wooden scythe resting casually behind his neck.
"Just enjoy it, Tora. Think of it as cardio after lifting," Scyte teased. "Besides, if we took a helicopter, it wouldn't be fun. No warm-up before meeting those weird twins."
Tora snorted. "Tch… I hate cardio… hm?"
His steps suddenly stopped.
His sharp ears caught the sound of metal creaking and unnatural footsteps from behind a pile of scrap containers ahead.
Scyte stopped as well, a faint smile slowly forming on his lips.
From the shadows of the containers, dozens of large men with crude cybernetic modifications emerged, surrounding them.
Some carried makeshift plasma rifles, while others held battery-powered shock blades.
They were Scavengers, a gang of raiders who preyed on anyone crossing the border zones.
"Stop right there, city rats," said the gang leader, a man with a steel jaw and glowing red optic eye.
His gaze lingered greedily on Tora's axes and Scyte's scythe. "Those weapons look valuable. Drop them, along with all your money, if you want to live."
The wind blew softly, sending a torn newspaper drifting between them.
Instead of panicking, Tora let out a long sigh, clearly bored. He didn't even lower his axes. "Scyte…"
"Yeah?" Scyte replied casually.
"How long do you think it'll take to clean up this trash? I really don't feel like sweating more than I have to."
Hearing that, the gang leader's face flushed red with rage. "HOW DARE YOU LOOK DOWN ON—"
WUSSH!
Before he could finish shouting, Scyte's body vanished from his sight.
A sharp gust of wind passed by.
Scyte was already standing behind him, casually flicking his scythe to shake off the blood that hadn't even had time to cling to the blade.
THUD.
Without a scream, the gang leader's head slid off his neck, followed by his body collapsing to the ground.
The strike had been too fast, too clean, too precise for his nervous system to even realize he was dead.
The remaining gang members froze.
Their eyes widened in horror as they watched their leader die in an instant.
"S-shit! Shoot them! SHOOT!" one of them screamed in panic.
"Too noisy," Tora muttered flatly.
Tora finally lowered his axe.
He didn't swing it. He didn't even aim at them.
The massive man simply slammed the bottom of his axe handle into the ground with one hand.
BOOOOOM!!!
From that single motion, a terrifying shockwave erupted, shattering the ground like a tectonic quake.
Chunks of asphalt and concrete were launched into the air like bullets, smashing into the raiders before they could even pull their triggers.
Screams echoed. Their bionic bodies were torn apart by the flying debris, crushed by nothing more than the raw force of Tora's strength.
In less than five seconds, the street fell silent again.
The gang lay lifeless within a newly formed crater, created by a single strike of Tora's axe.
Scyte whistled softly at the destruction. "Damn… your control's getting insane, Tora. Not a single drop of blood got on my clothes."
Tora lifted his axe again and continued walking casually past the bodies, as if he had just stepped on ants.
"That's why I said they were a waste of time. Let's move. The outer forest's already in sight."
Scyte chuckled and followed behind him.
The two continued their journey, leaving behind absolute death in their wake, ready to reunite with their old comrades.