1439 hours, 25 June 0145...

Following our commander's pre-mission instructions, we scanned the radar for 11 minutes, looking for Taken-Ki. The dim light from Joshua's holographic watch revealed the factory layout as our footsteps bounced off the walls of the vast, blackened hallway.

The holographic map beeped as a bright pinpoint appeared at Taken-Ki's precise position. But there was an almost deafening hush as we got to his spot, and he was nowhere to be seen. Joshua furrowed his forehead in confusion.

"Hold on, where is he? Doesn't the radar indicate his presence in here?"

I looked at the blackened surroundings and answered.

"It appears that he is attempting to deceive us by creating a false signal to lure us into a trap."

He turned off the holographic watch and responded softly as he activated the device's built-in flashlight.

"It could be."

When I glanced at the ground, I saw enormous tracks that could only have belonged to Taken-Ki. I got down on my hands and knees with the aid of my flashlight and examined the footprints.

"Wait, I saw something."

Joshua suddenly turned his body back and queried me.

"Where?"

"Right here."

I pointed at the footsteps, and Joshua gently made his way around behind me, squatting down to examine them with the flashlight from his hologram watch. Squinting his eyes, he felt the texture's rougness in Taken-Ki's footprint with his left finger and then questioned me.

"Are you sure these are the genuine footsteps of Taken-Ki?"

The massive footprint was larger than mine, so I pointed that out.

"Well, look at the size of it!"

He then rose to his feet and declared.

"It kept going down that long, blackened hall. And I would assume it is passing through the northernmost part of the map's area."

Joshua hurried down the large, blackened hall and instructed me in a voice that carried through the silence.

"This might be our perfect chance to find him. Let's follow in!"

After giving my assent, I took a step forward and heard the reverberation of my feet on the ground. Even if it meant going outside the map's boundary.

***

For 10 minutes, the echo of our footsteps reverberated off the walls of the long, blackened hallway we traversed. With the bright beams of our high-tech flashlights, we continued forward.

When I was on Joshua's trail, he gave me the impression of being brutal, serious, and threatening. In such a case, he would not think twice about popping whomever was pestering him in the face with his pistols. But I also know that he paid attentive attention when someone talked to him gently and in depth.

Because I've always heard that he was a tech engineer who worked tirelessly to improve Minerva's Authonoids conversion. In tandem with his brother Jonah, the Minerva's chief engineer.

A shudder ran down my spine as a sudden, eerie roar echoed across the blackened corridor. That's when I pointed it out.

"Someone killed a monster, and it's clear that it wasn't our allies' doing."

The scattered Taken-Ki footprints that Joshua's flashlight revealed on the floor suggest that we are getting closer to him. But as Joshua was about to speak, he suddenly switched off his flashlight and yanked me into the wall's tight space to hide ourselves from something.

"Shhh, hide!"

As I quickly turned off the flashlight, the massive iron feet stomped the floor, causing a minor earthquake that echoed down the blackened hallway.

Taken-Ki appeared out of nowhere as he walked through the hallway's crossroads. And the slained monster's blood dripped to the ground from the greatsword that he held.

"That must be Taken-Ki."

The only thing Joshua did was nod his head. And then I questioned him, pointing to the wandering Taken-Ki.

"Should we follow his lead?"

"Not yet. We have to wait until the perfect time to sneak behind."

But then I voiced my complaint, tinged with a note of irritation.

"Why would we simply sit back if we're going to lose his sight?"

"Ugh, fine! Your call, Black Vulture leader! Make sure we don't get spotted!"

We followed closely behind Taken-Ki, our footsteps creating small scuffling sounds in the still hallway. But then Taken-Ki cast a furtive peek over his shoulder because he suspected an approaching threat.

We hastily, but sneakily, pressed our bodies against the chilly stone through the crack in the wall. All of a sudden, Taken-Ki continued on his way as if nothing had interrupted his progress.

As I questioned Joshua by whispering, I peeked through the crack in the wall and witnessed the wandering Taken-Ki.

"Can we strike his back right now?"

Joshua whispered a response while staring carefully at the holographic map.

"Not yet. But I detected another threat coming right into Taken-Ki."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"So, you're saying we'll start attacking him from behind when something distracts his sight?"

Out of nowhere, we heard distant roars and soft tappings that echoed down the hall. But as I analyzed the sound, I immediately knew it was another four Ragoos' herd that was wandering in this place.

The herds then emerged from the darkness and let out bone-chilling roars that shook the hallway, intimidating the supreme android with screams from the pits of hell. Their war cries proclaim a territorial defense instead of just a mere open invitation to their feasts.

Taken-Ki then firmly stomped his iron feet, swept his greatsword across the air with a thunderous roar, and growled ferociously.

"INTRUDERS… ALERT!!! MUST… KILL… INTRUDEEEEEERRRRR!!!"

Each of his hefty iron steps reverberated across the floor as he also brutally swung his Greatsword toward the herds. I looked at Joshua and asked him a question during the rampage of Taken-Ki against the herds.

"Ragoos? What the hell are they doing in here?"

"Probably for food."

"And that android must be their food, right?"

After Joshua nodded, looking at the starving Ragoos' herds made me feel sympathy. As a reminder of the past, where the meteor's tremendous outburst triggered a vast extinction and left a strong scent of rotting ecosystems, where cannibalism and devouring inedible objects were common at that time for their survival.

Taken-Ki swung in the herds' direction. But the monsters evaded the attack faster than a flash and struck back with their venomous saliva.

It landed on Taken-Ki's body but had no effect on his massive steel frame. It just made the supreme android scorch in rage, as Taken-Ki then charged forward while raising his greatsword high in the air and splayed the several herds' gore into pieces, until the rusty steely floor was seeping with their blood.

I was becoming anxious about waiting, so I hastily asked Joshua while witnessing Taken-Ki engage in bloodshed against the herds.

"Is it our time to strike him from behind?"

"Not yet. We should wait until he's about to-"

With a swift swing of the blunt end of his greatsword, Taken-Ki slammed one remaining Ragoos in the left body, sending it tumbling toward the wall we were hiding. Sensing the age and fragility of the wall, Joshua urgently gestured for me to duck.

BSRYAK

One poor Ragoos blasted the wall gap hard and shattered the wall sections, covering us in a little rubble. But luckily, none of us were hurt.

When the smoke suddenly cleared from the passage following the chaos, I spotted Ragoos lying on the floor, covered in wall rubble. That monster yelled in anguish, trying to get up. But suddenly, Taken-Ki launched a massive, sharp steel spear at the beast's midsection, striking it with a swift and devastating blow.

JSLOSH

After taking a direct hit from the sharp steel, one last Ragoos perished directly in front of us, with blood splattering the nearby wall and oozing to the ground.

As I shook the heavy dust from my clothing, a deep rumbling behind me suddenly startled me, which urged me to glance over my back. And then I witnessed a huge robotic being with terrifying red eyes materialize from the cloud of smoke.

As the smoke cleared, Taken-Ki's menacing eyes met ours, his blood-smeared greatsword still clutched in his fist. He lifted his greatsword, felt the weight of it in his hands, and let forth a deep robotic growl.

"YOU… AUTHONOIDS… MUST… DIEEEEEE!!!!"

BSRYAK

But with lightning quickness, we sidestepped his greatsword as it came within an inch of striking us. Instead, it slammed down upon the floor with a deafening bang, shattering into pieces and creating a general air of disorder.

After we took a step back, Joshua drew his dual pistols and gave me directions.

"Tsuyuki!"

With a brief nod, I quickly drew my Kiryu and rang three shots into that supremely infected android.

BANG BANG BANG

But it enraged Taken-Ki, who swung his greatsword erratically and pounded the ground with enough force to cause a minor earthquake. And continuously emitted a deep and loud snarl.

"YOU… AUTHONOIDS… KILLED… MY MASTER!!! AND YOU MUST DIEEEE!!!"

He swung his greatsword against the neighboring wall with such ferocity that it sent shockwave projectiles in all directions, capable of slicing through everything in its path from a distance.

SWOSH

We barely avoided his shockwave projectiles at lightning speeds. The adjacent walls were reduced to rubble with a tremendous boom when his brutality was going to crash down this building.

Joshua suddenly did a wall run, stylishly side-flipped, and fired rapid shots from his dual pistols into Taken-Ki's head. Following my runaway, he queried in a hurried tone.

"What are you going to do in this situation, deadweight?"

Despite the confusion, I managed to think of anything as I quickly replied.

"Do you find any nearest wide space with nobody in there at all?"

"For what?"

"To fight that android easier!"

As we all ran away from the pursuing, enraged Taken-Ki, he activated his hologram watch that cast a blue light to scan the surroundings for vacant areas that had a reasonable number of properties. His response reverberated off the sidewalk as he walked, and his holographic watch glimmered in the sunlight.

"There's a warehouse 300 meters to the right."

"Unfortunately, there's also Christine and Veronica. They seem to be engaged in combat with Kalbaroth within. We don't want to be in the middle of their conflict, or else both Kalbaroth and Taken-Ki will encircle us."

I then spun around to see whether the distance between us had shrunk. I saw that Taken-Ki was closing down on us from behind in roughly 0.800 seconds.

"There's another one. But it's beyond the limits of this map. It's around 732 meters from here, and I've also calculated that there's nine percent explosive property there."

We stumbled and raced to escape Taken-Ki's pursuit and reach our objective. Taken-Ki let out a robotic roar as he chased after us, sending shockwaves slashing across the surrounding area.

But when I looked up and saw the steely ceiling frame, I had to take the risk and poke Joshua.

"We have to grapple with ourselves on that pillar from above!"

As I propelled upward into the ceiling frames, I heard Joshua do the same thing and felt the pull of the grappling hook in our hands. While Taken-Ki kept brutally swinging his greatsword, creating shockwave slashes that wreaked havoc on the surrounding area.

We quickly flipped in the air to avoid his shockwave slashes as we grasped onto each frame, until we felt something wrong from behind.

"DIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

He suddenly let out his fatal blow from his larger shockwave slashes, and it came closer than we would've expected it to be!

And all of a sudden...

BSRYAK

It destroyed the ceiling frames as it collapsed half of them and caused our grapple to loosen as both of us fell to the ground at a speed like nothing else. However, we quickly recovered our bodies in midair, stepped on each piece of debris, and finally landed on the ground as the debris sealed off the hall behind us with a powerful earthquake.

But strangely, we could hear Taken-Ki's steps that were going far away from us. Maybe I'd assume that he'll find another way to find us and kill us without overusing sheer force.

But in front of us, we saw a button and a secret door covered in a layer of rust that had been there for at least a century.

My curiosity got the best of me, and I wanted to get a glimpse of what was behind that button. But I had to check with Joshua first and see whether we should enter it to unearth the secret of this abandoned sugar factory any further.

"Can you analyze what's inside?"

Joshua cautiously perked his ears at the hidden door, knocking three times and hearing his own knock echo within.

"It seems like a passageway through the underground lair."

When he activated his holographic wristwatch, a 3D map of the abandoned sugar factory sprang to life. After the holographic watch displayed the map, Joshua swiped across it. But as we crossed the border, the map stopped registering our swipes. With a last glance at his holographic watch, he sighed briefly and then finished.

"Unfortunately, we are in a restricted area. So, our best decision is to enter directly. But it'll be all your fault if our commander reprimands us 24/7 because of your stupidity."

Immediately after I pressed the button, the door rumbled upward with echoes, revealing a narrow and long blackened tunnel, which may be leading us to the underground lair.

Both of us crept into the slender, blackened tunnel and felt our way along the walls, hoping to uncover some kind of suspicious treasure underneath the abandoned sugar factory.

Only a few feet from the door, we heard a resounding thud as the door slammed shut and echoed down the corridor. The pitch-blackness and the tight walls of the tunnel creepily suspended us. As we ventured deeper into the narrow, dark tunnel, our flashlights pierced the darkness, revealing secrets waiting to be uncovered.