Chapter 48
[Krugo – Two Hours After the Rift Closed]
The fires still burned, their angry tongues licking up the charred bones of Krugo's once-proud skyline. Smoke drifted like mourning veils across the broken plazas, and somewhere beneath the fallen spire, a soldier screamed for a medic while an engineer tried to coax a dead drone back to life by swearing at it.
Pablo sat slumped beside the shattered remains of a fountain, shirt torn, hair matted with ash, and a glazed look in his eyes that said he'd seen too much too fast. Around him, the Black Star Legion swept the ruined capital, their scanning equipment glowing cold blue as they searched for survivors, enemies, and anomalies.
It didn't take them long to find the biggest anomaly of all.
Lying in a crater where the monstrous Voidling Warlord Pox had fallen was Kiro—unmoving, blood-soaked, and strangely serene, as if he'd just taken a short nap in the middle of a battlefield carved by hellfire.
A soldier crouched, checked a scanner, and stiffened. "Target confirmed. Rebellion-class entity. Alive... barely."
Another voice buzzed through a helmet speaker. "Sir, his blood signature matches the unknown from the Gaeth breach and the El'Vertigo massacre."
Pablo stood before they could touch him, his voice cracking with urgency—and something dangerously close to loyalty. "He saved this city. You owe him."
The squad leader turned, visor flickering as it registered Pablo's face. "House El'Vertigo. You're coming with us. You've got answers to give."
Pablo hesitated. His eyes flicked to Kiro, still breathing, still burning faintly beneath the skin with something not quite human. He clenched his fists.
"...He needs time," he muttered. "And so do I."