Asher and the Knight moved away from the boy, leaving him safely against the wall. The hallway ahead was long and dark, lit only by ergency red lights. Everything was quiet again—too quiet.
The Knight glanced at the speakers. "He’s watching us."
"I know," Asher said.
They walked forward, their footsteps echoing through the steel corridor. Every few ters, caras turned to follow them. Asher ignored them completely, but the Knight kept glaring at each one.
After a minute of silence, the Venos man spoke again—his voice shaky, but full of hate.
"You think you’ve won sothing? All you did was break a tool. I have more."
Asher didn’t respond.
He just kept walking.
"That boy was useless until I fixed him!" the man continued. "He was trash. Weak. Now I’ll make a better one. A stronger one. One you can’t save."
The Knight clenched his jaw. "He’s mad."
"No," Asher said softly. "He’s scared."
They reached another heavy door, this one larger than all the others. The panel next to it was locked with several layers of security—fingerprint, code, and a rotating passkey.
Asher placed his hand on the panel.
The Knight sighed. "You’re going to break it again, aren’t you?"
"Yes."
A punch from Asher shattered the panel in one hit. Sparks burst out, and the door hissed open.
On the other side was a massive room filled with machines, computers, wires, and screens. It looked like a workshop mixed with a laboratory. Strange devices covered the tables. So were unfinished. So were active. So were clearly dangerous.
And at the far end of the room—finally visible—stood the Venos man.
He wasn’t hiding behind a screen anymore.
He stood in front of a tall control tower, his coat burned and torn from earlier explosions. His hair was a ss. His face was twisted with anger, but there was fear in his eyes.
Asher and the Knight stepped inside.
The Venos man pointed at them with a shaking hand. "Stay where you are!"
Asher didn’t stop walking.
"I said STOP!" the man shouted, backing up toward a machine behind him.
The Knight lifted his sword. "Asher?"
"Don’t rush," Asher said. "He’s desperate now."
The Venos man opened a tal hatch and grabbed sothing—so kind of remote device with glowing red buttons.
"You forced to use this!" he scread. "You forced to release my last defense!"
He slamd his hand on the remote.
A loud alarm blared.
The lights in the room changed from white to deep red.
tal plates on the walls started to shift and unfold. chanical claws, cannons, and drones snapped into place, all aiming at Asher and the Knight.
The Venos man laughed in a shaky, broken voice.
"Let’s see you survive THIS!"
The Knight stepped forward, blade ready. "We take them down?"
Asher cracked his neck.
"Yes."
He looked at the Venos man.
"And then we take him."
The machines all activated at once.
the floor. None of them broke his skin.
The Knight moved fast, slicing a drone out of the air before it could fire.
More drones dropped from the ceiling. So had lasers, so had small missiles, others had electrified claws.
Asher grabbed one drone by the leg and slamd it into two others, knocking all three to the ground. Sparks flew across the laboratory floor.
The Knight jumped onto a tal table, pushed off, and cut down another drone mid-flight. Its pieces clattered across the ground.
But the machines kept coming.
Three chanical arms shot out from the wall and swung large tal blades toward them. Asher caught one blade in his hand and crushed it. The tal bent like soft plastic. He tore the entire arm out of the wall and threw it aside.
The Knight ducked under another blade and pushed his sword upward, cutting the arm clean off.
A cannon in the corner started charging with a loud hum.
The Knight pointed. "That one’s building up power!"
Asher nodded once and sprinted toward it. Before the cannon could fire, he punched the barrel. The entire cannon collapsed in on itself, sparks bursting out in all directions.
Across the room, the Venos man watched with wide, terrified eyes.
"No... no, no, NO! You’re ruining everything!"
Asher ignored him.
Two heavy turrets dropped from the ceiling, each one spinning up large rotary guns. They fired nonstop, trying to fill the entire room with tal. The Knight moved behind a thick pillar to avoid being hit.
Asher didn’t hide. He walked forward against the storm of bullets. The floor tore up around him, tables exploded, screens shattered—but nothing made him stop.
He reached the first turret, jumped, grabbed its barrel, and ripped it clean off.
The turret died instantly.
He landed on the second turret. It tried to rotate away, but Asher crushed its firing chanism with his boot.
Silence hit the room for a mont.
The Knight stepped out from behind the pillar. "That was all of them?"
A sudden hiss sounded from above.
A final machine dropped from the ceiling—a tall, spider-like construct with six legs and a glowing core in the center of its body. It lunged at the Knight first, stabbing with its sharp limbs.
The Knight blocked the first leg but stumbled back from the force.
"Asher—!"
Asher grabbed the spider machine from behind, wrapped his arms around its body, and squeezed. The tal shell buckled. The glowing core flickered.
The spider machine tried to shock him, electricity jumping across its body, but Asher didn’t let go.
He squeezed harder.
The core cracked.
Then it broke.
The whole machine collapsed, legs twitching for a mont before going still.
Asher let it drop.
Now the room was quiet again—smoke rising from broken machines, sparks flashing on the floor, the whole workshop destroyed.
The Knight exhaled. "That’s everything."
Asher turned his head toward the far end of the room.
The Venos man was pressed against the control tower, shaking, eyes wide with panic.
Asher began walking toward him.
"You can stop running now," Asher said.
The Venos man backed up until his shoulders hit the tal behind him.
"No... stay away from !"
Asher didn’t stop.
He reached the man, grabbed the remote device from his hand, and crushed it in his fist.
"You’re done," Asher said.
The Venos man froze, breathing fast, knowing he had no more machines left.
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