Gaia Chronicles: The Integral Saga

Location: Gaia Northern Perimeter – Forest PeripheryTime: 1:03 AM

The night was still. Too still.

The ruins behind them were smoldering with residual ether, a broken lab of horrors reduced to charred ash. Cyg and Hikari moved through the canopy, silent, deliberate. Above, clouds veiled the moon like a curtain over a watching eye.

"Something followed us," Cyg muttered, his gunblade resting against his back.

Hikari nodded, her ears trained on the soft crunch of snow under faint footsteps, half a kilometer behind.

"It's… light-footed. But erratic," she whispered. "Like it's learning how to move."

"Residual abyssal synthesis," Cyg replied. "The creature from the lab might've activated a dormant unit before we shut it down."

He stopped suddenly. Pulled out a data shard from his coat. Inserted it into a mini console on his glove.

A crimson glyph flared.

"Telemetry says Subject 14 awakened. Not fully formed… but unstable."

"Fourteen?" Hikari asked.

"My prototype," he said bluntly.

Location: Ridge Trail Overpass – 1:22 AM

They split up, Cyg heading through the shadows while Hikari hovered above the ridgeline. The air grew colder as the hours passed. Trees bent inward unnaturally, responding to some silent pull of corrupted ether.

Then she saw it.

A humanoid form, crawling on all fours like a spider, white mask fused to its head. Eyes—if they could be called that—burned pale azure. Limbs extended with every lurching movement, as if trying to remember what arms were.

"Cyg," she whispered through the comm. "I found it. South of your position. It's… humming something."

"What?"

"It's humming… a lullaby."

Her voice wavered. She recognized the tune. It was the one Cyg had been humming once, unconsciously, back during a repair mission—back when she asked about it and he had simply said, "Don't know. Maybe a dream from when I was a kid."

"That's not possible," he replied through the link, already moving.

Combat Engagement – Subject 14

The synthetic snapped its head toward Hikari mid-sentence. Before she could leap back, it screamed, distorting the air with a wave of ether shock.

She crashed back-first against a rock, coughing blood.

Cyg arrived within seconds, sliding under the beast's next lunge and unleashing three ether bursts from Aetheron. One hit. Two missed. The creature reassembled its form mid-air, regenerating with patchwork efficiency.

"It's adapting faster than expected," Cyg muttered.

"I… I can't move my left arm," Hikari whispered, struggling to her feet.

"Then don't."

He stood in front of her and activated his Mystic Eye at full output.

The battlefield slowed.

Subject 14's joints pulsed. Its attack path curved. Cyg calculated twenty-three possible angles, then narrowed them down to one.

"Got you."

He unleashed a barrage of pinpoint shots, rupturing its shoulder, knee, and eye socket in one cascade.

But just before the final blast, the creature spoke—in his voice.

"Don't forget me."

He froze.

Just a moment.

It was enough for Subject 14 to slash across his side with a blade of bone, carving through armor and flesh alike.

Retreat and Reflection – Nearby Cave Shelter

Hours later, both Cyg and Hikari sat near a flickering ether flame in a shallow cave. His side was bandaged, hers still swollen.

The silence stretched.

Then she broke it.

"What was that thing, really?"

"My shadow," Cyg murmured. "A prototype. Created when they thought I was too unstable. It was meant to replace me if I failed the Synthesis Trial."

Hikari looked at him, quietly.

"But you passed."

"Barely. And not because I was better. Just because I was... colder."

She shifted closer, resting her head lightly against his shoulder.

"You're not as cold as you think."

He glanced at her, surprised.

"I see how you fight. You shield me. You protect everyone in Gaia, even if you never say why."

Her voice dropped lower.

"You remember lullabies, Cyg. You bleed for people. You hesitate when you hear someone suffering."

He looked away, eyes clouded.

"Emotion dulls efficiency."

"And love makes warriors stronger."

The words hung between them, more than just a statement.

He didn't reply. But he didn't pull away either.