Storm clouds hung heavily in the sky, an ominous grey blanket suffocating the city in a never-ending twilight.
The rain fell hard, transforming the streets into rivers, and lightning rent the sky with jagged fury.
It was a recipe for a bloodbath.
At the edge of the decaying industrial district, Renji, Ayame, and Sora waited. The deserted industrial buildings loomed over the streets like the skeletal remains of a long-dead civilization, their windows broken and walls covered with graffiti and decay.
The three had tracked the carnage to this very spot, tempted by the sure signs of a new threat, a more deadly and sinister foe.
"You sure about this?" Ayame said, her voice a low rasp while she reloaded her pistol.
With her wrist still tightly wrapped and her wounds still mottled, but her resolve unbroken.
Renji's unwavering, icy blue gaze remained trained on the pitch black ahead. "I don't like it either, but we must we have no choice.
Whatever came to us back there… it was only the beginning.'
Sora breathed out, water vapor blooming in the cold air.
His psychic senses tingled with the faint hum of malevolent intent. "
There's more than one. I can feel them."
Renji clenched his sword and gripped it tightly.
"Stay sharp. Do it the right way; no one gets out of here alive."
The trio pressed on, melding into the dark.
Rainwater pooled at their feet, the only sound the soft splash of their steps and the distant rumble of thunder.
As a united unit, practiced and lethal, they moved.
A flicker of motion. Renji stopped and gestured to the other four.
Ayame dropped low, gun leveled down into the dark, while Sora's eyes went vacant, his focus widening.
"Left. Two hostiles. Armed," Sora whispered.
Renji nodded. "On my mark."
Three… two…
He burst forward.
His sword glistened in the darkness, hook of silver slicing through skin and sinew.
The first enemy didn't even have time to register his presence before his head bounced off his shoulders, blood splattering across the wet concrete.
Ayame's shots rang out, loud and precise.
The second enemy fell, his weapon clanging uselessly from limp hands.
The three continued on without haste, deeper into the passages of steel and rust.
As they stepped into the central warehouse, the smell of rot thickened in the air.
Dozens of bodies were strewn across the ground victims of the wrath of the new enemy.
Their skin was torn, their faces frozen in fear.
"What kind of monster would do this?" Ayame muttered.
Sora's face paled.
"Not a monster. Monsters. They're here."
The shadows twisted. There were figures hulking brutes with long limbs, eyes glowing with a foul yellow light.
Their flesh was mottled, shreds of rot surrendering to exposed muscle and bone. Each moved with the grace of a predator, lips pulling back to show jagged teeth.
"Welcome, welcome, intruders," a voice hissed through the air, smooth and serpentine.
A figure stepped out, tall and thin and dressed in a tattered black overcoat, hair slicked back over a skeletal, pale face.
His eyes flashed with otherworldly fire, and his smile was a needle poised to pierce.
"I am Malek," he purred. "And you've come straight into my den."
Renji didn't waste words.
He lunged, sword leading.
Malek flowed like smoke, avoiding the blade, landing a vicious blow to Renji's side.
The force sent him sliding across the wet floor.
Ayame pulled out her gun and fired, bullets tearing through the air.
The beasts ran forward, ignoring the rounds blowing through their frames.
She swung around, twirling back as claws sliced through the air where her throat had just been seconds ago.
Sora's power unleashed, a pulse of psychic energy that threw two of the creatures through the steel beams.
Their bodies creaked and bent, but they got back up, undaunted.
Renji scrambled to his feet, blood dripping from his lip.
"Is that all you've got?"
Malek's laughter echoed.
"Oh, I'm only just beginning."
The creatures swarmed.
Renji became a storm, his blade singing as it cleaved through the air. Limbs circled through the air, blood gushed out, but the beasts did not break stride.
Ayame moved like a shadow; every shot buried something in the chest as long as they stayed down.
A storm raged in Sora's mind, unseen fingers pulling and smashing, yet fatigue dragged him down.
Renji's blade sliced through the torso of one creature, which used its remaining arm to grab him.
Jaws clicked around his arm, and he forced the tip of his sword upward through the creature's jaw, splitting its head. One fell, but two more took the place of the single fallen.
"They're endless!" Ayame cried, her gun clicking dry.
"Keep fighting!" Renji barked.
His muscles ached, every movement slower than the last.
Sora went down to one knee, bloody in the nose.
His telekinetic grip slipped as a creature lunged toward him.
Ayame leapt on it, stabbing her blade into its skull over and over until it finally stopped thrashing.
Malek remained at the center of the chaos, unharmed and amused by it.
His hands worked, esoteric symbols gleaming in the air.
The earth shook, and ebony tendrils burst forth, snagging Renji's legs.
"Do you see now?" Malek taunted. "This battle you are fighting is meaningless.
Renji struggled against the bonds, but they only grew tighter, frozen and jagged as barbed wire.
His sword fell out of his hand and clattered to the floor.
Ayame shrieked and reached for Malek, but with a flick of his wrist, he sent her hurtling into a mound of rubble.
She lay motionless, blood collecting under her head.
"No!" Sora pushed himself upward, his power flaring weakly in defiance.
The warehouse shuddered, metal straining as beams warped and ruptured.
A support beam fell and crushed one of the creatures, but Malek was unharmed.
"You are nothing," Malek said, hissing. "And now, you will die."
His space turned darker, shadows curling like serpents around him. Renji's sight started to fade, his strength ebbing.
He could hear Sora's labored breathing, see Ayame's still body, and feel a strange numb cold spread across his body.
But there was something awakening in that darkness.
A spark. A memory.
His family. His promise.
With a roar, Renji closed his hand around his blade.
The shadows burned where the metal contacted, and the tendrils jerked back.
He forced himself up, breaking the bindings, and his strength surged back in an adrenaline rush.
"There's more," he growled.
Malek's expression changed, a flicker of curiosity mixed with fear. "Impossible."
Renji moved.
His sword was an extension of his will, a blur of steel and fury. He sliced through the beasts, one swing more savage than the last.
Limbs were blown off, blood gushed out, and the warehouse turned into a slaughterhouse.
Malek started to back away, confidence faltering.
"This... this cannot be."
Renji closed in, his blade blazing.
Malek raised his hands, shadows coiled to strike but Renji was faster.
Malek was pinned to the wall, a sword embedded in his chest.
Malek's eyes widened, gore spattering from his lips.
"You... can't... stop... it."
There was a rumbling that shook the ground, which shook the world.
The walls splintered and cracked, shadows oozing from every cranny.
Renji felt it the darkness, the true enemy, stirring.
And then, as Malek's life faded from him, he gave one last, bloody smile.
"You are only delaying the inevitable."
The warehouse started to cave in.
Renji spun and snatched Sora and hoisted Ayame's unconscious body.
They fled, the world falling apart around them, shadows at their heels.
As they surged into the rain-drenched night, the warehouse collapsed, consumed by darkness.
With Sora out cold but breathing, Renji dropped to his knees, Ayame's pulse weak against his fingertips.
But the shadows moved.
And far away, something else woke something worse than Malek.
The fight was far from over.