The Lone Hunter

Location: Frozen Archive Ruins – Depth Sector 3

The walls of the ruined facility pulsed faintly with the low hum of dormant ether. Frost stretched across consoles like creeping veins. Cyg stood still, his breath slow, watching the abyss-touched figure emerge from the shadows. The figure's helmet was fractured, a broken "S" insignia faintly visible on the chestplate.

"Who are you?" Cyg asked, voice level, gunblade unmoving from its place on his back.

"Subject 07," the man replied, removing his helmet with a hiss. His face was pale, with eyes burned from prolonged exposure to corrupted ether. "You're what they made after they discarded us."

Cyg's Mystic Eye flared.

"You're one of the first prototypes. The Genesis Trials. The ones wiped from Gaia records."

"And you're the one they perfected."

A beat.

"So now I have to see if you're worth it."

The man lunged, wielding twin daggers that shimmered with abyssal energy. Cyg drew Aetheron in a fluid motion, deflecting the first strike, pivoting low as ice cracked beneath his boots.

The fight wasn't elegant—it was surgical. Precise. Calculated.

Cyg wasn't just reacting. He was predicting.

But Subject 07 was relentless, his corrupted Divine Artifact—Ternyx, a twisted twin blade once designed for teleportation—warped now into a chaotic, unstable blade that flickered between locations mid-swing.

"You think cold makes you sharp, boy?" the man snarled. "The abyss taught me real precision."

Cyg's eye narrowed.

"Then let me remind you what perfection looks like."

Location: Gaia HQ – Situation Room

Hikari, Sylvia, Charlotte, and Elaine stood before the Octagram table. Thea listened with eyes shut as Hikari spoke.

"We know where he is. I'm going after him."

"This isn't just a search mission," Sylvia said softly. "It's a trap. They want him."

"All the more reason to go," Hikari said. "He's not good at letting others help."

Elaine stepped forward. "We're not doing this just for strategy."

Charlotte tilted her head. "You like him."

Everyone paused.

"Not just you, either," Charlotte added with her usual bluntness.

Hikari blushed, but didn't deny it.

"He's cold," she said. "But... when you stand close enough, it's not frost you feel. It's something waiting to melt."

Location: Frozen Archive Ruins – Containment Sector

The duel continued, the echoing clang of metal colliding with ice reverberating through the hollow facility. Cyg spun, deflecting a barrage of blink-strikes from Ternyx, his own blade adapting, adjusting its barrel angle mid-slash to fire close-range ether bursts.

"Why did you attack me?" Cyg demanded between strikes.

Subject 07 grinned, blood dripping from his lips.

"Because I needed to be sure... that you were still you."

He dropped his weapons.

"I'm dying. The abyssal grafting didn't hold. They left me here to die—but I remembered you."

"I don't remember you," Cyg said flatly.

"Doesn't matter. You still fight the same. Always alone. Always cold."

He stumbled back.

"I... just wanted to see if the thing they replaced us with... had a soul."

Silence.

"You came all this way just to prove a point?" Cyg asked.

"No," 07 smiled faintly. "I came to warn you."

He coughed violently, dark ether leaking from his mouth.

"Orion knows what you are. They're not after Gaia. They're after you."

"Why?"

"Because your mind... unlocks the key."

07 collapsed, body slowly disintegrating into fractal snow, leaving behind only a fragment of Ternyx.

Location: Forest Basecamp – Later That Night

Cyg sat beside a small, controlled fire under a collapsed overhang. He studied the artifact shard with narrowed eyes. The snow fell softly outside the shelter, and for a long time, he didn't move.

Then, quiet footsteps approached from behind.

He turned.

Hikari stood there, breathing hard from the trek. Her cheeks flushed from the cold, strands of hair stuck to her coat.

"...What are you doing here?" Cyg asked.

"Looking for someone who doesn't know when to ask for help," she replied, folding her arms.

"I'm not—"

"Yes, you are," she interrupted gently. "You are the strongest tactician Gaia has, but you're also human. You don't have to carry everything by yourself."

Silence passed between them.

Then, she stepped forward, sat beside him.

"I had a dream," she whispered, staring at the fire. "You were standing in the middle of a frozen lake. Everyone else had moved on. But you stayed… because you didn't want to melt the ice."

Cyg looked at her, for once, not with calculation—but with quiet curiosity.

"And what did you do?"

She smiled faintly.

"I waited. And lit a fire close enough to warm the lake."