The alarm howled incessantly, giving Seth a headache. Unlike him, Inann did not wait for anyone’s instructions and locked the door first. He also tried to make contact with people outside the underground bunker, but the rebel hackers had blocked every signal.


    Seth could only wonder about what was going on above them. No sounds from the higher storeys reached there. The ground had stopped shaking a while ago, and all the devices turned out to be useless. Only the unaffected exoskeleton with the barely breathing Kehrian inside stood still, gazing right at Seth with its dark, empty sockets. Even though it was deactivated, the young Celestian could feel the gaze of the petrified creature locked inside the tons of coruscium.


    For the good of us all, he repeated to himself, glancing at the machine from the corner of his eyes.


    “We have no way to call for help,” informed Inann to his employer.


    “They should trace my transmitter by now. Where are they?” growled Azhi, looking around.


    “Why is nobody defending us?” interrupted Seth, spreading his arms. “No aerial or land defence... What’ve you got me into?”


    “I cannot afford luxuries like this,” answered Azhi, reminding them that he’d had to pay another bribe to the committee members earlier.


    “What are we supposed to do?”


    “What do you think?” Azhi shrugged. “Do you see any way other than waiting until somebody comes for us?” He sighed, looking at the young Celestian. “We’ll be fine.”


    Seth nodded but with no confidence, glancing at the metal monument again.


    “Shake your fricking leg,” hissed Inann to himself and began marching around the room. His eyes gleamed like two embers. The shadow cast by the horned reptile resembled a dragon creeping in obscure caves and guarding its treasures against looters.


    Leaning against the box, Azhi calmed his breath down and tightened his lips. He kept silent, switching on his LiqWatch sometimes. He did not show any fear but looked with sorrow at his creation, enclosed in glass. Twenty years of his work had to be in vain. Even if he took a few machines with him, he would need to destroy the rest to hide the new technology from the rebels and the evidence from the Union.


    He glanced at Seth, circling around the enclosure. The young Celestian remained his only hope for rebuilding or even improving the SynthBreed Project. He’d abandoned his confidence in Inann a long time ago, the same way as he did with Delian. Maybe the Inann was clever, but he could only modify the known rules from the textbooks in his creations, instead of introducing his own innovations. In addition, he treated the whole thing as a job that he just had to do to earn a living. No passion to bring about a change drove him.


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    A triple bang at the door, louder than the alarm, broke through the Celestian’s reflections.


    “Dahaka, Ishme, Felvennis!” called someone through the microphone. “It’s the rescue group, open the door!”


    Inann turned back, darted towards the door and unlocked it. Before the door could slide completely into the wall, ten people in long, grey coats charged inside. Each of them held a rifle, and goggles and respirators covered their faces.


    “You’re coming with us,” ordered the leader.


    Azhi nodded and together with the Ifrit and Seth, he followed the guards. Six of them ran at the front, and the rest protected their back. Every few seconds, somebody called out orders to hurry them up. They left the corridors leading to the bunker and entered the narrow tunnel to avoid the main paths, which the rebels had already invaded.


    The last three Unions, who’d survived the fury of Rakshasas, rushed through obscure tunnels, leaving behind blurred stains of blood and mud. One of them dropped his weapon before his companions died and did not even think to come back for it. The others were trembling and too petrified to defend themselves.


    They stopped at the end of the corridor, in front of the high gates. The Nelphian jumped to the control panel. With rapid, nervous moves, he hit the buttons, trying to recall the right code.


    “Faster!” barked a Celestian, kicking the door, and his other companion tugged its handle. Distant hisses of servomotors, metallic stomping and harsh breaths did not help the Nelphian, who was trying to focus. Panic began to cramp his fingers. With his echolocation sense, he felt that the monsters were approaching fast.


    “Aim at this one!” called out a Rakshasa, marching in the first row, and raised his weapon.


    “No!” growled Jangalee, putting his hand on the rifle barrel, “at least, not yet.”


    His companion lowered his weapon. “The Pride of Talvi and their plans…”


    The Union Nelphian found the right number sequence. He left blurred marks of sand and slime-like sweat on the control panel. As the gate began to withdraw, the Unions squeezed through the slit and ran into the vast chamber.


    “Now you can!” barked Jangalee and added under his breath, “you’re so generous today, Devi.”


    The rebels fired. Their bullets tore the air and took the two Unions down, but the Nelphian leapt over the pile of debris. While landing, he tripped over a cracked vase and fell down on a protruding wire which gored through his arm. The Nelphian turned on his flank, and gasping with pain, he propped up on his hands. Blue blood, gushing from his deep wound, spattered on the floor. The Nelphian slipped on it, falling down. The deep thud of impending danger rushed towards him like an iron avalanche. He turned his head and regretted that action.


    Speeding right at him, the Rakshasa bored its bottomless lenses at its victim. The Union crawled several centimetres away, leaving the blue ooze behind. He leaned on the ground and lifted his skinny body but before he could get up, claws slashed through his ribs. A rapid jolt tossed him up. He hit the floor on his back, and a petrifying impetus bored through his bones and guts. An unnaturally strong grip of freezing cold almost like an iron hand clutched his throat. The Nelphian lost the ground under his feet when the Rakshasa lifted him up like a bag of feathers.


    The Rakshasa gazed at its trophy and whispered something in a monotonous voice. With a single move, it sent the Union up, towards the ceiling. The Nelphian hit the floor several metres away, feeling his bones crack like a porcelain figurine. Lying face-down, he struggled to inhale a breath of air into his lungs which were pierced by his broken ribs. Before the Beast severed his skull from his spine, the view of bared fangs and blood-red sockets froze his barely beating heart.