[El'Vertigo Crypt Vaults — Depth Sector 7]
Frost cracked beneath Pablo's boots.
The crypts opened wide into a chamber carved from glacial stone and laced with ancient Viora conduits—once used to imprison the worst of Velmora's traitors.
But this cell was broken.
And in its center stood Aurex Vellan.
Once a commander of Velmora's elite Viora Guard, now a creature of ice and madness. His body moved like a puppet wrapped in frost-threaded muscles, and his voice echoed with layered static—like too many thoughts speaking at once.
"I remember you," Aurex hissed, frost blooming from his lips. "You're Kavo's runt. The son who used to run screaming through these halls. But now look at you…"
His hand raised, and the temperature plummeted.
"You came here chasing ghosts. Good. Now freeze with them."
Pablo flared Dark Viora around his arms, the energy burning crimson-black as it struck the frost creeping toward him.
"You tortured monster," Pablo growled. "You think killing everyone will fix what they did to you?!"
Aurex laughed—a broken, echoing rasp.
"I'm not fixing anything. I'm ending it."
[El'Vertigo Keep — Surveillance Core Chamber]
Kiro stood before the holographic feed matrix—walls of surveillance footage streaming from the Keep's internal grid.
System: Viora traces detected. Anomalous spell signature—Reflection type. Codename: Mirror Man.
"He's hiding in reflections," Kiro muttered. "A refracted cloak of mirrored Viora."
He rewound footage, slowed it, isolated frequency distortions. One mirror in the crypt flashed wrong. Once.
"There."
Kiro tapped the feed. The System zoomed in, layering blood-sense into the image—Aurex's signature flared like a cancer.
System: Mirror Man disruption field calibrated. Short-range lock acquired.
"Relay to surface units. Ice Killer located. He's not just freezing people—he's trying to get into the Vault."
Just then, the System flared red:
[Priority Warp Trigger Activated]— Target Location: Vault Sector 7
Kiro didn't hesitate.
FLASH—!
He vanished in a streak of crimson light.
[Vault Sector 7 — Frostburst Impact Zone]
The crypt ceiling trembled with the clash of Viora.
Kiro emerged mid-run, skidding across icy rubble as Pablo was thrown back by a wave of cryo-static.
"PABLO!" Kiro shouted.
He dove, catching the boy before he could hit the jagged steel. Blood flared from his palms, coating Pablo with a thin film of protective venom.
"You shouldn't be here—" Pablo coughed.
"Neither should he," Kiro replied. "He's not after the guards. He's after the Omega Core."
Pablo's eyes widened.
[Top of the Spire — El'Vertigo Inner Sanctum]
Kavo El'Vertigo stormed through the final door into the restricted archives. The ancient chamber glowed with freezing light—frost already seeping down the walls.
And at the center, among shattered containment tubes and ruptured data servers, stood a blueprint.
A schematic of Velmora's Omega Core—a planet-scale energy detonator built as a final defense mechanism in the event of planetary siege.
Aurex had copied its designs.
And scrawled across the walls in frost-blood were three words, again and again:
"LET IT END."
Kavo's fists trembled.
"Gods forgive me… He's not just killing.""He's trying to blow the entire planet apart."