- Oliver -

  Oliver stood frozen, unsure of where to look or what to do. His chest felt tight as he surveyed the aftermath: fallen Rangers, a newly shattered group, and—above all else—Emma’s haunted look. Her expressioeriween grief and shock, made him feel helpless and uled.

  Emma remained seated on the damp ground, her gaze locked onto Elliot’s lifeless features as though peering into some hiddey only she could see. Almost all of her armor was deactivated—she wore only the lower half—revealing dark stains of dried blood on her legs. She cradled Elliot’s hand in one of her owly stroking his cheek with the other. Even as Oliver called to her, the young Ranger offered no response. Eventually, her tears ran dry, and Oliver realized there was little he could do to ease her anguish at that moment.

  Turning away, he noticed Chling bodies toward the edge of the clearing, tug them beh the ing boughs of tall trees. Without waiting for an expnation, Oliver rushed to help—lifting limbs and easing torsos to more cealed spots. Even the remains of those who had betrayed them were carefully hidden.

  “We o hide them,” Chloe said, voice low and urgent. “Otherwise, some creature will try to devour them. And these two traitors… we o identify them. This wasn’t any ordinary i. It’s rare to hear of a Ranger sabotaging a mission—especially one aimed at the Orks.”

  Oliver paused, then asked, “ we call for a rescue?”

  Chloe took a moment to sider. “Maybe. But we have to make sure whoever receives nal isn’t in league with the ones who sent those three traitors.”

  “What if we broadcast a distress call on an open el?” Oliver suggested. “That way, any tower within the Half Wall could pick it up.”

  “It may work,” Chloe replied, removing the unicator from Alex’s lifeless form. “But I’ll o modify this device first. In the meantime, you should carry on with the mission.”

  “What?! tinue?” Oliver echoed, incredulous. He cast a final g Emma, realizing that, for now, he had no choice but to leave her grieving in silence.

  Chloe’s tone was unfling as she examihe grim se around them. “Whoever wants this mission to fail clearly doesn’t want us reag the Orks’ base—or disc whatever they’re hiding there.”

  Oliver tore his gaze away from Emma, who still refused to respond to anything happening around her. He mulled over Chloe’s words for several moments, a thousand questions cm in his mind.

  “I o stay to modify the s equipment and watch over her,” Chloe added, nodding toward Emma. “I’ll look after the bodies, too. Even if more Blights show up, I still have enough Energy to set up a few fortificatiohe clearing.”

  It was evident that Oliver was relut to tih the mission, especially without knowing the risks ahead.

  "You don’t o take any risks; just gather information about what’s at the site aurn," Chole said, trying to calm him down and expin what he o do.

  Oliver nodded, finally agreeing to tinue.

  ‘Traveling solo might be easier and perhaps safer.’ He thought.

  “ you hear me?” Oliver spoke into his .

  “Loud and clear,” answered Chloe, her voice crag through his earpiece.

  “All right, I’m moving out,” he said softly, throwing o g the clearing before heading off.

  Before advang into the forest depths, Oliver remembered the notification that had fshed earlier in his HUD. He paused, opening it.

  | Ranger Killer [Secret Trait]| Kill a Ranger| [Click to Redeem]

  ‘So there are Traits I won’t even realize exist until they’re unlocked.’ Oliver thought as he tapped to redeem his reward.

  | Select a Status to Improve

  | - Strength| - stitution| - Agility| - Energy

  Oliver stared at the options, debating what he needed most. There was no time to overthink it; he clicked Energy.

  ‘It’s what saved my life against that Yeller,’ Oliver reasoned. ‘I'd be dead if I hadn’t outmatched him in raw power. Just gotta make sure I don’t blow myself up with the recoil.’

  He expected only a minor boost—perhaps a single point. But a rge, six-sided die materialized in his HUD and spun rapidly. It finally nded on a face with six dots.

  “Even when I’m lucky, I mao feel unlucky,” Oliver muttered.

  | Status Improved| Energy (17 => 23)

  | Rank Up| Energy [Knight] => [Bishop]

  ‘Rank up? Seriously?’ He felt a surge of power course through him as he realized his Energy had asded to a ier.

  No further notifications appeared. ‘So I get no clue how this ges my Boons,’ he mused. ‘Guess I’ll have to figure that part out on my own.’

  With no time to linger on the mysteries of his newfound strength, Oliver trekked onward, skimming his holographic dispy for map data as he pressed deeper into unknowory.

  Oliver crept through the forest, pressing himself behind trees at every unusual sound. He smeared moss and leaves across the bluish paint of his armor to hide better among the trees. Step by step, he advanced further into the forest.

  Suddenly, his vision blurred. For a panicked moment, he worried he had been poisoned—or perhaps was on the verge of passing out. But the reality was far simpler and far more human: tears clouded his eyes.

  Oliver couldn’t he exact emotion c through him—maybe it was terror, maybe grief. After all, he’d e so close to death, faced betrayal, and been forced to take another human life. He’d lost mates yet again. With no one around to see, his mind finally allowed all that fear and adrenalio spill over, aopped to sob quietly uhe t branches.

  A sudden crackle from his uniade him jump. “Still alive?” Chloe’s voice asked, snapping him back to the moment. Pressing a hand against his poundi, Oliver sniffled, trying to sound normal.

  “Y-yeah,” he managed, voice shaky. “I’m about ten minutes from the target location.”

  “Okay,” Chloe replied. A brief silence followed before she tinued. “I hear everything, you know. I left your open. Rex. g, feeling desperate, witnessih—those things happen in our line of work.”

  Oliver bobbed his head in aowledgment, though no one could see it. Resuming his journey, he noticed the air growing hotter and thicker with a powerful, pulsing energy that seemed to radiate from somewhere far ahead.

  ‘Am I more sensitive to Energy now?’ he wondered, remembering his sudden Rank Up. But self-refle would have to wait. Something massive and terrifying y only a few meters away—s, he could se even at this distance.

  At st, the trees began to thin, revealing the abrupt end of the forest. Beyond the final row of trunks, a vast clearing opened before him. Oliver stepped carefully onward, adrenaliill c through his veins, brag himself for what might lie ahead.

  Instead of the expected grassy meadow, beyond the treeline y a colossal excavation site—a massive chasm plunging hundreds of meters straight into the earth. The sheer magnitude of the pit was staggering, and Oliver felt a surge of disbelief wash over him.

  He dropped to a croud crawled forward, keeping low as he approached the edge. Carefully, he peeked over, and his eyes wide the sight that unfolded below. An enormous structure domihe depths of the excavation, surrounded by a byrinth of tunnels and shafts that branched out in all dires. The heat emanating from the pit pressive, almost suffog. A giant stoaircase spiraled down the chasm's walls, eg the various levels carved into the rock.

  Oliver detached the scope from his rifle and brought it to his eye, adjusting the focus to get a clearer view of the lower levels. What initially appeared as tiny, scurrying ants were actually figures movihodically across the excavation. They were Orks—thousands upon thousands of them.

  "What the hell is this?" Oliver muttered under his breath, his heart pounding. "How is this base supposed to be abandoned?"

  He sed the vast exparying to prehend the scale of the operation. The Orks were b intensely, but he could not uand the purpose of their toil.

  Above the grand staircase stood several dozen Orks adorned in eborate armor, each suit more intricate and menag tha. Their armor bore a brutal and chaotic aesthetic, remi of the Rangers' suits but twisted and aggressive, bedecked with spikes and jagged edges.

  They shouted ands in booming voices that echoed throughout the cavernous pit, audible even from Oliver's distant vantage point.

  "Tagog! Bring forth the !" bellowed the Ork at the top of the stairs, his voice like thunder.

  At the base of the excavation, s cttered as hundreds of humans, along with captured beasts and monstrosities, were herded forward. They were led to the ter of a vast sigil etched into the ground—strange symbols that pulsed with a faint, otherworldly light.

  A red-skinned Ork asded the steps to stand before the anding figure.

  "Let us begin! Rayuart duwudz!" the ander roared, his eyes gleaming with fervor.

  Surrounding Orks began a guttural t, a haunting chorus that resonated deep within Oliver's bohough he couldn't decipher the words, the sinister i alpable. An uling energy permeated the air.

  The runes carved into the earth ignited, glowing with an intense crimson light. The temperature surged, heat waves dist the air above the ritual circle. The captives cried out in agony, dropping to their knees as unseen forces tore at them. Their screams melded with the ominous ting, creating a cacophony of despair.

  Then, one by ohe prisoners exploded in violent bursts of blood and viscera. Oliver recoiled, a mixture of horror and nausea gripping him as gruesome fragments scattered across the sigil.

  At the pinnacle of the staircase, the ander made a swift, brutal move—decapitating the red Ork beside him. Blood spurted from the severed neck as the body colpsed. Holding the severed head aloft, the ander allowed the blood to cascade over the sacrificial site below. From within the skull, he extracted a small, glowing crystal. Even from this distance, Oliver could ses immense power—a Unique Crystal radiating with an overwhelming amount of Energy.

  The ting intensified, rising to a fever pitch. The spilled blood and gore within the circle began to writhe and coalesce, moving as though possessed by a malevolent will. The grotesque mass absorbed the remains around it, growing rger and grotesque. Even unsuspeg Ork workers were ensheir bodies ed by the burgeoning abomination.

  The monstrosity heaved itself upward, t above the pit. It let out a deafening roar—so powerful that it rattled the grouh Oliver's feet.

  "AITAN LIVES!" the ander exalted, his voice filled with triumph. "Bring me MORE! Solu Ankeluz!"

  "Chloe! Chloe!" Oliver whispered urgently into his unicator, his voice edged with mounting ay. "Is the el open?"

  There was a brief crackle of static before Chloe's calm voice responded. "Yes, just a moment. Go ahead."

  Oliver exhaled, his breath shaky. The oppressive heat from the massive excavation behind him made the air heavy, and the distant sounds of the Orks' monstrous activities sent a shiver down his spine. He couldn't afford to waste any more time.

  Switg frequencies, he opehe el to all allied unication towers. "Alert! Alert!" he announced, his voice firm but urgent.

  Almost immediately, multiple voices chimed in:

  "Southern unication Tower here, we read you."

  "Northern unication Tower standing by."

  "tral and receiving."

  A momentary pause ensued, filled with the subtle hum of background transmissions.

  "Hold on. Is this signal open to all els?" the officer asked, his tone indig fusion.

  Oliver could hear the murmurs of and the rustling of hurried movements oher end. Although broadcasting on an unsecured, wide-band frequency breached protocol, the gravity of the situatio him no choice.

  Before anyone could cut him off or demand identification, he pressed on with urgency. "This is Oliver, Blue Ranger Identification ZX7429," he decred. "We have discovered a Titan produ facility. Repeat: We've found a factory where the Orks are manufacturing Titans in Olympus.”

  GCLopes