Kyra trembled beneath Xarin's shadow.
The Dusk Tyrant's skeletal helm loomed over her, his gauntlet tightening around her hair like a vice.
Her feet dangled.
Her screams cut through the smoke and dust.
"I didn't know goblins could speak," Xarin sneered. "So this is the reason you defected, Black Wolf. All for a pet."
She kicked and clawed, but his grip didn't budge.
Axel lay broken, armor split, blood dripping into the dirt.
His vision swam.
His HUD was a shattered mess of static and warnings. Only one thing stayed clear:
[KYRA: VITALS – DISTRESS]
Her cries reached through the fog of pain like a dagger to his heart.
And then...
A voice in his mind. His own.
This will probably kill me.
But…
How dare he touch her.
His left hand scraped across his cracked chestplate, where the internal nanokit was hidden. He pried it open with bloody fingers, revealing the emergency vial rack.
Five Nano-Regen shots. All military grade.
Never inject more than one.
He grabbed all of them.
"Screw it."
He slammed them into his chest, piercing the muscle just left of his heart.
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.
The pain was immediate.
His body locked. Then convulsed.
The red veins of the Black Wolf suit flared white-hot, then turned molten red again, brighter, unstable. Steam hissed from his back vents.
His heartbeat flatlined...
Then roared back.
His eyes, behind the helmet, burned blue.
His voice rasped like a demon crawling from its own grave.
"Black Wolf… activate Lone Fang Mode."
His entire frame jerked upright.
Armor segments realigned, glowing like a burning forge. Veins of power split across his limbs. Blood ran from his nose, his mouth, his ears but he didn't fall.
He stood.
He howled.
Xarin turned, halberd raised to strike Kyra...
SHHHHRRRAAAAAAAANG!
Iron Howl screamed through the air and SLAMMED into Xarin like a freight train.
BOOOOOOM.
Xarin was launched across the plaza. His body shattered three stone columns before skipping across the ground like a meteor.
Kyra hit the floor gently, protected by a red energy ripple from Axel's suit.
She rolled over, gasping, then looked up.
And her eyes went wide.
Axel stood in the firelight.
Steam coiled from every inch of his armor. Blood poured from his face beneath the helmet. But he didn't waver.
He wasn't breathing like a man anymore.
He was growling.
"HOW DARE YOU..."
He stepped forward, the ground cracking under each footfall.
"LAY YOUR FILTHY HANDS ON KYRA!!"
His voice wasn't human anymore, it was thunder through a dying world.
Even Blood Reign froze.
Vessa took a step back. "Is he… bleeding from inside his helmet?"
Telric's eye flickered behind his scope. "That heat reading… is wrong. That's not sustainable."
"Then he's going to die," Kreeva whispered.
But Ekkor shook his head slowly.
"No," he said.
"He's already dead. That thing... is rage with bones."
The demon had awoken.
Axel stood, bleeding, steaming, his suit cracked and blazing. But what stood there wasn't just the Black Wolf.
It was wrath, incarnate.
A walking furnace of vengeance and fury, forged in war, broken by grief, rebuilt by love.
And Blood Reign had just become his prey.
Ekkor-71 charged first, screaming. "I'LL RIP YOUR SPINE OUT!"
He vanished with Spasm Step, teleporting forward...
...but the moment he phased back into reality, Axel was already there.
Iron Howl came down like a judgment hammer.
CRUNCH.
The blade split Ekkor from collar to crotch, carving straight through armor, bone, and organs.
His torso peeled open like wet metal.
Blood and steam hissed out as his body dropped in two directions, twitching violently.
Kreeva-66 hissed and lunged, her daggers slicing in perfect silence.
But Axel moved faster. Too fast.
He caught her wrist mid-slash.
Her eyes widened.
Then, POP, Axel ripped her arm clean off.
She screamed but it was cut short as he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the ground hard enough to leave a crater.
Her mask cracked.
Her legs kicked.
Axel didn't stop.
He grabbed Iron Howl and drove it through her stomach, pinning her to the ground. The blade vibrated, sizzling her guts.
Kreeva's final breath came in a bloody whisper. "M-Monster…"
Telric-18 fired.
BLAM. BLAM. BLAM!
Three rail-shots in a blink.
Axel twisted, dodged one, deflected another with his gauntlet.
The third hit his side and bounced off.
The Black Wolf glared up.
And disappeared in a blur of red streaks.
"Where is he...?"
CRASH.
Axel crashed down from above like a falling god, knee-first.
Telric's spine shattered from the impact.
Axel grabbed the sniper's own railgun, twisted it like soft clay, and shoved it barrel-first into his mouth.
"Windlock this."
BOOOOM.
The back of Telric's head erupted in a mist of gore.
Vessa-42 activated Ghostframe, disappearing from sensors.
She circled fast.
Silent.
Deadly.
Until...
Axel closed his eyes.
Listened.
Then snatched the air beside him.
Her cloaked body screeched to visibility in his grip.
"You think I don't remember how you move?" he growled.
She screamed and slashed, but Axel twisted her arm until it broke with a wet snap, then threw her through a stone column.
She staggered out, bleeding, limping...
And Axel punched through her stomach with his bare hand.
His clawed gauntlet tore through her suit, her organs, her spine.
He lifted her into the air, blood dripping down his elbow.
Then whispered:
"Goodbye, Vessa."
He ripped upward, bisecting her torso vertically.
Only one remained.
Xarin-09.
He rose slowly from the rubble where Iron Howl had flung him.
Half his skull-helm was cracked.
The cloak torn.
"Axel…" he coughed, standing tall even as blood poured from his side. "You really were the best."
He raised his halberd, even as it trembled in his hand.
"Let's end this like soldiers."
Axel walked forward slowly.
Then charged, howling.
Their weapons clashed, Sundering Fang and Iron Howl, again and again.
Blades sparked. Stone shattered.
Then Axel caught the halberd mid-swing.
And kicked Xarin's knee backwards, breaking it clean.
The leader of Blood Reign dropped.
"Go on," he rasped. "Do it."
Axel leaned in close.
"Die."
He spun Iron Howl once and beheaded him cleanly.
The skull-helm flew.
Blood arced in the air like a ribbon of red flame.
Then silence.
A heavy, smoking silence.
Bodies strewn. Blood steaming. The air thick with the scent of death and vengeance.
Axel stood…
For one heartbeat.
Then two.
Then...
He convulsed.
Foam spilled from his mouth inside the helmet. Blood geysered from his nose and ears.
His suit shut down.
And the Black Wolf collapsed.
"AXEL!!"
Kyra sprinted across the field of bodies, slipping on blood, screaming through tears.
She dropped beside him, cradling his head in her tiny arms.
"Please, wake up! You can't...! You promised!"
She sobbed, hands trembling.
"Somebody help him! PLEASE!"
Grandmaster Maldrith, shocked but standing, looked upon the scene with wide eyes.
"Get the medics. Now."
The mages rushed in with stretchers and glowing sigils.
Maldrith's voice cut through the chaos.
"Carry him inside! Clear the inner sanctum! He dies, we all die! He is the future!"
As the wizards hoisted Axel's limp body, Kyra clung to his chest.
Her tears fell on the blood-soaked helmet.
"I'm here," she whispered. "I'm not leaving you. Not ever."