The night air in Old Town thickened — as if the very city itself could sense death stalking its streets.
High above, perching like a gargoyle on the skeletal remains of a tower, the Hunter watched.
Silent.
Patient.
A glint of red flickered behind the blank visor.
Locked onto one target:
Reo.
"Authorization Omega confirmed."
"Elimination priority: Absolute."
With a faint hum, the Hunter leapt into the void — and the hunt began.
---
Trouble Brews
Down below, Reo's team was gathering.
Arisa, Takashi, and Yuna moved through the battered ruins, rallying more survivors to their cause. Supplies had been raided from old armories, generators were being coaxed back to life, and the first makeshift defenses were going up.
Reo stood in the center of it all, issuing orders, planning, building.
There was life in Old Town again.
But even as the fires of hope burned, a cold unease gnawed at him.
He could feel it — like the air before a lightning strike.
Something was coming.
Something wrong.
---
An Omen
Doraemon hovered next to Reo, scanning constantly with a worried frown.
"I'm picking up strange readings," Doraemon said. "Like... reality distortion. Micro-singularities. Someone — or something — very high-level tech is approaching."
Reo narrowed his eyes.
"How close?"
Doraemon's scanners beeped sharply.
"Too close."
---
The First Strike
The attack came without warning.
One moment Reo was walking toward the generator site — the next, a sonic boom shattered the night as a blur of black and silver slammed into the earth before him.
Concrete exploded.
Dust choked the air.
And then, through the settling debris, the Hunter rose.
Tall.
Imposing.
Deadly.
The visor glowed red.
"Target acquired," the Hunter said in a voice like a machine's death rattle.
Reo's instincts screamed.
"Move!"
He barely dodged as the Hunter's gauntlet slammed down, pulverizing the ground where he'd stood a heartbeat earlier.
The impact shockwave threw him back.
Rolling to his feet, Reo drew his stolen plasma pistol — but the Hunter was already moving, fast as a bullet, a blur of lethal precision.
They clashed.
Sparks flew.
Metal shrieked against metal.
And Reo realized — grimly — that he was outclassed.
---
Survival Instincts
"Arisa, Takashi!" Reo barked into his comms, ducking another bone-crushing blow. "Evacuate the civilians! Now!"
"But what about you—" Arisa started.
"GO!" he roared.
The Hunter pressed the assault relentlessly, forcing Reo backward through the ruins.
Every strike was surgical.
Every movement — flawless.
He wasn't fighting a soldier.
He was fighting a weapon.
A living blade honed to destroy.
Reo grit his teeth, forcing his battered body to move faster, think sharper.
I can't win this head-on, he thought grimly. I have to outsmart him.
He dove behind cover, plasma shots scattering sparks, but the Hunter was already flanking, already adapting.
It was like fighting a mirror that learned faster than you could breathe.
---
The Revelation
Cornered against a ruined wall, Reo glared up at the advancing figure.
"Who the hell are you?" he demanded, blood dripping from his lip.
The Hunter tilted its head.
Then, in a voice distorted but unmistakably familiar, it said:
"You already know me, Reo."
Reo's heart stopped.
No.
It couldn't be.
Could it?
The Hunter reached up — and with a hiss of releasing locks, the visor retracted.
Revealing a face Reo hadn't seen in years.
A face he had killed.
"Hello, brother," the man said, smiling coldly.
Reo staggered back, disbelief washing over him.
"Kael...?"
The Hunter — Kael — nodded.
"Didn't expect me, did you?" he said softly. "You left me for dead. But the Coil... rebuilt me."
His eyes — once warm — now burned with mechanical malice.
"And now," Kael said, raising his weapon, "I'm here to return the favor."
---
The Duel Begins
Without another word, Kael attacked — a flurry of strikes faster, sharper, more brutal than before.
Reo fought back desperately, every movement fueled by sheer survival instinct.
Sparks rained around them.
The earth trembled.
And in the ruins of Old Town, two former brothers clashed — one driven by vengeance, the other by a fragile dream of freedom.
The battle for Reo's future had truly begun.
And only one would survive.
---