Evantra rose slowly, turning around to face the doorway from which she entered, watching as the figures melted out of the shadow.

  Three figures strode out of the shadow.

  The first was Noelle. Her eyes were wide with alarm, but Evantra could see a hand firmly clasped across her lips, preventing her cries from escaping. Her hand tightened around the hilt of her katana before she stumbled.

  Against her will, she watched as her blade was ripped out of her hands as it flew from her sheath to rest against her throat.

  Hovering in midair.

  “Putain, Gustave, what have I told you about the knife thing? Let the poor girl go.”

  Gustave was a short and squat man with slicked back hair and a black moustache that had been carefully curled upwards into two swirls at the end of his lips. Evantra’s eyes drifted to the range of blades hovering in the air above him in a crescent arc, all pointing in her direction.

  “Apologies.”

  To Evantra’s surprise, the man immediately released Noelle, looking only slightly miffed. He backed down from where he was standing on his tiptoes, and the blades arrayed around him floated precisely into sheaths around his body.

  Noelle simply waved off the man’s apology, running past Evantra to crouch beside the lock.

  “Shit… shit. They’re electronic, probably controlled from a terminal within the room. Ben can you—”

  “Noelle… what the hell is going on—”

  Evantra watched as another figure joined Gustave. But if the short man with the curled black moustache and floating blades had been intimidating, the appearance of the woman beside him chilled her to the very core.

  High-class corpos have few limitations when it comes to altering their natural appearance. When you had the ability to retain the world’s top flesh sculptors and to adopt whatever cybernetics that you saw fit, it resulted in a class of people whose appearances were limited only by their imagination.

  But even then… most people had an attachment to their biological form, opting to enhance it in some way but maintain their overall appearance, even if they replaced their skin and muscle with implants.

  The woman who strode towards Evantra was cybernetically enhanced from head to toe.

  A black cyberskeleton was visible from the areas where her subdermals had been torn through or worn down. Black titanium bones mimicking the human spine connected her torso to her head, and Evantra could see two gleaming orange eyes that were her optics. Her lower jaw had been replaced with a metallic substitute, and the outer layer had been worn away to reveal the black metal beneath it. Long black hair trailed downwards from her metallic skull, as if it were a final, passing attempt at preserving her appearance.

  She walked forwards with a wry grin.

  “Got it!”

  Noelle pressed a button on the terminal, and the doors to the two prison cells opened with a click.

  Evantra watched as the girl within emerged in a sprint, before wrapping the shorter Gustave in a tight hug, as the man mumbled under his breath, patting her back in consolation.

  “Maman,” the giant of a man in the other cell said, as he emerged.

  ‘Maman’...

  Mother?

  Upon closer inspection, Evantra could see that he had olive brown skin and wide hazel eyes that were shadowed by dark circles. The man that she had previously assumed to be some sort of soldier turned out to be a young man about her own age with innocent eyes and a plump face.

  She watched with a tinge of sadness as he wrapped the cybernetically enhanced woman in a hug, tears running from his eyes.

  “There, there, mon cheri. You didn’t think I would abandon you now, did you?”

  The woman cupped the young man’s face in her metallic grip, and even despite her cybernetic implants and replacements, the warmth of the woman’s smile was as clear as day. She gently extracted her son from her arms.

  The woman turned to Evantra and Noelle, gracing them with a grin.

  “Now then, friends. Thank you for your assistance, but this is hardly the place to get acquainted, non? We will be on our way.”

  “I’m afraid we can’t have that… Amelie.”

  The laboratory’s lights blinked on. Evantra cursed as she deactivated [darkvision], watching Antoinne Venn, Harold Dragos and a couple of the senior guards step into the room, their weapons raised and pointed towards them. Antoinne smiled at her as he always did, the corners of his eyes crinkling as his smile reached his eyes.

  “And what a coincidence, Millie. You have a fascinating ability, being able to escape the attention of digital eyes. One that I would love to test the bounds of… with your permission of course,” he said.

  “And you…”

  Antoinne’s smile fell as he strode forwards.

  Towards Noelle.

  “You’ve grown so much in the time since I last saw you. I was devastated when your parents told me the news,” Antoinne whispered. To Evantra’s surprise, she saw the researcher smile in genuine relief.

  “Let them go,” Noelle said, her tone laced with venom like Evantra had never heard before.

  “I’m afraid that won’t be possible, Noelle. I respect your decision to leave your family. I understand the burden that they place on you. You can trust me to be discreet. I promise I won’t inform them of your existence. But I can’t accept your current demands. You know that miracles demand—”

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  “Sacrifice,” Noelle said, her eyes closing.

  “Then so be it,” she whispered.

  Time seemed to slow as Noelle’s finger depressed the button on the keyboard.

  Evantra watched as a low drone reverberated throughout the room. The guards let out a yell, their weapons immediately trained on the walls of the laboratory boxing them in. Trapdoors retracted with a loud slam, before bulky, black security drones emerged in droves.

  “Heir authority accepted. Override operational. Awaiting instructions.”

  “Kill them,” Noelle whispered.

  The laboratory erupted into chaos.

  The drones opened fire, riddling Guard Captain Harold’s body with bullets before he could react. A senior guardsman yanked Antoinne out of the line of fire as the other guards pushed forwards to cover their retreat.

  Evantra pulled Noelle downwards, narrowly avoiding the bullets that hissed over their heads. Thankfully, it seemed as if the drones had pushed the guards out of the laboratory room, causing them to fall back into the hallway.

  Evantra gritted her teeth, her mind whirling as she considered her options.

  “Benjamin? Are you there? Damn.”

  Just as she suspected, it seemed as if Benjamin had been flushed out of the system. Despite the distraction that had shut down the power, it seemed as if Antoinne had picked up on their infiltration efforts. Evantra could only hope that the monk was alright.

  Now… her priority was making sure they got out of there alive.

  “Noelle… we need to get into the jungle. Then find a way to contact Uriel and Jack.”

  “Bounjour, invisible girl! And you too!”

  The cybernetic woman called out over the gunfire, waving with a grin at Noelle.

  Evantra deactivated her [ritual of concealment], watching the other woman’s grin only widen.

  “I may have a solution to your little problem, if you’re willing to come along, oui?”

  Evantra’s eyes widened as the Veilcreature entered the laboratory. It was built like a panther, with muscles rippling beneath abyssal black fur. It was slightly smaller than a gadai oiche, but stronger, demonstrated by how the casual swipe of its paw shattered the doorway of the laboratory, widening it and allowing for its entrance.

  She watched in a mixture of horror and awe as the cybernetic woman began to scratch the creature beneath its chin, evoking a low thrum of pleasure that reverberated through her bones. From the marks across its flank that had failed to penetrate its hide, Evantra was beginning to suspect that she had just discovered the culprit of the lab shutdown.

  “Amelie, we should hurry,” said Gustave, his knives unsheathed and hovering in the air around him once more.

  “Mon cheri, do not be afraid,” Amelie, the cybernetic woman said to the towering young man. His innocent eyes were wide, and Evantra could see him trembling, running his hands over his scarred forearms.

  “We are prisoners no longer, and nevermore.”

  The woman gently tugged her son along, flashing Noelle and Evantra a grin, before disappearing out of the doorway.

  “We’re going to have a long talk about this when we get out alive. Then I’m going to kick your ass,” Evantra gritted through her teeth. Noelle simply nodded with a pale expression before hurrying in her wake.

  The hallway they had crept into was now lit by harsh floodlights. Demeteria’s senior operatives were targeting the security drones filling the air, but they seemed strangely reluctant to fully unleash their firepower.

  They’re afraid of damaging the containers.

  “Amelie, take cover behind these containers. They won’t shoot them.”

  “Merci, invisible girl. Let’s go,” the woman grinned.

  Before Evantra could react, the cybernetic woman exploded into action. She blurred forwards, accelerating at a rate that Evantra didn’t think possible. She incapacitated the guards in her way, ploughing through them with brutal efficiency.

  But unlike the Ghostslayers that Evantra had encountered previously – Guinevere, Lancelot, Uriel and Jack – Amelie fought like a pub brawler.

  She couldn’t help but wince as her metal knuckles dislodged guards’ jaws left and right, her legs flying into their crotches with not a hint of reservation. After scanning the area, it seemed as if Antoinne was nowhere to be found, and it wasn’t long before Amelie and her pet Veilcreature had cleared out the area.

  “This way!” Amelie called out.

  They followed her through another door and into a wide, main corridor. Before they could continue their push in the direction that Amelie was headed in, a pair of large doors slammed shut, closing off their pathway.

  “Noelle…”

  “On it!”

  The girl ran over to the control panel by the side of the door and rapidly attempted to override it. Meanwhile, Evantra heard the immense Veilcreature let out a rumbling growl as it rose its snout into the air, nostrils expanding as it sniffed their surroundings.

  “Stay alert. Invisible foes,” Amelie announced, glowing red eyes darting about.

  Evantra took her own precautions.

  [Ritual of concealment]

  Veilsouls remaining: 1,945

  “Nice one,” Amelie said with a grin as Evantra disappeared from her cybernetics.

  But before she could react, she felt someone yank her backwards, placing her in a lock.

  “Amelie! Someone’s taking her away!” Cecile yelled.

  “Putain, she’s invisible to my optics, Gustave!”

  Evantra watched as Gustave whirled in her direction, raising his arms as if to rain down his knives upon her kidnapper. The subdued retort of a silenced weapon rang out, and Evantra’s eyes widened as Gustave flinched, sinking to his knees.

  “Merde!”

  Evantra struggled to breathe as the lock tightened around her airway, making the world around her swim. Evantra jammed her fingertips into the torso of the operative dragging her away, before activating her skill.

  [Razor claws]

  The Ghostslayer let out a yell. The areas of his skin that Evantra’s claws had penetrated were now visible, and the man flickered into and out of existence as his cybernetics struggled to operate with the damage it had sustained.

  Taking advantage of his confusion, Evantra unleashed a quick forward kick, sending him backwards and away from him as she went to unsheathe her katana.

  Before she could draw the blade, a crack ripped through the air as the hallway was filled with a piercing gunshot.

  Evantra grinned when she pinpointed the shooter, as the Ghostslayer slumped to the ground, inert.

  “Ben!”

  The cybernetic monk ran towards them, a large sniper rifle in his hands. It looked like he had managed to evade injury himself, and Evantra could see the relief flood his eyes when he pinpointed Noelle, who had taken a step away from the panel.

  The large double doors before them retracted with a hiss.

  “We’ll talk later. I think she knows a way out.”

  “Oui, welcome to the team!” Amelie grinned at Benjamin with a wave, and as always, the monk took everything perfectly in stride as he smiled back.

  They sprinted around the corner together, a few of the security drones hovering overhead. Eventually, they turned into another large room – and Evantra immediately understood why the facility had gone into lockdown.

  The aftermath of the destruction lay before them. In an adjacent room filled with similar containers, Evantra noticed that one of them had been shredded to pieces from within. Seeing the long claw marks that had torn into the prison containing it, Evantra immediately realised just what it had contained.

  Wraith.

  From the looks of it, what Amelie and Gustave had unleashed to secure their diversion.

  “There’s a wraith on the loose. We need to hurry.”

  “Oui, this way!”

  Evantra watched the woman take the lead, with Gustave thrown over her right shoulder. The man looked to be in a bad way from the gunshot, but he had found it in him to sheath his blades. The panther Veilcreature was bounding forwards on Amelie’s left.

  As they rounded the corner, they were met with the familiar sound of gunshots and screams. Her eyes widened as they entered the large room, a hall similar to the one before. Only this one was devoid of any containers or any other objects. Instead, barricades and turrets were laid out in concentric circles around the singular object that occupied the space at the heart of the room. Bodies littered the room, with dead guards and lab techs lying across the floor, some of whom had been ripped to pieces.

  A large viewing gallery could be seen on the far side, occupying the upper part of the room, the black, mirrored panes having shattered from the gunfire.

  She stared at the familiar sight before her.

  The room contained a Veilsurge.

  A mythic Veilsurge.