Roni's tactical flashlight beam trembled violently in his hand, casting wild reflections across dozens of glowing yellow eyes glaring from the darkness of the colonial corridor. Those towering creatures moved with terrifying agility—crawling along the stone walls and tunnel ceiling without generating a single scraping sound.

"Don't shoot! Hold your fire!" Captain Danu barked swiftly, raising both empty hands into the air to signal they had no hostile intent. "If we trigger gunfire in this confined space, we'll die buried alive before our bullets even reach them."

Zulfa glanced sideways at Captain Danu, then slowly lowered his rifle muzzle. He knew Danu was right. Facing these lightning-fast, primordial bio-tech creatures, a shootout would only end in a one-sided slaughter.

Naya pressed her body against Zulfa's, her breathing heaving fast as her fingers gripped the edge of the youth's jacket tight. "Zul... what do we do? They've surrounded us on every side."

Before Zulfa could reply, a low-frequency electromagnetic hum vibrated through the air.

Bzzzt—

From the center of the rank of bio-mechanical creatures, a figure clad in a worn, heavy cloth cloak interlaid with ancient armor plating stepped forward slowly. Their posture was slightly sleeker than their guard escorts, but the aura of authority radiating from their frame made the entire atmosphere inside the tunnel freeze instantly.

The figure lowered their hood, revealing a face that was half-human and half-mechanical. Along the left side of their face, a glowing blue optical circuit integrated seamlessly with pale skin. Their gaze was razor-sharp, fixing Zulfa's group with a cold, judgmental stare.

"Surface dwellers," the leader spoke with a heavy, rumbling voice that echoed off the stone walls. "You march far beyond permitted territory. What brings you crawling into the belly of this earth? Here to steal the remnants of Arkian energy like the corporate lapdogs up top?"

Captain Danu stepped forward a pace, meeting the mysterious leader's gaze with a firm expression while maintaining a diplomatic tone. "We aren't part of Aethel Corp. We're fugitives hunted by them because we tried to stop the insane experiments threatening to tear the surface city apart."

The primordial faction leader grunted cynically, a dismissive smirk carving across their lips. "Humans are always clever with sweet words when backed into a corner. But your actions never lie. Every time surface dwellers set foot in these depths, all they bring is destruction to the dimensional seal we have guarded for centuries."

"Dimensional seal?" Naya furrowed her brow, summoning the courage to speak up beside Zulfa. "You mean... the seal being manipulated by The Foundation Council to harvest cosmic energy?"

The leader turned their optical head slowly toward Naya, then shifted to scan each resistance member one by one. "You call that faction The Foundation Council, while our ancestors knew them as civilizational traitors. For hundreds of years, the sacred duty of our kind, the Arkian, has been to monitor and ensure the primordial dimensional seal valves remain firmly bolted shut for the safety of both your world and ours."

Zulfa stared intently at the figure before him. "If you are the rightful wardens of the seal, why did you let that corporation exploit extradimensional energy as they pleased in their underground facility?"

The Arkian leader snarled angrily, their yellow optical glare burning brighter. "Because you greedy modern humans corrupted the core supporting pillars from within! Our defense network was betrayed by your own kind, weakening the seal valve with every passing day!"

The tension inside the tunnel spiked anew. The Arkian guards around them closed ranks, raising their mechanical hand-blades as though ready to pounce the second their leader gave the word.

"We don't want to fight you," Zulfa said in a calm yet unyielding voice, stepping forward to face the Arkian leader without a shred of fear. "I know you don't trust humans. But I saw firsthand what they're doing to this underworld. I'm an engineer, and I know how to repair or relock the system they broke."

The Arkian leader halted mere paces away from Zulfa. They didn't answer immediately. Instead, they narrowed their optical lens, studying Zulfa's posture, facial bone structure, and even the scent of sweat and rubble dust clinging to the youth's jacket.

Several seconds ticked by in a suffocating silence.

Suddenly, the Arkian figure sniffed the air around Zulfa, and their expression warped dramatically—shifting from raw fury into a volatile mix of shock, disgust, and profound hatred.

They raised a metallic hand, pointing squarely at Zulfa's chest with a slightly trembling finger.

"That scent... that genetic frequency..." the Arkian leader whispered with a low, rumbling voice pregnant with restrained rage. They looked up, locking eyes straight down into Zulfa's pupils. "The blood flowing through your veins... is not the clean human blood of the sinless."

Zulfa stiffened, his brow furrowing in confusion. "What do you mean?"

The Arkian leader grinned coldly, stepping closer until their faces were mere inches apart.

"You carry a deeply cursed lineage, surface youth," the leader stressed with heavy emphasis. "The blood pulsing through your body is that of the 'Cursed Architect'—the direct descendant of the traitorous scientist of old who first tore the breach and engineered the harvesting mechanism that became the gateway to disaster for our world!"

Naya's eyes blew wide, whipping her head toward Zulfa in shock. "The Cursed Architect...? You mean your father, Zul?"

Zulfa froze for an instant. He recalled the antique documents belonging to his father, Dr. Aris Arditama, discovered at the abandoned station hideout days ago—the undeniable fact that his father was one of the primordial urban planning project's primary designers before ultimately turning against the council.

"My father wasn't a traitor!" Zulfa countered with a rising voice, glaring unflinchingly at the Arkian leader. "He died precisely because he tried to stop the council's rotten experiments!"

The Arkian leader let out a cold, sarcastic laugh echoing down the stone corridor. "You're all the same—liars and disaster-makers! Take them all captive to the lower interrogation cells! Let the Arkian council elders decide the fate of this Cursed Architect's spawn!"

Before Zulfa could defend himself or draw his weapon, dozens of Arkian guards lunged forward in a blur, leveling their mechanical energy blades at Zulfa's group and neutralizing their movement without a meaningful fight.