Prologue: Memoria

Electric lights glowed, coloring the raindrops neon as lighting sliced the sky over a city of sinners. The rain drove onto concrete upon which were cast by flickering street lamps the shadows of tall, chain-link fences. Within the empty storehouse they surrounded, a detonation resounded with the echoing thunder. Like a reaching hand, lightning flashed in one final bolt before he descended into the darkness.

32 years ago

A distant flash of azure may have been seen down the narrow corridor as Gunvolt's footsteps sounded a hollow ring intermittently broken by the buzz of his flashfield. Between each recharge, he took a deep breath to steel himself for what his lighting would next reveal. The capsules were open like graves. Deep breath. The walls were still running with blood. Deep breath. The bodies lay broken…, but were they?

The hellish glow of an emergency light's power box seemed an ominous messenger. Gunvolt fired a rod and ran his electricity to it. It was then that they awoke. Shrieking and contorting, the corpses rose and pounced toward Gunvolt, their fangs and claws hungry to rend him. He turned them to ash with a burst of his astrasphere technique, but more came, skittering down the halls on all fours, dangling from the ceiling like spiders. The only way out was through them. Their twitching movements made it difficult for Gunvolt to land his shots, but he pushed his way down the crawling corridor; shooting, zapping, and cremating the abominations as he ran with electric strides. The corpses' rotten, purpled blood spattered on his face, but with his teeth clenched, he dove away from their assault and fell once more into deepest darkness.

When he found the next set of lights, his ears were met with a shriek from one still living. Guard up, he clutched his weapon tight until he heard a girl's voice.

"Wh-who turned the lights back on? Is someone there?"

"Hello?" Gunvolt called. "Is someone still alive down here?"

He rushed toward the sound and came into an empty room, the walls covered in scars. Within it stood a lone girl, her white hair, long but curling at its ends, swooshed around her as she turned and startled at his appearance. Her violet eyes were wide with terror as she clasped her quivering hands close to her breast.

"Whoa, hey," Gunvolt said, putting his hands up. "It's ok. Who are you?"

She was clearly shaken, but physically seemed unharmed. She was wearing a medical gown and slippers with a black, numbered armband: most likely a subject. A teenager by appearance, she was probably about his age, but her shrunken posture gave her a more childlike outline.

"You aren't with Sumeragi, are you?" she asked.

"No," he said calmly. "The name's Gunvolt. I'm here to help."

For just a moment, her expression lifted.

"I was kidnapped by Sumeragi," she began, "b-but when I woke up, I was all alone. I-I don't know what…"

She was on the verge of a breakdown. He didn't want to imagine the sinister events that had led to the present circumstances, but questions arose in his mind. Was she taken by adept hunters? Why was she there alone? Regardless, empathy tugged at his heart. A victim of Sumeragi experiments himself, Gunvolt knew how it felt to be treated like a lab rat, and he remembered the hope that had surged when Asimov came to save him. He wanted to be a conduit for that hope.

"For now," he said, "let's just get outta here."

She nodded.

"There's a path here that looks like it goes to the surface," she said, "but I can't get past the hexapyle."

"Leave it to me," Gunvolt said with a smile. "Stand back while I get it open."

Stepping forward, Gunvolt triple-marked the barricade and knocked it down with a blast of thunder. The girl looked in amazement. He offered his hand.

"Don't worry," Gunvolt said. "I'll get you to safety."

She took his hand, and he helped her up the step.

"Thank you," she whispered.

As they made their way out, light from the surface began to shine faintly. Gunvolt radioed Zeno and began to inform him about the situation. However, as they passed an open room, the girl stopped.

"Wha-what is this place?" she said, her eyes transfixed on the open door.

She brought her hand to her head.

"This room…."

Suddenly, she folded and cried out. Clutching her head in both hands, she bolted into the room.

"Hey, wait!" Gunvolt called and ran after her.

Past a honeycomb-like apparatus, a towering, broken capsule came into view. Huge wires ran from its topiece to the ceiling, and it was covered in Frankenstein-style bolts. The girl stood among more hanging wires.

"I remember," she whimpered. "Oh, God, I remember."

"GV," Zeno said over the radio, "the hell's going on down there?"

"I'm sorry," the girl said hoarsely.

A glaive appeared in her hand, the mark of a Sumeragi adept. She began to transform.

"She's an enemy," Gunvolt said. "I'm cutting the line."

Elise, the two-headed serpent: she came at him from both sides, her two pairs of hungry eyes dancing in the dark, her knives glinting in the glow of lightning. When he wasn't avoiding contact with her gorgon gaze, he was searching the shadows for the serpentine hunter. But the dark, no matter how maddening, would never overcome him, not with the song in his heart.

"Oversurge, Azure Striker!"

When it was over, Gunvolt stood alone in the lightning scorched room. Knives and ash scattered the floor. Aside from his labored breathing and the crackle of residual sparks around his feet, all was silent, dead silent. He felt that part of him was gone. There he was, the last one standing in a world of monsters. A monster, evidently, could not save another monster. He lingered in that silence, in that darkness for a moment before he turned his communicator back on.

"Zeno," he said, "it's over."

"So, she was the enemy?" Zeno said. "Did you have to…"

Gunvolt was silent, only radio static was on the line.

"Yeah," he said at length.

"Damn, dude," Zeno said. "I'm sorry."

"I'm going home, Zeno," Gunvolt said.

"Yeah, man," Zeno said. "Good luck sleeping."

Gunvolt stepped over the debris and back into the exit hall. The faint light shone on his hardened face as he turned and looked back into the consuming darkness of that underworld.

"Sumeragi's gonna answer for this."

Present Day

"I-I… We still remember."

Kirin woke with a start. She breathed heavily as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. She was in her room at the Bureau of Dragon Saviors. It was dark outside, and the soft glow of her clock showed 1:36.

"That dream," she whispered. "Another of his?"

It had been over a year since the Moebius incident and Gunvolt's disappearance, but Kirin was still experiencing his memories in dreams, sometimes manifesting new image pulses. Many times she had awoken with tears streaming down her face, but none of his other memories had held such terror. She glanced at the dog bed in the corner of her room. She knew not in what form he would return, but she hoped to pet his staticky mane once more.

"Damn, GV," she whispered. "You lived through that nightmare?"

Kirin rubbed her eyes and put her feet on the floor. She went to the window and opened the curtains. The sky was dark, starlight polluted by the city's neon, once fueled by his light. Still, she often watched the night sky, waiting for a flash of azure to cleave the lonely dark and bring him back to her.