Kaela's legs barely carried her as she stumbled after the masked rescuers.
Broken alleys and twisted ruins blurred around her.
She could hear Arin's strained breathing behind her, and Riven's soft curses.
Veyne, though wounded, stayed close, his sharp eyes never leaving their "saviors."
They moved fast, efficiently, through paths only a local would know —
turning corners, slipping through tunnels, diving into the underground.
At last, they stopped before a massive rusted gate, hidden behind fallen steel and crumbling walls.
The lead masked figure knocked three times in a strange pattern.
The gate groaned open.
And behind it...
A hidden world.
The "Ashen Blades"
The underground base was dim, smoky —
built into the skeleton of an ancient subway station.
Broken signs still hung above crumbled platforms.
Tents, market stalls, and weapon caches were spread chaotically around.
People — dozens of them — milled about.
Most were armored in scavenged gear, rough, mismatched, but deadly in appearance.
The rescuers removed their masks, revealing sharp, determined faces —
young, old, men, women, all bearing the same sigil carved into their shoulder plates:
A burning sword stabbed through a black sun.
The leader turned, her white hair tied tightly back, her yellow eyes sharp and calculating.
"We are the Ashen Blades.
Survivors. Warriors.
You owe us your lives — but that doesn't mean you're free."
Tensions Rise
Veyne stepped forward, voice cold.
"We're not your prisoners."
The woman smirked slightly.
"You're not prisoners. Yet.
You're outsiders who walked right into a war you don't understand."
Kaela clenched her fists.
Arin placed a calming hand on her shoulder.
Riven, meanwhile, studied the camp carefully.
Weapons, tech, food...
The Ashen Blades were rough — but they were organized.
They weren't just survivors.
They were a faction — maybe one of the last real powers in this broken city.
And now, Kaela and the others were tangled in their web.
Darkness Approaches Again
As Kaela sat near a flickering fire, getting her wounds bandaged by a grim-faced medic, she couldn't shake the feeling that this was only the beginning.
Far above them, somewhere in the ruins...
Something stirred.
The defeated Hollowborn...
Its corpse left behind...
Its shattered pieces starting to pull together...
Changing. Evolving.
Becoming something worse.
A new threat was being born in the darkness — and the Ashen Blades knew it too.
Their leader's eyes hardened as she gazed at the map spread before her —
black zones spreading across the city like rot.
"The old world ended years ago," she said quietly to Kaela, almost to herself.
"This time, we're not surviving.
This time, we fight back."
Rescuer Faction: "Ashen Blades"
Name: Ashen Blades
Symbol: A burning sword stabbed through a black sun
Style: Urban survivalists / Guerilla warriors / Rogue ex-military
Philosophy: "Survival is no longer enough. Take the fight to the enemy."
Leader:
Name: Selene Varkas
Age: Early 30s
Appearance: White hair, sharp yellow eyes, scar running down her jawline.
Personality: Stern, strategic, ruthless when needed, protective of her people.
Goal: Erase the "returning darkness" before it consumes the last fragments of human civilization.