What The Mountain Built

Xin barely slept.

Sector Zero made sleep difficult.

The walls made noise.

Not loud noises.

Tiny noises.

Metal expanding.

Pipes moving.

Something dragging far away.

Sometimes footsteps.

Sometimes breathing.

Sometimes voices.

He stopped trying after three hours.

Morning never really arrived underground.

Only lights turning brighter.

“Come.”

Alaric waited near a massive reinforced door.

Rion stood beside him already.

“You look terrible,” Rion said.

Xin nodded.

“Feel worse.”

The giant door slowly opened.

Xin expected a training room.

Instead.

It was enormous.

The chamber itself looked bigger than mountains.

Artificial sky.

Destroyed buildings.

Collapsed towers.

Mountain sized rocks.

Gigantic steel structures.

Everything looked destroyed already.

Xin stared.

“What the hell.”

Alaric looked upward.

“Training Ground One.”

“Who trained here.”

Alaric hesitated.

“Your parents.”

Xin looked confused.

“My parents weren’t fighters.”

Alaric stayed quiet.

That answer itself was concerning.

The center platform activated.

Machines emerged.

Not robots.

Things.

Humanoid shapes.

Gray bodies.

Human sized.

Some bigger.

Some smaller.

Featureless faces.

Red eyes.

“Combat Units,” Alaric said.

“How strong.”

Alaric looked directly at Xin.

“The weakest one can overpower fifty normal humans.”

Xin blinked.

“How many.”

The room lights turned on fully.

Thousands.

Xin stared.

“Shit.”

Training started immediately.

The first unit attacked.

Xin punched.

The machine blocked.

Its punch landed.

Xin flew through three buildings instantly.

He crashed.

Stood up.

Confused.

“That thing hits hard.”

Rion nodded.

“Yes.”

The second attacked.

Xin dodged.

Barely.

The speed surprised him.

He countered.

Del Technique.

Redirect.

Throw.

The machine recovered instantly.

Another hit.

Xin flew again.

Hours passed.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Sector Zero did not care.

Eventually.

Xin collapsed.

Blood everywhere.

Bruised.

Broken.

Tired.

“This is bullshit.”

Alaric approached.

“No.”

He pointed.

Xin looked.

The machine.

Destroyed.

Xin blinked.

“When.”

“You adapted.”

Xin slowly realized.

The machine that originally dominated him now barely moved.

Rion nodded.

“You improved.”

Xin looked around.

Hundreds remained.

“Fuck.”

Day two.

Force Push training.

Alaric pointed toward massive steel walls.

“Push.”

Xin did.

Boom.

Nothing.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Hours.

Days.

Frustration.

Until.

Something changed.

Xin realized.

Force Push was wrong.

He was releasing instantly.

Not storing.

Not compressing.

He changed.

Stored longer.

Compressed harder.

Released.

BOOM.

The wall disappeared.

Not cracked.

Gone.

Xin stared.

“What.”

Alaric smiled slightly.

“There.”

Rion looked impressed.

“Much better.”

Later.

Raxton.

The broken armor sat inside repair chambers.

Still damaged.

Still quiet.

Xin approached.

The armor moved.

One plate floated toward him.

Attached briefly.

Then detached.

Xin frowned.

“Still hates me.”

A recording activated.

Maria Stonen.

His mother.

"Raxton does not care if you are strong."

Xin froze.

"It only cares if you continue moving."

Silence.

"That is why we built it for you."

The message ended.

Xin stood there quietly.

Night.

Sector Zero again.

Xin walked alone.

He passed the room again.

The one where Kaila appeared.

He stopped.

Nothing inside.

Good.

He turned.

Then heard it.

Very quietly.

"Xin."

He froze.

Slowly turned.

Nobody.

The hallway lights flickered.

Something moved behind glass.

Too fast to see.

Xin exhaled slowly.

“Sector Zero is fucked.”

Very far away.

Above ground.

Black Bloom consumed another city.

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