The chamber was so quiet that Lena could hear her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. Dust floated down from the cracked ceiling, and the air shimmered faintly with leftover energy from the woman’s power. The strange, glowing fissures along the walls pulsed like veins, throbbing with unstable light. It felt like the entire place was alive, breathing with them, waiting for someone to make the next move.The woman stood in the center, her long dark hair falling loosely over her shoulders. She looked calm, too calm, like the chaos around her wasn’t real. Her smile was small, but sharp, and her eyes glowed faintly as they studied Lena.Kai kept himself between Lena and the woman, his weapon raised. His arm bled from a shallow cut, but he didn’t seem to care. His focus was fixed, his body tight, his stance ready for another attack.“You need to let her go,” Kai said, his voice low and even. “Whatever you think you’re doing, it ends here.”The woman tilted her head as if amused. “Ends? No.

The night air was heavy, filled with dust and smoke from the ruins behind them. Lena could still hear the echo of stones falling in the distance, the sound rolling through the broken corridors like thunder that refused to end. Her lungs burned as she tried to catch her breath, and every muscle in her body ached. She leaned against the rough wall, trying to keep herself steady, but her legs trembled like they no longer belonged to her.Kai stood a few steps ahead, his chest rising and falling with deep, controlled breaths. Blood smeared across his shoulder and down his arm, but he didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were sharp, glowing faintly in the dark, locked on the narrow passage that stretched forward into shadows. He didn’t look back at her, not even once, but Lena could feel his presence pulling her forward like a magnet.Behind them, the woman’s voice still echoed in Lena’s mind, even though the chamber had collapsed. “She is too important for that.” The words clung to her thought

The silence after the woman’s disappearance was so heavy it pressed on Lena’s ears. Dust floated through the air, sparkling faintly in the fading glow left behind. The chamber that had once thrummed with strange energy now felt hollow, as though something vital had been ripped away.Kai lowered his blade, but his knuckles stayed white around the hilt. His chest rose and fell quickly, breath uneven, eyes locked on the spot where the woman had vanished.“She’s not gone,” he muttered, more to himself than to Lena. His voice was low, sharp, almost like a warning. “She’s moving through the walls—through the ruins themselves. She’s not bound to one body.”Lena swallowed hard. Her throat felt dry, as though she had swallowed dust. “Then what does that mean for us? For the Zero Child?”The boy stood between them, strangely quiet. His silver eyes flickered faintly, reflecting the remnants of blue light still etched into the stones. He didn’t look afraid. Instead, his face was unreadable, caugh

The silence after the roar was worse than the roar itself.Dust floated in the air, stinging Lena’s throat as she struggled to breathe. The ground was still trembling, though softer now, like the aftershocks of some giant heartbeat pulsing beneath the stone floor.Kai’s arm held her steady. His grip was firm, protective, almost crushing, but she clung to it anyway. His eyes, sharp even in the half-light, scanned the chamber with the precision of someone who had lived too long in battlefields.The woman—the creature, the liar, whatever she was—hadn’t moved from where she stood. Her shape was too calm, too balanced, as if the crumbling ceiling and the shaking ground meant nothing to her.She tilted her head and smiled faintly. “Still standing,” she said softly, her voice sliding into the air like silk over broken glass. “Good. You’ll need that strength.”Lena swallowed, forcing words past the knot in her throat. “What are you doing? Why is this happening?”The woman’s black eyes shifted

The river’s current pulled at them with brutal force, dragging their bodies as if it wanted to tear them apart and swallow them whole. Lena’s lungs burned as icy water filled her mouth and nose. Every time she tried to gasp for air, the current shoved her down again, spinning her like a rag doll.Her hands flailed until they caught something—an arm, warm and solid even in the freezing chaos. Kai. His grip closed around her wrist like iron, steadying her for just a second. She coughed, sputtering as her head broke the surface.“Hold on!” Kai shouted, though his voice was broken by the roar of water.Lena clung to him, her nails digging into his skin. The river wasn’t just water—it was wild, alive, violent. The kind of current that crushed rocks and carved valleys. And now, it wanted them.The blue glow from the collapsing chamber still burned in her mind. The woman’s strange words echoed, “Far too important for that.” But there was no time to think about it now. Survival came first.An