Jonah woke to the sound of rain. Soft. Gentle. Impossible. He opened his eyes slowly. He was lying on warm ground, not metal, not light, but something that felt like soil. The air smelled like wet earth and fresh leaves. He sat up quickly. There were no plants. No sky. No real rain. Only the spiral’s endless glow, bending itself into the shape of a world that did not exist.A drop of water touched his cheek. He wiped it off and stared at his wet fingers. “This isn’t real,” he whispered.A voice behind him replied, “No. But we want it to be.”Jonah turned fast. A figure of light stood a few feet away, not the tall, faceless one from before, but something smaller. Softer. The outline shimmered between shapes: a child, a woman, an old man, then a stranger he didn’t recognize, all flickering between human forms like memories glitching.Jonah narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?”The figure answered with many voices, speaking in one tone. “We are dream.”Jonah’s eyebrows knitted. “Dream?”“

New Crest shook again. Not from explosions. Not from machines. From sound. A deep pulse rolled through every wall in the city, like a heartbeat hitting the ground itself. Windows rattled. Loose metal buzzed. Birds scattered into the air, crying out in fear.Lisa grabbed the edge of a broken window frame to keep her balance. “Jonah, what are you doing in there?”Kevin clung to her side, the lightless tower behind them still cracking from the last blast. His face was pale. “He’s scared. I can feel it.”Serra didn’t look at either of them. She stared up at the sky, jaw tight, hand slowly reaching for the comm device clipped to her belt. She whispered, “We’re out of time.”Lisa turned sharply. “Serra. Don’t.”Serra didn’t blink. “I said this would happen. We waited too long.”“That doesn’t mean you can.”Serra raised one hand, stopping her. “Listen.”The pulse echoed again, louder. Booooom. Booooom.Every tower in the city answered with a faint hum. All of them flickered at once, pale bl

Jonah opened his eyes, and the world looked wrong. The spiral chamber was gone. The burning red haze was gone. Even Olos’s shadow was gone.Jonah stood on a quiet street, clean, bright, too perfect. A street that looked almost like New Crest, but not New Crest.The sky above him glowed with soft white light. The towers rose high, made of crystal instead of metal. The ground was covered in grass, not broken pavement. Trees lined the path, tall, green, alive. Jonah whispered, “Where am I?”A gentle breeze brushed across his face, then a voice answered from behind him: “You are in the place we dream.”Jonah turned sharply. A figure stood at the end of the crystal road, no shape, no face, just smooth flowing light, but not like the Breath-Born before. This one was clearer, brighter, more stable. Jonah frowned. “You again?”The figure nodded lightly. “Yes, but you see us differently now.”Jonah crossed his arms. “You dragged me into another dream?”“Not a dream.”The figure stepped forwa

The second tower fell like a wounded giant. Lisa saw it before anyone else. She was standing in the middle of New Crest’s southern street when the metal groaned. A sound like bending stone cut through the air. Kevin froze beside her, eyes wide. “Lisa, look.”She turned slowly. The north tower, the tall one, the one that hummed strongest, leaned forward, light flickering across its surface like fire trying to escape.Serra sprinted out of a nearby building, her voice sharp. “Everyone get back! Away from the tower NOW!”People ran in every direction. Children screamed. Dust fell from rooftops as vibrations shook the city. Lisa’s heart hammered. “Jonah, what are you doing?!”Kevin grabbed her sleeve. His small hands shook so hard she almost dropped him. “It’s not Jonah, this time he’s not in control.”The tower’s huge metal limbs trembled. A deep hum pulsed through the ground, slow, broken, painful.Serra shouted at her guards, “OPEN THE EVACUATION GATES! MOVE!”But before they could re

Jonah lay on the spiral floor, gasping. The chamber flickered around him, blue, gold, red, and now the faint black static of the Residual Hive. Each color pulsed like a heartbeat trying to crush the others. He pushed himself upright, but his arms trembled. His body didn’t feel like his anymore. His skin flashed blue one second, gold the next, then red, then faded into a glitch-like shimmer. Jonah whispered, terrified, “I’m splitting.”The Breath-Born gathered around him, flickering nervously, their shapes unstable. “Yes, your rhythm is fracturing,”Jonah touched his chest. His heartbeats were no longer two, they were three. Gold. Red, and the new one, thin, sharp, hollow. He whispered, “This isn’t possible. I can’t be three things at once.”The Breath-Born replied:“You are human, and conduit, and vessel.”Jonah staggered to his feet. “I am not a vessel.”A low hum shook the floor. The lights dimmed as if something unseen pressed on the chamber walls. “Not by choice.”The Breath-Bor