The tunnel lights flickered once more before dying completely, plunging them into silence and shadow.For a moment, all anyone could hear was the slow, rhythmic drip of water echoing through the corridor.Ethan’s breathing was ragged. His pulse still hadn’t slowed from the firefight above.The smell of ozone and burned circuitry clung to the air — the scent of survival and ruin.A faint glow flickered to life.Dr. Myles raised her mechanical hand, her palm emitting a narrow cone of cold blue light that cut through the dark.“Stay close,” she said quietly. “These tunnels run for miles beneath the city. If we take the wrong path, we’ll never find our way out.”They began to move — slowly, cautiously — the sound of their boots muffled by layers of dust. The walls around them were lined with corroded pipes and half-buried signs from a forgotten metro line.Line 7: North Transit — Decommissioned 2084.Ethan glanced around. “This place looks ancient.”“It is,” Myles said without looking bac

The tunnel stretched endlessly beneath the city — damp, silent, and pulsing with faint mechanical life. Ethan led the way, flashlight in hand, and its narrow beam slicing through the dark. Behind him, Hannah’s footsteps were steady, rifle raised. Maya’s breathing was shallow, and Dr. Taylor trailed them, his scanner glowing faint green in the gloom.Myles was gone.The collapse had swallowed her and the upper tunnel whole. Ethan could still hear the thunder of the falling debris, still see the flash of her hand as the dust consumed her. Her last words burned in his mind like fire:“Find the Core before they do.”He clenched his jaw and kept walking.For minutes that felt like hours, the only sounds were their breaths and the distant drip of condensation from the walls. Then, from the static-filled comms channel, a faint voice broke through.“...Ethan... if you’re hearing this... follow the pulse.”Ethan froze. “Wait—did you hear that?”Maya’s eyes widened. “That was—Dr. Myles?”Hannah

Chapter 16: The Ashes of TomorrowThe storm hadn’t stopped since the Core went dark.Rain hammered the ruined city like a pulse from the heavens — relentless, unfeeling. The skyline shimmered with fractured lights, half the power grid offline after the cascade Ethan triggered. Every tower flickered like a dying candle, and somewhere deep below, Elysium’s weakened heart still beat in silence.The team moved through the flooded streets, soaked and exhausted, their breath misting in the cold air. Hannah led the way, scanning each corner with her rifle; Maya leaned against Ethan, her strength wavering from the surge that nearly tore her mind apart. Dr. Taylor carried a portable case filled with recovered data shards while Dr. Myles walked in silence, her mechanical eye flickering like a heartbeat trying to stabilize.“Power’s still unstable across sectors,” Taylor muttered, adjusting his wrist display. “Whatever we did to the Core, it’s bleeding through the grid.”“Good,” Hannah said. “Le

The tunnels bled into silence. Only the echo of their footsteps and the faint hiss of steam from ruptured pipes broke the quiet.Ethan led the way now, the faint glow beneath his skin dimming to a soft pulse. Every few seconds, a spark of light flashed under his veins — a reminder that whatever was inside him wasn’t done.Behind him, Hannah swept her weapon side to side, eyes sharp, jaw locked. Dr. Myles was hunched over her wristpad, fingers flying across the holographic interface as she tried to decode the last transmission from the fallen Helix.“Anything?” Hannah asked.Myles shook her head. “Encrypted. The beacon used a frequency I’ve never seen before. It wasn’t just transmitting coordinates…”Ethan slowed. “Then what?”“It was syncing.”“Syncing with what?” Maya asked softly.Myles didn’t answer. She just glanced at Ethan — and the look said everything.“Me,” Ethan realized.He felt the weight of that truth settle in. The Core hadn’t just recognized him… it was reaching for him