The mop slapped against the tiled floor. Back and forth. Again and again Kaelen's arms burned. His shoulders screamed. The fluorescent lights overhead buzzed like angry wasps, flickering every few seconds like they couldn't decide whether to live or die. Kind of like him, honestly. Two in the morning. Again. He dragged the bucket closer, the wheels squeaking loud enough to make him wince. The medical research wing was supposed to be empty this time of night. That's why they gave him this shift. That's why they always gave him the shifts nobody wanted. His stomach growled. When did he eat last? Morning, maybe. Yesterday morning. He couldn't remember anymore. The double shifts blurred together into one long nightmare of bleach fumes and aching muscles. Just get through tonight. Just get through tonight and tomorrow you can sleep. His hands trembled as he wrung out the mop. The shaking had gotten worse this week. Probably the lack of food. Probably the exhaustion. Probably the fact

The alley smelled like burnt rubber and blood.Kaelen and Joren kept to the shadows, moving fast but not running. Running drew attention. And right now, attention was the last thing they needed.Every street they passed told the same story. Scorch marks blackened the walls like someone had dragged fire across them. Patches of ice covered the ground where it shouldn't be possible, glistening under the streetlights. Craters. Big ones. The kind explosions left behind.Bodies.Human and creature both, scattered like discarded toys.Joren stopped at each one. His cop training wouldn't let him walk past without checking. Looking for survivors. Checking pulses. But his hand came away empty every time, and his face got a little paler with each body they found."This doesn't make sense." Joren's voice was tight. Controlled. Like he was barely holding it together. "Where did these things come from? And those people with powers." He looked at Kaelen. "Did you see what they could do?"Kaelen didn

The energy construct moved like liquid death.Kaelen barely saw it coming. One second it stood across the platform. The next, claws raked his shoulder. Pain exploded down his back. White-hot. Blinding.He hit the ground hard.Five minutes. Just five minutes.The thought barely formed before the construct was on him again. Pouncing. Moving faster than anything he'd ever seen. Faster than the creatures at the university. Faster than thought itself.Kaelen threw his arms up. Defensive. Desperate.Something happened.Blood dripped from his shoulder wound onto his hands. Where it touched, black veins spread across his skin like cracks in ice. The construct's claws met his forearms.Flash.Dark light erupted from the contact point. The construct stumbled back. Its form flickered like a bad hologram where it touched him. Parts of it turned translucent, unstable."Good!" Shen's voice echoed through the chamber. "You instinctively activated your Silent Veins. But instinct alone will get you ki

They ran.The forest became a blur of silver and blue. Kaelen's legs pumped. His heart hammered against his ribs like it was trying to escape his chest. Behind them, the Sentinels moved with terrifying grace. Their mercury bodies flowed around trees, over roots, adapting to terrain without breaking stride.They didn't make footstep sounds. Instead, there was a wet *shlick-shlick-shlick* as their liquid forms impacted and released from the ground.Joren fired backward without looking. Three controlled bursts. The bullets hit. Kaelen saw the mercury bodies ripple where rounds impacted. But the Sentinels didn't slow. The bullets passed through, leaving holes that sealed themselves in seconds."Conventional weapons are useless!" Shen shouted. His elderly frame moved with impossible speed, robes streaming behind him like wings. "They are constructs of pure Vein energy! Only cultivation techniques or Voidborn blood can harm them!"A Sentinel dropped from above.Directly into Kaelen's path.

The portal spat them out onto a rooftop.The sensory assault was immediate. Overwhelming.Screams. Hundreds of them, layered over each other like a symphony of terror. Explosions. Deep, concussive booms that Kaelen felt in his chest. The wet, tearing sounds of Hollow Beings feeding. And underneath it all, a low frequency hum that made his teeth ache and his blood vibrate in his veins.The northern district was burning.Not metaphorically. Like Literally on fire. Entire blocks consumed by flames that burned in wrong colors. Green fire that spread like liquid. Purple flames that floated upward like inverted rain. Black fire that absorbed light instead of creating it. And between the fires, moving through the smoke like sharks through murky water, were the Hollows.So. Many. Hollows.Not just the humanoid ones from the university. These were evolved. Some were massive. Fifteen feet tall. Bodies made of what looked like twisted concrete and rebar, as if buildings themselves became monster