The sky above the drainage exit was the color of cold steel.
Yin Lie, Chen Gu, and Thorne crawled out of the tunnel and onto a cracked concrete ledge overlooking the edge of the city. The wind outside was sharp and dry, carrying the smell of dust and old metal. For the first time in hours, they could breathe real air.
Thorne bent over, hands on his knees, gasping.
"Please… tell me… no more drones."
"There won't be," Chen Gu said. "Cerberus used everything it had left."
Yin Lie didn't speak.
He was staring out at the industrial outskirts ahead of them—
wide stretches of abandoned factories and rusted rail lines, leading toward the dangerous dead zone beyond the city wall.
That was where Qin Mian's bunker was hidden.
He could feel her again—
a faint echo, like a soft knocking on the inside of his thoughts.
Not words this time.
Just fear.
Chen Gu noticed the way Yin Lie's eyes unfocused and the way his jaw tightened.
"You heard her again."
Yin Lie nodded.
"She's calling. She's scared and alone."
Thorne shivered.
"She's been alone for twenty years. I'd be screaming by now."
Yin Lie didn't disagree.
He motioned forward. "Let's move."
But before they could take more than a few steps—
A sharp crack split the air.
Not thunder.
Not a machine.
A gunshot.
The bullet slammed into the ground a few inches from Yin Lie's foot, kicking up dust.
Thorne yelped and jumped backward.
Chen Gu pulled him behind a broken pillar.
Yin Lie didn't flinch.
He already knew who fired it.
A calm female voice echoed across the empty lot.
"Stop right there, Mr. Lie."
Inspector Kai walked out from behind a tall metal column, her coat sweeping behind her like a shadow. She wasn't out of breath. She wasn't injured. Her hair wasn't even messy.
She had gotten here before them.
Of course she had.
Her eyes locked on Yin Lie with sharp, threatening focus.
"You've caused enough chaos for one night," she said. "I'm ending this now."
Thorne whispered, "We're dead. We're so dead."
Chen Gu tightened his grip on the terminal.
But Yin Lie stepped forward, placing himself between Kai and the others.
"I won't fight you," he said. "I don't have time."
Kai raised an eyebrow.
"That's not how this works."
Her hand tightened around her pistol—
but Yin Lie felt the air change before she even pulled the trigger.
Her ability.
The invisible pressure from earlier started to form again—
a cold, crushing force meant to tear apart his powers from the inside.
But right as the pressure reached him—
A soft sound echoed in the air.
A harmonic tone.
Like a bell underwater.
Then—
A whisper inside his head:
"Don't… hurt him…"
Yin Lie froze.
Kai did too.
She glanced sideways, eyes widening just a little.
"…what was that?"
The air trembled.
The ground under their feet vibrated.
Chen Gu whispered in awe:
"She reached us… from all the way out there."
Qin Mian wasn't awake.
But she was close.
Kai's face darkened, confusion shifting into cold fear.
"So she's waking," she muttered. "Damn it."
Then her eyes sharpened again.
"Killing you is no longer optional."
She lifted her hand—
this time not to shoot.
She gathered her nullification field, pulling it tight like a blade—
But the moment it touched Yin Lie—
A shockwave burst through the concrete.
A ripple of psychic force, like a pulse of light, flashed across the entire lot.
It knocked Kai backward several steps.
Thorne fell on his back.
Chen Gu barely stayed on his feet.
Yin Lie felt the pulse go through him like a heartbeat.
Qin Mian's heartbeat.
Kai steadied herself, breath shaking for the first time.
"…she's interfering," she whispered. "How is she interfering from so far away?"
Chen Gu answered in a broken voice:
"Because she's not just waking…"
He looked at Yin Lie.
"She's reaching for him."
Yin Lie didn't deny it.
He felt it too—
a thin, trembling line connecting him to that lonely, dreaming girl in the bunker.
Not a command.
Not control.
A plea.
Kai tightened her jaw and raised her pistol again.
"I won't let a Reality Anchor wake unchecked. I don't care what she wants. Get out of my way."
Yin Lie took a slow breath.
"No."
Kai froze for a moment—shocked he dared to refuse.
Then her expression hardened into pure determination.
"So be it."
She lunged.
The air rippled.
Her power lashed toward him like a whip, crushing everything in its path.
Yin Lie's hands came up as instinct and training merged into something new.
Ice surged around one arm.
Wolf-strength braced his stance.
Keystone sight split the world into sharp, glowing angles.
Their powers collided—
a blast of force that cracked the ground beneath them.
Chen Gu pulled Thorne back behind a wall as stones rained down.
Yin Lie held his position, skidding a half step but not falling.
Kai whispered, shocked:
"…you're resisting me now?"
He met her eyes.
"I'm not alone anymore."
A second psychic pulse rolled through the lot—stronger than before.
Qin Mian.
Kai stumbled, teeth clenched.
"We don't have time for this!" she snapped.
"If she wakes wrong—"
"She won't," Yin Lie said fiercely.
"I'll reach her first."
For the first time, Kai's mask slipped.
There was fear in her eyes—not of Yin Lie, but of the thing sleeping beneath the earth.
Then she whispered:
"Run, then."
Yin Lie blinked.
"What?"
Kai lowered her weapon.
"You won't escape me for long. But if you're truly going to her…"
She looked at the sky, as another faint tremor hummed through the air.
"Then go. Because whatever she becomes, someone has to face her."
Yin Lie nodded once.
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me," she muttered. "Just don't die. I need someone alive to blame."
Yin Lie turned to Chen Gu and Thorne.
"Move. Now."
As they ran toward the edge of the old freight yard, the harmonics grew louder—
a soft, broken melody that felt like tears.
The Dream's Echo.
The first sign that the sleeping girl was finally…
waking.