The flood tunnel was silent except for their uneven breathing.
Cold water dripped from the pipes above, echoing through the long concrete passage. Dust floated around them, slowly settling over broken metal pieces from the Sarcophagus. Everything smelled like rust and old earth.
Yin Lie pushed himself up first.
His ribs hurt from the fall.
His shirt was torn at the side where a machine had cut him.
Blood still dripped, but he ignored it.
He looked at Chen Gu and Thorne.
"You two okay?" he asked.
Thorne nodded shakily. He looked pale, but alive.
Chen Gu stood slowly, holding the terminal close to his chest.
"We have her coordinates," Chen Gu said softly. "The last uncorrupted ones in existence."
Yin Lie glanced upward, toward the broken ceiling where Cerberus had screamed at them.
"Then we move," he said. "Before Kai gets here."
But the moment he took a step—
A faint tremor passed through the tunnel.
Not from the ceiling.
Not from the ground.
From inside his skull.
Yin Lie froze.
The wolf inside him growled.
The ice became sharp and alert.
The Keystone burned with a low hum.
Then—
A soft sound drifted through the darkness.
Not a voice.
Not words.
A cry.
A small, frightened cry.
Like a girl calling out from far away.
Thorne gasped. "Did you hear that? Please tell me I'm not imagining it."
Yin Lie didn't answer.
Because he wasn't imagining it.
The cry came again—
slightly louder this time.
Chen Gu closed his eyes, his voice barely above a breath.
"…Qin Mian."
The name echoed in the tunnel.
And the cry suddenly stopped—
as if she heard them say it.
Then a new sound began, soft and trembling:
Harmonics.
Like glass bells vibrating underwater.
A low, sad melody.
Yin Lie grabbed the wall to steady himself.
His head felt like it was being filled with cold light.
Visions flickered behind his eyes—
A girl curled up in a small white room.
Her hair floating around her like she was underwater.
Her hands covering her ears.
Her shoulders shaking.
She whispered something over and over, but Yin Lie couldn't understand the words.
Every time she spoke, the walls around her cracked a little more.
Then the vision vanished.
His breath came out sharp.
Chen Gu touched his arm.
"What did you see?"
"A room," Yin Lie whispered. "She's still dreaming. And she's scared."
Thorne hugged himself.
"If she's waking up… what does that mean for us? For the city? For the world?"
Chen Gu didn't answer at first.
When he finally spoke, his voice was heavy.
"It means reality is starting to bend."
Another tremor shook the tunnel, this time stronger.
Concrete dust fell from above.
Old pipes rattled loudly.
Yin Lie tightened his fists.
"That was her," he said. "Not Cerberus. Not Kai. That was her dream pushing outward."
Thorne looked at the terminal, his eyes wide.
"Coordinates point to an old First Wave bunker outside the city. She's there—right now."
Yin Lie nodded.
"Then that's where we're going."
But before they could move, a sharp metallic screech echoed from the darkness down the tunnel.
Chen Gu stiffened.
Thorne nearly dropped the terminal.
Yin Lie stepped in front of both of them.
Out of the shadows came floating spheres—
old surveillance drones, half-broken, their lights flickering.
But something was wrong with them.
Their lenses glowed with a pulsing red light, just like Cerberus.
Chen Gu cursed under his breath.
"Cerberus is still alive. It's sending whatever pieces it has left after us."
Thorne whimpered, "We don't have weapons for a whole swarm—"
Yin Lie's eyes turned silver.
"We don't need weapons. We just need speed."
The drones screeched again.
Then they rushed forward, propellers spinning like metal saws.
"Run!" Yin Lie shouted.
Chen Gu and Thorne sprinted down the tunnel.
Yin Lie stayed behind for one heartbeat, letting the wolf and the ice flood through his body.
The drones closed in.
He slammed both hands onto the ground.
Cold burst forward like a tidal wave, freezing the tunnel floor and walls in an instant.
Frost swallowed the first rows of drones, stopping them mid-air.
Their propellers snapped off with sharp metallic cracks.
Chen Gu yelled over his shoulder, "Yin Lie! Move!"
He ran.
The remaining drones chased them through the tunnel, their glowing red lenses flickering like angry eyes.
But as they ran, the strange harmonics echoed again—
soft, sad, growing louder.
Yin Lie felt it pulling at him.
Not like an attack.
More like a hand reaching out from a nightmare.
A voice whispered faintly inside his head:
"Don't leave me."
He stumbled for half a second.
A child's voice.
Weak.
Lonely.
Terrified.
Chen Gu grabbed his arm, steadying him.
"She can feel you," he said. "You're connected now."
Then he looked down the tunnel, where the last exit door stood.
"Let's get out of the city before Kai arrives."
Behind them, the drones screamed again.
Ahead of them, the exit sign flickered in pale light.
And somewhere far away, buried in a bunker of broken dreams,
a girl named Qin Mian whispered the same words again—
"Don't leave me."
Yin Lie breathed out and ran faster.
"We won't," he whispered back. "I'm coming."
And the tunnel shook one last time—
as if the world itself heard his promise.