The vault ceiling cracked again.
A thin line split across the stone dome, zig-zagging like lightning trapped underground. Dust poured through the fissure in slow columns, catching the pale runelight as it fell.
Zoya didn't wait for a third crack.
"MOVE!"
She pulled Manraj up by the arm—Azhar catching his other side as he stumbled, one hand still pressed to his glowing chest.
Manraj's breath trembled.
The new symbol-veins pulsed beneath his skin like a second heartbeat trying to surface.
"Don't slow down," Zoya said sharply.
"I'm not—"
Another pulse tore through him.
"—slowing, the vault is—"
The floor lurched.
All three crashed to one knee as a deep grinding noise reverberated from below them—like colossal gears, long frozen, forced to turn again.
Azhar whipped around, shadows flaring wide.
"It's opening the deeper tunnels."
"That's bad, right?" Manraj gasped.
"Extremely," Azhar said.
The deeper tunnels didn't open unless something old wanted out.
Or something older wanted in.
Another thunderous crack split the ceiling.
This time a chunk of stone fell—massive, lethal.
Zoya shoved Manraj aside and raised both palms.
SILENCE detonated outward.
The falling stone froze mid-air.
Every sound in the chamber died.
Even the air stopped moving.
Zoya staggered from the effort, knees buckling.
"Go," she hissed, "I can't hold it long—"
Manraj grabbed her wrist, pulling her back before the silence snapped and the stone crashed behind them.
They sprinted toward the spiral stairs, shadows and runelight flickering wildly.
Behind them—
A long, resonant howl rose from the darkness below.
Not animal.
Not human.
Something ancient tasting freedom for the first time in centuries.
Zoya looked back once.
"…That wasn't the vault."
Azhar didn't look back.
"That was the Hunt."
Manraj's skin crawled.
"What is the Hunt?"
Neither answered.
The howl came again—closer this time, echoing like a thousand voices speaking in reverse.
Zoya grabbed Manraj's shirt and forced him up the stairs.
"Keep moving. Don't stop. Don't look."
He stumbled after her.
His chest burned with that new color—neither fire nor silence—pulling toward something he didn't want to understand.
"Why is it after me?" Manraj demanded, breath ragged.
Azhar's reply came harsh, low, cold:
"Because the Hunt only wakes when a Core-Bearer returns."
Zoya's grip tightened.
"And YOU just returned."
A stone pillar smashed into the stairway—Zoya screamed as debris rained down. Azhar's shadows surged, forming a shield that shattered under the impact.
Manraj grabbed both of them.
"Run!"
They climbed faster—panting, slipping, bleeding.
Above them, the vaulted ceiling split open completely.
Light—moonlight—flooded in.
They burst out of the stairwell and back into the cavern above.
But the cavern had changed.
Pillars had shifted.
Rocks floated weightlessly.
Runes crawled across surfaces like living insects.
Reality was folding wrong.
Zoya stared up in horror.
"The vault's collapse is bleeding into the upper chamber."
Manraj's heartbeat thundered in his ears.
"We have to get out of here—now—"
A roar tore through the cavern.
Not a howl.
A roar.
The shadows around Azhar flinched like whipped dogs.
Zoya went pale.
"…It's here."
From the darkness below the broken pedestal, something began to climb upward— a colossal shape of shifting, twisting matter made of shadow, bone, and something white glowing inside its chest, like a lantern buried in flesh.
Azhar whispered, terror threading into his voice for the first time:
"No… Not it. Not now…"
Manraj's throat tightened.
"What IS THAT?"
Azhar swallowed hard.
"The Hunt."
He stepped in front of them, shadows bracing like spears around him.
"Sent to retrieve Core-Bearers."
Manraj backed up.
"Retrieve? You mean kill?"
Azhar didn't blink.
"No. Worse."
The creature's head rose into view—
a mask of bone
etched with runes
cracked down the center
as if something once escaped through it.
Zoya stepped forward, fury overtaking fear.
"You're not taking him."
The Hunt leaned forward.
The bone mask split apart.
Four glowing eyes snapped open.
It spoke—
a voice layered with a thousand whispers:
"ERYTH.
RETURN."
A pulse of force blasted across the cavern.
Manraj's fire surged.
His silence flared.
The third color in his chest ignited all at once.
He fell to his knees, gasping—
Zoya grabbed him—
Azhar braced for the impact—
And the Hunt advanced.
The cavern cracked around them.
The runes flickered violently.
Manraj forced himself to his feet—
the glow in his chest bursting through his skin in thin threads of silver.
He shouted:
"STOP!"
And for one breath—
the Hunt froze.
Zoya's eyes widened.
Azhar's shadows stilled.
Manraj's voice shook.
"I'm no
t going with you."
The Hunt tilted its skull-mask.
"THEN WE WILL TAKE WHO KEEPS YOU."
Zoya's stomach dropped.
Azhar's shadows screamed in alarm.
Manraj realized too late—
it meant THEM.
The Hunt launched forward.