The tunnels shook so violently Zoya could barely stay on her feet.
She tightened her grip around Manraj's waist and forced herself forward—step by brutal step—while Azhar's shadows flared behind them like trembling wings, trying to hold the collapsing cavern back.
But the quake wasn't random.
It had rhythm.
A slow, repeating tremor…
STEP.
…like something enormous climbing toward the upper vault…
STEP.
…like a heartbeat in the stone itself.
Zoya gasped as a fissure ripped across the wall beside her, spraying dust across her face.
"FASTER!" Azhar shouted.
Zoya pushed herself harder.
But the tremors grew stronger.
Manraj stirred weakly against her shoulder, his voice barely a whisper:
"…It's coming."
Zoya's stomach twisted.
She didn't want him awake for this.
"Shh—save your strength," she whispered, wiping dust from his cheek. "We're getting you out."
Another quake.
A deeper one.
Azhar swore, shadows spiking upward.
"That wasn't a step. That was a hand hitting the underside of the vault."
Zoya's skin went cold.
"Hands?"
Azhar didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
The cavern answered for him.
A BOOM exploded through the stone floor— so loud it felt like sound had teeth.
A section of the platform behind them caved in, revealing a black abyss. From that darkness, a massive shape pushed upward—
not fully visible but large enough that the stone bent around it.
Zoya's breath broke.
"Oh God…"
A second shape rose beside it— fingers huge white cracks glowing between segments of stone-like bone.
The thing was climbing.
Azhar yanked them forward.
"DON'T LOOK. KEEP MOVING."
Zoya forced herself forward, legs burning, lungs tight. Manraj's added weight made every step a battle.
But then—
The voice rose again.
Not booming this time.
Breathing.
"Eryth…"
Zoya froze mid-step.
Azhar grabbed her arm hard.
"DON'T LISTEN TO IT—MOVE!"
But the voice continued—
Layered Ancient Familiar.
"Eryth… child of the first silence… come back."
Zoya felt Manraj flinch in her arms.
His eyes didn't open— but his hand twitched, fingers curling as if reaching toward something.
Azhar noticed instantly.
"Zoya—hold him!" "I'm trying—!"
But Manraj's body reacted on its own—pulled by the voice calling him from the abyss.
His head fell back against her shoulder, breath shuddering.
"…I know that voice."
Zoya's heart dropped.
"No. No no no—don't remember it. Stay HERE—stay with me—"
But the tremor of recognition in him was unmistakable.
The cavern floor cracked open further.
The thing below pushed higher— enough for Zoya to see the top of its head:
A crown of stone plates
white cracks glowing between them
shifting like an ancient tectonic skull.
Azhar cursed violently.
"It's waking fully. We're out of time."
Manraj stirred again.
His voice—weak, torn—escaped in a breath:
"…It used to guard the silence."
Zoya froze.
"What?"
Azhar jerked around. His shadows bristled like terrified animals.
"That's impossible. The Guardians were ERASED."
The voice rose again:
"Eryth… my bearer… you left me."
Manraj choked on a gasp— his entire body seizing as a memory slammed into him.
Zoya grabbed him, panicked.
"Manraj—MANRAJ—stay with me!"
Manraj's new silver-amber veins flared bright under his skin.
Too bright.
His back arched involuntarily, pain twisting his features.
Azhar's eyes widened.
"Zoya—he's synching with it! PULL HIM BACK!"
She tried.
She dug her heels into the stone, clutching him, dragging him—
but the massive presence below dragged HARDER.
The guardian's fingers broke fully through the floor— five enormous hand-like structures, each joint glowing with deep white sigils.
It braced itself…
and began to rise.
Zoya screamed as the floor lurched.
Stone shattered. The platform split in half. Water poured through the gaps as the river above finally broke into the ruins.
Zoya nearly slipped, but Azhar's shadows snatched her and Manraj both—pulling them onto a slanted outcropping of stone.
Manraj shuddered violently.
The voice boomed now:
"ERYTH. YOU LEFT ME IN THE RIFT."
Zoya's breath stopped.
"…The Rift?"
Azhar shook his head hard, terrified.
"No. No, that place doesn't exist anymore. It CAN'T."
Manraj's trembling worsened.
"It does," he whispered. "And I left him there."
Zoya cupped his face, desperate.
"Who did you leave?"
The answer came from BELOW them.
Not Manraj.
Not Azhar.
The creature.
Its head fully emerged now— a titan of stone and broken silence— six white eyes snapping open across its skull.
Its roar shook deep water from the walls.
"YOU LEFT YOUR GUARDIAN."
Zoya's blood turned to ice.
Azhar's shadows shrank, terrified.
Manraj finally opened his eyes— dual-colored, burning brightly, terrified.
His voice trembled.
"…I left him."
Zoya swallowed.
The guardian pulled another limb from the abyss.
Azhar dragged them backward toward the collapsing tunnel.
"WE'RE LEAVING. NOW."
Zoya nodded, slinging Manraj's arm over her shoulder again.
The guardian's massive hand slammed into the stone behind them—
BOOM
—sending cracks racing up the tunnel walls.
Zoya didn't look back.
Azhar didn't breathe.
Manraj whispered one last thing before unconsciousness dragged him under again:
"…He remembers me. But I don't remember him."
The guardian roared— a sound of betrayal centuries old.
And it climbed after them.