The chamber doors didn't open.
They peeled.
Metal folded like wet paper, dragged inward by an unseen force that recognized neither shape nor permission. The tremor grew louder—too rhythmic, too deliberate, too heavy to be natural.
Zoya's fingers locked around Manraj's wrist.
"RUN."
They sprinted through the fractured archway just as the chamber collapsed behind them, stone dissolving into shadow-water that slithered across the ground like a living tide.
Manraj looked back over his shoulder.
The darkness didn't crawl.
It hunted.
A living mass of discarded limbs, half-formed faces and hollow eyes swarmed down the tunnel, moving with a purpose that was unmistakably directed at him.
"Zoya—IT'S THE SAME ONES FROM THE WELL—!"
"No," she shouted. "These MOVE faster."
Another tremor exploded through the ground—one that nearly knocked Manraj off his feet.
The number inside his chest pulsed:
22 → 21 → 20
Too fast.
Far too fast.
"ZOYA—THE COUNT—"
"I KNOW!" she snapped, yanking him sideways just as a black tendril lashed out from the tunnel wall, missing his face by inches.
He gasped.
"What—WHAT WAS THAT?!"
"Under-Root nerve. It's mapping the tunnel."
The tendril stabbed the ceiling, dragging a long black crack through it.
"I thought Root tunnels were safe!"
"This part isn't ROOT—it's what AZHAR carved away!"
The shadow-mass behind them surged, growing larger, filling the tunnel like an expanding throat. Manraj felt the air thinning, pulled forward by something behind him.
It wasn't chasing.
It was reclaiming.
"Zoya—IT WANTS ME—"
"It wants the VOID!" she shouted back. "Not you. HOLD ON!"
She dragged him down another side passage—this one smaller, tighter, lined with jagged metal shards left from Azhar's sabotage.
The shadows slammed into the passage behind them—but this time, the metal FLAILED.
The shards moved like teeth, snapping shut, shredding the first limb that reached through.
The mass recoiled with a horrible metallic shriek.
Manraj stumbled.
"Did—did the tunnel just defend us—?!"
Zoya didn't slow.
"Azhar set traps everywhere. He must've known the Under-Root could leak in someday."
A tendril shot from the floor—Manraj leapt over it a fraction of a second before it re-formed into a mouth.
A mouth.
Zoya flung a burst of Silence downward, her power crackling into the dark and forcing the creature back into the ground.
"GO!"
They reached a fork.
Left was darkness.
Right was worse—bright, flickering Root-light trembling like it couldn't hold itself steady.
Zoya inhaled sharply.
"That's the Stabilizer. We need it."
Manraj frowned, breath ragged.
"What's that?"
"A device Azhar built to block the Root's pull."
"What does it do?"
"Hopefully?" Zoya said, pulling him into the light.
"It keeps you from being rewritten."
---
THE STABILIZER ROOM
The tunnel broke open into a massive vault.
But pieces of it were missing.
Floating.
Spinning.
Disintegrating and reforming like the room didn't know how to exist anymore.
At the center stood a towering construct of metal ribs and glowing runes—Azhar's Stabilizer—half-sparking, half-dead, still fighting to stay alive.
A shockwave thundered behind them.
The Under-Root mass ROARED into the vault, slamming against the walls hard enough to bend steel.
Manraj stumbled back.
"Zoya—IT'S HERE—"
She was already on the move.
"Manraj, GET TO THE CENTER!"
"What?!"
"The Stabilizer needs YOUR CORE to activate!"
"That sounds like the WORST IDEA—"
"MANRAJ, LISTEN TO ME—IF YOU DON'T, IT WILL REWRITE YOU!"
That did it.
He sprinted to the glowing structure just as the mass surged inward, filling the vault. Zoya dove beside him, slamming her palms against the metal ribs.
"Manraj—touch it!"
He lifted trembling hands.
The shadows lunged.
He pressed his palms to the Stabilizer.
Everything detonated.
---
THE ACTIVATION
White-blue light tore through the room.
The Under-Root creatures shrieked—hundreds of voices collapsing into one horrific sound as the Stabilizer grabbed hold of the void inside Manraj and locked it in place.
Manraj screamed as raw energy slammed into his chest, freezing the countdown.
20 → … → …
It didn't move.
Not up.
Not down.
It was suspended.
Zoya could barely stay upright, her Silence sparking wildly as the Stabilizer unleashed a final surge of force—
A tidal wave of light.
A blast that knocked the entire mass of Under-Root creatures backward, slamming them into the far wall with bone-crushing force.
The vault shook.
Cracked.
Screamed.
And then—
Everything went still.
The shadows slinked back like a wounded animal, hissing, retracting, forced away from Manraj as the Stabilizer stabilized the void around him.
Zoya leaned against the structure, panting, bruised, shaking.
Manraj dropped to his knees, gasping for breath.
"Zoya… what… what just happened…?"
She forced a weak smile.
"You bought us time."
He looked down at his chest.
The number glowed faintly.
Not advancing.
Not retreating.
Frozen.
"Did we stop it?" he whispered.
Zoya shook her head.
"No."
She pointed toward the far tunnel where the shadows had retreated.
The entire mass of Under-Root was reshaping itself—becoming one shape.
One body.
One monster.
Bigger.
Faster.
Angrier.
Zoya stood shakily, pulling Manraj up with her.
"We didn't stop it."
Her voice hardened.
"We made it furious."
The creature roared, loud enough to snap the remaining metal supports.
Manraj felt the ground shake.
"…Zoya."
"Yes?"
"We run again?"
She squeezed his hand.
"No."
She pulled him toward a new tunnel at the side of the vault.
"This time," she said, voice steel—
"We fight."
The shadows lunged.
The Stabilizer shattered.
And Chapter ends in a single, deafening—
BOOM.