The train sped up, and the scraping sound along the tunnel walls made the air inside the carriage tighten. Ares stood half-ready, one hand gripping the rail, the other hovering near his side like a reflex to shield.
Adara stared at the dark end of the rear carriage. "Ares… that's them, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Ares answered quietly. "And they're getting closer."
The train shook again unstable, like something had rammed into the tail of the train. The lights flickered. The atmosphere shifted from silence to something like the heartbeat of the world pounding too hard.
"System report conditions," Ares whispered.
> [Disturbance: increasing]
[Anomaly behind: 22 meters]
[Recommendation: keep moving. Do not stop.]
Adara gripped the seat frame. "If they can enter the rails… can they also enter the train?"
Ares didn't answer. Not because he didn't know precisely because he didn't want to say "yes."
He kept staring at the dark corridor. The one with no shadow. No sound except a faint rustling that sounded like fabric dragging… though they knew it wasn't fabric.
Adara rose from her seat. "If they get into this carriage what do we do?"
Ares turned, tension sharp on his face. "We can't fight them. Not in any normal way, at least."
"So?" Adara looked at him, breath fast. "We just let them?"
Ares shook his head. "We stop them from touching me. That's priority. They don't need you. They only need… me."
Adara blinked slowly. "You realize that's way scarier than you think, right?"
Ares didn't get the chance to answer.
Something slammed into the back of the train.
Metal shrieked a piercing sound cutting through the carriage. The train swayed, nearly derailing before stabilizing again. Adara grabbed the nearest seat.
"Ares!" she shouted.
"I know!"
They stared toward the back. The wall seemed to be pulled not by anything visible, but by pressure bending the wrong way. Air flowed toward a single empty point, forming an indentation in nothing.
Adara held her breath. "Don't tell me… they're trying to open an entry point through the wall?"
Ares stepped between her and that pressure.
"If they force their way in, the carriage could rupture."
"And we die?"
Ares didn't look back. "…most likely, yeah."
The footsteps came wrong ones. An uneven rhythm, like something only pretending to understand how humans walk. Then they stopped.
For a moment, the world was silent.
A silence that made ears ring.
A silence that made Adara's breath catch.
A silence that locked Ares's jaw.
Then.
> THUD!
The carriage shifted. Lights went out for a few seconds.
Adara clutched Ares's arm. "Ares… they"
"I know," Ares said, eyes fixed on the dark corner of the carriage that seemed to be breathing. "They're trying to force a spatial breach."
Adara swallowed hard. "A spatial… breach? Ares, that's not even a normal human sentence."
"Not humans who are chasing us."
The voice came suddenly.
Not a whisper.
Not an echo.
But as if someone broke the air itself and spoke two centimeters behind their necks:
"…subject… stop… traveling…"
Ares immediately pulled Adara behind him. "Stay behind me!"
The lights returned now emergency red.
The carriage glowed like a scene no human should witness. At the far end, space warped. Like the fabric of reality was being pinched at a single point.
Then something pushed through.
Not a hand.
Not a shadow.
More like the jagged tip of a spreading crack.
And from it a second voice emerged, clearer, more "programmed":
"…subject Ares must be secured… access to the starting point is forbidden…"
Ares felt a sharp pulse in his head. The blue door flashed again. Stronger. Forcing itself in.
Adara cupped his face. "Ares focus on me! Not on them!"
Ares sucked in a breath. "They're trying to sync. They want to force me to back away."
"So what do we do?!"
Ares pulled Adara closer, bracing himself. "We wait. We hold them off until the train exits the underground zone."
"Why?"
"Because up there… the system signal is stronger. I can read the routes. We can escape."
Adara stared at the widening crack like an unseen jaw ready to swallow them whole.
"How long until we're out?"
Ares closed his eyes for one second.
"System route status!"
> [Estimated tunnel exit: 43 seconds]
[Anomaly: closing fast]
[Warning: physical contact in 10 seconds]
Ares opened his eyes. "Adara… hold on to me tight."
Adara wrapped her arms around his waist, hands shaking. "Ares if they touch you"
"Don't let them."
The crack widened.
A final voice echoed closer than ever.
"…subject… return…"
Ares braced.
Adara held her breath.
And the world tore as a powerful pull sucked air toward the breach.
The train shook violently, red lights flickering, and something beyond reality reached for them.
Three seconds before the tunnel ended.
Three seconds too long.
Three seconds deciding whether Ares and Adara would escape… or be dragged into something even the First Entity feared.
The train rattled.
White light appeared at the tunnel's end.
Ares squeezed Adara's hand.
And the breach… lunged.