The grate clanged open with a metallic scream, echoing down the tunnel like a warning the walls themselves were trying to deliver.
Titanborn jumped back.
Blinkstep nearly fell over.
Mindwright pressed a hand to his chest to slow his pounding heart.
Arc Modeus didn't react.
He simply walked forward.
The puppet dangled from his fingers like a dead thing, though its eyes—painted or not—seemed to watch everything.
Titanborn hissed, "Arc! We're not just walking into whatever the hell he wants!"
Arc didn't stop.
"We don't have another path."
Mindwright swallowed.
"That's what scares me."
Blinkstep muttered, "This whole tunnel scares me…"
They followed Arc reluctantly because the alternative was going backward into the dark where Elias had been standing. No one wanted to risk that.
The grate led to a round maintenance chamber—wide, circular, filled with broken machinery and murky water that touched their ankles. Pipes whined overhead, thick with pressure.
Something dripped from above.
Plip.
Plip.
Plip.
Titanborn squinted. "What is that?"
Arc's puppet answered:
"Not water."
Mindwright's stomach tightened.
The drip thickened.
Blinkstep stepped backward. "Uhh… that's… red."
It was blood.
Fresh.
A crackling sound above them made every muscle in Titanborn's massive body lock up.
Mindwright whispered, "Something's up there."
Arc raised Elias's knife.
Not in defense.
In recognition.
He whispered:
"He led us here… because something else was hunting too."
Blinkstep shook violently. "WHY THE HELL WOULD HE DO THAT?!"
Arc didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
And because Elias was unpredictable.
A hunter, not a guardian.
Titanborn stepped forward.
"Whatever it is—let it come. I'll crush—"
A body dropped.
Right behind him.
Titanborn spun.
His bravado broke instantly.
It was a Central Forces trooper.
Armor cracked.
Neck snapped clean.
Face frozen in terror.
Blinkstep screamed and slapped his own mouth to quiet it.
Mindwright trembled.
"This wasn't Elias."
Arc's puppet whispered:
"No."
Whatever killed the soldier… had done it messily.
Elias never killed messy.
Titanborn whispered, "Then what the hell—"
A low gurgling hiss echoed from one of the pipes.
Blinkstep backed away.
Mindwright froze.
Arc raised his head slowly.
And saw it.
A creature crawled from the pipes overhead—long, sinewy, humanoid but twisted.
Wet skin stretched over bone.
Jaw unhinged too wide.
Fingers ending in blackened claws.
A Pipe-Spawned Revenant.
Mindwright's voice cracked.
"That's Stage-2 Revenamancy corruption! Someone LOST CONTROL down here!"
Blinkstep panicked.
"It's looking at Arc! WHY IS IT LOOKING AT ARC?!"
Arc's puppet whispered:
"Because Elias weakened the tunnel walls… to let it through."
Titanborn snapped. "WHY?!"
Before anyone could answer, the creature lunged.
Too fast.
Too close.
Titanborn tried to shield Arc, but Arc moved first.
He ducked.
Grabbed the puppet's strings.
Snapped downward—
Act One: Threaded Snare.
Invisible force yanked the Revenant mid-air, twisting its limbs backward with sickening cracks.
It screeched and flailed helplessly.
Titanborn staggered.
"Arc, STOP! You'll tear it apart—"
The puppet giggled:
"Exactly."
Arc twisted the strings.
The Revenant's spine snapped with a loud crack.
It dropped to the water, twitching violently.
Mindwright stared in shock.
"You killed that thing with almost no hesitation…"
Arc looked at the puppet.
"I remembered what he said."
Blinkstep whispered, "What…?"
Arc's eyes darkened.
"If you don't kill it… it kills you."
Titanborn stepped closer to Arc—slow, cautious.
"Arc… what is happening to you?"
Arc didn't answer.
Because behind them—
something shifted again.
The tunnel shook.
The pipes groaned.
A distant roar traveled through the metal walls like a storm trapped underground.
Blinkstep screamed, "THAT WASN'T THE ONLY ONE!"
Mindwright grabbed Arc's sleeve.
"We need to RUN!"
Titanborn shouted, "MOVE!"
Arc hesitated.
Because instinct told him something terrifying:
Elias didn't bring them to the Revenant…
He brought the Revenant to them.
A lesson.
A test.
A warning.
Then the far tunnel burst open as more shapes crawled out of the dark.
And Arc ran.
The others followed.
Because even if Elias was watching…
Something else was hunting too.
Something that didn't care about tests, messages, or preparation.
Something that wanted to feed.