The laughter echoed through the underground city like a blade cutting through silence.
For a moment, nobody moved.
The sound didn't belong.
It wasn't loud.
It wasn't monstrous.
It wasn't even threatening.
That was what made it terrifying.
The laughter sounded human.
Perfectly human.
A normal person laughing somewhere in the darkness.
And yet every instinct inside Kael screamed that something was horribly wrong.
The second scream came from a different direction.
This time the sound lasted longer.
The voice was distant, distorted by the vastness of the underground city, but the fear within it was unmistakable.
The citizens reacted immediately.
Thousands of heads turned toward the source of the scream.
Not gradually.
Not naturally.
Simultaneously.
As though a single thought had moved through the entire city.
The sight sent a chill down everyone's spine.
Aren stared for several seconds.
Then quietly said:
"Nope."
Nobody disagreed.
The streets below had finally come alive.
People were moving.
Not running.
Not panicking.
Simply walking.
Thousands of silent figures began drifting toward the district where the scream had originated.
The movement reminded Kael of a river.
Slow.
Steady.
Unstoppable.
General Caelan's expression hardened.
"Report."
Several officers immediately activated communication crystals.
Voices filled the air.
Teams stationed throughout the temple began responding one after another.
Most reported no changes.
No threats.
No unusual activity.
Then one crystal crackled violently.
A frightened voice emerged.
"Commander!"
The officer froze.
The urgency in the speaker's voice was impossible to miss.
"We have movement below us."
General Caelan remained calm.
"Explain."
The response came immediately.
"Something is coming out of the lower tunnels."
The observation platform became silent.
Theron closed his eyes.
The old caretaker suddenly looked far older than before.
For the first time since meeting him, he seemed tired.
Not physically tired.
The exhaustion of someone watching a nightmare slowly repeat itself.
Aren noticed.
The boy pointed toward him.
"You knew this could happen."
Theron didn't answer immediately.
The distant screams continued echoing through the city.
One.
Then another.
Then another.
Each one seemed closer than the last.
Finally, the old man opened his eyes.
"Yes."
The answer landed heavily.
Nobody looked surprised.
General Caelan folded his arms.
"What is happening?"
The old caretaker looked toward the city.
Then downward.
Toward the unseen depths hidden beneath it.
"The Dreamers are waking."
Silence followed.
The name felt wrong.
Deeply wrong.
One of the scholars immediately frowned.
"Dreamers?"
Theron nodded.
"The Sleeper dreams."
His voice sounded distant.
Almost absent.
"As long as it sleeps, the Dreamers remain dormant."
A cold sensation spread through Kael's chest.
The mark beneath his glove pulsed again.
Harder this time.
Fragments of images flashed through his mind.
A black sea.
Countless stars.
A city beneath the world.
Millions of figures kneeling before an enormous throne.
Then—
Eyes opening in the darkness.
The vision shattered instantly.
Kael inhaled sharply.
The world returned.
The city remained unchanged.
The platform remained unchanged.
Yet his heartbeat had accelerated.
Theron noticed.
Of course he did.
The old man's gaze lingered on him briefly before shifting away.
General Caelan stepped closer.
"What are the Dreamers?"
The caretaker remained silent for several moments.
Then answered quietly.
"The first people."
Nobody spoke.
The words felt absurd.
Impossible.
Yet somehow nobody laughed.
Because the old man wasn't joking.
One of the researchers looked pale.
"The first people?"
Theron nodded.
"The first civilization."
His gaze drifted toward the distant city.
"They built the prison."
A pause followed.
"And then became part of it."
The silence that followed was absolute.
Aren slowly rubbed his face.
Again.
The boy had been doing that a lot recently.
"You know..."
Nobody wanted to hear it.
"I liked life more when we were fighting monsters."
The frightening thing was that everyone agreed.
The ground trembled again.
This time the vibration felt stronger.
A distant cracking sound echoed through the cavern.
Several citizens stopped moving.
Others began looking upward.
The atmosphere changed instantly.
The underground city no longer felt calm.
It felt nervous.
Like a crowd sensing danger before seeing it.
Then someone shouted.
The voice came from below.
One of the soldiers stationed near the lower streets.
The communication crystal immediately activated.
"Contact!"
The word exploded through the platform.
Every officer reacted.
Weapons appeared.
Mana surged.
General Caelan grabbed the crystal.
"Report."
Static filled the air.
Then came a response.
The soldier sounded terrified.
"There are people coming out of the tunnels."
A pause.
"They don't look right."
Nobody liked that sentence.
General Caelan's voice remained steady.
"Describe them."
The answer came immediately.
"They're smiling."
Silence.
Theron lowered his head.
The old man's shoulders seemed to sag.
As though hearing those words confirmed his worst fears.
The crystal crackled again.
The soldier's breathing had become uneven.
"Commander..."
His voice trembled.
"They keep smiling."
Another pause.
"They aren't blinking."
A cold chill swept through the platform.
The city below seemed quieter than before.
Even the screams had stopped.
Only the distant lantern light remained.
Then the soldier spoke again.
His voice had become a whisper.
"There are hundreds of them."
The connection suddenly cut out.
Static filled the crystal.
Then silence.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
The platform felt frozen.
General Caelan slowly lowered the communication crystal.
His expression had become dangerous.
The kind of expression that appeared when a commander realized a situation was deteriorating faster than expected.
Then a new sound echoed through the underground city.
Footsteps.
Thousands of footsteps.
The expedition turned toward the streets below.
The citizens were running now.
Not toward the screams.
Away from them.
The entire city had erupted into motion.
Panic spread through the streets like wildfire.
People fled across bridges.
Crowded plazas.
Ancient roads.
The orderly silence from before had vanished completely.
For the first time, the underground city looked alive.
And terrified.
Aren stared at the chaos.
Then looked toward Theron.
"What happens now?"
The old caretaker remained silent.
His gaze lingered on the fleeing citizens.
The panic.
The fear.
The desperation.
When he finally answered, his voice sounded hollow.
"The same thing that happened before."
Nobody liked that answer.
Not even a little.
Then the darkness below moved.
At first, Kael thought it was a shadow.
Something shifting between distant buildings.
Then it moved again.
The shape was enormous.
Far larger than any person.
Far larger than any beast.
Something massive was walking through the lower districts hidden beyond the lantern light.
One step.
Another.
Ancient towers trembled.
Bridges shook.
And as the colossal silhouette slowly emerged from the darkness—
Every bell in the underground city began ringing at once.