The service hatch sealed behind them with a hydraulic hiss, the pressure equalizing as the four of them stepped into the outer corridor. No alarms. No urgency. Just the quiet hum of the port's nighttime rhythm.

Still, Akiko's shoulders were already tight. Her enthusiasm at this excursion had faded quickly once they were back in the dim shadows of Helios Terminal. Bravado and bluster were one thing, but now it was time to focus.

The others followed at an easy pace.

Quinn adjusted the strap on his field kit. Joran moved like he was already bored. Raya walked just behind Akiko. Silent, but watchful.

Takuto's voice flicked into her mind, clipped and clinical.

"Public surveillance density has increased twelve-point-eight percent in adjacent sectors. Patrol frequency up thirty-two percent within two kilometers of prior rooftop exit vector."

She muttered, "Told you I made an impression."

Quinn glanced over. "You say something?"

Akiko shook her head. "Just talking to my ghost."

He grinned, clearly not understanding. "Well, your ghost lit up half the skyline. Thought we were under attack until Kara checked the nets."

Akiko didn't smile.

Of course Kara saw it. Of course they all did.

Joran scoffed. "No one's gonna care by now. Half the city's wired to panic at shadows. You trip over a pipe the wrong way and the security bots start asking questions."

Akiko's fingers twitched at her side.

Raya's voice cut gently through the silence. "Any issues ahead?"

Akiko blinked, glanced back.

Raya was looking at her, not the city. Not the scanners.

Akiko hesitated. Then:

"Not if we keep moving."

They moved through the underlayers first, bypassing the tram hubs and surface plazas, slipping through maintenance corridors and freight routes that wound beneath the city like forgotten veins.

Ashara didn't sleep. But it slowed.

Freight haulers rumbled past in distant echo. Overhead, security drones whispered along rails, their lights dimmed for night cycles. Industrial fog pooled low along the floor in some sectors, rising in curls that clung to Akiko's suit.

They passed through a market alley, quieter now than at the height of the night crowd. Lights buzzed. Signs flickered half-lit.

A vendor sat slouched behind his stall, watching something on a cracked panel screen.

Footage looped in grainy low-res: a blurred figure streaking across a rooftop, wrapped in blue-white flame. No face. Just the arc of her flight and the smoldering wake she left behind.

The headline read:

Blueflame Ghost: Haven Weapon or Alien Intelligence?

Asharan security denies reports of engagement.

Locals describe 'a falling star wrapped in fire.'

Quinn paused, gave a low whistle. "Huh. Someone made an impression."

Akiko didn't stop.

They crossed a checkpoint near the edge of the industrial ring. A pair of guards stood beside a portable scanner rig, their armor marked with blue sigils matching those from the rooftop squads.

Joran's posture stiffened. "Want me to—?"

Akiko raised a hand, stopping him.

"No trouble. Just walk."

Her obfuscation spell whispered into being around her, blue-white foxfire fading into the shadows around them. Their scanners weren't designed to track mana. Not yet.

Since they weren't already alerted this time, unlike with the scuffle in the market, she could slip by unseen. Hopefully.

Applied Spellform Initialized: Obfuscation (Tier I).

Partial Optical Displacement – Active.

Visual distortion: 63%. Thermal reduction: 28%.

She kept to Joran's shadow, an optical distortion trailing in his wake, aware of the guards' sightlines.

One of the guards glanced their way. Frowned. But didn't move.

They kept walking. As they turned the next corner, Akiko exhaled slowly, drawing the spell back, allowing herself to be seen.

The faint glow of the crystals ahead cast eerie light across the broken terrain. Mana pulsed through them in slow rhythm, tinting the rocks with an unnatural shimmer. Damp air clung to the ground, thick with that now-familiar charge. The kind that made your skin itch before anything moved.

Akiko's ears twitched. She heard nothing. Just wind.

Hopefully.

"This is where you ran into the dogs?" Joran asked, rifle low but ready, his gaze sweeping the landscape with methodical precision.

"Yep," Akiko said, voice hushed but tinged with excitement. "They're not here now. Guess I scared them off."

"Or they're regrouping," Raya muttered.

Joran's voice was edged with tension. "You want backup close, or waiting?"

"Wait," Akiko said. Her voice was quiet, but calm. "If something goes wrong, you'll hear it."

Quinn snorted softly. "Hell of a vote of confidence."

Akiko didn't smile. Just resumed the spell, runes tracking into being around her like they had never stopped. Her form softened, edges blurring like smoke caught in a crosswind.

Applied Spellform Initialized: Obfuscation (Tier I)

She whispered to no one, "I know."

The ground below her shifted from smooth concrete to uneven rubble as she crept forward. The silence here was different, thicker.

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She crossed into the outer yard. Fencing twisted like broken ribs. Runoff clung to the concrete in long, oily streaks. Water without weather, reflections without light.

No rain. Just the memory of it, pumped from cracked condenser lines and left to cool like blood in the open air.

Akiko moved with purpose. She hadn't solved the problem of scent. Not yet. That meant she was still vulnerable to the same kind of hunt that shredded her last attempt.

But this time, she wasn't alone. This time, she had backup.

Behind her, Raya watched the shadows. Quinn loaded a fresh cartridge. Joran muttered something into the dark.

Akiko didn't need to say it. If she ran, they'd follow. If she screamed, they'd come. And if she didn't return—

Well. They'd know where to start looking.

She paused at a warped doorway, its frame bent inward. A cracked security camera above the archway ticked left to right. Slow, mechanical, unaware.

Akiko crouched. Her magic flickered as she tested the obfuscation against it. No change in the camera's arc.

Perfect.

She slipped through the door.

The air inside was colder than she expected, stale and metallic. Flickering lights threw uneven shadows across peeling walls and claw-scarred floors. The silence pressed against her ears.

"Clear so far," she whispered over the comms. "No sign of our furry friends."

"Good," Joran's voice replied. "Keep going. We'll follow once it's secure."

She crept deeper. Shattered crates littered the hallway, their contents strewn across the floor: rusted tools, snapped clamps, glass fragments crunching underfoot.

Then, sound. A low hum, barely audible, pulled her forward. Near the far wall, a console flickered with power. Its screen glowed weakly against the dark, the interface pulsing like a heartbeat.

She scanned the room's corners. Still empty.

Akiko tapped her comm. "There's a console still running. Could have logs. Cameras."

"Mark it," Quinn replied. "I'll dig through it once we're inside."

Akiko lingered. No movement. No growling. No clicking claws. But the stillness was wrong.

"Bad vibes," she said. "Real bad. Be ready for anything."

"Moving up," Joran confirmed.

Her eyes stayed on the console as she crouched beside it.

It was too quiet.

She crouched beside the console, scanning the shadows while her foxfire shimmer faded. The obfuscation weave unraveled across her limbs as she let the magic drop, conserving mana now that she wasn't running solo.

The room creaked softly, the hum of the powered console the only constant.

Joran entered first, rifle raised, eyes sweeping the corners with soldier's precision. Quinn followed, casual but alert, glancing at every vent and exposed wire.

Raya came last, muttering under her breath.

"Reckless kitsunes," she said. "Are kitsunes always reckless?"

"All clear," Akiko said quietly, rising as they approached. She gestured to the flickering console. "Thought this might have something useful."

Quinn stepped forward, tucking his rifle away. "Let's find out." His fingers danced across the interface. Worn, glitchy, but still responsive.

Corrupted files blinked past. A few fragments remained intact.

Akiko watched in silence. She considered offering Takuto's help but held back.

No shortcuts, she told herself. Learn how they work.

Quinn frowned. "Logs are toast, but… wait. Security feed's still alive. Barely."

He tapped. The screen flickered, then stabilized into footage. Timestamped from a few months ago.

Emergency lights cast the corridor in a harsh red pulse. Researchers staggered down the hall. Some bleeding, some shaking, a few with crystal growths spidering across their skin. One collapsed mid-run, convulsing until others dragged him away.

Raya leaned in. "Same pattern as your leg," she murmured. "Looks like it's hit their nervous system directly."

"Looks worse than what you got," Joran muttered to Akiko. "You're lucky."

Akiko didn't answer. Her eyes were locked on the feed.

The camera jolted. Something had shaken the building. Papers flew, lights swayed. The corridor emptied in an instant.

Quinn rewound. "Wait. What was—?"

A massive figure lumbered into frame.

Green-skinned. Hunched. Taller than any human. Thick arms, clawed hands, tusks gleaming under the stuttering lights.

Joran's grip tightened on his weapon. "What the hell is that?"

Akiko blinked. "Wait. Is that... an orc?"

All three turned toward her.

"A what?" Quinn asked.

"Big, green, usually angry," Akiko said, gesturing vaguely. "Go-to dungeon bruisers. They were everywhere in my world. But here…?"

"That's not an orc," Raya said sharply. "Look at its skin. The crystalline patterns. That's not natural. That thing's been mutated."

Akiko frowned. "How would you know? You've never seen an orc."

"I haven't," Raya admitted, eyes still locked on the creature. "But you said it like it was normal. Like that thing could walk into a village and anyone would just accept it."

Akiko's mouth tightened. "…Maybe not normal. But it could've been one. If it went too deep into a dungeon. Got twisted. Warped. Still an orc. Just… not the kind you'd want to meet outside a containment field."

The creature moved down the hallway with unnatural speed, its crystalline eyes flashing as it tilted its head, listening. Then, it looked straight into the lens.

Static swallowed the screen.

Quinn stepped back, face grim. "It's still in here. Somewhere."

Akiko folded her arms. "Well, if it's not an orc, I'd really like to know what it is. And how to kill it."

"You're assuming we can," Joran said. "That thing's a brute. Might be smarter to avoid it entirely."

Akiko grinned faintly. "Where's the fun in that?"

But the grin didn't reach her eyes.

Raya's tone was all business. "We need more data. That thing's tied to the outbreak. It didn't just wander in."

Akiko nodded. "Then let's figure out what they made… and how to stop it."

She turned toward the darkened corridor beyond the console room, shoulders squared.

"Let's move."

The deeper they ventured, the darker the facility grew. The faint hum of electronics faded, replaced by silence thick enough to feel. Every step crunched debris underfoot.

Akiko's ears twitched, her pace slowing.

The mana had changed. It no longer trickled through the air. It pressed in like a tide. Slow, heavy, wrong.

"This place feels off," she murmured.

"Define 'off,'" Quinn said behind her.

"Like a crypt," she answered quietly. Her eyes caught the faint crystalline glow blooming from the walls. "The air's thick with mana. Old. Rotten."

They rounded a corner, and froze.

Joran's flashlight swept across a slumped figure in a lab coat, collapsed against the far wall. Head bowed. Limbs splayed.

"Researcher?" Raya asked, voice hushed. "Stay close. He might still be alive."

Akiko's heart thudded. The air buzzed against her skin, mana pressing harder.

"Alive doesn't feel like the right word."

They moved closer. Akiko's fingers twitched, foxfire teasing her palms.

The figure jerked. Its head snapped up with a crack, revealing a pale, hollow face veined with jagged crystal. Its eyes glowed faint blue.

"Not alive," Akiko whispered.

The creature lunged.

Joran's rifle came up, but too late.

Akiko moved first. Foxfire blazed to life as she ducked low and slashed upward. Her claws tore through fabric and flesh, the air filling with the sharp sting of burning mana. The thing recoiled, hissing, but didn't fall.

It turned its glowing eyes toward her, and snarled.

"Undead," Akiko said through gritted teeth. "This place really is a crypt."

A groan echoed from above.

"Move!" Raya shouted.

The ceiling buckled. And collapsed.

Dust and steel rained down as more bodies fell through the breach. Former researchers, now twisted and crystal-veined, landed hard, then rose without pause, eyes locked on them.

"Contact! Multiple hostiles!" Joran fired in tight bursts, bullets thudding into torsos that barely flinched.

"Quinn!" Akiko shouted, claws flashing as she sliced through another attacker. "Find us an exit!"

"I'm working on it!" he yelled, already sprinting toward a nearby console.

Raya yanked Joran toward cover, diving behind an overturned cart. "Akiko! Keep them off him!"

"Got it!" Akiko called back.

She surged forward, claws blazing arcs of light through the gloom.

The undead closed in, fast and unrelenting. One snapped at her leg; she spun, tail whipping for balance as she slashed across its jaw, shattering crystalline fangs.

Another reached from the side. She ducked, dropped, rolled, came up in a flare of fire.

Applied Spellform Initialized: Foxfire Flare (Tier I)

She caught a glimpse of Quinn hunched at the panel, sparks flying.

"Come on," she muttered, dancing backward from another attacker. Her claws tore a burning streak across its chest, scattering shards, but it kept coming.

Joran's rifle barked behind her, precise and constant. "How much longer?"

"Almost—!" Quinn's voice snapped. The panel flashed red. Then green.

A beep rang out.

"Got it! Door's open!"

"Move!" Joran shouted. One last burst, then he turned and ran.

Raya followed, medical kit clutched tight, ducking under a reaching arm.

"Go!" Akiko shouted, slashing through another undead lunging for her. It staggered, just enough.

She bolted. Claws retracted, fire fading, she sprinted down the corridor. Behind her, the creatures howled. One grabbed for her arm.

She twisted, slashed through its hand, and dove through the door.

It hissed closed behind her with a heavy clang.

The creatures slammed into it an instant later. Fists and claws pounded the metal, over and over, a frantic rhythm of hunger and rage.

Akiko leaned against the door, breathing hard. Her foxfire guttered out, leaving her hands bare and shaking.

"Well," she said, voice dry. "That was fun."

Raya shot her a look. "Fun? We almost got torn apart!"

"Almost," Akiko said, straightening, brushing dust off her sleeve. "But we didn't."

Joran scowled, checking his rifle. "We're not out of this yet. Those things don't stop."

Akiko's smile faded. She turned back to the door, the pounding still echoing through the metal.

"Yeah," she murmured. "I noticed."

Quinn was already at work, eyes darting across the new room's battered consoles and scattered debris. His fingers skimmed over a cracked terminal, the screen flickering under his touch.

"At least we've got a bit of breathing room," he said, though his voice was tight. "This door'll hold, but we need a plan. Fast."

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