Chapter 34: Run

It started with a tremor.

Barely felt at first—just a subtle vibration beneath the soles of the city's stone streets. Then came the noise. Not a roar, not a quake.

A heartbeat.

Deep. Ancient. Wrong.

Ren's head snapped toward the eastern horizon. The seal was breaking faster than he'd predicted. Something beneath the city—below even the heartroot—was stirring. And it was awake.

Kaede reached him within minutes, weapons strapped, eyes sharp. "It's starting, isn't it?"

Ren nodded, voice low. "We're out of time."

Across the city, bells began to ring.

Panic bloomed like fire.

Citizens flooded the streets. Guild hunters rallied. Portal gates flickered with instability. And from deep within the ground, black mist began to rise.

Ren turned to Kaede. "Get them out."

She stiffened. "What about you?"

"I'm going down."

Kaede grabbed his arm. "Ren—"

"RUN," he said, voice sharper than steel. "I can hold it back. But if this thing reaches the surface—there won't be a city left."

Kaede hesitated. Her lips trembled.

"Promise me you'll come back," she whispered.

Ren forced a thin smile. "I'll come back. I have to. Yui still gets scared at night."

Kaede nodded once—and vanished into the fleeing crowd, rallying the evacuation.

Ren turned toward the rising void, shadows curling at his feet, light pulsing in his chest.

He whispered to himself as he stepped forward:

"Let them run."

And he walked into the dark.