Chapter 130 : Echoes from Within the Ruins

My final command to Endeavor felt like a line spoken in a nightmare. The moment I watched him unleash that devastating Prominence Burn, I felt a mixture of terror and a horrifying satisfaction. I had thrown the dice, risking the lives of hundreds of heroes for one chance to turn the tables. And now, in the deafening silence of the Mobile Command Center, we all waited to see what numbers would come up.

The screens before me became a sea of static. One by one, our video and audio connections to the teams inside the mountain were severed. The blue icons that had been moving with purpose now turned into red question marks or disappeared entirely. Our once-clear tactical map had now become a representation of total chaos. The tremor from the collapse even reached our position several kilometers away, a faint vibration that carried with it the weight of unimaginable destruction.

The room was silent. The technicians stared at their dead consoles with pale faces. All Might leaned against a wall, his gaunt face looking older than ever. Nezu stared at the main screen, which now only displayed a static image of the smoldering, smoking mountain, his expression unreadable. I myself could only stare at my hands. The same hands that had pointed out the target. The same hands that might have just signed the death warrants for the greatest heroes in Japan. The guilt felt like an anchor of ice in my stomach. Had I just become a mass murderer?

"Principal..." a young technician's voice trembled, breaking the torturous silence. "All channels... are dead. No response at all."

Suddenly, a small red light began to flash on one of the emergency communication panels. A very weak signal, trying to break through the massive electronic interference.

"Boost the power!" Nezu commanded instantly, his small claw pointing at the panel. "Track and amplify that signal, now!"

The technicians worked frantically. A loud hissing static filled the room, then slowly, a voice began to be heard between the noise. A hoarse, breathless, pain-filled voice.

"...Nezu...? ...Tatsumi...? Can... anyone... hear... me...?"

It was Aizawa-sensei's voice.

"Aizawa-kun! We hear you!" Nezu replied quickly. "Status report! What is your position? What is the condition of your team?"

A painful cough was heard from the speaker. "The kid's... plan... worked..." Aizawa wheezed. "Too... well. The entire... structure around us... collapsed. We're trapped... in some kind of... utility tunnel... in Sector Gamma-7." He paused for a moment to catch his breath. "I'm with... Fat Gum, Kirishima, Amajiki... and a few others. We're... we're alive. There's an air pocket. But we're trapped. The water... is rising."

A momentary wave of relief swept through our room, but was quickly replaced by a new anxiety.

"What about the other teams?" I asked, my voice tense. "Team Endeavor? Team Edgeshot?"

A long silence on the other end of the line. "No... contact," Aizawa finally replied. "Everything's silent. We... we don't know who else made it."

Inside the belly of the mountain, which had now become a trembling tomb, Fat Gum's team was fighting for their lives. They were in a large concrete tunnel that was now tilted at a strange angle. Ice-cold water, from Geten's melting glaciers, was pouring in from cracks in the ceiling, and its level had already reached their waists. At one end of the tunnel, a landslide of rock and steel had completely blocked their path.

"I can hold it!" Kirishima yelled, his entire body in Unbreakable form. He stood under the most fragile part of the ceiling, holding the weight of thousands of tons of concrete on his shoulders, his face contorted from the immense effort.

Fat Gum, on the other hand, used his large body and his fat-absorbing Quirk to plug a large hole in the wall where the water was gushing in most violently. "Think of something fast, Amajiki!" he said, his voice muffled. "I can't hold back this water pressure forever!"

Tamaki Amajiki, who was usually paralyzed by his anxiety, was now in survival mode. He looked around. No food. Nothing he could use to replicate an ability. But then he saw something in the murky water. Life. Small, pale cave shrimp and strange mosses clinging to the walls. Without hesitation, he scooped them up and ate them.

"Amajiki-senpai!" Kirishima exclaimed in horror.

But a few seconds later, Amajiki's body began to change. His hands transformed into hard, sharp crab shells. From his back grew shrimp antennae that glowed with a faint bioluminescence, illuminating the darkness around them. "I can... I can dig," he said, his voice more confident. "These shells are strong enough. I can make a way out." Hope emerged in the midst of despair.

In another dark and silent corridor, Akame moved like a ghost. The collapse didn't make her panic. For her, chaos was an opportunity. She easily navigated the collapsing tunnels, her superior senses guiding her past danger. She wasn't trying to get out. She was moving deeper. She knew that in the middle of chaos like this, the enemy leaders would be at their most vulnerable. She followed a faint energy trail, the trail of the MLA lieutenants. Her hunt was not over.

In the now partially destroyed MLA command center, Re-Destro rose from the rubble. His entire body was now blackened and enlarged, an embodiment of pure stress and rage. Most of his army had been killed or trapped in the collapse. His headquarters, his pride, was now a grave. But he didn't feel defeated. He felt... liberated.

"THEY THINK THIS CAN STOP ME?!" he roared, his horrific voice echoing throughout the ruined complex. "THIS ONLY MAKES MY STRESS PERFECT! THIS IS TRUE LIBERATION!" He turned to his surviving followers. "FIND THEM! FIND THE HEROES HIDING IN THIS HOME OF OURS! DESTROY THEM ALL!" The war wasn't over; it had just entered a more brutal and personal phase.

Back in the MCC, I stared at the tactical map that was now mostly empty. We had contact with one team. One. What about the others? What about Ryukyu? I remembered my promise, her vow to hold them off. Was she...

I closed my eyes, ignoring Nezu's protest. I had to know. I pushed my senses to their limit, wading through the sea of static and noise, searching for that one specific echo. The dragon's echo. I searched for it among the rubble, under tons of rock and steel.

And then, I felt it.

Very weak. Very distant. Buried very deep under the most destroyed sector. But it was there. A slow, faint pulse, yet filled with a stubborn defiance. The heartbeat of a dragon that refused to be extinguished.

She was alive.

My eyes flew open. I no longer felt guilt or fear. All there was was purpose. I slammed my hand on the tactical map table, making everyone in the room jump. I pointed to a sector marked in deep red, considered a zone of total collapse.

"She's there!" I yelled, my voice hoarse with emotion and absolute conviction. "I can feel her! Ryukyu-san... she's still alive!"