Chapter 8: The Dungeon Is Herding Us.

The dark corridor had once been a road inside The Furnace Grid. Now it was a grave.

Collapsed subway structures showed through cracks in the dungeon walls, while rusted vehicles hung upside down in the darkness above. Ash drifted through the air like dead snow.

Mei stopped.

Six monsters had boxed her in.

Three skin-stealers blocked the passage ahead, their stolen faces twitching beneath strips of rotting flesh. Two chitin-armored gargoyles crouched on the broken arch overhead, while a dread-stalker emerged from the smoke behind her.

Her hand closed around the soul-stone beneath her coat. Emerald light pulsed against her palm.

Fifty-seven seconds.

The Boss was descending toward the lower vault. If it reached the surface, the dungeon gate would burst—and another city would fall.

Mei knew what came next. She had seen it before in her last life: the towers burning, the evacuation sirens, and millions running beneath a red sky. She remembered dying with a knife in her hand after Team Shadow severed the cables and locked Team Blaze inside a collapsing vault. Rebirth hadn't made her stronger, but a lifetime as an assassin had taught her never to die stupidly twice.

Stone groaned overhead as a gargoyle shoved a massive funeral slab from the arch. Mei lunged aside as it crashed down, blasting the passage with dust.

The monsters lost sight of her. Mei hadn't lost sight of them. An assassin doesn't fight in the open; she uses the noise.

A skin-stealer burst through the cloud, bone blade aimed at her throat. Mei stepped inside its reach, caught its wrist, and redirected the strike into the creature charging from her left. Before either could recover, she drove her shoulder into them, sending both into the third skin-stealer. All three disappeared beneath falling rubble.

The dread-stalker tore through the cloud behind her. She ducked beneath its claws, drove an elbow into its throat, and swept its legs. A gargoyle dropped from above, but she slipped beneath its claws, cut clean through its knee tendon, and redirected its weight into the wall until chitin shattered across the stone.

The final creature reached for a fallen soul-blade. Mei kicked the weapon into the darkness, drove her knee into its ribs, and buried her assassin's dagger beneath its jaw. It dissolved into ash.

Behind her, a buried skin-stealer crawled toward its axe. Mei stepped on its hand. Bone cracked. She left it there.

Her eyes went to the soul-stone. The emerald light vanished, then flared crimson.

TEAM BLAZE.

Mei's expression hardened. The monsters hadn't been guarding the vault—they were buying time and keeping Team Blaze separated.

She sprinted, silent on her feet. The corridor descended beneath the ruined city, water rushing over the floor. Broken emergency lights flickered beneath layers of dungeon growth.

An explosion shook the passage. Red fire flashed across the walls, followed by Joshua's voice echoing through the comms.

"GET BACK! SHOW, COVER THE FLANK!"

Mei rounded the final bend into a flooded crypt. Show was down on one knee, his shield sparking violently as he barely fended off a barrage of acidic strikes from a shadow-stalker. Nearby, Joshua was pinned against a rune-covered wall, his tactical vest scorched as three void-wraiths pressed in on him.

Mei crossed the room before they could react—pure assassin velocity.

Her dagger struck the first wraith's spine. She ripped it free, spun, and smashed her heel into the second wraith's knee before driving its skull into the stone.

The third wraith tightened its shadow-blade against Joshua's throat. "One more step."

Mei stopped, studying the reflection in the flooded floor. She didn't look the creature in the eyes; she looked for its flaw. The wraith's weight sat too far back. She kicked a loose bone across the water. The wraith's eye flicked toward the sound, and Mei moved—her blade knocking the shadow-steel free.

Joshua reacted instantly, driving a flaming elbow into the creature's ribs. Mei seized its throat and hurled it into the rune-wall, where it burned to ash in a single scream.

Over by the archway, Show slammed his tower shield forward with a deafening roar, crushing the remaining shadow-stalker beneath pure kinetic force. He exhaled a cloud of dust, wiping black blood from his visor. "Nice of you to join the party, Mei."

"You almost died," Mei said, her assassin mask cracking just enough to show concern.

"I noticed," Joshua rasped, wiping blood from his jaw.

"Just standard overtime," Show grunted, checking his shield's energy cell.

An iron gate slammed somewhere beneath them, followed by heavy, booming footsteps approaching from the lower vault. Mei's soul-stone pulsed emerald again.

Joshua looked toward the darkness. "You were tracking the Boss."

"Yes."

Show stepped up beside her, unholstering his heavy sidearm. "Then we finish it together."

Mei glanced at her squad. The wraiths hadn't been trying to kill them—they were using Team Blaze as bait to herd them all into one place.

Mei drew her second blade, balancing it effortlessly in her grip. The memory of Team Shadow's betrayal flashed in her mind—the burning sky, the ash, the helpless rage. Not again. She wouldn't let Team Blaze fall twice.

She stepped into the darkness ahead, slipping into a low strike stance. "Stay behind me."

Joshua smiled faintly, racking his slide. "Right behind you, Mei."

Show chuckled, locking his shield into formation. "Lead the way."

Ahead, something vast moved beneath the dungeon. Mei tightened her grip. The apocalypse had already begun, but this time, an elite hitwoman was leading the vanguard—and Team Blaze was going to survive it.