The corridor buckled. Stone exploded beneath Mei's boots.
Black cracks ripped through reality, spilling freezing darkness that warped the light and twisted the stone walls. Something writhed within the fractures—a howl vibrating straight through her bones.
The Blaze members staggered, but Joshua held his ground beside the Core Fragment. His display flickered, numbers plunging: 86%... 83%... 80%...
"You need to go," Joshua called out, the ceiling cracking above him. "Collapse radius is expanding. This isn't your fight."
He was right. An assassin survived by knowing when to walk away.
Mei turned—and then Joshua smiled.
Her stomach dropped. The dungeon vanished.
Blood and smoke. A burning fortress. Joshua, armor shattered and bleeding out, catching her shoulder. Smiling. "Run, Mei." The ceiling collapsing. Fire swallowing him whole.
Mei snapped back. Joshua stood right in front of her, still smiling.
She knew that smile. And she knew what followed it: death.
81%.
The fracture widened. Mei forced her vision past the distortion, scanning the spatial tear. There. Three hidden pulses. Three spatial anchors.
The Core wasn't collapsing; something was tearing it open. Destroy the anchors, close the rift, save Joshua.
"Wait!" She pointed. "There. And there."
Joshua flashed his scanner, sweeping blue light across the void. Markers pinged into existence. "Lower left. Mid-right."
Mei jabbed her finger upward. "Ceiling. Third one."
Joshua stared. "Three stabilization anchors... How did you find those?"
"I looked."
"That's not an answer."
"It's all you're getting."
A tight grin threatened his face before he locked in. "We destroy them."
"And if she's wrong?" a Hunter barked.
Joshua shrugged. "Then we die."
"Reassuring," someone muttered.
The first anchor shifted, black tendrils whipping out straight for Joshua’s throat.
Mei vanished.
Eclipse Step. Reality blurred as she reappeared beside him, plunging her blade straight through the spatial tear. The void shrieked as the first anchor shattered.
One.
Joshua blinked. "You really are an assassin."
Mei didn't answer. She whipped her second blade across the corridor, striking dead center.
Crack. The second anchor shattered.
The rift violently contracted, air pressure spiking so hard her ears popped. But the third anchor was moving fast—too fast. Deep within the dark tear, something massive, ancient, and starving stirred.
For the first time, Joshua looked worried. "Mei."
"I see it."
The final anchor flared directly behind him. Mei drew her second steel.
"Stay behind me."
Joshua snorted. "That's usually my line."
"Not today."
She vanished into the shadow as the corridor caved in, the rift screaming—and the thing on the other side screaming back.