The smoke refused to clear, drifting through the stone corridor in pale, bitter ribbons that reeked of burnt spirits.
Ash crunched beneath Mei’s boots as five figures emerged from the haze.
Only five.
Her breathing slowed as raw instinct took the wheel. Distance. Formation. Weapons. Threat level. The assessment flashed through her mind in milliseconds, and the grisly scene supplied the rest. Ghost corpses littered the floor, oozing black sludge into the shattered stone. Scorched walls sizzled with residual spiritual energy, crackling like dying lightning.
Mei recognized that horde. In her previous life, it had slaughtered Shadow Squad—eight dead, three crippled. A total bloodbath.
These five hadn’t just beaten it. They’d erased it.
Then her eyes caught the black-and-gold uniforms pinned with purple flames. Her heart hit her ribs. Blaze. Even long after the apocalypse, that crest meant impossible victories and terrifying survival.
At their center stood Joshua Chen.
Mei froze. Tall, relaxed, resting a rifle against his shoulder without a single drop of sweat or tension—Joshua looked dangerously ordinary. Yet the entire squad gravitated around him like a gravitational pull.
"Got company," someone called out.
Another squinted at her vest. "Shadow Squad? Ethan's crew?"
A woman groaned. "Please tell me he isn’t still whining about us."
"Mentioned us nine times in his last interview."
"Nine? You counted?"
The squad shared a laugh, but Joshua stayed silent. His eyes locked onto Mei. In a single second, she felt completely picked apart—her weapon, her stance, the weight on her heels. Then he snapped his gaze away.
"Leave her. She's unawakened."
The debate died instantly. Mei swallowed a bitter laugh. If only you knew. Her fingers twitched at her hip; the assassin in her had already mapped out seventeen distinct ways to kill everyone in the room. Joshua included.
The thought made her stomach turn, because she knew how Joshua’s story ended.
Humanity had wept when Joshua Chen fell. But they screamed when he returned. Months after his death, a Ghost King had worn his face and torn the world apart.
And right now, he was standing three feet away. Alive.
One sentence could change history.
She almost opened her mouth. Almost. Then she bit her tongue. Questions would follow, and questions meant exposure. Mei turned her back and vanished down the hall.
Twenty minutes deeper, the corridor split. Cold, dead air rushed from two silent tunnels.
Mei skidded to a halt. Left was safe. Right was total slaughter.
Joshua stepped up, surveyed the darkness, and pointed right without missing a beat.
"Wait," Mei blurted.
Blaze froze in unison—lethal discipline. Joshua looked back over his shoulder.
"If you're wrong," Mei warned softly, "you won't survive the mistake."
Joshua gave her a tiny, razor-sharp smile. "Thanks for the heads-up. But Blaze didn't make history by taking the easy way out."
His crew groaned in chorus, tossing idle bets back and forth as Joshua strode straight into the death trap. The rest filed right behind him. Mei watched them go, suddenly understanding why Blaze’s fall had broken humanity’s spirit. Trust like that was unheard of.
She turned left. The safe path. The smart choice.
One step. Two steps. Three.
"VICE-CAPTAIN!"
A scream tore through the cavern, instantly followed by the deafening BOOM of shattering stone. Hot air and dust blew back down the shaft.
BOOM.
Another blast, then a raw, agonizing scream.
Mei’s blood ran cold. Impossible. There wasn't a second path in her memories. The future wasn't just changing—it was shattering.
Automatic fire thundered through the walls. Metal ground against metal. Ghosts roared.
"LEFT SIDE!" someone shrieked. "THEY'RE COMING FROM THE LEFT!"
Walk away, her inner assassin hissed. Run. Protect yourself. Stay hidden.
Rain flooded her mind. A burning sky. Blood dripping off her gloves. A crackling comm line.
"We've been compromised," Kieran's voice echoed in her head. "Retreat. That's an order."
She had run back then. She’d checked the math—93% chance of personal survival—and left her commander to die. Mission complete. Acceptable losses. The words still tasted like poison.
"Try not to die!" Joshua’s calm voice barked through the noise.
"THAT'S NOT A PLAN!" his teammate yelled back.
Despite the panic, a dark laugh escaped Mei's lips. They sounded just like Kieran's unit. Just like the ghosts she’d abandoned.
"Damn it."
She spun on her heel and bolted into the dark.
Mei rounded the corner and nearly hit a wall of absolute horror.
The chamber was a nightmare of broken reality. A jagged rift split the earth, spewing thick black mist and defying gravity as massive boulders drifted lazily into the air. The atmosphere felt thick as oil, heavy with the stench of rot, iron, and ancient malice.
And hovering in the chaos was a nightmare she had never seen in any timeline.
It was a vast, writhing mass of oily black flesh, bristling with dozens of skeletal arms that whipped axes, chains, and rusted blades through the air.
The monstrosity snapped its gaze directly onto her.
Her breath hitched. Her pulse slammed in her ears—THUMP, THUMP, THUMP—as her vision tunneled. Panic ripped through her carefully built composure. This creature wasn't in the reports. It wasn't in history. It wasn't supposed to exist.
The future is gone.
Around her, the fight devolved into madness. Gunfire flashed, stone shattered, and teammates fell. In the middle of the storm, Joshua dived forward, caught a bleeding comrade, threw him into cover, and stepped straight into the monster's path.
Forward. Always forward.
For a blinding instant, Joshua’s silhouette overlapped with Kieran's on that doomed rooftop years ago.
Something inside Mei snapped. The fear, the calculating logic, the paralyzing need for absolute certainty—it all burned away. She drew a full, cold breath. Her fingers locked tight around the leather wrap of her hilt, grounding her in the present.
Forget the future. Forget the ghosts.
The monster roared and lunged, shattering the floor. Blaze unleashed a wall of lead.
Mei drew her stee
l, dropped her shoulder, and charged straight into the abyss.