The gates groaned shut behind us, sealing with a finality that felt like a tombstone. The sound echoed through the silence, reverberating off broken buildings and rusted metal, leaving us entombed in the heart of the dead zone.
The quarantine zone was a city trapped in perpetual suffering. Cracked pavement spiderwebbed beneath our tires, fractured by time and tremors. Rusted cars lay abandoned and skeletal, half-swallowed by glowing moss that pulsed faintly with the residue of rift energy — like the land itself hadn't stopped bleeding. The air wasn't thick with smoke or rot. It was worse: thick with stillness. Heavy. Intentional.
Every building was a ruin. Windows shattered inward. Steel warped like it had melted, cooled, then wept again. Graffiti covered the walls in overlapping layers of prayers, warnings, and madness. And at the heart of it all, the skyscraper rose — once a monument to ambition, now a monument to ruin. Its upper floors were torn away, leaving a jagged crown stitched together by threads of light and shadow. The structure pulsed with a rhythm not its own — the demon's throne, webbed and waiting, beating like a diseased heart.
Civilians stood along the sidewalks in rigid formation. Not milling. Not moaning. Just watching. Silent. Eyes wide and glassy, heads tilted just slightly in the same unnatural angle — as if caught mid-hypnosis. Each was bound in fine, glowing cords at their necks, wrists, and ankles — puppet strings, alive and coiled, shimmering faintly as if aware of our presence.
Xae's fingers tensed around the rope-kunai at his waist. For once, even he looked unsettled. His normally impassive eyes were narrowed, sweeping the rooftops with the sharpened instinct of a predator who realizes — too late — he's stepped into a trap.
The Gravehowl rolled forward slowly, engines humming low, tires whispering across debris and bone. Inside, no one spoke. Hundreds of civilians lined the street on either side, unmoving. Watching.
"Sir… what do we do?" Mattethis broke the silence first, his voice low but steady.
The Black Omen commander didn't hesitate. "We proceed. Your priority is to locate Professor Neil and bring him back alive." His hand drifted to his blade. "I'll deal with the demon."
Stillness stretched long and thin — like the air itself was holding its breath.
Then Meredith's voice cracked through. "Guys… enhance your vision."
We did. One by one, our eyes lit up with resonance. The shimmer of truth peeled away the illusion — and that's when we saw them.
Threads. Hundreds. Thousands.
Fine, glowing strands extended from every civilian, curling around limbs and necks like leash and collar. All of them pulled upward, taut and deliberate, converging at a single point in the sky — the ruined skyscraper, now revealed to be the locus of the web. A living structure, pulsing with sentient light.
The Gravehowl came to a slow stop. The driver waited. Xae stepped out without a word and began moving toward the tower, threads parting like grass in his wake.
Neo stepped forward, voice clear.
"Meredith, Daniel — head to the research facility. Find Neil. Bring him back to the Gravehowl. Malakai, you're with me. We locate the rift and seal it."
He pulled radios from a side compartment, handing one to each of the twins, then passed one to Forn.
"Forn, you're overwatch. Eyes open, stay with the driver. If you have a vision, relay it — immediately."
He turned to Mattethis and handed him the last radio.
"You'll follow Xae. Stay hidden. Observe. Don't let him see you — I have a feeling his pride will be hurt. He should be fine he's a prime resonant after all"
Mattethis nodded, forcing a smile. "Don't worry. I'll be invisible."
But his eyes didn't smile. There was something distant in them.
As we drove deeper into the zone to drop the twins, the silence grew more oppressive. Until suddenly — Neo tapped the roof of the vehicle.
"Stop here. I want to test something."
The Gravehowl halted.
Neo stepped out and approached one of the civilians. The woman didn't react. Just stared through him.
He drew his blade and slashed downward — the steel passed clean through the glowing thread around her wrist. It flickered, vanished — and reformed instantly.
Neo frowned.
He coated the blade in resonance, eyes narrowing, and struck again. This time, the thread snapped with a spark. But within seconds, it re-knitted, shimmering brighter than before.
"Hm…"
He stepped back, sheathing his blade.
"We can't sever their connection. Once they're enthralled… it's permanent."
The others stared at the civilians now with new eyes — not just as victims, but as living traps. Weapons. Warnings.
Neo turned away, voice grim.
"This changes everything."