The night air hit like a knife. Cold, sharp, almost sterile compared to the suffocating marrow below. Lin staggered as he climbed out of the fissured stairwell, his boots scraping cracked concrete. His chest heaved with ragged breaths, every inhale burning as though his lungs had been dipped in acid. The chains clinked faintly as they dragged behind him, leaving glowing red gouges across the ground.
Min-joon was the first to pull himself fully onto the surface, coughing hard, gripping Lin's arm to steady both of them. Keller came next, shoving the collapsed door off his back, face dripping with sweat and grime. Hwan, of course, emerged last, brushing invisible dust from his sleeve as if they hadn't just clawed their way out of the city's bleeding bones.
But Seoul wasn't the same city they'd left.
