Location: Seoul Undergrid Access Tunnels – 7:22 AM
They descended in silence, wrapped in smoke, blood, and the memory of a brother's voice.
Behind them, the Ghost Laundry base collapsed into flames—its bones groaning as Sublevel B devoured itself, sealing shut the last remnants of the trap Keisuke had laid. The emergency lift was gone, crushed in the implosion. No way back. Only forward.
Steel corridors narrowed around them, slick with condensation and time. The further they went, the less it felt like a tunnel and more like a throat—wet, pulsing, ancient. Old metro signs half-erased by black scorch marks hung like warnings. One flickered above their heads: "Restricted Zone – Experimental Sector 4A. Unauthorized Entry is a Termination Offense."
Ryoji limped, each breath cut short by the cracked ribs beneath his torn jacket. Miura, silent and watchful, kept her sidearm drawn, sweeping corners with sharp precision. Aiko stayed between them, the Seal beneath her skin pulsing slowly—like a second heartbeat waiting to rise.
Keisuke's voice cracked through Aiko's comm bead, slightly distorted. "You've got twelve minutes before the system resets. Once it does, I lose all visual. You'll be ghosts."
"Define ghost," Ryoji muttered, spitting blood. "We've been living off the grid for weeks."
"No, not off-the-grid. Below it. This tunnel wasn't on the city maps for a reason. It was built for the first ASHGLASS blackout. No one goes in. No one gets out. Ever."
Aiko looked around. "It doesn't feel dead."
"It's not," Keisuke said, and then under his breath: "God help us all."
As they moved deeper, the power began to falter.
Lights buzzed overhead, one by one shorting out until only emergency strobes lit the way—faint orange halos in the dark. Water dripped from exposed pipes, echoing louder than footsteps.
Then the tunnel forked.
They paused.
"Left or right?" Miura asked, gun aimed steady.
"Right leads into a drainage culvert," Keisuke said. "Dead end. Left goes deeper."
"Deeper into what?" Ryoji asked.
Another pause.
"Containment pens."
Ryoji grimaced. "Of course it does."
They went left.
The air changed. Thicker. Sour.
Then, as if in answer, something shifted around them. A rumble from beneath. The steel underfoot trembled once—like a pulse.
Aiko froze. Her hand drifted to the wall, brushed metal—and the Seal responded.
It flared to life.
A ghostly symbol glowed beneath the rust, identical to the one projected in Keisuke's base. Fractal lines. A recursive spiral. The mark of the Forgotten Root.
Her chest tightened. She could feel it this time—not just the pull of memory, but something older. Watching her.
She reached out.
"Aiko, don't—" Ryoji warned.
Too late.
Her palm touched the wall.
The entire corridor shook.
Something deep within the undergrid woke up.
The symbol flashed once, then spread outward like a ripple—across every surface, every cable, every wall.
From the darkness ahead came a distant howl—inhuman, wet, ragged like torn speakers playing a scream.
"What the hell was that?!" Miura snapped, spinning around.
Keisuke's voice was frantic now. "That wasn't Division Zero. That was something else. Something buried."
Then—without warning—Aiko heard a voice inside her head.
Not through comms. Not auditory.
Inside.
"Vessel Zero… returns."
She stumbled, gasping. "It knows me."
Ryoji raised his pistol. "We're not alone anymore."
From the far end of the tunnel, the shadows thickened.
Something stepped into view.
Pale flesh. Blackened wires. Limbs that bent wrong. A stitched face with no eyes, only a mouth sewn shut but still whispering.
Keisuke cursed. "Forsaken. Failed vessels. They built this place to bury them."
The creature charged.
No warning. No hesitation.
Just violence.
Miura opened fire—three tight shots to the chest. The Forsaken barely flinched. Ryoji dropped low, sweeping at the legs with his knife, but the creature pivoted mid-air, landing on all fours like a spider before lunging again.
Aiko ducked as claws tore overhead. Sparks flew. Ryoji grunted, rolling to intercept. His blades met flesh—but the Forsaken barely slowed, forcing him back with raw strength.
Its voice hissed from a mouth that shouldn't move.
"The Seal must sleep… again…"
It lunged again—straight at Aiko.
But this time, she raised her hand.
The Seal flared. Brilliant. White.
The creature staggered. Screamed.
And then disintegrated, not into blood—but into ash. Gone.
Silence.
Only the sound of breathing.
Miura lowered her gun. "...She killed it. With the Seal alone."
Ryoji exhaled. "We're getting answers. Now."
Keisuke, quiet for a moment, finally spoke. "You're not just carrying the Seal. You're the original blueprint. The First Vessel. Vessel Zero. The others were copies. You're the source."
Aiko swallowed.
"I didn't ask to be."
Ryoji nodded. "No one ever does."
The corridor ahead flickered again.
Whispers danced on the walls.
And further down… movement.
Not one.
Not a dozen.
Hundreds.
Keisuke's voice returned—rushed, urgent. "Run. Now. That Seal just triggered the entire undergrid. They know she's here. And they're coming."
Ryoji grabbed Aiko's arm. "Move!"
They ran into the dark.
The war hadn't started in the cities.
It had started here—in the tunnels no one remembered.
And it was waking up.
To be continued in Chapter 76...