Kiran finally emerged from the underground, finding himself in the sprawling, grimy underbelly of the city. The black sand desert, a recent nightmare, was now behind him. But the city offered its own brand of dread. He could feel it immediately: the intensified presence of Neo-Eclipse. Their influence was a suffocating blanket, tighter than ever before. Patrols, more frequent and better equipped, moved through the streets like hungry sharks. And he recognized them – the chilling, featureless helmets, the crimson A symbols. The Greek units were here. They had followed him.
He moved through the crowded back alleys, a ghost amidst the normal city life, trying to blend in, trying to become invisible. Every shadow seemed to hold a lurking threat. His body screamed for rest, but the constant thrumming of the seed kept him moving, kept him alert. He felt its hunger now, its demand for release, a growing pressure that was both power and a terrifying burden.
Meanwhile, Elena and Lyra moved with urgent purpose through a different part of the same vast city, a labyrinth of old buildings and forgotten shortcuts known only to the Weavers. Lyra pointed out the subtle signs of Neo-Eclipse's patrols, their hidden surveillance. "They are everywhere," Lyra murmured, her eyes constantly scanning. "They search for the book, and for him." Elena clutched the Eclipse Codex, feeling its strange, comforting weight, its single glowing word a constant reminder of Liam. She also felt it—a faint, desperate pulse, a surge of defiant energy that wasn't her own. Kiran. He was close. He was still fighting.
For a fleeting moment, separated by miles of concrete and steel, Kiran and Elena both felt it: a profound, almost tangible connection, a spark of shared defiance against the overwhelming odds. It was a silent promise, carried on the invisible currents of the Veil, a thread of hope that bound them even in their separate battles. The city had become a battleground, a shadowed maze where they both moved, hunted and hunting, desperately seeking a way to unravel the terrifying pattern that was the Great Eclipse.