The city's heartbeat pounded in Kiran's ears. Every step was a careful calculation, a constant, low-level tension. He could feel it now, the way a person feels the pressure drop before a storm. The air was heavy, charged not just with static, but with the cold, silent hum of the Alpha units' presence. He saw them everywhere, their dark, sleek forms a stain on the urban landscape, converging slowly, deliberately, on a single point: an old, derelict clock tower that stood against the hazy sky. He had to be close. He could feel Elena's thoughts now, a faint, resonant melody of determination and fear that cut through the noise of his own fatigue.
Miles away, moving through a series of subterranean tunnels, Elena and Lyra also felt the pull. The Eclipse Codex in Elena's hands was no longer just a book; it was a compass, its pages humming, its glowing word, Liam, pulsing with a steady rhythm that guided them. Lyra, her young face set with grim resolve, moved with an urgency that betrayed the terror in her eyes. "They're here," she whispered, her voice tight. "The threads... they are all leading to this place. The city is holding its breath."
They emerged from the tunnels, finding themselves in a forgotten plaza at the base of the clock tower. The air was thick, charged with a strange, otherworldly energy that made the hairs on Elena's arms stand on end. The clock tower itself was a skeletal silhouette, its face long since shattered, its gears silent. But they weren't the only ones there. In the shadows, at the far edges of the plaza, stood the Alpha units, their crimson A symbols glinting. They were still, patient, waiting for their prey to walk into the trap. Elena's heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic, cold rhythm of fear and anticipation. Kiran was here. But so were the hunters.