They woke to screams.
Muffled at first.
Then louder.
Then real.
Li Wei was on his feet in seconds, blade drawn. Chen Yu grinned as he stretched, cracking his neck.
"Cultists screaming," he yawned. "Either someone's being baptized in lava… or something went wrong."
Rui was already at the door, palm against the wood, listening.
Footsteps. Rushed. Disorganized.
Then—a howl.
Not human. Not infected.
Something worse.
They pushed open the door to chaos.
Flames danced along the temple's walls, torches thrown aside in panic. A trail of blood led down the stairs.
Then came Eli's voice — screaming, no longer composed:
"Contain it! The False Ember must not reach the altar!"
A crashing sound. Bone breaking. Stone cracking.
They ran.
In the central courtyard, where the pyre had burned the day before, the crowd had scattered. Dozens of bodies lay shredded, limbs bent the wrong way, faces torn.
And in the center of it all — the creature.
It had once been human. Maybe one of the infected prisoners. But now… it was mutating in real time.
Its flesh pulsed with embers. Veins bulged, glowing like molten iron. One side of its face melted, while the other cracked open to reveal jagged bone.
It looked at Rui.
And bowed.
She didn't move.
Didn't flinch.
The air between them sizzled. The creature's skin hissed like hot oil.
Li Wei stepped forward. "Rui?"
She raised a hand.
"I know this one," she whispered. "It's… Ghost Batch."
Chen Yu squinted. "Which number?"
Rui didn't blink. "Zero."
Li Wei's blood chilled. "The original?"
The creature growled, but not in anger. It was waiting.
Suddenly, flames erupted from above.
Eli descended the stairs, wreathed in fire, his blind eyes bleeding ash. Behind him marched a group of fanatics — weapons drawn, faces painted with soot and symbols.
He pointed at Rui.
"She is the Seed of Infection. This is her kin. Her presence has awakened it. It must be purged!"
The zealots charged.
Chen Yu sighed. "And here I thought they'd invite us to brunch."
He pulled a shard from his coat — one of the dark blades scavenged from Hollow Ridge — and threw it like a dart. It pierced the throat of the first attacker.
Li Wei moved in silence, blades flashing, cutting through limbs and bone with practiced ease. These weren't fighters. They were believers.
But belief didn't stop you from bleeding.
Rui stood unmoving.
The mutated creature stepped between her and Eli's men — protecting her.
As Chen Yu danced and laughed and sliced his way through a screaming cultist who called him "Demon-Jester," Rui finally spoke.
"To fight the fire… I need to embrace the shadow."
She reached into her coat and pulled out something hidden — a shard of blood-crystal from the Vault. The same crystal embedded in her neck.
It glowed.
So did her eyes.
Eli shrieked.
The fire around him began to twist violently. It wasn't natural flame anymore — it bent toward Rui.
Chen Yu stared at her, half-laughing, half-afraid. "Are you about to blow this place up?"
Rui didn't answer.
She stepped forward.
The creature — Ghost Batch Zero — followed.
Eli backed away.
"You're the end of the world," he whispered.
Rui shook her head.
"I'm the middle. The world ended already."