The hours dragged like chains.
Every tick of Elara's burning clock cut another piece of her strength away.
[Time Remaining: 10 Hours : 42 Minutes]
Her breathing came in short bursts as she pressed her back against a ruined wall. The cracks in the ground had widened so much that streets were now broken rivers of stone. From beneath, the heartbeat of something monstrous pulsed louder—steady, patient, unhurried.
It wasn't awake yet. But the city could feel it.
---
Aelric crouched a few feet away, his corrupted arm clawing idly at the ground as if it had a mind of its own. Smoke hissed from his veins, and every so often his jaw clenched as though he was biting down on a scream.
Elara watched him, her voice soft. "It's getting worse, isn't it?"
He didn't look at her. His eyes were on the cracks, on the faint golden tendrils of light writhing inside.
"Corruption doesn't care about 'worse' or 'better.' It just eats until there's nothing left."
Her lips trembled. "Then why… why are you still—"
"Because I told you." He turned, grin sharp, eyes burning. "I don't lose to myself. Ever."
---
> [System Notice: Entity stirring. Tendril Activity increasing.]
The words etched themselves into the air, cold and merciless.
Almost on cue, one of the glowing tendrils shot upward from the nearest crack. It wasn't solid—more like molten light woven with smoke—but when it brushed against a crumbling tower, the stone screamed before melting away like wax.
Elara clutched her chest, frozen. "It didn't even… touch it."
"Contact's not needed," Aelric muttered. "That's pure existence burn. The god doesn't fight. It erases."
---
The tendril shifted, searching. It wasn't fast. It didn't need to be. Like a blind hand groping in the dark, it slid along the broken street, passing within inches of them.
Elara held her breath so tightly her chest ached. The heat of it brushed past, her timer flaring in protest.
[10 Hours : 41 Minutes]
She almost whimpered. It's draining me just by being near.
Aelric moved before she could panic. He grabbed a shard of his broken pipe and hurled it down the street. The clatter echoed sharp and loud.
The tendril paused. Then turned.
It slid away, following the sound, fading back into the crack.
Elara sagged, knees weak. "That… worked?"
Aelric grinned. "See? Gods aren't perfect. They're just bigger liars."
---
They moved carefully, sticking close to walls, avoiding every place where light seeped upward. The city was shifting—streets collapsing into holes, buildings sliding into the cracks, bridges folding in on themselves.
Everywhere, timers on corpses still glowed faintly, counting down even though their owners were long gone. Some flickered at zero. Some had years left.
Elara stared at one—an old woman's skeleton, timer still burning with [12 Years : 3 Days].
She whispered, "Why would it take someone early? She had years…"
Aelric's smile vanished. "Because the system doesn't care. You think it's about fairness? No. It's about feeding the thing under us. More clocks, more time, more fuel."
He spat on the ground. "Every death just winds the gears tighter."
---
Hours passed like this. Hide. Move. Distract the tendrils. Hide again.
Elara's timer drained slowly, each second like a knife.
[Time Remaining: 09 Hours : 12 Minutes]
Her body ached. Her hands shook so badly she almost dropped the lantern twice. She wanted to scream, to cry, to ask why. But Aelric kept moving, never once letting his pace falter.
It was madness. He was half-rotting, barely breathing right, and yet he moved with the certainty of someone who had already died and come back wrong.
Finally, Elara whispered the question she'd been holding for hours.
"Aelric… why do you fight so hard? Even when everything is broken… even when you're—"
He stopped. The grin returned, but his eyes weren't mocking. They were tired.
"Because if I stop, I'll remember I should've died years ago. And once I remember… maybe I finally will."
Elara's throat tightened. She wanted to say Don't. She wanted to say I need you. But the words refused to come.
---
> [Warning: Secondary Condition active.]
Offer sacrifice to stabilize the entity.
Choices available: Self | Other | Object of Value
The message flared suddenly, freezing both of them.
Elara's breath hitched. "Sacrifice…?"
Aelric read it, then chuckled darkly.
"Look at that. The system finally grew polite. It's asking instead of taking."
She shook her head violently. "No. No, we're not choosing. There's nothing to—"
He stepped closer. His corrupted hand rose, brushing her cheek, smoke trailing against her skin.
"You know it'll keep asking. Again. Again. Until one of us says yes."
Tears welled in her eyes. "Then I'll say it. I'll give myself. My time's almost—"
"Don't." His voice cracked sharp as steel. "Don't you dare. If this world wants a sacrifice, it can choke on me first."
---
The cracks deepened suddenly. A wave of tendrils erupted at once, dozens this time, sweeping across the city like a tide.
Aelric grabbed her wrist and yanked. "Move!"
They ran through collapsing streets, lantern swinging wildly, tendrils smashing down behind them. Every brush of heat scorched the timers on their wrists.
[09 Hours : 08 Minutes]
Elara screamed as one tendril whipped down in front of her, cutting off the path. Aelric didn't hesitate—he slammed his corrupted arm into it.
The tendril hissed, shrieking like metal in a furnace. His flesh charred instantly, veins bursting black, but the tendril recoiled, withdrawing.
Elara cried, "Your arm—!"
He grinned through clenched teeth, staggering. "Already ruined. May as well make it useful."
---
They collapsed in the ruins of an old cathedral, walls cracked but still standing. The stained-glass windows glowed faintly from the god's light beneath, painting the floor with fractured colors.
Elara curled against the wall, sobbing quietly.
"Why us, Aelric? Out of everyone… why us?"
For once, he didn't grin. He sat beside her, corrupted hand twitching, chest heaving. His eyes softened—just barely.
"Because we're still here."
---
The silence stretched. The heartbeat beneath the earth grew louder, stronger. Hours still remained, but the city was no longer theirs.
Aelric leaned back against the wall, eyes burning into the shattered sky.
"Elara."
She looked at him through tears.
He grinned again, bloody and tired. "When this ends… if we end… you'll still have beaten them."
She whispered, voice breaking. "How?"
"By spitting in their face till the last second."
---
> [Final Trial Ongoing.]
Time Remaining: 08 Hours : 59 Minutes
The god stirred again, the cathedral floor cracking open, light flooding upward.
The longest night in history had only just begun.