The city above was a grave.
From the tunnels beneath Ardamon, survivors crept like ghosts, slipping through darkness lit only by emergency lamps. The air was heavy with dust and the distant rumble of collapsing towers. Every few minutes, the ground trembled, as though the heartbeat of the Titan himself echoed through the stone.
Captain Kael Draven led the way, his rifle low, his jaw clenched. Behind him stumbled the wounded, the old, and the young. Dr. Elira Venn stayed close, clutching the crystal shard against her chest as if it were life itself.
They moved deeper into the metro tunnels, where rusting trains lay abandoned. This was where Ardamon's forgotten had always lived — smugglers, beggars, fugitives. Now it was where the last spark of resistance flickered.
In the dim glow of a cracked lantern, Kael stood before the ragged group.
> "The city's gone. If we stay above ground, we die. Down here, we fight on our terms. Rasan's not invincible — we'll find a way."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd — fear, disbelief, a faint ember of hope.
Elira stepped forward, lifting the shard. Its faint blue light pulsed like a heartbeat.
> "This is Titan-forged. A fragment of the same power that bound Rasan in the Abyss. If we can harness it, we can hurt him. Maybe even trap him again."
Some eyes widened. Others narrowed with doubt. One soldier spat.
> "We can't fight a god with scraps of crystal."
Elira's voice hardened.
> "Then you can run. But if he is not stopped, he will burn every city on this earth until nothing remains but ash and Titans."
Silence followed. Even in their fear, they knew she spoke truth.
For the first time in hours, Kael allowed himself a thin smile.
> "Then we fight."
---
But above them, Rasan moved.
He stood upon the ruins of Ardamon's central plaza, flames coiling at his feet. His gaze swept the devastation. His laughter rolled like thunder, yet his eyes burned with hunger.
> "Mortals always burrow into the dark when they fear the light. Do they think I do not see?"
He raised his hand, pressing it to the ground.
The stone trembled. Fire cracked through the streets, racing downward like rivers of molten blood.
Beneath, in the tunnels, the survivors gasped as walls split, the air filling with sulfur. The ground itself betrayed them.
Kael shouted, "MOVE!" as a wave of fire exploded through the metro, devouring train cars in an instant.
Through the inferno, a colossal shadow descended — Rasan's burning eyes piercing the dark.
> "There you are," he rumbled, his voice filling every soul with dread. "The first to defy me. The first to kneel… or burn."
And in that moment, the survivors realized: hiding was over.
The Titan had found them.
---