The tunnel swallowed Aria and Jarek in a curtain of darkness.
Metal groaned above them.Dust drifted like falling ash.Elias' weight pressed heavy across Aria's back, every breath he took too shallow, every twitch too violent.
Behind them, the chamber shook with impacts—Kellan's roars, the creature's shrill mimicry, bone cracking against steel.
Jarek stumbled after Aria, tears streaming down his face.
"S-Shouldn't we help him?! Kellan's going to die, Aria—he's—he's—"
Aria didn't look back.
She couldn't.
Her grip around Elias only tightened.
"If I turn around," she forced out, "we all die. That thing wants Elias more than anything else in this place."
"Then leave him!" Jarek shrieked hysterically."Elias is the reason everything is waking up! He's calling them!"
Aria stopped.
Cold fury rolled through her veins.
She turned her head just enough for Jarek to see her eyes in the faint emergency light.
"Say that again."
Jarek flinched, backing into the metal wall.
"I-I didn't mean—"
"Yes, you did," Aria said quietly."And I'm going to tell you something once."
Her voice lowered to a razor's edge.
"If you touch him… if you try to run and leave us… I will not hesitate. Do you understand me?"
Jarek's throat bobbed as he swallowed.
He nodded, shaking uncontrollably.
"Good."
Aria turned away and kept moving.
Elias gave a weak, broken exhale against her shoulder.
He was fading.
Not sleeping—slipping.
"Ward…" she whispered, "stay awake. Keep breathing for me."
No answer.
But then—
He whispered.
A soft, metallic note in that strange tongue again.
Aria hissed:
"Not here, Elias. Stop—please—stop."
The tunnel reacted instantly.
Pipes vibrated.Fog hissed through cracks.Symbols—forgotten, ancient—flickered faintly on rusted plates.
Layer 9 heard him.
And it answered.
A deep rumble crawled beneath their feet like a giant dragging itself through soil.
Jarek dropped to the ground.
"No, no, no—Aria, make him STOP! He's summoning things—he's—he's—"
"He is not summoning anything!" Aria snapped."This place is responding to him."
"Responding?" Jarek's voice cracked."It's waking up to KILL us!"
Aria opened her mouth to answer—
And froze.
The tunnel ahead split open.
Not physically.Not violently.
The floor simply dropped away from itself, like collapsing steel petals.
Revealing a lower chamber.
Dim green emergency lights buzzed in the darkness.
Dozens of metal pods lined the walls—tall, cylindrical, covered in dust and rust.
Jarek gasped.
"Oh gods… what is this place…?"
Aria stepped into the chamber with Elias on her back.
This wasn't just a forgotten maintenance layer.
It was an experiment hall.
Abandoned.
Sealed.
And never meant to be reopened.
Kellan's voice echoed faintly behind them—pain-filled, raw, struggling.
"Aria—RUN!"
Aria's heart clenched.
She moved faster.
The metal pods hissed as she passed, their sensors flickering awake for the first time in years.
Elias whispered again.
This time, the word was clearer.
Sharper.
And every pod in the room lit up in response.
Jarek screamed:
"HE'S OPENING THEM—!"
Aria slammed him against a wall.
"He is unconscious!" she shouted."He doesn't know what he's saying!"
Jarek was shaking so hard his teeth chattered.
"But the Descent knows!"
Aria didn't deny it.
Not now.
Not anymore.
She turned to Elias—his eyes closed, lips pale, veins glowing faintly beneath his skin.
"Ward… please… stop…"
But his voice spilled out again, this time in full, coherent phrases.Not nonsense.Not murmurs.
Words.
Perfectly formed.
Aria felt her stomach drop.
"…Kallan vor'thes ir…""…dos ra'thenn…""…open…"
The room answered.
Pods unsealed.
One by one.Vents sighed open.Air whooshed out like dying breaths.
Jarek lost it completely.
"No no no we're DEAD WE'RE DEAD—"
Aria grabbed his arm and dragged him toward a stairwell.
"MOVE!"
Behind them—
Shapes stepped out of the pods.
Humanoid.But not fully human.
Some were gaunt.Some too tall.Some skeletal with metal grafts for limbs.Eyes dim, hollow, clouded.
Failed experiments.
Forgotten soldiers.
Things that shouldn't have woken.
Aria slammed through the stairwell door and bolted down the steps, dragging Elias and forcing Jarek forward.
The creatures behind them stepped into the hallway.
And then—
They bowed.
Jarek froze mid-scream.
"…they're… bowing…?"
Aria turned.
The abominations were kneeling—not toward her.
Toward Elias.
Their foreheads pressed to the floor.Their bodies trembling with recognition.
Jarek whispered:
"…why… why are they doing that…?"
Aria stared at Elias' unconscious face.
She didn't know.
She didn't want to know.
But she whispered anyway:
"What… are you becoming…?"
Behind them, Kellan's roar echoed from the chamber above—cut off abruptly.
Jarek screamed his name.
Aria grabbed both Elias and Jarek and ran down the stairs until her feet hit the next level's floor.
And the tunnel door behind them slammed shut.
A heavy, metallic voice whispered through the darkness:
"Sovereign detected.""Initiating protocol."
Aria froze.
Jarek collapsed.
Elias—
Elias murmured one last line in the ancient tongue.
And the entire level lit up in response.