The Sunken City had changed.
Lee remembered it as a place of stillness inverted buildings frozen in time, amber lights that never flickered, streets that held the echoes of lives interrupted. Now it was alive. Organic. The walls pulsed with a slow, rhythmic beat like a heartbeat. The floors were covered in a carpet of dark moss that writhed when you stepped on it. The air smelled of blood and honey and something else something that made Lee's teeth ache.
"The city is becoming part of Amaranth," Ren said, his voice low. "The Sleeper is absorbing it. Merging with it. Soon there won't be a difference between the city and the creature."
"How do we stop that?" Kira asked.
"We don't. Not yet. First, we need to find the heart of the city the place where Amaranth's consciousness is strongest. That's where we'll find answers."
They walked through streets that twisted and turned in impossible ways. Buildings that had once been frozen in time now moved, shifting positions when no one was looking. Statues that had been decorative now watched them with blank, hungry eyes.
"The scouts," Vesper said suddenly, pointing ahead.
Three bodies lay in the middle of a plaza the missing scouts. Their faces were frozen in expressions of terror, their mouths open in silent screams. But there were no wounds. No blood. Just... emptiness.
"The Sleeper took their souls," Inyocha said. "Like it took the Pilgrim's."
"Can it do that? Just... reach out and take?"
"It can now. It's stronger than before. Much stronger."
Lee knelt beside the bodies, closing their eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I should have come sooner."
"You couldn't have saved them," Kira said. "Don't blame yourself."
"Someone has to."
They continued deeper into the city.