Marcus reacted instantly.
"Move."
Nobody hesitated.
The entire Iron Fang squad immediately sprinted deeper into the facility toward the direction Noah indicated.
The corridors descended lower and lower.
Red emergency lights flashed overhead.
The energy fluctuations in the air grew denser with every step.
Somewhere far below them, something enormous pulsed again.
THOOM.
The walls vibrated.
Adrian twitched violently in Damian's arms.
Damian could feel heat pouring off him now.
Not normal body heat.
Something deeper.
Something unstable.
The lower they went, the stronger the pull became.
Even the air itself felt wrong—
thick with drifting energy currents, all flowing downward toward a single point beneath the facility.
Then—
they burst through a massive alloy security door.
Everyone stopped cold.
Before them stretched an enormous underground crystal vault.
Crystal cores towered in piles like mountains.
Red.
Blue.
Purple.
Gray.
Countless colors glimmered across the vast underground chamber like a buried galaxy beneath the earth.
But now—
those lights were dying.
A single crystal suddenly cracked apart with a sharp snap.
The energy inside drained away instantly, turning the entire core dull gray before crumbling into ash-like fragments.
Then another.
And another.
Crack.
Crack-crack.
Crack-crack-crack.
More and more crystal cores began losing their light.
Gray crystal residue littered the floor in growing piles.
And all the energy inside the vault—
every last trace of it—
was being pulled downward into something far deeper beneath them.
Caleb's eyes widened instantly.
"...Are you kidding me?"
Ethan reacted first.
"Grab everything you can carry!"
He ripped the last usable strip from his ruined shirt as he ran, scooping crystal cores into it before knotting the cloth around them.
Beside him, Caleb kicked off his only remaining sock.
It had once been white.
A very long time ago.
Ethan shot it a glance.
"That thing's a biological weapon."
Caleb stuffed the filthy sock until it bulged.
"No one has ever complained about the smell of crystal cores."
Marcus was already running with Noah on his back.
Caleb caught him in stride, yanked open the front of his leather vest and stuffed crystal cores inside by the handful.
"Enough."
"No."
Another handful.
"There."
Without slowing, Ethan peeled away toward Damian.
Damian's arms were completely occupied by Adrian's swollen body.
"Don't move."
"I can't."
Ethan dumped crystal cores onto Adrian's chest.
They rolled naturally into the gap between Adrian's bloated body and Damian's locked arms.
Damian tightened his grip.
Not one fell.
A deep pulse rolled through the vault.
The nearest rows of crystal cores flickered—
then went dark.
Color drained away.
Another pulse followed.
An entire section turned gray.
Noah forced one eye open.
"...Who knows."
The floor trembled again.
Far below, something was draining every remaining trace of energy from the mountain.
Crystal cores dimmed by the thousands.
Some crumbled into ash before anyone could reach them.
"Damn!"
Caleb lunged for another handful.
Half of them disintegrated between his fingers.
WARNING.
ENERGY RESERVES CRITICAL.
STRUCTURAL FAILURE IMMINENT.
The chamber lurched violently.
A crack tore across the floor.
Storage racks tipped into the widening abyss.
Adrian's eyes opened.
He stared toward the half-open blast door.
"...There."
Beyond it, several ancient monitors still flickered.
Marcus didn't hesitate.
"Run!"
Nobody reached for another crystal core.
They sprinted toward the blast door with whatever fortune they had managed to seize.
Behind them, waves of light continued dying across the underground vault—
like stars disappearing one after another in a dying galaxy.