CHAPTER 218 — THE SECOND THE WORLD WENT DARK
Darkness swallowed the city.
Not the ordinary darkness of a power outage. Not the temporary blackout people experienced during storms or infrastructure failures.
This was something deeper.
For one impossible second, every system connected to the continuity network stopped responding.
Every tower.
Every surveillance layer.
Every automated enforcement system.
Every synchronization channel.
Gone.
The city seemed to hold its breath.
And deep beneath the streets, inside the vast underground cathedral where the future of millions hung in the balance, Elena felt a silence so complete it frightened her more than the chaos that came before it.
The machine stood motionless.
The synchronization towers surrounding them had gone dark.
The glowing rivers beneath the transparent floor disappeared, leaving only black emptiness stretching beneath the chamber.
For the first time since entering the core, Elena could not hear the system.
