The ground did not simply collapse—it gave way with terrifying precision, as though the structure beneath Dorian had been designed to fail at the exact second they arrived. Steel and concrete tore apart in a violent ripple, the surface splitting open as if the earth itself had been hollowed out long before this moment. Dust surged upward in thick waves, swallowing visibility as the sound of breaking foundation rolled across the rail sector like a controlled detonation.
For a fraction of a second, everything froze, caught between shock and instinct. Then chaos followed.
"Fall back!" one of the officers shouted, but the command struggled to cut through the roar of collapsing debris as the edges of the broken ground continued to crack outward in jagged lines.
Sebastian did not step back.
He moved forward.
"Sebastian!" Vivian called sharply, but she was already moving after him, her instincts overriding hesitation as she saw him reach the edge of the collapse.
