The drone didn't beep. It didn't hum. It just clicked—a dry, mechanical sound that signaled the end of our five-second grace period.
"Down!" I tackled Hana behind the base of a rusted statue just as the micro-missiles streaked through the air.
The explosion wasn't deafening, but it was precise. The shockwave shattered the stone above our heads, raining grit and granite dust onto my neck. I didn't wait for the smoke to clear. I knew the Union's tech; that drone wasn't just a weapon, it was a relay. If it stayed in the air, a strike team would be on our coordinates in minutes.
"Hana, I need a distraction. Anything bright," I hissed, scanning the ground.
My hands felt light—too light. Without the Shadow-Slaying Blade, my reach was halved. I reached into my belt and pulled out a jagged piece of rebar I'd snatched from the bridge wreckage. It was cold, heavy, and lacked any stat bonuses, but it would have to do.
"I... I can try," Hana rasped. She stood and threw a jagged shard of ice toward the drone.
It was a clumsy move, but it worked. The drone's red lens whirled to track the projectile. In that split second of redirected focus, I moved.
I didn't use a skill. I used the raw, explosive strength of my Level 22 legs. I launched myself off the pedestal, my fingers catching the rim of a low-hanging street sign, swinging my body upward. I came down on top of the sphere like a predator.
I jammed the rebar into the drone's lens housing. Sparks showered my arms as the metal shrieked against the internal circuitry.
[Warning: Critical Damage to 'Union Observer-6'.]
The drone wobbled, its thrusters whining as it tried to compensate for my weight. I twisted the rebar, feeling the internal gears grind to a halt. With a final heave, I slammed the sphere into the concrete. It shattered into a mess of wires and silver plating.
I stood over the wreck, breathing hard. My knuckles were bleeding again, but the pain felt distant.
"Is it over?" Hana asked, stepping out from behind the statue.
"No. That drone sent our signature back to their hub," I said, looking at the blinking red light deep inside the wreckage. "They know we're across the river. They know we're headed for the North Sector."
I looked at the bag of medicine. Every minute we spent fighting the Union was a minute the people in the bunker didn't have. The System-Rot wouldn't wait for us to finish our petty human wars.
"We can't take the main roads," I decided. "The Union has the satellites. If we stay in the open, they'll drop a heavy-hitter on us before we hit the city limits."
"Then where?"
I looked at a manhole cover a few feet away, partially obscured by a pile of trash. "The sub-sectors. The tunnels the System didn't bother to map because they were too 'low-level' for the Migration."
We pried the cover open and descended into the dark. The sewers didn't smell like the hospital—they smelled of damp earth and old copper. It was a different kind of quiet down here.
We walked for nearly an hour, the only sound the steady drip of water and the splashing of our boots. Hana stayed close, her hand occasionally brushing against my arm as if to make sure I was still there.
"Han Chen," she said softly, her voice echoing in the tunnel. "What happened back there... in the fog? You look the same, but you feel... colder."
I stopped. I looked at the white scar on my wrist.
"The System gives us titles and ribbons to make us feel like we're part of something," I said. "It makes us feel like we're becoming powerful. But it's a lie. The power it gives us is rented. I decided I didn't want to pay the rent anymore."
I turned to her. In the dim light of the tunnel, my eyes reflected the faint, violet glow of the shadow still swirling in my core.
"I'm not colder, Hana. I'm just awake."
Suddenly, the water at our feet stopped moving. The dripping sound from the ceiling silenced.
[Notice: You have entered a 'Null-Zone'.][Status: All Active Skills are disabled.]
My heart skipped. A Null-Zone shouldn't exist this far out from the City Center. There was only one reason for a zone like this to appear in a sewer.
"Don't move," a voice called out from the darkness ahead.
A figure emerged from the shadows. He wasn't wearing Union armor. He was wearing rags—dark, heavy cloth wrapped around his body like a mummy. In his hand, he held a lantern that burned with a strange, flickering green flame.
"You have the mark of the Unshackled," the man said, his voice like grinding stones. He raised the lantern, the green light washing over my face. "But you walk like a man who is still carrying the weight of the crown."
I shifted into a fighting stance, even though I knew my skills wouldn't trigger. "Who are you?"
The man smiled, revealing teeth that had been filed into points.
"I am the keeper of the Sunless Forge," he said. "And if you want to survive the night, you're going to have to prove that the shadow in your chest is yours, and not just another gift from the ghosts."
He turned and began to walk deeper into the dark.
"Follow me, Sovereign. Or stay here and wait for the Union to find your bones. It makes no difference to the fire."
I looked at Hana. She looked terrified, but she nodded once. We followed the green light into the deep.
As the light of the lantern flickered, the walls of the sewer began to change. The brick turned into black iron, and the sound of hammers hitting an anvil began to ring out from the darkness below. We weren't in the sewers anymore. We were entering the one place the System couldn't see.