Chapter 300
We’re just starting to make our way back toward the entrance when I hear it.
Soft at first. Like the shifting of gravel in the distance. A faint skitter, a click, almost too quiet to catch. But every hair on the back of my neck stands on end.
Then it multiplies.
Not dozens—hundreds.
The sound builds, echoing weirdly through the hollow stone around us, like a thousand skeletal fingers tapping against the walls.
Axel freezes beside me, his entire body going rigid. “Tell me that’s just rocks settling.”
I don't answer.
Because it isn’t.
The shadows in the tunnel ahead warp and bend, distorting like heat rising off pavement. Movement—fast and wrong. I narrow my eyes.
Another ripple. Then another.
And then they pour out.
Not like soldiers. Like a tide.
The Swarm.
The water distorts around their bodies as they flood into the corridor, jagged limbs snapping, elongated bodies writhing like deep-sea nightmares. Their eyes glow a sickly green, and their segmented tails lash the water, propelling them forward with horrible, jerky grace.
They aren’t mindless.
They move together, hunting as one.
Axel swears under his breath, yanking his blade free with a metallic hiss. “You take left, I take right?”
I pull the orb from my satchel, cranking its light up to maximum in one smooth, panicked motion. “I hate that plan,” I mutter. “But sure.”
The first wave slams toward us, and I thrust the orb out in front of me. A surge of light pulses outward, sending the nearest creatures flinching back. The blast buys us two, maybe three seconds.
Long enough to dive into the fight.
Axel meets them head-on, roaring like a storm. His blade flashes through the water, severing limbs, splitting carapaces, sending bodies spiraling backward. He moves with raw, brutal efficiency—every strike purposeful.
I dart to the left, staying light on my feet, slamming a blast of orb-light into another pack that tries to flank us. It blinds them momentarily, just long enough for me to dodge a set of wicked claws that swipe inches from my face.
“These things look like Elder Kin,” I shout, driving my boot hard into the midsection of a creature that lunges for me. Its armor crunches under the impact, but it barely flinches.
“They feel like Elder Kin!” I add, heart hammering against my ribs.
Axel grunts, swinging his blade in a vicious arc that shears through another one. “You don’t say!”
I duck under a set of snapping jaws, rolling to the side and slamming the orb’s energy into another cluster. They falter for a heartbeat, twitching as if short-circuited—but it’s not enough.
We’re holding the line.
But barely.
They’re endless. A living avalanche of teeth and claws and rage. For every one we knock down, three more surge forward, climbing over their fallen without a second glance.
I press my back to Axel’s. “We need another way. Fast.”
“Suggestions welcome!” he snaps, elbowing a creature aside before spearing it through the chest.
My mind races. Options flicker through my head and burn out just as fast. Too many of them. Too little time.
And then—
The song.
Delphi’s melody. The one that broke the hivemind’s control. The one that made the Elder Kin falter.
It’s crazy. It’s stupid.
It’s the only shot we have.
I suck in a ragged breath and force myself to sing.
The note is rough at first, shaky and unsure, but I find the frequency, the vibration that hums through my bones and blood. I hum low, then climb higher, layering sound on sound until the melody starts to shimmer in the water around us.
The reaction is instant.
The Swarm freezes mid-attack, twitching like puppets whose strings have been abruptly cut. Their limbs stutter in the water. Eyes glaze. For the first time, the relentless, mindless hunger dims.
Axel glances back at me, wide-eyed. “Whatever you’re doing—don’t stop!”
I nod, heart pounding, and push harder.
The second tone—I try to find it, the higher counter-frequency that weaves with the first, binding it into the complex web of sound Delphi used.
My voice strains. Cracks.
No, no, no—
I try again, but it’s like trying to balance on a knife’s edge while a hurricane rages around me. I can’t keep the vibration steady. It warbles, falters, splinters.
My throat burns.
And the melody collapses.
The Swarm shriek.
It’s a horrible, piercing sound that drills straight into my skull.
And then they charge.
Faster. Angrier. A black tide of thrashing limbs and gnashing jaws, more frenzied than before.
I stumble back, the air ripped from my lungs. One slams into me, knocking me hard against the wall. I gasp as my vision swims, stars sparking behind my eyes.
Through the haze, I see Axel fighting like a madman, blade flashing, blood clouding the water around him. But it’s not enough.
They’re too many.
They’re going to bury us.
I brace myself, clutching the orb tight to my chest, ready for the end.
When the world explodes.
A pulse of power tears through the corridor, a shockwave so fierce it sends bodies flying and the very stone walls shuddering.
Through the swirling chaos, a figure barrels into the Swarm like a force of nature.
Wake.
He moves with terrifying, fluid grace. His twin blades slice through the water like extensions of his will, hacking the creatures down with brutal efficiency. Every blow is lethal. Every movement calculated and merciless.
His eyes blaze like twin stars—bright, furious, alive.
Not the reserved, careful Wake I know. This is the Wake of legend. The one who tore through Ao’s arena. The one who survived Leviathan’s scars.
The one who was born to fight.
The Swarm recoils under the onslaught, thrown into chaos by the sudden counterattack. For the first time, they falter. For the first time, they fear.
Axel breaks free with a roar, rejoining the fray at Wake’s side. Blood mats his hair, but his grin is feral.
I scramble to my feet, clutching the orb tighter, channeling every scrap of energy into the light, into a burning pulse that drives the nearest attackers back.
Together, we just might turn the tide.
But this fight isn’t over yet.
Not by a long shot.
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