The crater air felt wrong.
Not just dead. Not just poisoned. It felt like the land itself was listening, counting steps, memorizing breathing patterns. The deeper they moved, the more the world started acting like a trap that had been waiting a long time.
Tara kept them moving in short bursts.
"Stay off the open road," she said. "We use cover. We do not camp in the crater zone."
Alaric checked the scanner every few minutes. "The readings keep spiking. Something down there is throwing interference."
Xin didn't ask questions. He just walked.
Rion stayed quiet too, but his hand never drifted far from the sword hilt.
Talla, the last surviving recruit, followed close, eyes darting everywhere like she expected the fog to grow teeth.
They passed a line of cracked Dive watchtowers. The symbols on them were scraped off, like someone had clawed them away.
Rion glanced at one tower. "That's not normal damage."
Tara didn't stop. "Nothing here is normal."
Scene: Far Away, A Different Monster
Hundreds of kilometers away, in a silent facility buried under concrete and metal, a man stood in a room lit by harsh white lights.
He looked human at a glance, but everything about him felt wrong. Like a lie wearing skin.
Zane "Supreme" Cordis.
His build was powerful and clean, but the air around him pressed heavy, like gravity leaned toward him. A faint symbol glowed under the skin near his chest, pulsing like a second heart. His eyes were calm. Too calm.
A Dive handler stood behind a glass wall, speaking into a mic.
"We picked up unknown movement near Crater Valley. Resistance group. Possibly carrying a bonded anomaly."
Zane didn't react to the words anomaly or resistance.
He reacted to the idea of movement.
New fear. New breath. New blood.
He tilted his head slightly, like he was tasting the air through the walls.
"I can hear them," he said.
The handler blinked. "That is not possible from this distance."
Zane smiled a little.
"You don't understand what I am."
The handler swallowed. "Orders are to contain. Do not engage if—"
Zane turned and looked at the glass.
The smile widened.
"I don't need orders."
Then he walked out.
Alarms did not stop him. Locks did not matter. The facility's steel doors bent when he touched them, not from effort, but like the metal wanted to get out of his way.
Outside, the night sky was thick with clouds.
Zane looked toward the horizon.
He closed his eyes for one second.
He felt them.
A group. A blade. A broken boy. A demon scent.
He licked his lips once.
"Hunting time."
Scene: Back in the Crater Zone
The team stopped at the edge of a collapsed residential block overlooking the next drop into the valley. The crater pit itself was still far, but the land was sloping toward it like a slow funnel.
Tara raised a hand. "We rest five minutes. No fires. No loud voices."
Alaric sat down against a cracked wall. His hands shook a bit as he pulled out the drive again.
"This data keeps repeating the same marker," he said. "Level Seven access under the crater. The Dive put something there and kept it hidden even from their own soldiers."
Talla whispered, "Like a weapon."
"Or a mistake," Alaric replied.
Xin stared down into the fog.
Rion spoke quietly, almost to himself. "Kurai is restless."
Tara's eyes snapped to him. "Meaning what."
Rion exhaled. "Meaning something strong is moving toward us. Not from the crater. From outside."
Xin finally looked at him. "Dive?"
Rion shook his head. "Different."
Tara stood. "We move. Now."
They started down the slope.
They had not gone fifty meters when the air changed again.
It got heavier.
Not like poison.
Like pressure.
Alaric's scanner screeched once and died. The screen went black.
Tara swore. "Everyone stop."
Xin's body tensed, instincts sharp.
Rion slowly unsheathed his sword.
A shadow crossed the fog, high above them, fast enough to bend the air. There was no engine sound. No drone buzz.
Just a rush, like the sky itself flinched.
Talla pointed upward with shaking fingers. "Something is flying."
Xin squinted. "I don't see—"
A figure dropped out of the fog and landed far ahead on a broken highway slab, like a statue that chose to become real.
Tall. Still. Calm.
Even at a distance, the presence felt like a fist closing around the throat of the world.
Tara whispered, "Who the hell is that."
The figure's eyes glowed faintly as he turned his head toward them.
Even though he was far away, it felt like he was standing right behind them, whispering into their ears.
Then the wind carried his voice, clear and casual.
"I heard there were survivors who still believed in hope."
He took a step forward. The concrete cracked under his boot.
"That's cute."
Xin's fists tightened.
Rion's grip on the blade got harder.
Tara stepped slightly in front of Alaric without thinking, like instinct forced her body to protect the team.
The figure smiled wider.
"And I'm starving."
Scene: Something Else Watches
Far away from the crater, in a place where reality felt thin, a presence stirred.
It did not step into the world.
Not yet.
But it noticed Zane moving.
It noticed Kurai's scent too.
A soft voice, not spoken aloud, passed through the dark like a thought.
He is going to ruin everything.
Then silence again.
Scene: The First Move
Zane raised one hand, palm open.
The air in front of him shimmered faintly.
Tara hissed, "Do not rush him. Xin, listen to me. You do not charge first."
Xin didn't answer.
His jaw clenched.
His eyes stayed locked on Zane.
Zane's smile did not fade.
He tilted his head like he was amused by their fear.
Then he vanished.
Not walked. Not ran.
Vanished.
The next instant, the air behind Xin snapped.
Rion moved first.
Steel flashed up.
A blade met something invisible with a sharp crack.
The impact pushed Rion back two steps, boots scraping rock.
Xin spun around.
Zane was right there.
Close enough to touch.
His eyes were blue-white and cold, like a dead star.
He looked at Rion's sword, then looked at Xin.
"Interesting," Zane said.
He lifted his hand again.
"Let's see how long you last."