The cult moved first.
Chains of light snapped forward, dragging screaming shapes behind them like kites made of ghosts. The air went cold. The underworld chamber flickered like it was afraid.
Juvy clutched her head. "They're hurting them… the souls…"
The woman in the bone mask smiled wider. "Pain makes them obedient."
Maxruell stepped in front of Juvy. "Back up."
The shadows answered.
They surged forward like black water, slamming into the chains. Light and darkness screamed against each other. The chained souls wailed louder.
One cultist hurled a chain. It wrapped around Maxruell's arm.
Cold punched straight into his bones.
Visions flashed.
A grave.
A screaming pit.
A throne made of skulls.
He snarled and yanked.
The shadow swallowed the chain and dragged the cultist forward. The man hit the floor and sank into it like mud, leaving only bubbles of blackness behind.
Juvy raised her hands.
The souls in the chains glowed.
"Let them go…"
The chains cracked.
Light shattered into crystal. The trapped souls burst free, swirling around her like a storm of glass and whispers.
The cultists screamed.
Wind slammed them into the walls. Fire ran across the ceiling. Metal pipes ripped loose and twisted around bodies like cages.
Varkos shouted, "Holy hell—!"
Two cultists charged with soul-blades glowing white-hot. Maxruell met them.
His shadow grew teeth.
One blade hit the darkness and melted. The other man tried to run.
The floor opened.
He fell.
His scream echoed far too long.
The bone-masked woman stepped forward, clapping slowly.
"Beautiful. You really are Significants."
She lifted her hand.
The freed souls froze mid-air.
They turned toward Juvy.
And lunged.
Juvy screamed as the souls slammed into her chest, trying to crawl inside. Her skin glowed with fractured light. Blood ran from her ears.
"Juvy!" Maxruell roared.
He felt something snap inside him.
The crimson crystal flared.
The chamber darkened until only red and white remained.
Shadows poured upward, forming a massive hand that slammed into the woman and drove her into the floor, cracking concrete like glass.
She laughed even as she bled. "Yes… take me down with them…"
Juvy fell to her knees, gasping. The souls scattered, free again.
Maxruell knelt beside her. "You good?"
She shook, then nodded weakly. "They tried to live inside me…"
Varkos's people finished off the remaining cultists. Gunfire echoed, then stopped.
The chamber smelled like smoke and dead prayers.
The woman in the bone mask lay half-buried in rubble, ribs exposed, laughing softly.
"You can't kill the idea," she whispered. "Mother Cain will come."
Maxruell's shadow tightened around her throat.
"Good," he said. "I got a lot of anger left."
The woman's eyes rolled back as the darkness closed in.
Silence followed.
Real silence.
Juvy sat against the wall, hugging her knees. "Max… I felt them die. Every one of them."
He looked at his hands.
Another memory slipped.
He forgot their neighbor's face.
He didn't tell her.
Varkos wiped blood from his cheek. "Congratulations. You just declared war on a religion."
Juvy whispered, "They said we're sin."
Varkos laughed bitterly. "Everything powerful is."
He looked at Maxruell. "You feel it, don't you?"
"Feel what?"
"Like something's watching you from below."
Maxruell did feel it.
Like a throne waiting.
Juvy stood slowly. "We can't stay here forever."
Varkos nodded. "No. But tonight? You're under my roof."
He pointed to the tunnel. "We move deeper. Cult scouts are everywhere now."
As they walked, Juvy glanced back at the destroyed chamber.
"Max…"
"Yeah?"
"If we keep fighting like this… what happens to us?"
He didn't answer right away.
Shadows crawled along the walls beside him.
"I don't know," he said. "But I know what happens if we don't."
Behind them, the cult's blood soaked into the floor.
Above them, the city kept whispering their names.
And somewhere deep underground, something old shifted in its sleep.