CHAPTER 169: The Crucible of Chaos - Part VI

CHAPTER 169: The Crucible of Chaos - Part VI

Hours had passed since the last movement of the barriers, and the city felt like a trap slowly closing. Enid advanced with silent determination, her eyes scanning every broken window, every alley. Behind her, Vanessa dragged her feet, her ragged breathing breaking the oppressive silence.

"Are we there yet?" Vanessa's voice was a whine, childish and persistent. "How much further? Are we close this time?"

Enid didn't turn around. Her gaze remained fixed on the horizon, where the silhouette of the financial district rose like a fortress.

"I don't know," she replied, her voice a thread of worn patience. "But stopping isn't an option. The sooner we get there, the sooner this ends."

"But everything hurts," insisted Vanessa, rubbing her arm. "And I'm hungry. Can't we look for more food? Something other than cold cans."

The constant buzzing was like a drill in the back of Enid's neck. Every complaint, every show of weakness, was a reminder of the burden she represented. And a risk. A risk she couldn't afford. "She knows too much," Enid thought, the idea cold and sharp as a knife. "If she reaches Fénix and lets something slip about... my condition, everything goes to hell. All the control, all the plan."

A deep, guttural roar emerged from the bowels of a collapsed building to their right. It wasn't human, nor animal. It was the sound of nightmare made flesh. Both froze.

From among the rubble, the creature rose. It was larger than Enid remembered, its body an amalgamation of pale muscle and open scars. From its hunched back emerged not just the steel spider legs, but now grotesque, membranous appendages, embryonic wings that unfolded with a wet crackle. A smell of rot and chemicals flooded the air.

"What... what is that?" whispered Vanessa, her voice trembling, frozen by terror.

The city's speakers crackled before Enid could respond.

"Attention, participants. The containment barrier will contract 220 meters. You have 54 seconds to evacuate the sector. Time remaining: 54... 53..."

Fear galvanized their bodies. The beast, with a clumsy but powerful wingbeat, lifted off the ground, its multiple eyes fixing on them.

"Run!" Enid yelled, pushing Vanessa to react.

The sprint was an explosion of pure instinct. They dodged burning cars, jumped over cracks in the asphalt. The creature flew above them, its monstrous shadow passing over like an omen. The roar of the barrier engines joined that of the beast, an electric and deadly hum approaching from behind.

"Enid, I can't!" screamed Vanessa, her strength failing.

"Yes, you can! Clench your teeth and run!"

"...20... 19... 18..."

The safety line glowed fifty meters away. The barrier, a curtain of blinding, deadly blue energy, advanced at their backs, devouring the world in its path. The heat was intense.

"...10... 9..."

The creature dove. Its claws closed not around Enid, but around Vanessa's torso, wrenching her from the ground with a rending shriek.

"ENID! HELP ME! PLEASE!"

Enid reached the edge of the safe zone. She spun on her heels. There was Vanessa, writhing in the air, her fingers stretched toward her, her eyes wide with panic. The barrier, only meters away, illuminated her tear-streaked face.

And in that instant, everything became clear to Enid. It wasn't a choice. It was a necessity. A pruning. Vanessa was a weak link, a repository of a secret that couldn't see the light. If she lived, everything got complicated. If she lived, control vanished.

With a coldness that chilled her own blood, Enid did not extend her hand. Instead, with a quick and brutal movement, she pushed the air in front of her, as if with that symbolic gesture she was rejecting any possibility of salvation.

Vanessa's scream was cut short when the wall of blue energy enveloped her, along with the creature. There was no thunderous noise, just a brief hiss and a flash of white light that made Enid close her eyes. When she opened them, there was nothing left. Only the still air and the diminishing hum of the barrier, now stabilized.

Enid stood motionless, watching the emptiness where, a second before, there had been a life. There was no remorse. No pain. Only a deep, glacial sense of relief. She had lifted a weight off her shoulders. One less problem. A risk eliminated.

"There's no turning back now," she murmured to herself, her voice serene and empty. "Now, the only thing that matters is moving forward."

She adjusted her backpack, ran a hand through her sweaty hair, and resumed her march. Her steps were firm, decisive. She didn't look back. There was nothing behind worth remembering. Only the future, and the price she was willing to pay for it.

There, in the heart of the ruin, stood Viktor's cathedral of pain.

The skyscraper rose like a fang of glass and steel, the tallest, most imposing, most defiant structure. Its glass facades reflected the twilight, but not with the calm of a mirror, rather with the distortion of an all-seeing eye. A heavy atmosphere, charged with electricity and an unnatural stillness, enveloped its base. It was the epicenter, the nucleus from which all the chaos sprang.

Fénix and Lucian stopped at the edge of the desolate plaza preceding the building. Their faces, hardened by battle and loss, lifted to contemplate the final door.

"There," said Fénix, his voice low, but it cut the silence like a knife. "At the top of that tomb of vanity. That's where this ends."

Lucian adjusted the rifle slung over his shoulder, his knuckles whitening on the cold metal.

"There's no going back. Only through."

They were about to cross the open plaza, a potential killing field, when a movement on their flank made them turn. A figure emerged from the rubble of a looted store.

"Fénix! Lucian!"

It was Marcus. He was running toward them, his clothes torn and covered in dust, but with a fierce determination in his eyes. He arrived panting, stopping before them.