In the alcaltarillas everything is calmer.

Korrin walked in the shadows, his clothes torn, still shaking off the sight of his transformed arm. His breathing was ragged, his heart pounding as if it wanted to flee from his chest... and suddenly, it stopped.

A sharp, invisible pain shot through the center of her chest. Not physical, not from the body... it was something else. Something that chilled her blood and made her fall to her knees for an instant, gasping.

Kaito: ¿Korrin?

Kaito asked from behind, still carrying Yuki, who could barely walk.

But she did not respond. She brought her hand to the necklace, which flickered with a trembling light. As if she were crying.

Her eyes filled with tears without explanation. The pain was not coming from her arm, nor from the wounds. It was something else. A distant cry. A wordless farewell. As if someone very important had just disappeared... as if a warm presence had been ripped from her existence.

As if his world, already collapsed, now lost its last anchor point.

Veyra, in front, held a digital map projected on her forearm. He was walking fast, without looking back, but he heard the stumble.

Veyra: Are you okay?

Korrin forced himself to nod. He said nothing. He just stood up slowly, wiping his face with his dirty sleeve.

Korrin: Where are we going?

Korrin asked, trying not to cry anymore.

Veyra: Where your father told me to take them.

Veyra replied in a dry tone, without pausing.

Korrin blinked. The words stabbed into her like a second pang. She wanted to ask more, to scream even, but her voice wouldn't come out. The necklace was still glowing, intermittent. As if it, too, were in mourning.

Veyra noticed the silence stretching behind her.

Veyra: This is no time for explanations. Just keep walking... He knew this could happen...

Korrin clenched his fists. Her body trembled, but not from fear. Something inside her was beginning to harden. To darken.

A spark lit in the midst of collapse. Not of hope... but of resistance.

The world underground was hotter than anyone would expect. It was not the natural heat of the depths, but a lingering residue of the inferno burning overhead. The sewers vibrated with each new detonation on the surface; the echo of destruction seeped through the grates like a heavy, steady, toxic sigh.

Korrin walked amidst the gloom, his left arm covered in a shade of black that glowed faintly with green lines, reminding him that he was no longer as he once was. His breathing was ragged. His chest heaved. The necklace around his neck sparked every so often, as if it shared his exhaustion.

Then, Veyra stopped. He looked at his device.

A notification. Flashing. Urgent.

He read the message with wide eyes. The words were simple. Dry.

"Takeoff code lost. Elias: 00:00."

Veyra slowly lowered her arm. He said nothing. But something in her shoulders sank.

They continued walking until, at the end of the corridor, a faint light slipped through the metal bars. The exit. The promise that maybe, just maybe, they would survive another day.

They ran.

But something else was running behind them.

From the gloom, a monstrous figure emerged, a being of colossal size, with elongated limbs and grooved skin like rotting roots. It was fast, faster than something so grotesque should be. And they knew it. They felt it before they saw it.

The blow was swift. Veyra barely had time to turn around. The claw grazed her abdomen and threw her against the wall. The blow was brutal, enough to knock her off her feet, but not fatal.

The creature advanced. Kaito stepped back with Yuki still in his arms, but stumbled and fell to the ground. The creature turned toward them, its multiple eyes flashing hungrily, and began to approach, its footsteps shaking the stagnant water with each step.

Korrin, trembling, grabbed her one remaining shoe and threw it with all her might. The blow hit the monster's torso, which stopped dead in its tracks and turned its head toward her.

The being's eyes sharpened.

Korrin: Here! Look at me!

Korrin shouted, his voice breaking with despair.

The monster roared, annoyed by the interruption, and prepared to lunge at her.

But before he could move, a figure rose from the mud: Veyra.

Limping, bleeding, but standing.

Veyra: I told them to run!

It muttered angrily, leapt onto the monster's back and, with almost impossible force, drove the frequency device into the back of its neck. The creature shrieked, staggering violently as waves of high-pitched sound reverberated throughout the tunnel.

The monster shook. It hit walls, bounced off pipes, trying to rip it off.

Veyra didn't let go.

A claw tore her side. The pain made her scream, but she did not fall. She clung on with gritted teeth and bloody hands.

Korrin took a step toward her, but Kaito grabbed her arm.

Kaito: No... If you go... you won't come back.

Veyra, as the monster staggered, pulled a small energy capsule from her pocket. Her hand trembled, but her eyes were clear. Fixed.

For a second, his mind wandered back. To a desk full of blueprints. To an unfamiliar white-haired girl running around the lab with a torn stuffed animal. To Elias' laughter. To conversations about stars, about possible futures. About promises.

And above all... Korrin

Veyra: so .... I will do this for you...

Veyra gave the children one last smile before activating the capsule.

A muffled explosion erupted against the concrete. Fire, sound and pressure collapsed part of the tunnel, cracking the floor. An abyss opened up beneath the monster.

 The being roared angrily, struggling to stand up. But the concrete gave way, splitting like wet paper. And finally, it fell.

He fell with a shriek that echoed deep into the darkness, dragged down to depths that neither light nor reason could reach.

The children were thrown against the wall. They fell through the rubble, dazed but alive.

When the smoke cleared, only the smoking crater remained. Veyra was gone.

Korrin crawled through the wreckage, hands raw, face unhinged.

Korrin: he could not say anything else, he felt his throat cutting, but the tears quickly became evident, the only thing he could hear before the sound of the environment consumed him was: Veyra...

Kaito put a hand on his shoulder. He said nothing. It was no time for words.

The exit was a few meters away. The light was still waiting for them.

Behind... there was only darkness. And a sacrifice impossible to forget.