The darkness vomited a horde.

Red eyes lit up in the tunnels. One by one. Then by dozens.

The mutant rats emerged from the underground mist, black fur plastered against their ribs, mouths open, claws scraping against the wet stone. Their smell came before them like a wave of rotten flesh and wet fur.

Son took a step back.

"Chief, we can leave whenever you want."

Harry did not look away.

"Idiot. You want them to follow us all the way to the surface ?"

The cries drew closer.

"Griih."

"Griiih."

"Griiiih."

The cavern vibrated beneath their paws.

Son drew his runic pistol. His Astra converged toward the chamber. The engravings on the weapon lit up with a nervous blue glow, pulsing to the rhythm of his breathing.

"They’re moving fast."

Son swallowed.

"Too fast. And there are dozens of them."

Harry placed both hands on the ground.

The rock was damp. Mud, rare but present. Enough.

"Then we stop them here. No way they’re climbing up to snack on civilians."

Son glanced at him.

"Plan ?"

"I need twenty seconds."

"Ten ?"

"Yes just twenty ."

Harry closed his eyes. Son clenched his teeth.

"Ok, chief. Ten seconds. Not one more."

He emptied almost his entire magazine into the first wave.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

The runic bullets shot through the air, leaving azure lines behind them. The projectiles struck the first rats in the eyes, knees, and joints. Flesh burst. Bones cracked. Bodies rolled across the stone.

But the horde did not slow down. A rat sprang from the side.

Too close.

Son pulled the trigger.

Click.

Empty magazine.

"Shit."

No time to reload.

The creature leapt, mouth open.

Son struck it full in the jaw with the butt of his pistol. The impact traveled up to his elbow. The mutant’s teeth snapped shut a few centimeters from his face.

"Gggrriih !"

A clawed paw swept through the air.

Son pivoted.

The claws scraped against his coat, tearing the fabric without touching his skin. The rat’s tail immediately whipped toward his ribs.

"Once."

Son drew his dagger.

The blade cut the tail mid-motion.

"Not twice."

The rat screamed. A second mutant leapt over it. Two knives left Son’s hand. They struck the eye sockets. Clean.

The body crashed to the ground in a spasm.

"Griiih !"

To the left, a rat slipped around Son and headed straight for Harry.

Harry was not moving. His hands remained pressed against the ground. His Nodes were working.

Son saw it and felt his stomach tighten.

"Where do you think you’re going ?"

He threw two daggers. The blades sank into the thick fur. Too shallow.

"No choice."

Son grabbed his pistol by the barrel and charged.

He slid under the first claw strike, drove his dagger beneath the mutant’s ribs, then pulled upward. The blade opened the belly. Black blood. Hot vapor. Acidic smell.

The rat collapsed, convulsing.

The one with the severed tail crawled back toward him.

"Griiih..."

Son raised his leg.

"You, shut up."

His heel crushed the mutant’s mouth against the stone, then he raised his eyes.

The real wave was coming.

Twenty rats. Maybe more.

Packed inside the tunnel, shoving one another, claws against rock, saliva on their fangs.

Son felt his throat tighten.

"Chief."

No answer.

The rats accelerated.

"Chief, I can’t hold anymore."

The first line leapt.

Harry opened his eyes.

"You held well. Now fall back."

Son obeyed without thinking.

Harry’s Astra changed. Not only in intensity. In nature.

A dirty yellow tint passed through the veins beneath his skin. The pressure descended from his chest to his arms, then sank into the ground. The cavern trembled. The mud hidden beneath the rock answered like a beast awakened.

Harry clenched his teeth.

"Sixth Node."

The ground in front of them liquefied.

"Swamp."

The stone lost its rigidity.

Mud rose through the cracks, mixed with underground water, and spread across the entire width of the tunnel. In one second, the solid passage became a deep, thick, living pool.

The rats plunged into it without understanding.

The first sank to its belly.

The second disappeared almost to its neck.

The third tried to leap, but the mud climbed along its legs like black hands.

Howls filled the cavern.

"Griih !"

"Griiiih !"

"Griiiiiih !"

The more they struggled, the deeper they sank.

The mud swallowed their weight, their claws, their rage. It slipped into open mouths, stuck to nostrils, dragged bodies downward with terrifying patience.

Harry was trembling.

Son saw his arms contract. His Nodes had to be burning.

A small rat climbed onto another’s back, then jumped from corpse to corpse to cross the swamp.

Son threw three knives. One in the eye. One in the throat. One in the chest.

The mutant fell back into the mud.

"Where did you think you were going, you little shit ?"

The last cry drowned.

Then the tunnel became almost silent again.

Almost.

Under the surface, bodies were still faintly moving.

Harry released his power. The effect remained for a few seconds. Then the mud began to lose its pressure.

He straightened with difficulty. His face was pale. His breathing short.

"Huff..."

Son approached.

"That was the longest twenty seconds of my life since the birth of my daughter"

"Chief ?"

"Surface."

Harry wiped the blood running from his nose.

"Now. We request reinforcements."

"Yes, chief."

They climbed back up.

Back on the surface, Harry leaned against the body of the HMAvan. London air felt clean.

He searched inside his jacket, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and trapped one between his lips. His fingers barely trembled. Too little for anyone else to notice.

Son noticed anyway.

Harry offered him the pack.

"That was a close one. Want one ?"

Son shook his head.

"No, chief. I’m trying to quit. I have to think about my health."

Harry lit his cigarette. The first drag scraped his throat with stupid comfort.

"You’re funny. We could die tomorrow because of a Hole, and you want to protect your lungs."

"I don’t plan on dying anytime soon."

"No one plans to."

Harry exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"Terminal."

Son handed him the device.

Harry activated the link.

"This is Harry. Intermediate-rank Hole confirmed in sector 4. Guardian identified : rat-man hybrid, estimated six Nodes. Numerous secondary creatures. Immediate request for Superior Ascendant support. Minimum seven Nodes. Send eight if available."

A crackle.

Then a female voice answered.

"Headquarters here. It’s your lucky day, Harry. Stormshield is free and available. Remain on standby. They’re coming."

Harry remained silent for one second.

Then a tired smile pulled at his mouth.

"Stormshield..."

Son reacted.

"Seriously ? They’re sending Stormshield ?"

He put the cigarette back between his lips.

"Yeah. That should do it."

...

A few kilometers away, Noah knew nothing of what was happening around the Hole.

He was in his laboratory, alone, sleeves rolled up, a fork placed in front of him on the metal table.

The familiar smell of chemicals barely soothed him. His mind was elsewhere.

In the alley. On the mutant rat’s flank. The area touched by his palm.

The flesh had not merely torn. It had collapsed. Disassembled. The edges of the wound were dry, brittle, almost powdery.

'There’s something bothering me.'

Noah placed two fingers on the fork.

He did not want to destroy. Not this time. He wanted to understand.

Decomposition was not a simple annihilation ability. Too crude. Too incomplete. The rat had not died at the first contact because the effect had lacked depth, duration, and perhaps precision.

So the problem was not only power. It was scale.

He closed his eyes. The Node answered silently.

Astra descended into his hand. Noah held back the flow, like holding his breath. Too little, nothing would happen. Too much, the matter would disintegrate entirely.

He touched the fork.

Clack.

The metal vibrated. Then cracked. In one second, the object reduced itself to gray dust.

Noah opened his eyes.

"No."

He collected the residue with a spatula.

"It’s too brutal."

He took another fork.

Same material. Same mass. Same contact surface.

This time, he slowed the passage of Astra. He modified the internal frequency of the flow, imitating the pattern of the Node without letting it open completely. The pressure inside his skull became finer. More painful too.

The fork dulled. Then its surface transformed into bluish powder, almost crystalline. It did not collapse entirely.

Noah leaned closer.

"There."

His heart accelerated. He placed a sample under a lens. The structure was not the same. Not complete atomic decomposition.

The molecular chains had been broken selectively. Complex assemblies came apart, but the fundamental matter remained more stable.

Noah felt a smile appear.

"By modulating the power, intensity, and frequency..."

He wrote quickly.

"...I can reduce the scale of Decomposition."

His hand trembled slightly.

"Instead of crude atomic decomposition, I obtain molecular decomposition."

The implications unfolded in his mind.

Chemistry. Alchemy. Extraction. Indirect synthesis. Targeted tissue alteration. Compound processing.

Maybe even...

His gaze slid toward the plant near the window.

A small green plant, an unlikely survivor of his apartment, placed there months earlier.

Noah remained still.

Then he took a fresh sheet of notes.

"Then maybe I can attempt that experiment."