I woke up to thunder.

Actual thunder.

Which was weird because the weather forecast had promised clear skies for the next week.

Natalia stirred against my side, her hand tightening against my chest. The Cryo-Lich Ring pulsed once, responding to something I couldn’t see.

Maki, still in cat form, lifted her head and hissed at the window.

"That’s not weather," I said.

"No shit," Natalia muttered. She sat up, purple hair falling around her shoulders in a tangled mess. "That’s an Aspect. High rank. Very high."

The thunder rolled again.

Closer this time.

My door burst open.

Braxton stood there in sweatpants and nothing else, his scarred torso on full display. He held his phone up.

"Get dressed. Now. VHC just issued a priority summons for you, Kuzmina, and Vance. Transport arrives in twenty."

"What happened?"

"Gate Break. Downtown. Three blocks from Central Station."

My stomach dropped.

"Rank?"

"They’re saying C-Rank minimum. Possibly A."

Natalia was already moving, pulling on her combat suit with practiced speed that suggested she’d been expecting something like this.

I grabbed my gear from the closet.

The tactical suit. The reinforced boots. The bat.

"What about the others?" Natalia asked.

"Standby. If it escalates, everyone deploys." Braxton’s expression was grim. "The Sentinels are already en route. So are the Vipers and Phantoms. This is all-hands."

"Fuck."

"Yeah."

He left.

I looked at Maki, who’d transformed back into her human form and was stretching like this was all perfectly normal.

"Stay here. Do not leave this room."

"But Master—"

"Not negotiable. If something happens to me, you protect the others. Understood?"

Her playful expression vanished.

Something ancient flickered behind those hazel eyes.

"Yes, Master."

I grabbed Natalia’s hand and we ran.

The transport was already waiting when we hit the front steps.

Black and sleek, VHC logos on the sides. Military grade.

Celeste stood beside it with Noah, both of them in full gear.

Celeste’s silver hair was pulled back tight. Her face carried that familiar composed mask, but her eyes betrayed everything.

Fear. Worry. Exhaustion.

"How bad?" I asked.

"Three confirmed casualties already," Noah said. "Civilians. The perimeter’s expanding every five minutes."

We climbed into the transport.

The door sealed with a pneumatic hiss.

The interior was all business. Bench seats. Weapon racks. Medical supplies strapped to the walls.

A holographic display flickered to life in the center, showing a live feed of downtown New Vein.

The Gate had torn itself open right in the middle of Commerce Plaza.

Fifteen feet tall. Ten feet wide. Pulsing with sickly red light.

And things were coming through.

Big things.

Dark things with too many limbs.

"Spawn class?" I asked.

"Unknown," the driver said over the intercom. "Initial reports said insectoid. Updated reports are saying chimeric. Latest update says they don’t match any known classifications."

Great.

My favorite kind of surprise.

The transport accelerated, weaving through early morning traffic with sirens blaring.

Natalia’s hand found mine in the darkness.

Her fingers were cold.

"This isn’t random," she said quietly.

"I know."

"Two weeks after the Black Gate? After we survive the Arborist? After you make five covenants in one night?" Her purple eyes met mine. "Someone’s sending a message."

"Or testing us."

"Or both."

The transport took a hard turn.

Celeste braced herself against the wall, her expression unreadable.

But I saw how her hand trembled.

Just slightly.

"You good?" I asked.

"Fine."

"Cel."

She looked at me.

"I’m fine," she repeated. "Just processing."

"Processing what?"

"That I spent three weeks in a death dimension and now I’m heading toward a Gate Break on four hours of sleep." A ghost of a smile crossed her face. "My sister’s going to have opinions about my life choices."

"Your sister has opinions about everything."

"Fair."

The transport jerked to a stop.

The door opened.

Chaos greeted us.

Commerce Plaza looked like someone had dropped a bomb in the middle of rush hour.

Buildings were on fire. Cars were overturned. Blood streaked the pavement in long dark trails that disappeared into storm drains.

VHC Hunters formed a defensive perimeter around the Gate, their weapons raised and their faces grim.

I recognized some of them.

Professional Hunters. B-Rank at minimum.

They looked scared.

That was a bad sign.

Watcher Graves stood at the command post, barking orders into a comm unit. She saw us approaching and waved us over.

"Nakano. Kuzmina. Vance. Good. We need bodies."

"What’s the situation?" Natalia asked.

"Fourteen spawns confirmed. All Elite-tier or higher. The Boss is still inside, but we’ve got reconnaissance suggesting it’s A-Rank minimum."

"Any civilian evacuation?"

"In progress. But we’ve got stragglers. People hiding in buildings. Can’t extract them until we clear the immediate area."

The Gate pulsed.

Something massive moved in the darkness beyond the membrane.

"What’s the plan?" I asked.

"Three strike teams. Sentinels take east approach. Vipers take west. Your team takes center." Graves fixed me with a look. "You’re bait."

"Naturally."

"If the Boss comes through, you engage and hold until reinforcements arrive. Do not attempt to kill it solo. Do not be a hero. Just survive."

"Got it."

"Also." She pulled me aside, her voice dropping low. "Someone’s been asking questions about you. High-level inquiries. VHC internal."

"What kind of questions?"

"The kind that suggest someone thinks you’re more than you appear." Her cigarette ash-colored eyes searched my face. "Watch your back, kid."

She walked away before I could respond.

The Gate pulsed again.

Harder this time.

A scream cut through the air.

Not human.

Something between a roar and a shriek that made my teeth ache.

"Satori." Natalia’s voice was steady. "Whatever happens—"

"I know."

"Do you?"

I looked at her properly.

Purple eyes. White streaks glowing faintly in her hair. Frost already forming on her fingertips.

My queen.

My first.

My goddamn anchor.

"I know," I repeated. "We survive. Together."

"Good answer."

Celeste moved to my other side.

Her periwinkle eyes were hard now. Focused.

The princess had left the building.

The warrior stood in her place.

"Let’s go kill something," she said.

The Gate split open wide.

And hell came pouring through.

The first spawn was twelve feet tall.

Covered in chitinous black armor.

Six legs. Four arms. A head that split down the middle vertically to reveal a mouth full of spinning teeth.

It saw us.

It charged.

"Formation!" I shouted.

Natalia raised both hands.

Telekinetic force slammed into the creature like a freight train, stopping its momentum cold.

Ice erupted from the impact point, spreading across its chest in geometric patterns.

The creature screamed.

Celeste stepped forward, her hands moving in that graceful, deadly way.

"Glacial Serenade."

Ice spears materialized from the air itself.

Dozens of them.

All aimed at the frozen creature.

They launched.

The sound was like a firing squad.

The spears punched through chitin and flesh and bone, pinning the monster to the pavement behind it.

It twitched once.

Twice.

Went still.

"One down," Natalia said.

"Thirteen to go," I added.

Two more spawns emerged from the Gate.

These were smaller. Faster.

They looked like wolves.

If wolves were made of shadows and had human hands instead of paws.

They split up.

One went for Natalia.

One came for me.

I swung.

The bat connected with its skull.

Spatial Cleave activated on instinct.

The invisible blade cut through shadow and bone.

The creature’s head separated cleanly.

Its body collapsed.

Behind me, Natalia had frozen her attacker mid-leap.

She brought it down hard.

The ice shattered on impact.

The wolf with it.

"This is too easy," she said.

"Don’t jinx it."

"I’m being realistic."

A roar echoed from the Gate.

Louder than before.

Deeper.

The kind of sound that reached into your chest and wrapped around your heart.

I turned.

Something was coming through the membrane.

Something big.

The Boss emerged slowly.

Like it was savoring the moment.

First came a claw.

Easily ten feet long.

Obsidian black with silver veins running through it.

Then the arm.

Thick as a tree trunk. Covered in scales that shimmered between purple and gold.

Then the head.

No.

Three heads.

A hydra.

But wrong.

Its scales were made of crystal. Its eyes burned with internal fire that cycled through colors I didn’t have names for.

And where its chest should be, a gaping wound revealed a pulsing core of pure darkness.

The System chimed.

[WARNING: BOSS-CLASS ENTITY DETECTED]

[Threat Level: A-Rank]

[Designation: Chimeric Hydra - Unstable]

[Recommendation: Retreat Immediately]

I looked at Natalia.

She looked at me.

"So," she said. "We’re not retreating."

"Nope."

"Just checking."

The Hydra’s center head opened its mouth.

Fire erupted.

White-hot. Intense enough that I felt the heat from fifty feet away.

Celeste threw up an ice wall.

The fire hit it like a battering ram.

Steam exploded outward.

The wall held.

Barely.

"That’s a problem," Celeste said through gritted teeth.

"Agreed."

The left head opened next.

Lightning arced out.

Blue-white and crackling.

It hit the ground ten feet to our right.

The pavement exploded.

Chunks of concrete became projectiles.

Natalia’s telekinesis caught them mid-flight.

She redirected them straight back at the Hydra.

They bounced off its scales like pebbles.

"Physical attacks aren’t working," she said.

"I noticed."

The right head inhaled.

I felt the temperature drop instantly.

"Move!" I shouted.

We scattered.

The Hydra exhaled.

Ice spread across the ground where we’d been standing, freezing everything solid in a twenty-foot radius.

"Okay," I said. "Fire, lightning, ice. Anything else we should know about?"

The creature roared.

All three heads in unison.

The sound shattered windows half a block away.

My Protection from Arrows screamed at me.

I dove left.

A massive tail whipped through the space I’d just occupied, smashing into a parked car and sending it tumbling end over end.

"Suggestions?" Natalia called.

"Working on it!"

The Hydra advanced.

Each step shook the ground. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Professional Hunters opened fire from the perimeter.

Energy weapons. Explosive rounds. Everything they had.

The attacks splashed harmlessly against the creature’s crystal scales.

"Core," Celeste said. "We need to destroy the core."

"The giant glowing target in its chest?"

"Yes."

"Any ideas on how to reach it?"

"Several. None of them good."

The center head breathed fire again.

This time, it swept across the entire plaza.

I grabbed Natalia and Celeste, shoving them behind a concrete barrier.

The flames washed over us.

The barrier held.

For about three seconds.

Then it started to melt.

"Okay," I said. "New plan. I’m going to do something stupid."

"No," Natalia said immediately.

"Seconded," Celeste added.

"Not asking permission."

I stood.

Channeled Ember through the bat.

The metal glowed white-hot.

The Hydra’s three heads all turned toward me.

Six eyes. Each one burning with that impossible fire.

I smiled.

"Hey ugly. Over here."

It charged.

And I ran straight at it.