Neo tore through the wreckage like a living blade.
His movements were fluid, lethal — every strike of his weapon cleaving through demons with effortless precision. Black ichor splattered across the concrete like ink from a ruptured artery. Imps shrieked, lunged — and died in half a breath.
Malakai wasn't far behind.
But his rhythm was different. Velnix flickered in incomplete bursts, offering brief flashes of defense. He fought with no weapon — only will, desperation, and a half-born guardian that pulsed with instinct more than power. Every blow cost him. Every step dragged.
The chaos pressed in, and they were forced behind a scorched truck. A moment's breath. A moment to think.
"What if we lead the demon into the rift?" Malakai panted. "And seal it from this side?"
Neo didn't pause. "Good. I'll radio it in. Buy me time."
He ducked behind cover, voice sharp into the comm.
Malakai surged forward again, intercepting a beast mid-pounce with a burst of resonance. Velnix shielded the impact, barely — then vanished into smoke.
Then — a clatter from the elevator shaft.
Mattethis stumbled down, panting, blade drawn. His eyes wide.
"I think—" He froze, lifting his boot.
A faint thread had wrapped around it. Silver. Quivering.
"Shit."
He slashed it cleanly. It disintegrated in the air.
Neo rushed over. "You alright?"
"I… think it marked me. I could feel it watching. Then the pressure just — vanished. It's disconnected now though" Mattethis was out of breath and took a big inhale
Neo's eyes narrowed. "You think it's using Xae's boons?"
Mattethis nodded grimly. "It launched something at me. Too fast. Precise. Not a mindless demon."
A guttural roar echoed from deeper in the garage.
Then — static.
[Rift stability: 83%.]
Silence fell.
Malakai exhaled, voice low. "If we don't get it down here… the only option left is killing the civilians. Including Xae."
A pause.
Then, firmly: "No. We have to. There's no other way."
Neo didn't argue. Just nodded once, hard. "Then we give it a reason to come."
Then came the sound.
Wet. Brutal. Like flesh slamming steel.
All heads turned toward the elevator shaft.
At first — a flicker of movement.
Then they fell.
Civilians. Dozens of them.
Glass-eyed. Thread-bound. Limbs flailing.
They weren't climbing. Weren't lowered.
They were being dumped.
The first bodies hit the garage floor with sickening thuds. Limbs snapped. Skulls cracked. Then more came — crashing down on top of the first, tumbling like rag dolls flung from a great height.
And somehow… some of them started moving.
Broken. Bent. Crawling.
A grotesque tide of bodies, still falling from above, smashing into the floor, then crawling over each other toward the team in twitching silence.
"Shit…" Malakai whispered. "They're not stopping."
They weren't.
They were trampling the fallen. Crawling across backs, dragging shattered limbs, threading themselves toward the living.
Not a single scream. Not a sound.
Just the grotesque symphony of bones scraping concrete and thread pulling flesh.
Neo raised his blade, backing away fast — doing everything he could not to strike them.
"Fuck — what do we do!?" he shouted, slashing an imp aside.
A vessel lunged. Neo dodged — but lost his footing.
He fell. A hand grazed his arm.
The threads moved fast.
"Neo!" Mattethis shouted — but Neo didn't answer.
He just stood there.
Still. Silent. Threads crawling over him like vines claiming a ruin.
Then it — the demon — looked through him.
And stared directly at them.
---
Facility – moments earlier
"What's going on out there?!" Meredith snapped through the radio.
The driver responded, panic rising. "Forn had a vision. Said we all get taken. Everyone — except Malakai. She saw him and Mattethis push Xae through the rift and seal it. That's the only way."
He hesitated. "Demon's heading your way. In Xae's body."
Almost on cue — the doors shook.
The sound of hundreds of fists. Then the hinges buckled.
Then came the explosion.
The door erupted inward — and Xae walked through it, face unreadable. Dozens of vessels spilled in behind him.
Children screamed.
Civilians scattered.
The team moved fast — herding survivors into the back rooms, sealing doors.
Meredith turned — and a vessel touched her.
She collapsed. Sat there, wide-eyed, unseeing.
"...Sis?" Daniel stepped forward.
Her irises were glazed. Threaded.
He went still.
Then a rage unlike any he'd felt began to boil. His fists trembled.
He nearly struck the nearest vessel — but held back.
They're still human. Still alive. Still there.
Instead, he turned to Xae — and cut off two of Xae's fingers, blood spurting as he sprinted.
"HEY! DEMON! COME GET ME!"
Xae tilted his head, amused.
Then turned — and ripped open the back room.
The civilians inside shrieked—dozens at once—as threads burst from their mouths, eyes, and fingertips, writhing like living wire. They convulsed in place, bodies jolting as if struck by lightning, the threads latching to walls, ceilings, each other. A web was forming—fast, chaotic, suffocating.
"No—NO! OVER HERE!"
Daniel hurled debris, screamed, sprinted — but it was too late.
In seconds, they were all turned.
The entire room — claimed.
Daniel ran, heart pounding, dodging grasping hands, torn between fury and guilt.
Daniel was feeling both a seething rage and and indiscribable emptiness mixed with loss
'i should've saved them'