The Seam was no longer content to simply fracture—it wanted to consume.

Lin and Hana sprinted along the subway platform as tiles crumbled under their feet, vanishing into the mist below. The train tunnels on either side warped, twisting upward like enormous jaws, ready to snap shut on them.

"Move!" Lin shouted, pulling Hana forward.

She stumbled once, catching herself on the railing, her blade flashing in her free hand. Sparks flared in the air around them, shimmering lines of static as the fragments began colliding. It was like watching glass panes grind together—loud, grinding, unbearable.

They leapt as the platform split apart, barely landing on a fragment of stairs that spiraled into nothing. The stairs shook, chunks falling away one by one.

"Where the hell is Keller?" Hana growled, scanning the chaos.

Lin didn't answer immediately. His glove hummed, faint pulses dragging his attention toward a faint light in the distance—another shard, faintly glowing, like a lighthouse in a storm.

"There," he said finally, pointing. "He's that way."

Hana squinted. "That's across three collapsing fragments."

"Then we move fast."

Keller, meanwhile, was already fighting for his sanity.

The shard he occupied had shifted again, the alley elongating until it resembled a corridor in a nightmare—doors without handles, windows filled with shadows that whispered his name. The air was thick, pressing in on him, and every step he took only stretched the corridor longer.

His jaw tightened. "This place wants me to stop. Wants me to drown here."

But he kept moving, one steady step at a time. His knuckles were white on the grip of his gun, but he refused to slow down.

At the far end of the endless corridor, a door flickered into existence. Its frame twisted, as if resisting being solid. Keller narrowed his eyes, raising his weapon.

"I don't care what's behind you. I'm coming through."

He fired. The corridor shattered into shards of black glass, and suddenly he was falling—no, being dragged—into another shard entirely.

Back on the collapsing stair-shard, Hana grit her teeth as another step disintegrated beneath her boots. She caught herself, snarling, "If this whole place falls apart before we reach him—"

"Then we'll carve through it," Lin cut in sharply. His eyes burned with focus, his glove glowing brighter with each pulse. The energy was guiding him—dragging him toward Keller like a compass.

But the Seam wasn't letting them go so easily.

A ripple surged across the shards ahead, and the light of Keller's shard flickered like a dying flame. Between Lin and Hana and that light, figures began to coalesce. Dozens of them, rising from the mist.

At first, they looked like shadows—indistinct, featureless. But as they took shape, Hana's breath caught.

They weren't strangers.

They were faces from their past—friends, comrades, enemies. People they had fought beside. People they had killed.

One stepped forward, a soldier Lin remembered too vividly. The man had died in Lin's arms years ago. Now he stood here, whole, his mouth twisting into a sneer.

"You left me," the soldier said. His voice was perfect, heavy with blame. "You let me die."

Hana flinched as another figure appeared before her—her old mentor, eyes full of disappointment. "You think you've grown stronger," the apparition whispered. "But you're nothing. You'll always fail those who follow you."

Hana's grip on her blade wavered. "It's not real," she hissed, almost to herself. "It's not—"

Lin stepped in front of her, his expression hard. "Ignore them. This is the Seam digging into us, nothing more."

But even as he said it, another figure appeared directly in his path.

Not a soldier. Not an enemy.

His mother.

Lin froze. She was exactly as he remembered her—frail, her hands folded neatly, her eyes sharp and tired all at once. Her lips parted. "You've run so far, Lin. And for what? Do you even know anymore?"

The ground shook as the illusions pressed closer, their voices layering, overlapping into a chorus of guilt and doubt.

Lin clenched his fists, his breathing harsh. Not real. Not real. But the words still tore into him.

Keller staggered as he landed hard on new ground. He blinked, realizing he was now standing on the rooftop of a high-rise. The city sprawled out around him—except it wasn't Seoul as he knew it.

The buildings leaned like teeth, jagged and sharp. The sky churned with gray storms. And far below, the streets crawled with shadowy figures, faceless crowds that all turned upward to stare at him.

A low hum pulsed through the air, vibrating in his bones. He recognized it instantly—the Seam's presence, pressing harder now, as if testing his will.

Keller steadied himself, muttering under his breath. "Lin. Hana. You better hurry the hell up."

Back on the stair-shard, Lin finally tore his gaze from the apparition of his mother. His jaw locked, his glove flaring violently.

"You're not her," he spat.

He thrust his fist forward, unleashing a wave of energy that ripped through the illusions. They shattered into shards of light, dissolving into the mist.

Hana followed suit, her blade slicing through her own ghosts. Each strike made the shard tremble, but it also cleared the path ahead.

They sprinted forward, leaping to the next fragment. It bent beneath their weight, threatening to fall away, but they didn't stop.

The light of Keller's shard was closer now, pulsing stronger.

"We're almost there!" Hana shouted.

Lin nodded, his focus locked on the glow. "Hold on, Keller!"

But just as they reached the edge of the fragment, the Seam screamed.

It wasn't a sound exactly—it was pressure, vibration, a raw force that ripped through their bodies. The shards ahead twisted violently, colliding into each other and breaking apart. The light of Keller's shard wavered, as if being swallowed whole.

Lin reached out desperately, his glove blazing as he tried to anchor the path—

—but the bridge ahead shattered completely, collapsing into the void.

He and Hana skidded to a halt, staring across a gulf of mist and broken glass. Keller's shard was still visible on the far side, but it was already starting to sink.

"Keller!" Hana screamed.

And for a brief moment, they saw him—standing tall against the storm, his gun raised, his eyes locking with theirs.

The distance between them was only a few meters. But the Seam made it feel like an ocean.

The ground trembled, the gulf widening.

"Lin!" Keller's voice cut through the chaos. "Don't stop—get through!"

The shards beneath all of them began to fall.

To be continued.

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