From Moving Crates to Killing Gods-Chapter 9: The First Flaw

Someone caught me before I hit the ground. Small hands, surprisingly strong. Kira.

"I’ve got you." she whispered, her voice trembling. "You’re okay. You’re okay."

I wasn’t okay. Every nerve ending fired simultaneously, sending contradictory messages of hot and cold, pressure and release. The taste of blood filled my mouth, copper and salt. I could feel it soaking into my shirt.

"It’s in my head." I gasped, the words scraping my raw throat. "Every switch makes it worse. Don’t let me use it again soon. Please."

A pair of hands guided by the sound found my face, wiping the blood. "You’re bleeding badly." Kira said, panic edging her voice.

"What happened?" Darien’s voice cut through the darkness, followed by the sound of scrambling feet on stone. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"He brought down the ceiling." Kira answered. "He blocked that... thing from following us."

"At what cost?" Darien was suddenly close, his breath on my face as he crouched beside us. "Can you stand?"

I tried to nod, then realized the futility of the gesture in the pitch black. "Maybe. Give me a second."

"We don’t have seconds to spare." Darien said, but his tone lacked its usual bite. "That collapse bought us time, but we need distance. Can anyone make light?"

Silence answered him. Of course. Why would the System give us something as useful as light in a place designed to kill us?

Mira could, but somehow I didn’t want to be close to her light blade in a closed space.

"I can make fire." Ember offered from somewhere in the darkness. "But I don’t know how long I can sustain it. And we have nothing to burn."

"Save it." Darien said. "We need to conserve everything. Our powers, our energy." His voice hardened into something resembling a lecture. "Listen to me, all of you. What we’re experiencing isn’t a gift, it’s a resource. Every time we use these abilities, we’re burning something inside ourselves. Some of you may have already noticed the strain."

Murmurs of agreement filtered through the darkness. Phinyx complained that maintaining his "vibe" across the lake had left him lightheaded. Ember said her arms still felt like they were burning from the inside out. Kira was silent, but her hands shook against my shoulders.

"The System designed these abilities to burn us out." Darien continued. "They’re weapons with limited ammunition. So we use them only when absolutely necessary. Understood?"

No one argued. The pain in my head was receding to a dull throb, but the emptiness remained, a hollow space where something vital used to be. Kira helped me to my feet, steadying me when I swayed.

"Now we need to assess our situation." Darien said, practical as ever even in crisis. "We’re trapped in these tunnels. Our immediate concerns are water, food, and continuing to move away from that silver entity, which means we need Finn’s guidance."

"I can still feel it." Finn said, his voice small and distant. "Behind the collapse. But there are other signals too. Smaller ones, scattered throughout the tunnels."

"Corruptors?" someone asked, fear making the word waver.

"I don’t know." Finn admitted. "Maybe. But I can feel the big signal, Argent, far ahead."

"We have no food." Mira stated. "Our water is limited to what people had in canteens, which isn’t much. And we’re in complete darkness in a maze."

"I can sense water." Kira said quietly beside me. "Not just sense it, I can feel where it flows. There’s moisture all around us, but... not all of it feels safe."

"Define not safe." Darien demanded.

Kira hesitated. "Some feels... wrong. Like the lake. But there are clean sources too, if we can reach them."

The group began moving forward with a blind trust in the darkness. Finn led, guided by his internal silver compass. Kira kept one hand on my shoulder and another trailing along the tunnel wall, feeling for water sources. I focused on putting one foot in front of the other without falling, the pounding in my head gradually subsiding to a persistent ache.

Time lost meaning in the darkness. We might have been walking for an hour or a day. Thirst stung our throats. Hunger twisted in our bellies. The only sound was our breathing and the shuffling of feet on stone.

"Wait." Finn whispered suddenly. "Something’s ahead. A small silver signal, moving."

We froze, a chain of linked bodies suddenly still as statues.

"Which way, Kira?" Darien asked, his voice barely audible.

Her hand left my shoulder, and I heard her fingers scraping along the wall. "There’s a side passage here. Not much water, but none of the wrong kind either."

Darien made the call. "Everyone, right. Stay low, stay quiet."

We shuffled into what felt like a smaller tunnel, the walls pressing closer on either side. After a few paces, the passage opened slightly into what my outstretched hands told me was a small cavern.

"We’ll rest here." Darien said. "Refill your canteens. If you have food, eat sparingly."

No one had food. We, the common exiles, had come with nothing but our clothes and water.

But as for water, everyone went for their share. There was a small pool of water that could barely be seen in the dark, but that didn’t impede them from finding it. Just the damp air around it was traceable by our parched throats.

I sank to the floor, my back against cold stone. Kira settled beside me, her shoulder pressing against mine, a small comfort in the overwhelming dark. My stomach growled loudly enough for her to hear.

"Regretting not bringing tea with you?" she asked, a fragile attempt at our old banter.

"Thinking I should have taken a feast instead." I replied, my voice rough with thirst. "A last meal of actual food instead of paste."

Instead of answering, she pushed herself up. "Stay. You’re bleeding from the brain. I’ll get the water." She took my canteen from where it hung on my belt, then hers, and moved toward the faint, communal splashing in the dark.

Around me, others were settling, arranging themselves by sound and touch. I listened to the sounds of her filling the canteens, the soft glug of water, the scrape of metal on stone. She returned a minute later, her hands damp and cool. She pressed a full canteen into my hand first, then sat back down, unscrewing her own.

The water was cold and tasted of minerals and earth. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted. We drank in silence, the simple act feeling like a monumental luxury.

I touched my face, fingers coming away with drying blood. The aftermath of using my ability. The cost of survival. The Switch had saved us, but each use carved something away from me that I couldn’t name.

"We made it." Kira whispered, as if trying to convince herself.

"For now." I replied, unable to offer false comfort even in this moment.

We sat in silence after that, listening to our tired breaths , waiting for whatever would come next. Our victory, if you could call it that, felt as hollow as my aching head. We were alive but trapped, starving but safe. For a moment, at least.

Outside, beyond tons of fallen stone, something silver and vast continued to hunt.