The crowd was completely jammed, a wall of trapped bodies that wasn't moving an inch. Above the chaos, a massive chunk of stone—one that hadn't been blasted by the heavy artillery had smashed into the platform just a few meters from where he stood. The impact shook the floor violently, showering the air with grit.
He wiped his cheek and felt a few faint drops of blood smearing across his skin.
Suddenly, Axel bent double, a ragged gasp catching in his throat as a sharp spike of agony hit him. The aether held inside his body was becoming excruciatingly painful, burning through his veins and straining against his limits as he fought with everything he had just to keep it all contained inside.
As Axel bent double in agony, an armored arm swung right past his head, missing him by inches as the elite guard force of the wealthy kids shoved forward.
Far above the chaos of the lower platform, in the first layer where battle against the titan raged. A messenger soldier raced toward the long-range comms array, desperate to notify a Gate-City and alert the command units in the middle layers to send reinforcements.
"We need reinforcement! Immediate reinforcement!" the soldier screamed into the receiver, his voice cracking against the static of the open channel. "A blue-grade titan class has attacked the awakening of hole-city America—and we're struggling down here!"
The gunfire roared continuously and heavily as the soldiers concentrated their firepower on the titan, fighting with everything they had to hold the massive beast at the threshold.
Then, a sudden, high-pitched alert shattered the command comms.
The scanner boards flared with fresh, chaotic clusters of red markers flooding the perimeter scan. The titan wasn't attacking alone. It was accompanied by a massive horde—a few million animalistic shapes swarming, heading for the City. Worse, the static cleared to reveal the ultimate threat: the blue-grade titan wasn't just marching alongside them; it was the active leader of the horde.
____
The panic among the awakeners intensified, swelling to a fever pitch that Axel would have believed was completely impossible just seconds ago. Screams tore through the dust-choked air as the crowd lost all remaining cohesion, scattering in desperate, blind waves across the platform.
Axel made a split-second calculation and chose not to run for the elevators.
Looking around through the haze, he saw that a few other awakeners had reached the exact same conclusion.
Running for the open upper lifts meant risking being crushed by stampeding crowds or buried under falling stone. Staying low was their only chance to survive the relentless barrage of debris raining down from above.
Without exchanging a word, several of them turned away from the perimeter exits and moved together into the settlement in the lowest region.
_____
Ahead, through the drifting soot and concrete dust, Axel saw bodies flying. Several awakeners were violently thrown out of metal doorways, skittering across the dirt and rubble as the heavy reinforced doors slammed shut behind them.
The soldiers had locked themselves inside the sturdiest, most heavily fortified structures in the settlement. Armed to the teeth and backed against the stone walls, they were taking no chances, refusing to share even an inch of shelter with the terrified kids trying to escape the slaughter outside.
Axel's hands balled into fists; a hot wave of rage surged past the pain of the lingering aether. He stared at the sealed, barricaded entrances, his teeth grinding together so hard his jaw throbbed.
"Those bastards."
He thought.
So they had to make do with normal buildings made of cement, plaster, and wood. The flimsy structures stood no real chance against heavy falling debris, but with the fortified bunkers locked tight, there was no other choice.
Axel and the surrounding awakeners pushed further back, cutting through the wide alleys of the settlement. The only good thing was that the deeper one moved, the more into the natural rock you went, which provided some shelter from the chaos raining down from above.
Up ahead, thick, massive stalactites stretched from the ceiling down to the cavern floor, acting like natural pillars holding the above layer from collapsing entirely.
____
High above in the first layer directly beneath the surface, the air was choked with smoke and the deafening roar of war. Soldiers stood lined along the high ramparts, their muscles burning as they unleashed everything they had against the massive target.
"Keep firing! Don't let up for a second!" the lead commander screamed over the din, his voice hoarse as he racked his weapon.
Pulses of light and heavy ballistic metal battered the titan's giant form in a continuous volley. Mundane bullets tore through its skin while enchanted weapons flared with elemental force, blasting away thick chunks of flesh. The titan roared, staggering backward by the sheer force of the assault. Its massive body was ridden with deep, jagged wounds, blood spattering across the stone battlements.
Yet, even under the relentless storm, the soldiers could only watch with mounting dread as the raw meat within those open gouges began to twitch. Slowly, agonizingly, the tears in its skin were gradually healing.
The titan tilted its gargantuan head back and cried even harder. The sound was a deafening, mournful wail that vibrated straight through the soldiers' armor, rattling their ribs and threatening to shatter their eardrums. Streams of thick, pale tears poured continuously from its swollen eyes, cascading down its face and pooling onto the stone floor below, creating a rising puddle.
Axel kept his boots moving, sprinting hard while his eyes darted from one structure to the next, filtering through the houses to find anything that could offer real cover.
Along the way, he ran past clusters of terrified awakeners gathered outside barricaded doors, pounding their fists against reinforced wood and screaming at the top of their lungs.
"Please! Let us in!" a girl sobbed, her hands bloody from beating against the frame. "Just open the door!"
"Get away from the perimeter!" Axel yelled as he tore past them, waving his arm wildly toward the more covered expanse ahead. "They aren't letting anyone in! We have to move deeper into the city! Keep moving!"
Most of them hesitated, looking back at the sealed buildings before turning to follow his lead. Axel didn't stop. He couldn't. They were four hundred miles underground, and out here in the open. Any piece of debris that wasn't shot down by artillery or slowed by hitting an obstacle on its long drop from above hit the ground like a missile, obliterating stone, plaster, and anyone The deafening roar of heavy artillery was slowly fading, the thunder of battle gradually becoming distant as Axel pushed further down the cavernous paths.
Every time he spotted a sturdy-looking house with thick walls, he checked inside, hoping to catch his breath. But every single good building he found was already packed shoulder-to-shoulder with terrified awakeners.
"There's no room!" someone yelled from inside a doorway, shoving the frame shut. "Find somewhere else!"
Axel didn't waste his breath arguing. He had no choice but to keep moving, forcing his legs to carry him even deeper into the settlement. It was for the best anyway—the deeper he went beneath the rock shelf, the safer he would likely be from the falling stone.
Suddenly, a searing wave of agony rippled through his ribs, forcing a ragged groan from his throat. Axel stumbled, grabbing his chest as his knees nearly buckled. In the sheer heat of the moment, with the chaos and running, he had completely forgotten to let go of the aether that had been building up continuously inside him. The energy burned beneath his skin like liquid fire.
Before he could even steady his breathing, a shrill alert echoed off the stone walls.
The horde had arrived.