Elena's arms dripped golden light, creating a shimmering barrier as parts of ceiling tumbled down. The others looked surprised, but there was no time for factors.
"Flow!" she commanded. "Zach, lead them into the tunnels. "I will hold it!"
The force flowing through her seemed familiar now, like remembering how to ride a bicycle, except the bicycle had turned into reality-bending electricity and the pavement had been paved with shattered time.
Sofia hesitated. "i am no longer leaving you"
"go!" The barrier flashed as something enormous slammed into it. "i will capture up."
Dr. Mayfield's equipment shrieked as Zach hustled people to the emergency exit. Crystal patterns appear through the windows, spreading across the ground like frozen lightning.
Elena waited until the last person exited the room before lowering the barrier. She rushed for the exit as the ceiling crumbled behind her.
They erupted into mayhem. The violet sky had fragmented into geometric styles, with each part revealing its own reality. Shadow creatures prowled the streets, while crystalline beings crept between houses.
"stay collectively!" Zach shouted, bringing the institution closer to the university. Elena added to the back, golden strength crackling around her arms.
A naval helicopter thundered overhead, turning sharply to avoid a floating crystal formation. Elena's heart fell. She'd seen this before; the army's arrival was usually expected...
An amplified voice pierced through the chaos: "This is Captain Rebecca Cross. At main excess, all citizens make their way to the emergency safe haven. That is an obligatory evacuation.
"No," Elena said. She had witnessed imperative high transform into a slaughterhouse in two distinct loops. "We need to warn them."
"The tunnels are closer," Zach argued. "we are able to"
A shadow thing leaped out of an alley. Elena's barrier shot into existence, but someone moved faster. A rifle cracked, and the thing vanished.
A lady wearing military gear emerged from the smoke, flanked by infantrymen. Her sharp features and commanding presence identified her as Captain even before she spoke.
"You are going the wrong way," she said, her gaze fixed on Elena's sparkling palms. "and you've about ten seconds to provide an explanation for that."
Elena caught her gaze. "Your haven is no longer safe. The crystals grew beneath the foundation. In roughly an hour, they may break the fitness center floor and"
"How ought to you already know that?"
"In the same way, I believe there may be a 2D dungeon forming beneath Palmer Avenue. In the same way, I realize that your helicopter could be grounded in fifteen minutes if magnetic interference hits." Elena advanced. "Captain, I understand you're hoping to save lives. Allow me to help you do it properly this time."
Cross's finger clenched on the trigger. "This time?"
A shriek fades into the air. A group of individuals ran down the street, fleeing oncoming crystal forms. Elena recognized a familiar sight among them: a young woman dressed in scientific scrubs attempting to assist an injured man.
"Mara," Elena gasped. She'd witnessed the medic die while assisting others on her final loop. "Captain, your decisions are simple. Shoot me, or help me shop for them."
Go appraised the situation with militaristic precision. "Johnson, Martinez - cover the civilians. Relaxation for you, dampening the fire on those crystals." "you've got two mins to persuade me."
"The university tunnels have been built to contain electricity experiments," Elena stated as they walked. "They could withstand the creatures better than any other surface shape." "Dr. Mayfield"
"The physicist?" Pass interjected. "the one who vanished after the Morrison Institute incident?"
"Ask him yourself." Elena nodded at the vintage scientist who was moving along with their organizing.
They reached the fleeing villagers just as another wave of beasts appeared. Elena's restrictions were revealed at the same time as Go's squad opened hearth. The crystals cracked under focused fire, yet more sprouted to replace them.
The medic, Mara, appeared awake as Elena assisted her with the injured man. Her eyes lit up with popularity, despite the fact that they had never met in this era.
"Later," Elena vowed. "prepare now we want to move."
They got it to the physics building just before the magnetic interference hit. Cross's radio hummed with reports of vehicle failures and weapon malfunctions. The chopper made an emergency landing three blocks distant.
The tunnels stretched under them, bloodless and dark yet blessedly stable. Dr. Mayfield's gadget hummed at a lower frequency right here, implying that the restrictions between realities had grown stronger.
"Begin setting up triage," Move instructed her group. "Turner, handle the medical. Sir Bernard Law, please assist me with the fringe." She fixed Elena with a severe expression. "You and i need to talk."
As others prepped the distance, Elena revealed everything - the loops, the shifts, and the rising power within her. Go listened with military stoicism, but Elena maintained the flare of popularity. The captain felt it as well, despite her inability to truly forget.
"There are others," Elena said. "People who don't forget fragments and who experience the changes. We want to uncover them first"
A distant expansion rattled the tunnels. Dr. Mayfield's device yelled.
"The second one dungeon," Elena discovered. "It's opening early. "This has never happened before."
Go check her guns. "How terrible?"
"I do not know. "The timeline is converting too quickly now." Elena stretched her palms, golden strength flowing between them. "but i can discover."
"You are not going by yourself," Zach reassured, examining his borrowed rifle.
"No," Elena acknowledged; "I'm not."
She looked around their temporary safe haven, seeing Sofia working to organize elements, Mara healing the injured, and Go's crew strengthening the entrance. Everyone who perished before is now alive and fighting.
But when her gaze met Zach's, she noticed the same knowing in his eyes. They had changed things and saved lives. The timeline started moving.
And the horrors that await you in that dungeon are most likely entirely new.
Cross must have looked at their expressions. "What are not you telling us?"
Before Elena could respond, Dr. Mayfield's voice sliced through the tunnel: "The readings... that is impossible."
They dashed to where the vintage scientist was gazing at his instrument. The concert pulsated with crazy styles.
"The second one dungeon," he murmured. "It's not simply opening. It is merging with the first.
Reality groaned from behind the tunnel walls. Elena felt it in her bones: the material of spacetime stretching, tearing, and reweaving itself into something new.
Her gaze met Zach's again. In every loop, every slice of time she could see, they had battled the dungeons together. However, those were distinct challenges, terrifying tragedies.
This developed into something new. Something even her future self hadn't noticed.
Golden light flickered in her reflection on the tunnel wall. The strength within her surged in response to the changing truth above.
She wasn't just memorizing how to apply those skills anymore.
She started developing alongside them.
"I need volunteers," she announced. "We ought to see what's in there."
"Why?" Sofia demanded. "Why does it must be you?"
Elena stared at her oldest friend, wishing she could provide an explanation for everything. How she had seen what she could become in that realm of realities. How each loop, each death, and every sacrifice contributed to something grander than any of them realized.
As a substitute, she undoubtedly stated: "because I am the most effective one that can approach it."
The tunnels shook once more. Through the pandemonium, Elena sensed a beckoning - not the golden-eyed monster this time, but something ancient. Something that had been prepared.
The real question wasn't whether she got equipped.
It became a question of whether any of them were prepared for what lay ahead in the united dungeons.
And as the reality twisted above them, Elena had a bad feeling they were about to find.