Makati Underground, 3 Days Later
The rain hit like bullets. Cold. Heavy. Relentless.
Kael led Elias and Maya through the sewers beneath the city, the air thick with mold and rot. The lights on their headgear flickered occasionally—disrupted by something in the atmosphere.
"Why are we here again?" Maya asked, her voice echoing.
Kael didn't turn. "Because something woke up. Something old."
Elias's shadow clung to his boots, slithering in silence. Ever since the fight with the retrieval agent, it had become more responsive—quicker to act, harder to contain.
But this wasn't about him.
This was about the thing they were hunting.
---
The Briefing – Earlier That Night
Kael dropped a file on a rusty table. Maya flipped through the photos—burned vehicles, melted pavement, police turned inside out. Blurry CCTV stills showed a figure walking calmly away from the wreckage.
A man. Or what used to be one.
"Name: Ernesto Briones," Kael explained. "Used to be a preacher. Government took him in after his awakening."
"What happened?" Elias asked.
"He stopped praying."
---
Now — The Lair
The tunnel widened into a sunken atrium—once a hidden church beneath Makati, now long abandoned.
And in the center of the space—
He stood.
Naked torso. Scarred body. Eyes burned pitch black. Shadow tendrils snaked out of his spine like wings made of grief.
Ernesto.
"Another prophet," he muttered, voice layered with static. "Come to silence me again."
Kael raised his fists. "Not silence. Contain."
Ernesto screamed.
And the shadows erupted.
---
The Battle Begins
A wave of living shadow shot out, ripping through concrete like paper. Kael flipped backward, forming a gauntlet from his shadow and smashing into the attack.
Elias lunged forward, armor crawling across his limbs, forming jagged claws. He swung—missed.
Ernesto grinned, eyes twitching unnaturally. "You still think you're men. You're not. You're vessels."
He stabbed forward with a tendril—piercing Elias's chest armor and slamming him into a pillar.
Elias coughed blood.
His shadow pulsed—trying to respond. But it was unstable. Flickering.
Fear crept in.
---
Maya's Awakening (Hint)
From behind a column, Maya watched—frozen.
Elias was dying.
Kael was bleeding.
And the monster turned its eyes toward her.
"You," Ernesto whispered. "Yours hasn't spoken yet. But I hear it screaming."
Her body trembled.
Behind her, her shadow—so faint for so long—twitched.
Just once.
Then again.
The lines on the floor under her feet darkened, like ink spreading through cloth.
---
Elias Fights Back
Pinned to the wall, Elias clenched his teeth.
"Protect me," he whispered.
The shadow responded—raging to life, forming twin arm gauntlets and new shoulder plating. Not full armor. Not yet. But enough.
He broke free.
Charged.
He met Ernesto mid-air, claw to tendril.
Slash.
Punch.
Blood.
Screams.
The fight was messy—unrefined. Elias was still learning, still human.
But he didn't back down.
He slammed his armored knee into Ernesto's chest and unleashed a wave of shadow energy, blasting the preacher across the room.
Ernesto laughed even as he bled.
"You're not ready for what's coming," he whispered. "None of us were."
---
AFTERMATH
The lair burned as the three escaped into the storm.
Elias limped beside Kael, body aching. Maya stayed quiet, glancing behind her constantly.
"You okay?" Elias asked.
Maya didn't answer.
Her shadow, once silent, now moved just half a second out of sync with her body—subtle, but undeniable.
---
Elsewhere — Project Silencer HQ
Colonel Dela Vega reviewed the footage.
"Another Overgrowth failure," he muttered.
Dr. Velasco leaned closer to the screen. Her lips curled into a satisfied smile.
"But Subject Nine is adapting... beautifully."