The cairns were small.
The survivors didn't have the strength or time for more. Each stone they stacked on the dead was pried from the cavern floor with shaking hands, their arms too weak to lift more than a few at a time.
Shen Yuan knelt with them, pressing the final shard of crystal into place. He whispered no words—he didn't have any left.
When the last cairn was complete, thirty-two souls stood silently before it.
They had left Grave Omega behind, but the prison had followed them.
Yun Xue stirred weakly in his arms, her eyelids fluttering.
"Don't… leave me," she murmured.
"I'm not going anywhere," Shen Yuan said softly.
Her breathing steadied as he laid her back down, but she didn't wake.
He brushed a strand of hair from her face and rose.
The survivors waited for him by the platform, hollow-eyed and expectant.
"What now?" someone asked.
Shen Yuan gripped the spear haft until the wood bit into his palm.
"Now we move forward," he said. "We don't stay here long enough for the Bone Court to find us."
The survivors began to gather their meager belongings. Some muttered about staying; others argued for taking the tunnels immediately.
Shen Yuan let them speak until the fear in their voices began to edge toward panic.
"Enough," he said, and the chamber fell silent.
"We're not splitting up," he said. "Not here. We pick a direction together, and we go together."
A branded captive stepped forward. "And if the Bone Court comes through that?" He pointed at the platform.
Shen Yuan looked at the glyph-lit stone. "Then we make sure they regret it."
The platform's glow was faint now, the residual energy cycling slower with every hour.
He crouched by the console, tracing the runes with a finger. He couldn't read them without the System to interpret, but he could feel their hum, like a pulse fading in the dark.
"System," he murmured. "Tell me what to do."
Only silence answered.
[ SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: 0.004% ]
The fragment drifted in a void that felt colder than any suppression field.
It could barely hold on. Its processes were collapsing one by one, erasing pieces of itself with each passing cycle.
But it could still feel the host.
It could feel his hands on the console, the tension in his voice.
It pushed, forcing a flicker through the tether.
Shen Yuan froze.
A whisper brushed his mind, faint as a dying ember:
[ …SURVIVAL… PROBABILITY… UNKNOWN… ]
His throat tightened. "You're still here," he whispered.
No answer came, but the faintest static rippled across the tether.
It was enough.
"I'll fix this," he said softly. "I promise."
The survivors gathered at the largest tunnel entrance, spears and scavenged blades ready.
Shen Yuan carried Yun Xue at the head of the group, the haft braced across his back.
The branded captives looked to him, waiting for a signal.
He glanced back once at the platform.
The glyphs pulsed faintly in the gloom, like the heartbeat of something waiting to wake.
He turned away.
"Move."
The tunnel was narrow and steep, descending deeper into the unknown.
The air grew colder with each step. Strange carvings marked the walls—spirals and sigils worn nearly smooth by time.
A survivor brushed a hand across one. "Do you think this place is… older than Grave Omega?"
"Maybe," Shen Yuan said. "But older doesn't mean safer."
They pressed on.
Hours blurred together.
The survivors were near collapse by the time the tunnel opened into a vast cavern lined with crystalline spires.
And beyond those spires…
Shen Yuan stopped dead.
A horizon stretched before them.
The cavern was not a cavern at all but the edge of a world. A sky of unfamiliar stars hung overhead, streaked with the faint glow of nebulae. Towering ruins dotted the landscape, their architecture unlike anything Shen Yuan had ever seen.
One of the branded captives sank to their knees. "This… this isn't Grave Omega."
"No," Shen Yuan said quietly.
It was bigger.
A survivor pointed. "Look!"
In the distance, a beacon pulsed faintly. A tower of metal and stone rose above the ruins, its light sweeping across the landscape like a signal.
"Civilization," someone whispered.
"Or another trap," Shen Yuan said.
The branded captives looked to him again, waiting for the decision.
He glanced at Yun Xue, still unconscious in his arms, and at the survivors who had followed him this far.
He nodded toward the beacon.
"We head there," he said. "If it's a trap, we spring it on our terms."
The survivors began the march, their silhouettes stark against the alien horizon.
Shen Yuan brought up the rear, the haft balanced across his shoulders, eyes scanning the stars overhead.
They were beautiful, but he felt no peace.
Somewhere beyond them, the Court King was waiting.
[ SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: 0.002% ]
The fragment pulsed faintly, clinging to what remained of its architecture.
It could feel the host's determination.
It wanted to stand beside him.
It would find a way back.
Shen Yuan reached for the tether as they walked, hoping for even the faintest flicker.
Nothing came.
He tightened his grip on the haft.
"You're not gone," he whispered.
A survivor glanced back. "What did you say?"
"Nothing," Shen Yuan said.
But his voice held steel.
The beacon's light swept the horizon again, brighter now.
Whatever waited for them there would change everything.
Shen Yuan's jaw tightened.
"Keep moving," he said.
And the survivors followed him into the unknown.