Elias placed his hand on the handle of the maintenance door. His palm was cold, nearly as cold as the metal he touched. Inside his chest, the Draugr Heart did not beat; it emitted a low, steady vibration, like an industrial pump.
"Stay close to me, Jacques," Elias said without turning around. "If you lag behind, I'm not coming back for you."
Jacques nodded, tightening his grip on his pipe wrench. He had noticed that Elias's voice had lost all human intonation. It had become flat, efficient, stripped of emotion.
They stepped out into the service corridor. The silence was absolute, but it was a heavy silence, charged with electrical tension. System notifications began to flash bright red at the edge of their vision, like a silent fire alarm.
[LAW #3: THE BLOOD CURFEW BEGINS]
[EVALUATION: THE WILD HUNT HAS BEEN RELEASED]
[ADVICE: FIND SHELTER OR RUN. RICH ENERGY SIGNATURES WILL BE PRIORITIZED.]
"Here we go," Jacques whispered, glancing at the system clock. "8:00 PM. The sun just went down up there."
Suddenly, a scream tore through the air. It wasn't a human cry, nor that of an animal. It was a shrill, piercing frequency that felt like it wanted to rip the teeth from their gums. The sound came from the air vents, the tunnels, the cracks in the concrete.
At the end of the hallway, Elias saw a silhouette. It floated a few inches above the ground. It wore plate armor of deepest black that seemed to swallow the light, and its limbs were too long, ending in curved blades. This wasn't a player. This was an Odin Execution Unit.
"The Wild Hunt..." Elias breathed.
[ALERT: LOW-RANK COLLECTOR DETECTED]
[TARGET: YOU]
The Collector turned its faceless helmet toward them. A red glow ignited within its visor slit. With a fluid motion, it vanished into the shadows only to reappear ten meters closer.
"Run, Jacques!" Elias roared.
They bolted up the emergency stairs leading to the surface. Elias took the steps four at a time. Thanks to his new heart, his lungs didn't burn; his legs didn't falter. He was a machine in full acceleration. But behind him, Jacques struggled. The old man was gasping for air, his human lungs unable to keep up with the pace demanded by the System.
"Elias! Wait!"
Elias stopped at the first landing. He looked down. The Collector was right behind Jacques, its black metal blades gliding against the railing with the sound of a razor.
Law #2 screamed in Elias's mind once more: [SOLIDARITY PENALTY: SUBJECT 'JACQUES' IS SLOWING YOUR ASCENSION BY 60%. ABANDON THE BURDEN.]
Elias stared at Jacques. For a second, the coldness of his new heart nearly made him turn away. He could have left. He should have left. Instead, he grabbed the fire extinguisher and hurled it with all his strength—not at the Collector, but at the stair railing above the creature.
The impact shook the structure. Elias grabbed Jacques by the collar and hoisted him up with a brutal, almost inhuman strength, snatching the old man from the shadows' reach.
"Don't talk. Climb," Elias commanded.
They finally reached the exit door. Elias kicked it open with his shoulder, and they burst out into the Parisian night.
The shock was total.
The city no longer existed. The sky was a swirling vortex of violet clouds and golden circuits. The Eiffel Tower was nothing more than an iron skeleton overgrown with crystal vines reaching for the clouds. But the most terrifying thing was the silence. Cars were abandoned; buildings were dark.
And everywhere, on the rooftops, black silhouettes leaped from one balcony to another. The Wild Hunt was combing the capital, harvesting everyone not strong enough to hide.
A few blocks away, an explosion of golden light illuminated the sky. Elias saw a group of players—real ones, those who had already spent tens of thousands of Essence. They wore shimmering armor and wielded swords of light. They were fighting off a dozen Collectors, laughing.
"Look at them..." Jacques whispered, overwhelmed by the spectacle.
"They aren't hiding," Elias noted. "They're hunting the hunters."
[NOTIFICATION: YOU ARE IN A RED ZONE]
[SURVIVORS IN SECTOR: 1,402]
[TIME REMAINING UNTIL THE END OF THE FIRST NIGHT: 09H 42M]
Elias clenched his fists. His "Draugr Heart" was a joke compared to the power of the warriors over there. He was nothing. An insect that had just crawled out of its hole.
"We can't stay here," Elias said, watching the shadows converge on their position. "We need to find a place where the System can't scan us."
The hunt had only just begun.