By the time Nioh reached the exit tunnel, Althea was already setting the final explosive charges.
"Where is the thing?" she asked, eyes fixed on the timer.
"Dead… or delayed." Nioh replied, climbing up the jagged shaft without another word.
Althea followed close behind. Moments later, daylight greeted them—cold and gray, like judgment. Akron was already at the top, waiting anxiously at the exit ridge.
"Step back," he ordered, motioning for the survivors to clear the tunnel mouth.
A muffled explosion thundered from beneath, swallowed by the earth's mantle. The lab collapsed in on itself, burying everything it held—data, bodies, sins.
Silence followed.
"I killed them... It's all my fault..." Aldoh muttered in a daze. He rocked back and forth, repeating the phrase like a broken machine.
Akron took a step toward him—maybe to offer some comfort—but someone else moved first.
A gunshot rang out.
