Seraphina fell back from the Runestone, landing hard on the cheap, thin carpet of the safe house. Her body was shaking violently.
The vision had been absolute. She hadn't just seen the cage; she had felt it.
She had felt the seven massive, S-Rank "anchors" that were embedded in the dimensional walls. She'd felt the power of Elias Thorne, the cold blade of Akira Ito, the unshakeable will of Valeria Rostova. They were not just leaders; they were plugs, holding back the screaming, chaotic abyss of the Bleed.
And she had watched, in agonizing slow motion, as Jera's action—trapping them in a pocket dimension—had ripped all seven anchors out at once.
The cage was not just cracked anymore. It was gaping.
She could feel the Bleed pouring in. She could smell it, a scent like ozone and burning blood, a smell she now recognized from the Blood Dungeon. It was seeping into the world through a thousand tiny, new fractures.
"He doesn't know," she whispered, her teeth chattering. "He's in that tunnel, hunting monsters, trying to level up... and he doesn't know."
He thought he had time. He thought he could fix this.
He had no time at all.
She looked at the locked door. Jera had told her to stay. To hide. To be safe.
But "safe" was gone. The entire world was now the Blood Dungeon.
She scrambled to her feet. She grabbed the D-Rank mana pistol he had given her. It felt heavy and cold in her trembling hand. She had never fired a gun in her life.
She didn't care.
"I have to warn him," she said, her voice a raw, terrified whisper.
She unlocked the deadbolt and ran out of the apartment, a lone, fragile woman running toward the monster-filled dungeon that the rest of the world was about to flee.
Jera was in his element. The panic was gone, burned away by the cleansing fire of combat and the blue, validating glow of his System.
[Level: 88]
He felt good. He felt in control.
His rage-fueled, $\times 955$ punch had collapsed a quarter-mile of tunnel, but it had also shown him the path. His new, compressed power was limitless. He just had to use it.
He was now in the deepest, final part of the Chicago Deep Tunnels. The air was thick with the A-Rank signatures of the dungeon's main nest.
Just twelve more levels, he thought, the "Cain Walker" mask firmly in place. Twelve more levels, and I'll Ascend. Then I'll be strong enough. Strong enough to find a new portal. Strong enough to force the Ascended out. Strong enough to fix...
He stopped that thought. He didn't want to think about the why. He just wanted to act.
He raised his fist, ready to deliver another tactical, dungeon-clearing nuke.
And then, his System flashed.
Not a level-up. Not a monster warning.
[SYSTEM ALERT: Multiple S-Rank signatures detected.]
[Signatures are 1.2 miles away. Surface level. They are... deploying.]
[WARNING: A high-energy, wide-band mana-suppression field is being activated. You are at the epicenter.]
Jera went perfectly still. "The Bureau."
Elara Kane. She had found him. She had bypassed the Chicago Bureau and sent her own S-Rank teams. They weren't just watching him anymore. They were containing him.
A cold flash of anger, the "Overlord" persona, flared in his mind. "Fools. You're in my way."
He could kill them. He could punch the ground, create a new tunnel, and be in Indiana in an hour. He was calculating the fastest escape route when a new sound made his blood freeze.
Thud-scramble-thud.
It was the sound of cheap, civilian shoes, slipping on the damp concrete.
From the tunnel behind him.
Jera spun around, his hand raised, his Core flaring, ready to annihilate whatever new threat was—
"JERA!"
Seraphina stumbled out of the darkness, her face streaked with tears and grime. She was holding the D-Rank pistol in her hand like a dead fish, her finger nowhere near the trigger. She was breathing in huge, panicked sobs.
"Seraphina?!"
The "Cain Walker" mask shattered. Jera's panic came flooding back, a thousand times worse, but it was not for the world. It was for her.
He crossed the 100-foot distance in a microsecond, appearing in front of her. He grabbed her by the shoulders, his voice his own, raw and terrified.
"What are you DOING?! I told you to stay! I told you to lock the door! This is an A-Rank nest! You could be killed!"
"I... I had to!" she gasped, her hands grabbing the front of his rig. "You don't understand! I... I used the Runestone! I saw it!"
"Saw what? Seraphina, the Bureau is up there! There are S-Ranks everywhere! We have to—"
"THEY DON'T MATTER!" she screamed, her voice cracking. "Listen to me! The Ascended! They weren't just leaders! They were seals! They were the anchors holding the dimensional walls together!"
Jera froze. "...what?"
"The cage! The one the Weavers built!" she cried, her violet eyes wide with the horror of her vision. "It's real! And the Ascended were the patches! By trapping them, Jera, you didn't just remove the guardians! You... you tore open the cage!"
Jera's mind went completely, utterly blank. The ground fell out from beneath him.
"...no..."
"It's happening!" Seraphina sobbed. "Right now! The Bleed... the Corruption... it's not seeping in anymore! It's pouring in! All over the world! You don't have time to level up! You have to—"
BEEEEEEEP.
A sound, louder than Seraphina's scream, more urgent than any alert, cut through the air.
It was Jera's System.
It was the same warning he had received in the Blood Dungeon.
[SYSTEM WARNING: CRITICAL THREAT!]
[Hostile, anti-systemic energy signature detected! Proximity: 40 meters!]
[WARNING: The Corruption is present in this dungeon!]
Jera slowly raised his head. He looked past Seraphina, down the dark, A-Rank tunnel.
He saw it.
The "A-Rank boss" of this dungeon... it wasn't a Shadow-Stalker.
A thick, oily, black tendril, the size of a bus, was slithering around the corner. It was pulsing with a sick, black light, and the concrete dissolved where it touched.
Seraphina's vision was real.
The cage was open.
The Bleed was here.
And he was standing at Ground Zero.