"Draw a line," Josh said, his voice tight. "Let us walk out of here, and we'll never come back to this gathering point. You want to play king? Fine. We won't get in your way."
Jin laughed. The sound was soft, almost friendly, but it made the hairs on the back of Josh's neck stand up.
"You think this is a game of house, Josh? You show up with gasoline and Molotovs, planning to burn me alive, and now you want to negotiate?"
Josh's jaw tightened. He knew Jin wouldn't let them go easily. But he had to try. His eyes darted to the stairwell, calculating distances, escape routes. If he could just get past Jin, get to the stairs—
"My Summon is First Order Mid now," Josh said, forcing confidence into his voice. "That's more than most people have. If you kill me, you lose that strength from our side. You need every Contractor you can get. There are monsters out there worse than anything we've seen. You know that. Without me, without my people, you're weaker."
He was stalling. Buying time. His hand found the grip of his weapon, slick with sweat.
"Wade, act!"
The shout was sudden, desperate. Josh's Summon lunged forward, moving faster than it had any right to. Its body had changed since the last time Jin had seen it—taller, more muscular, with bone-hard claws extending from its fingertips. The creature's maw opened wide, revealing rows of sharp, mucus-slicked teeth. Its eyes were empty, driven by nothing but hunger and the command of its Contractor.
It charged straight at Jin.
Behind it, Wade's Summon surged forward too, catching up a moment later. Two pale shapes moving through the dim corridor, claws raised, intent clear: kill the Contractor, end the Summon. It was a tactic Josh had planned for days—eliminate the source, and the weapon becomes useless.
"Claw Strike!"
Josh's command came sharp and focused. His Summon's claws sliced through the air with a sudden burst of speed, a skill Jin hadn't known it possessed. The strike was aimed at Fidex's face—a blow meant to blind, to disable, to kill. The air whistled as the claws cut through it, moving faster than anything that size should be able to move.
Fidex moved faster.
Its four arms folded together, two on two, forming a massive fist like a battering ram. The impact when it came down was devastating. Josh's Summon managed to graze Fidex's cheek—metal claws scraping against metal skin with a screech that echoed down the hallway, sparks flying in the darkness—before the hammer blow caught it square in the chest.
The creature slammed into the floor, concrete cracking beneath it. Dust and debris sprayed upward. Before it could rise, Fidex's foot came down on its spine. The crack of breaking bone was sharp and final, a sound that seemed to hang in the air.
Josh stared, his face a mask of disbelief. His Summon—his First Order Mid Summon, the thing he had sacrificed and starved and pushed to evolve—lay twitching on the ground, its back broken. Still alive, but barely. A ruined thing.
"That's not possible," Josh breathed. "It's First Order Mid—"
"First Order Mid," Jin said, stepping out from behind Fidex. "That was me two floors ago. Before the Spider Monster. Before the Brilliance Tree. You're fighting someone who has already climbed higher than you can imagine."
Josh's mouth opened, but no words came. For the first time since the fog descended, he understood the true gap between them. It wasn't a matter of luck or a hidden ring. Jin had simply kept climbing while Josh had stayed where he was, satisfied with scraps.
Wade's Summon was still coming, though—its momentum too great to stop. The creature dove at Jin, claws extended, jaws gaping. There was no strategy in its attack, only mindless obedience. Wade had screamed something, but the words were lost in the chaos.
Jin didn't move out of the way. He didn't summon Fidex to block. Instead, he raised the crowbar in his hand and swung.
The impact was brutal. The crowbar caught Wade's Summon across the skull with enough force to spin it in midair. Bone caved. The creature crashed to the ground in a heap, limbs splayed at unnatural angles. Jin stepped forward, brought the crowbar down once more on the back of its neck, and the creature went still.
Josh stared at the crumpled body of Wade's Summon, then at Jin. His voice came out hoarse, barely a whisper. "How? Your strength—it's not human. It's not even close to human."
Jin didn't answer. He just looked at Josh, and in that look was everything Josh had been too blind to see: the cold calculation of someone who had already decided how this would end, the absolute certainty of a man who had crossed too many lines to turn back.
Wade dropped to his knees. The sound of his knees hitting concrete was loud in the sudden silence. His face was wet, his breathing ragged.
"Please," he said, his voice cracking. "Please, spare me. It was all Josh—he planned everything. The ambush, the gasoline, everything. I just followed orders. I didn't want any part of this."
His words were a torrent, tumbling over each other in his desperation. "I'll do anything. I'll leave, I'll never come back, I'll tell everyone Josh was a madman. Just please, don't kill me. I have a family. They're still in the building. My mother, she's—"
"Shut up," Josh spat. But there was no venom in his voice. Only fear. His legs were shaking. He could feel the others looking at him—Wade, Chen Jun, Greg—and he saw in their eyes that they had already abandoned him in their hearts.
Jin looked at Wade for a long moment, then turned to Simon. "Tie them up. And break the limbs of their Summons. I don't want any surprises."
Chen Jun and Greg, who had been dragged out of the rooms by Mark and Lisa, went pale. Their Summons were still pinned, but for how long? They struggled against their captors, but it was useless. Mark's grip was iron. Lisa's Mutant Rat sat on her shoulder, watching with beady, unblinking eyes.
"Wait," Greg said, his voice high with panic. "Wait, we didn't—we were just following orders. Josh said you had something, some kind of secret, and we just wanted to survive. That's all. We didn't know he was going to—"
"Quiet," Simon said. His voice was flat, emotionless. His hands were rough as he bound their wrists and ankles, pulling the rope tight enough to bite into flesh. Behind him, Fidex moved through the corridor with methodical efficiency, finding each disabled Summon and twisting limbs until they bent in ways they weren't meant to. The cracks of breaking bone were sickening, one after another, but no one screamed. The Summons were beyond that now, their minds too broken to register pain.
When it was done, the six members of Josh's faction knelt in a row, their ruined Summons lying beside them like broken dolls. Wade was sobbing quietly. Greg had his eyes squeezed shut. Li Zijun stared at nothing. The young man—barely more than a boy—was shaking so hard his teeth chattered.
Lisa moved among them, stuffing cloth strips into their mouths. Josh tried to bite her once, and she responded by shoving the gag in deeper, until he gagged and choked, tears streaming down his face.
"Any last words?" Mark asked, looking at Josh with something that might have been satisfaction.
Josh's eyes were wild with fury and fear. He tried to speak, but the gag turned his words into muffled nonsense. His body strained against the ropes, veins bulging in his neck.
Jin ignored him, turning instead to the bound Contractors. His gaze moved over them, assessing, calculating. His fingers drummed once against the crowbar in his hand.
Then he pointed to Wade.
"We're going to do some experiments," Jin said, his voice calm and unhurried. "And you're going to help me."
Wade's sobs grew louder, muffled by the gag. His body trembled so violently that Simon had to hold him down.
Jin watched, his expression unchanged. The night was not over yet.