Chapter 86: The City of Bones

Paris, France. The Catacombs (Restricted Sector). Midnight.

They didn't go to a hotel. They went straight underground. Paris, the City of Light, sits on top of a dark kingdom. Six million skeletons stacked in endless tunnels. The Empire of the Dead.

Jack broke the padlock on a rusted service gate in the 14th Arrondissement. "I hate tunnels," Jack grunted, checking his flashlight. "Give me a forest any day. Trees don't watch you."

"These bones are just calcium," Dr. Braun said nervously, clutching his med-kit. "They can't watch anything."

"Quiet," Sebastian ordered. He was leaning against the damp limestone wall. He looked... feverish. His eyes weren't glowing gold anymore, but his pupils were blown wide. He was sweating cold sweat.

Sebastian... A voice echoed in his skull. It wasn't Harper's. It sounded like grinding stones. Come back... We are not finished...

"Get out of my head!" Sebastian growled, punching the wall.

"Sebastian?" Harper touched his arm. "Who are you talking to?"

Sebastian flinched. He looked at her. For a second, he didn't see Harper. He saw a being made of blue light. Then, his vision cleared. "Thorne," Sebastian whispered. "He's not dead. The Source... it changed him." "He's calling me."

---

[The Navigator]

Catherine sat in her wheelchair (which Jack had miraculously maneuvered down the spiral stairs). She wasn't humming anymore. She was lucid. Terrifyingly lucid.

"The voices will get louder," Catherine said softly. "The closer you get to the Nullifier, the more the Source will scream." "It knows we are here to kill it."

"Where is this Nullifier?" Harper asked. "These tunnels go on for miles."

Catherine pointed to a skull embedded in the wall of femurs. It had a symbol carved into its forehead: A Cross with a Serpent wrapped around it. The Sterling Family Crest. But ancient.

"Follow the Serpent," Catherine said.

They moved deeper. The air grew thin. The tourists never came this far. The bones here were arranged in strange, occult patterns. Spirals. fractals. It wasn't just a graveyard. It was a Circuit Board. The bones were arranged to channel energy.

---

[The Hallucination]

Sebastian walked in the rear. Every step was a battle. The shadows seemed to move. The skulls seemed to turn and look at him.

Why do you resist, Sebastian? Thorne's voice was clear now. Suave. Educated. You felt the power in the cave. Unlimited. Eternal. You are broken. Your legs are weak. Your heart is scarred. Let me fix you.

"I am not broken," Sebastian muttered, gripping his Glock (taken from the mercenaries). "I am... vintage."

Vintage is just a polite word for obsolete. Suddenly, Sebastian saw Thorne standing in the tunnel ahead. But half of Thorne’s face was crystallized. Blue shards of meteorite grew out of his skull like a crown.

"You're not real," Sebastian raised his gun.

"Are you sure?" The hallucination of Thorne smiled. He lunged.

BANG. Sebastian fired. The bullet hit the limestone wall. Sparks flew. There was no one there.

"Sebastian!" Harper ran back to him. "Stop! It's just a shadow!"

Sebastian was shaking, aiming at empty air. "He was here. I saw him."

Harper grabbed his face. "Look at me. Not at the shadows. Look at me." She kissed him. Her lips were warm. Real. The icy voice in his head receded.

"Stay with me," Harper whispered. "We are almost there."

---

[The Ossuary]

They reached a circular chamber. The walls were lined with skulls from floor to ceiling. Thousands of them. In the center of the room stood a massive device. It looked like a church organ made of brass and crystal. But instead of pipes, it had tuning forks. Giant, metal forks designed to resonate.

The Nullifier.

"It's a sonic weapon," Braun realized, running his hand over the brass gears. "Resonance frequency. If you hit the right note, you can shatter glass. Or... shatter a crystal meteorite."

"The Templars built this to destroy the Source if it ever got out of control," Catherine said. "But they never used it. They were too afraid."

"How do we turn it on?" Jack asked. "I don't see an 'On' switch."

"It doesn't run on electricity," Sebastian walked toward the machine. The voices in his head were screaming now, a cacophony of pain. STOP! DON'T TOUCH IT!

"It runs on kinetic energy," Sebastian pointed to a massive crank wheel. "And biological input." There was a handprint scanner on the console. A needle inside. Another blood lock.

"Harper," Sebastian said. "It needs the Key."

---

[The Siege]

Harper stepped forward. But before she could touch the machine, the tunnel behind them exploded. BOOM.

Bones flew like shrapnel. Dust filled the room. Through the haze, figures emerged. They weren't men. They weren't machines. They were... The Hollows.

Syndicate soldiers who had been exposed to the raw radiation of the Source in Avignon. Their skin was grey. Their veins glowed blue. They didn't carry guns. They carried axes and hammers. They were mindless, pain-free berserkers.

And leading them was a hologram projected from a drone. Dr. Thorne. His face was indeed half-crystallized, just like in Sebastian's vision.

"You can't stop evolution, Mr. Sterling," Thorne’s digital voice boomed. "Tear them apart."

The Hollows charged.

"Jack! Braun! Hold them back!" Sebastian yelled. "Harper! Activate the machine!"

Jack opened fire with his shotgun. BOOM. CLICK-CLACK. BOOM. The slugs hit the Hollows, blowing holes in their chests. But they didn't stop. They didn't bleed. They just kept coming.

"They are zombies!" Jack screamed, reloading. "Tech-zombies!"

Sebastian didn't have a weapon heavy enough. He looked at the Nullifier. He looked at Harper. "Do it!"

Harper slammed her hand onto the needle. STAB. The machine woke up. HUUUUUUUM. A low, deep vibration began to fill the room. The skulls on the walls started to chatter.

"It needs time to charge!" Braun yelled, throwing a Molotov cocktail (made from rubbing alcohol) at the horde. "We have to buy her two minutes!"

Sebastian stood between the horde and Harper. He had no armor. No exoskeleton. Just a handgun and his fists. But he had something else. He let the connection open. He let the gold fire into his eyes. He tapped into the link with the Source.

"You want evolution?" Sebastian growled at the charging monsters. "Come and get it."

(End of Chapter 86)