جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 20

The Science Tower basement smelled of chemicals, ozone, and fear.Dim red emergency lights illuminated rows of shattered lab equipment and overturned workstations. In the center of the largest room, a makeshift barricade of desks and filing cabinets had been pushed together. Behind it, five terrified human students stared at the trio with wide, desperate eyes.“Thank God,” a young woman with glasses whispered. “You’re not… like them.”Kael stepped forward, scanning the group carefully. “How long have you been down here?”“Since the first night,” a tall boy answered. “We blocked the doors when the screaming started. We thought help would come…”Serena felt it immediately — a wrongness in the air. One of the boys in the back was sweating heavily, his eyes slightly too bright. She said nothing yet, but exchanged a quick glance with Damien.The TrapThey shared what little food and water the survivors had. For twenty minutes, it almost felt normal — five scared humans and three supernatur

Dawn broke over Blackthorn University like a wound — pale light revealing the full horror of the campus. Smoke rose from multiple buildings. The quad was a graveyard of bodies and broken dreams.“We can’t reach the Nexus like this,” Serena said, her voice still weak from the rooftop battle. “I need herbs, crystals, and ritual components. You two need food and real weapons. The University Store and Cafeteria building has a stockroom that might still be intact.”Kael nodded, jaw set. “In and out. No heroics.”Damien checked the shadows. “Famous last words.”They moved at first light, sticking to cover, the three of them functioning like a well-oiled unit. Kael in front, Serena in the middle, Damien guarding the rear. Their bond had grown so strong that they barely needed words anymore — a glance, a gesture, a touch was enough.The University Store & Cafeteria complex looked deceptively quiet.They slipped through a shattered glass door into the main store area. Shelves had been toppled,

The ancient stone stairs descending into the Nexus had been a trap.The coordinated infected — former senior students and professors with unnaturally intelligent red eyes — ambushed them the moment they reached the bottom. The trio was forced to divert into the adjacent Grand Lecture Hall building to escape the main horde.The massive auditorium-style lecture hall was a slaughterhouse of memories.Rows of tiered seats stretched down toward a blood-splattered stage. Projector screens hung torn and flickering. Notebooks and laptops lay abandoned on desks where students had once taken midterms and flirted during boring lectures.“They’re herding us,” Serena panted as they barricaded the heavy double doors. “The virus is learning.”Kael slammed a final desk against the entrance. “Then we make our stand here.”Lecture Hall MassacreThe doors exploded inward minutes later.Dozens of infected poured in — many still wearing Blackthorn hoodies and backpacks. Among them were faces the trio reco

The fusion creature’s taunting voices still echoed in their ears as they slipped away from the main path, taking a hidden maintenance route toward the Nexus. The brief sanctuary in the observatory had restored some of their strength, but more importantly — it had cracked open the final walls between them.They found another temporary shelter in the old Greenhouse attached to the central gardens — a glass-domed structure mostly intact, filled with glowing bioluminescent plants that had somehow survived the chaos. Moonlight filtered through the cracked glass, painting everything in soft silver and violet hues.For the first time, they didn’t immediately set up defenses.They just… stopped.Confessions Under GlassKael sat on the wide wooden workbench, pulling Serena onto his lap. Damien leaned against the table beside them, his long fingers gently stroking Serena’s arm.“I’m scared,” Serena admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “Not of dying. I’m scared of what we’ll become after

The tunnel leading to the Nexus seemed endless.After Professor Alden’s betrayal, the three moved in heavy silence, the weight of constant loss pressing down on them. Serena walked between Kael and Damien, still pale from the poison but determined. The glowing runes on the tunnel walls pulsed brighter the deeper they went.“We need one final ingredient,” Serena said quietly. “Moonbloom petals. They only grow in the ancient grove beneath the gardens. The Nexus won’t activate fully without them.”Kael nodded. “Then we hunt.”Into the DarkThey emerged into an underground cavern system lit only by faint bioluminescent fungi and the blood moon’s light filtering through cracks in the ceiling. The “Night Hunt” had begun.The grove was beautiful once — a sacred place where witches performed rituals under the full moon. Now it was a hunting ground.Twisted vines with thorns like fangs covered the ground. In the center grew a single cluster of Moonbloom flowers, glowing soft silver.But they w