Chapter 97: Faultline Rush
The tunnel changed texture before it changed shape.
The rock underfoot grew denser, darker, compressed under centuries of pressure rather than fractured by recent stress. The air felt heavier, stale, unmoving. Cream Puff's readings shifted accordingly, numbers flattening into tight bands.
Ava slowed the team with a raised fist.
They stopped.
Ahead, the passage narrowed into a hard converging point. A forced intersection where multiple paths met and pressed against each other without anywhere left to go.
Kael glanced at the rock walls, then at his scanner. "This is it."
Theo nodded once. "Everything we've been dealing with routes through here."
Brian exhaled slowly. "So this whole mess exists because this spot refuses to give."
"Correct," Cream Puff said. "Structural analysis indicates maximum strain transfer across this node. Continued activity will propagate instability outward indefinitely."
Zephyr stared down the passage. "Translation?"
