Chapter Six: The Awakening Beneath the Hospital
The floor vibrated.
Just slightly at first—like a distant engine humming somewhere under the earth. But Aiden felt it. His Heavenly senses sharpened instantly.
He froze on the staircase.
"…What was that?" he whispered.
The System responded after a delay—longer than usual.
Too long.
Aiden's breath tightened. "Unknown? Seriously?"
The System never used question marks.
Unless the threat was beyond its current calculation range.
He rushed down the stairs.
"Dara! Maya! We're leaving—NOW!"
But as he reached the first floor landing—
The lights exploded.
POP—POP—POP—!!
Sparks rained like electric snow. The hallway plunged into strobing red emergency light, alarms blaring weakly through damaged speakers.
Maya screamed, covering her ears.
Dara flinched, pulling her behind him. "Bro—what the hell is happening?!"
Aiden opened his mouth—
But then he felt it.
A pulse of cold air rolled through the hospital. Not wind. Not movement.
Something else.
A presence.
Aiden's Heavenly energy instinctively flared, his golden aura wrapping around Maya and Dara protectively.
The System chimed again—its voice distorted.
Aiden's eyes shot wide open.
"...No way."
He turned toward the staircase leading down—toward the basement.
Cracks were forming along the tiles. The walls began to vibrate. Something was waking up beneath them. Something connected to the Stalker's core fragment that had slipped away.
A whisper echoed through the halls.
Not a voice.
Not human.
A resonance—like metal being pulled apart.
Grrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhh…
Dara stepped back. "N–No. I don't like that. I REALLY don't like that."
Aiden stepped forward, pulling Maya behind him.
"Dara—get her outside. Now."
Dara hesitated. "Bro—"
"GO!"
Dara obeyed instantly, scooping Maya into his arms and sprinting toward the exit.
Aiden turned to face the basement door.
His heartbeat slowed.
Golden light flowed into his fist.
Whatever was coming—
He'd face it alone.
BOOOOM!
The basement door blasted off its hinges. A swirling cloud of blue bio-energy shot upward, wrapping around the ceiling like demonic mist.
Then—
A shape rose from the broken stairwell.
First an arm.
Then another.
Longer than a human's.
Thinner.
Twisted.
Covered in blue-glowing tendrils similar to the Stalker—but more stable. More refined.
The creature pulled itself up onto the floor.
Aiden stepped back.
"What… are you…?"
The System struggled to identify it, glitching again.
The creature raised its head.
Its eyes were sunken. Hollow.
And yet burning with an intelligence sharper than the original Stalker.
"…Celestial…" it whispered in a voice like shattering glass. "…Your light destroyed my first shell…"
It took a single step.
The floor cracked.
"…So I built a better one."
Aiden clenched his jaw.
His Heavenly aura brightened.
"You should've stayed dead."
The creature smiled.
"…I did. But thanks to you—"
Its body flared with blue electricity.
"—I learned how to come back stronger."
It vanished.
Faster than the previous one.
Faster than Aiden could track.
SHHHHHK!
Aiden barely blocked the strike—his arm stinging from the impact.
The force sent him crashing into a wall.
The Stalker Prime tilted its head.
"…Your fear tastes richer this time…"
Aiden wiped blood from his lip.
"No more fear."
He activated Radiant Pulse—
But the creature simply melted backward, its body liquefying into thin tendrils that wrapped around the ceiling.
"…I adapted to that too… Celestial…"
Aiden's stomach sank.
It had evolved past the counter-skill.
This fight would be different—far worse.
The creature lunged again—
But Aiden's Heavenly Strike met it head-on.
Golden and blue collided, the shockwave shattering nearby windows.
The Prime Stalker grinned, its jaw unhinging impossibly wide.
"…Let's see…" it whispered, claws stretching. "…how long you survive alone…"
Aiden's eyes narrowed.
"I'm not alone."
He summoned his Heavenly energy into his arm—forming a faint wing-shaped sigil behind him.
He launched forward.
They clashed in a burst of pure light.
Cracks split across the floor.
The hospital trembled.
And beneath it all—
Something deeper stirred.
Another presence.
Another heartbeat.
Something even worse than the Prime Stalker.
The hospital was not done awakening.