Chapter 40 - I Ran Across the City With No Qi Left
Eli ran.
Four miles uphill.
Qi Gathering VIII made him fast.
Exhaustion made him human.
By mile two, his qi was empty.
By mile three, his lungs burned.
The system stopped offering jokes.
Maya stayed on the phone.
“Seven minutes.”
Eli ran harder.
The Beggar’s Loop pulled crumbs from everywhere.
A passing bus.
A neon sign.
His own heartbeat.
Trash qi.
Tiny amounts.
Enough.
He reached the hospital with ninety seconds left.
A black spirit shaped like a centipede had wrapped around the main ward pillar.
Maya stood beneath it, bleeding from one hand.
“You look terrible,” she said.
“You too.”
“Thanks.”
Together they attacked.
Maya’s fire drove the creature away from the pillar.
Eli used Flow Step to climb the ward structure itself.
The centipede struck.
He redirected the head with Borrowed Force.
Maya detonated three talismans inside its mouth.
The creature dissolved.
The ward stabilized.
Eli dropped from the pillar and lay on the sidewalk.
Maya lay beside him.
For thirty seconds they stared at the sky.
Then she said, “You know this is not normal college life.”
“I suspected.”
His phone buzzed.
[MAJOR CITY QUEST PROGRESS: 74%]
Then Elias spoke.
“The prison is not the source.”
Eli sat up.
“What?”
“The city breach is being fed from somewhere else.”
A map appeared.
One point glowed red.
May you like
Vane Foundation headquarters.
