Night had fallen completely, cloaking the forest in near-total darkness. Only Daniel’s faint blue aura cut through the shadows as he walked beside Natalie and Adrian, the three of them moving cautiously toward the east, following the trace of the Genesis fragment they had contained earlier. Each step seemed heavier than the last, the forest itself almost aware of their mission.
“We should set a perimeter,” Adrian muttered, crouching behind a fallen log. He pulled out a compact scanner, sweeping the area for residual energy spikes. “Whatever survived the last encounter, it’s regrouping. I can feel it — small pulses, fragmented signals.”
Natalie tightened her grip on her weapon, eyes scanning the surrounding trees. “How many of them do you think there are now?”
Daniel’s glowing hand hover
