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Chapter 41 – Ash in the Rain
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The rain had turned the city into a watercolor nightmare—its streets smeared with reflections of red and gold from burning rooftops, its alleys washed in a dim, flickering haze.
Dante’s boots splashed through the shallow rivers running along the cracked asphalt, his pulse pounding in sync with the thunder that rolled somewhere far behind them. Ahead, Aria’s breathing was ragged, though her steps never faltered. Lira moved like a shadow to their right, her rifle angled down but her eyes darting everywhere, scanning for movement beyond the veil of rain.
The comms in Dante’s ear were static-filled whispers, the last coherent feed from the Eastbridge uplink cutting out ten minutes ago. That silence was worse than the rain—it meant they were truly on th
