His chest tightened, his breath a ragged wheeze as the weight of the situation sank in. He could feel his heart pounding in his throat, suffocating him. The queen was still close. He had no doubt that now the queen’s mouth was his only destination

But as his eyes opened, he saw something the queen had stopped. No, not just stopped. It had been forced to halt, from the instance shaking for some reason.

The ground continued shaking in brutal intervals, the vibrations too intense.

“Dumbass, what are you doing? This is your chance, Ran.”

The familiar, gruff voice of his ancestor broke through the confusion like a whip-crack. Alexander’s mind snapped back into focus, adrenaline surging through his veins.

Right. Right... the chance.

He needed to move. He had no time to waste. The queen was still a threat, even if she was temporarily immobilized. And yet, Alexander’s legs felt like they were made of stone, each movement sluggish as he tried to push himself to his feet.

But the tremors didn’t stop. They grew worse, every second feeling like the earth was about to tear apart. Alexander gritted his teeth and forced himself up, only to stumble as another violent shake sent the ground beneath him into chaos. He fell again—hard—and slid face-first across the uneven rock floor, his hands scraping against the sharp edges.

“Get up, you idiot!” The voice in his head barked again, but this time, Alexander didn’t need the reminder. He was beyond that now.

His legs finally obeyed, his feet moving with the raw, desperate energy of survival. He ran—stumbling, sliding, and scraping his palms against the cold stone as he fought for every step— but he ran.

He didn't even have the luxury of thinking about how much his body ached or how his mind was barely clinging to consciousness. There was no time to pause, to think. Only forward, only escape.

But even as he felt a glimmer of hope, as he rounded another sharp corner in the winding tunnel, the ground beneath him gave a deafening crack.

No.

Alexander turned just in time to see the tunnel behind him collapse, rocks and debris tumbling from above, filling the passage he had just sprinted through. Dust rained down in sheets, clouding his vision and choking the air. His heart raced even faster now, panic beginning to claw at his insides.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

at this point the ground beneath him was latterly giving up. He saw dust raining down before but never thought this could happen.

Alexander threw everything he had into running, and somehow—miraculously—his legs obeyed. Every step was a battle, his muscles screaming, his breath ragged. He wasn’t just running from the collapsing tunnel; he was running from death itself. The queen was again right behind him, tearing through the earth like a force of nature, and the walls around him were crumbling faster than he could process.

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How the hell had he ended up like this? Maybe those old sayings had a point—greed truly was a sin.

The ground cracked beneath him, sending jagged stone and dirt flying as he stumbled. His foot caught on a loose rock, and before he could react, he was down—hitting the ground hard. Pain shot through his limbs, but he couldn’t afford to care. He clawed forward, scrambling like a madman, pushing himself upright and throwing his body into another desperate sprint. The tunnel itself was betraying him, collapsing bit by bit, forcing him to keep moving or get swallowed whole.

Then things went from bad to worse.

A chilling realization struck him—he could no longer see the queen behind him.

Fuc—

The curse never made it out.

From the side wall, with a thunderous explosion of stone and debris, the queen’s enormous, gaping maw tore through.

Alexander’s body moved before his mind even registered what was happening. He barely managed to throw himself into a sideways leap, the monstrous jaws missing him by a hair’s breadth. The sheer force of its emergence sent a shockwave rippling through the tunnel, flinging him through the air like a ragdoll. He hit the ground, rolled, but didn’t stop—not even for a second.

No thinking. No hesitation. Just run.

Behind him, like a nightmarish, living train, the queen's head burst from one wall, disappeared, then re-emerged from another. It was hunting him in a zigzag pattern, each impact obliterating the tunnel around them. Stone shattered, dust filled the air, and the very earth itself seemed to scream as the monstrous force tore through it.

Alexander risked a single glance over his shoulder—and that was enough.

Terror ignited his muscles, and he sprinted harder, pouring every last shred of willpower into his legs. He didn’t care about the searing pain, the cramps threatening to lock up his muscles, the ground shifting beneath him. He stepped on whatever he could—loose stones, broken debris, even the jagged walls if it meant moving faster. His body was running on sheer instinct now, pushing past all limits.

Then—just as his legs felt like they would finally give out—he saw it.

A glimmer of hope. A break in the suffocating darkness.

Light.

The tunnel sloped upward, forcing Alexander to push harder with every step. His legs burned, his breath came in ragged gasps, but he had no choice—he had to keep moving. And it seemed the queen knew that too.

The rumbling deepened.

The ground quaked harder.

Its speed increased.

Alexander gritted his teeth. He had noticed something earlier—the farther he moved, the more the queen’s speed had dwindled. But now, just as he was nearing the tunnel’s exit, it suddenly surged forward again.

Everything shook violently as he climbed higher. Loose stone and dust poured from the ceiling in thick sheets, vines snapped under his hands as he tore through them. He barely noticed. His focus was singular—escape.

9 meters.

8.

6

5

Then—

A monstrous shadow.

The queen lunged from above out of nowhere the colossal body twisting through the tunnel like a living avalanche, her gaping maw yawning wide, ready to devour him whole.

Alexander’s eyes widened. His pulse roared in his ears. His mind blanked.

Instinct took over.

His back leg was still grounded—he shoved all his power into it and—

Boom!

Alexander shot forward like a cannonball.

A shockwave exploded from the spot where he stood. The ground beneath him shattered, cracks splintering outward like jagged lightning. The tunnel groaned as dust and debris erupted into the air, swallowing everything in a storm of chaos.

And then—

The queen’s jaws snapped shut on nothing but empty air.

The very ground where Alexander had stood just seconds ago collapsed in one massive gulp, devoured in an instant.

Alexander’s eyes had been clenched shut as he pushed off with every ounce of strength he had. And when he opened them—

First came the blinding light.

Then—weightlessness.

Alexander felt his stomach lurch as he was hurled through the air, flung out of the cave like a stone from a slingshot.

“AHHHHHHHHH!”

The scream tore from his throat, but before he could even process what was happening—

A sudden, white-hot pain ripped through his leg.

His breath hitched, his body tensed. He forced his gaze downward, and his stomach twisted. His right leg—soaked in blood. It dripped from him like sweat, running in thick streams, staining the air with the sharp scent of iron.

And then—

He started falling.

Wind roared past his ears, his body twisting, weightless, and helpless. But even that didn’t matter because—

BOOM!

The cave he had just escaped from detonated in an explosion of dust and shattered rock. A deafening crack split the sky, the force sending debris flying like shrapnel.

And from the chaos—

The queen emerged.

It didn’t just crawl out—it erupted. A monstrous form tearing free from the collapsing ruin, dust rolling off its body in thick waves. Its shriek split the air, high-pitched, unnatural, the kind of sound that scraped against the bones.

Alexander gasped, his lungs burning as he sucked in air. His body was still plummeting, but his thoughts locked onto the queen as it twisted its massive head, its many eyes finding him in an instant.

And then—

The world darkened.

A massive shadow blackened him and everting around him .