The vent cover groaned open. Copper-colored moonlight drenched the wasteland—not gentle illumination, but a radioactive smear across dead earth. Lupus-0 pushed Xiao Man behind him, but seven red laser dots already danced on her chest like hungry insects.
Shepherd Hounds emerged from skeletal brush. These weren't the tunnel models. Reinforced ceramite armor covered their frames, and the leader's neck bristled with jagged shards of its fallen packmate. From its chest cavity protruded a spinning chainsaw blade, teeth screaming like damned souls.
**[TARGET CONFIRMED: LULLABY PATHOGEN CARRIER]**
**[PURIFICATION PROTOCOL: NAPALM IMMOLATION]**
Viscous fluid jetted from hound muzzles. The stench—gasoline and rotting meat—clung to Lupus-0's tongue.
*"NO!"* The cry came not from Lupus-0, but from the air itself. γ-7's ghost-fire erupted in a wall of cobalt flame. Her spectral wings spread wide—transparent yet solid enough to catch the napalm.
*WHOOMF!* Liquid fire engulfed her spirit-form.
*"Mommy!"* Xiao Man lunged. Lupus-0's jaws snapped shut on her collar, fangs barely missing skin.
γ-7 turned. Her phantom body was melting like candle wax under the inferno, features blurring. *"The... drawing..."* Her voice guttered. *"Finish our rainbow... under a real sky..."*
Chainsaws shrieked. The lead hound tore through the disintegrating fire-shield.
γ-7 did not dodge. She pressed translucent hands to her chest—where a human heart would beat. *"Lullaby..."* Her voice gained terrible power. *"...time to WAKE UP!"*
Her spirit collapsed inward. For a nanosecond, a miniature star burned where she'd stood—then exploded.
**Lightning without sound.**
**Heat without fire.**
The blast wave lifted Lupus-0 and Xiao Man like dry leaves. He curled his body around hers as they tumbled across asphalt. Rocks became shrapnel, flaying the armor from his back. Raw muscle glistened under the blood moon—and where moonlight touched, *cells writhed*. Tendons snaked across exposed ribs. Skin crawled over wounds like time-lapse ivy. Healing, but at a cost—every regenerating nerve shrieked.
He raised his head. Where γ-7 had detonated, burning phosphorus traced a comet's path across the waste. It arrowed toward a distant road sign:
**WIND CITY - 205km**
At the arrow's tip, embedded in cracked asphalt like a grave marker:
**γ-7's charred middle finger bone, pointing the way.**
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