The night wind howled past his ears.
Yue Xiaofei had never run so fast. His lungs felt as though they were burning, and his legs were as heavy as lead.
But his instinct to survive, and Han Xiao's desperate roar, drove him onward without a moment's pause.
He burst out of the cordoned-off street and turned down one alley after another.
Behind him, the fierce gunfire and thunderous clang of metal gradually faded.
The blonde girl named Anna did not seem to be following him.
Yet something about everything around him felt indescribably wrong.
It was too quiet!
This was Modu, the Dragon Kingdom's busiest international metropolis. Even late at night, the streets should have been full of traffic and people.
But he had crossed several major roads without seeing a single car or person.
Only the neon lights on the high-rises flashed mechanically, casting shifting colors across the dead city. It looked like a magnificent, hollow tomb.
It was as though he had stumbled into another dimension, a ghost city cut off from the real world.
He pulled out his phone. The glaring "No Service" icon still sat in the upper-left corner of the screen.
He could not contact anyone.
Dead silence.
Apart from his ragged breathing and frantic heartbeat, there was not another sound in the world.
"Caw—caw—caw—"
Just then, a hoarse crow's call came from overhead.
Yue Xiaofei jerked his head up. A jet-black raven circled above him, its beady eyes fixed on him with an almost human look of mockery.
It was that girl's raven!
It was watching him!
A surge of terror raced up Yue Xiaofei's spine and into his skull.
"Damn it!"
He cursed and ran faster, trying to shake off the ominous bird.
He had no idea how long he ran. Ten minutes?