Sewer Rat Evolution

The Hive is expanding.

R-1T and his pack cross the Old Sector boundary and step into the Hive proper, where the walls breathe resin and the air itself carries commands.
Corridors regrow behind them. Exits vanish. Every wrong turn becomes a funnel into certain death.

Then the surface breaks open.

A salvage crew drops into the sewers with anti-magic lanterns and null rods, hunting resin and lost arcane tech.
Their presence makes R-1T's senses stutter and turns the Hive into a war machine on full alert. The Queen does not rush to kill the intruders. She herds them, using them as moving bait to drag R-1T deeper into her throne route.

Worse, she reaches for his bond, twisting pack signals into lies, flooding him with phantom pain, trying to make him issue the one command that will get his own rats killed.

Only Runt can keep him anchored.
Only the pack can survive long enough to reach the resin cathedral where the Queen waits, surrounded by living relays and royal guards, with three factions ready to collide in one brutal, final fight.

Down here, the last evolution is not power.

It is leadership.