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## Chapter 24: The Legacy Awakens
The ground bucked, throwing Cade's strike team off balance. The screech, raw and metallic, pulsed through their armor's comms, tearing at their very core. This was no Unbound. The thought was a cold, certain clarity in Cade's mind, overriding the instinctive fear that would seize anyone else. This was something ancient, something that resonated with the very core of the locket's power.
From the swirling dust and light, a titanic form began to coalesce. It was vaguely humanoid, towering over twenty meters, but composed of interlocking obsidian plates that seemed to absorb all light, reflecting only jagged, crimson energy from within its seams. It had no discernible organic features; it was a construct, an immense, forgotten automaton. Two colossal, multi-jointed arms ended in crushing fists, and its head was a featureless, terrifying mask from which the piercing, metallic shriek emanated.
"Identify!" Seraphina's voice, usually so composed, was strained with disbelief over the comms. "It's not in any Unbound classification! Its energy signature is… impossible!"
"Commander Valerius, we have an unknown, non-organic entity emerging!" Lyra yelled, her voice laced with fear. "Massive, hostile, energy readings off the charts!"
Cade's internal nanite sensors were screaming. This was it. This was the source of the anomalous energy signature, the recurring pattern in the ancient data. This was a relic from the time of the Great Rending, perhaps even older. A **Legacy Construct**.
The colossal automaton took a step, the ground groaning under its weight, sending another tremor through the Wastes. Its head tilted, and a beam of crimson energy, impossibly wide, erupted from its mask, sweeping across the desolate landscape. Where it touched, the very earth fissured and glowed with residual heat.
"Evade! Scatter!" Seraphina commanded, her training kicking in despite her shock. "Its attack pattern is raw energy projection! We need to assess its weak points!" She opened fire with her heavy cannons, their energy blasts impacting the obsidian plates with barely a flicker of effect. Lyra darted, weaving through the terrain, launching agile counter-attacks.
Cade didn't scatter. He felt a strange pull, a recognition, from the Legacy Construct. The locket on his wrist thrummed, a low, resonant vibration against his skin. This wasn't just an enemy; it was a forgotten piece of his own past, a technological ghost. His Battle Armor instincts screamed to analyze and adapt.
"Its armor is deflecting all standard energy weapons!" Lyra cried, her attacks useless.
"Focus on its joints!" Seraphina ordered, switching her fire to the automaton's massive knee. "It has to have structural weak points!"
As they desperately tried to find purchase, the Legacy Construct turned its featureless head towards them. Another crimson beam began to charge.
Cade knew what he had to do. His Null Armor shimmered, drawing on the reserves he'd been building. He bypassed the usual weapon manifestations. Instead, he channeled raw nanite energy directly from his core, focusing it into a single, intricate **energy frequency**. This was the culmination of his research into the Unbound's systemic weaknesses, but applied to something far more ancient and, paradoxically, more *mechanical*.
"No! Cade, don't engage!" Seraphina screamed, seeing his posture, sensing his defiance. "You heard the Commander! Recon only! What are you doing?!"
Ignoring her, Cade launched himself forward, a dark blur against the desolate ground. The crimson beam erupted from the Construct, tearing a furrow in the earth where he had just been. He moved with a liquid grace, an unpredictable dance, closing the distance to the colossal automaton.
As he closed in, he thrust his arm forward. A wave of invisible nanites, infused with the precise, ancient frequency, washed over the Legacy Construct. It wasn't an attack designed to destroy its physical form, but to disrupt its fundamental operating matrix.
The massive automaton shuddered. Its crimson lights flickered erratically. The piercing screech intensified for a moment, then warped into a stuttering, desperate wail. The obsidian plates began to *vibrate*, not from impact, but from an internal dissonance. Cracks, thin as spiderwebs, raced across its surface, glowing with the same unnatural light that had momentarily pulsed from Cade's armor.
"What is he doing?!" Lyra gasped, watching in disbelief.
Seraphina's eyes, wide with a mixture of terror and dawning comprehension, were fixed on Cade. She had seen the shimmering, the *wrongness* of his armor. Now, she was seeing its effect on something equally alien. The Legacy Construct was literally coming apart from within, not by force, but by some unseen, fundamental attack. It wasn't being destroyed; it was being *unmade*.
The colossal automaton roared one last, fragmented sound, then began to crumble. Its obsidian plates shattered inwards, its crimson light dying, until the towering form collapsed into a cascade of dust and inert, crystalline fragments.
A profound silence fell over the Whispering Wastes, broken only by the rapid breathing of the Battle Armor Masters. Lyra and Seraphina stood frozen, staring at the dust cloud where the impossible entity had been.
Cade stood amidst the dissipating dust, his Null Armor shimmering faintly, having expended a significant portion of its reserves. He felt the residual energy of the Construct, a faint echo of the immense, ancient power that had once animated it. He had done it. He had unmade something that defied their understanding, using a power they didn't even know existed.
He turned to face Seraphina, his expression calm, triumphant. The anger, the fear, the confusion on her face. She had no words. Her scientific mind, so reliant on known principles, had just witnessed something that shattered every one of them.
This wasn't just a mission. This was his statement. The forgotten Mechanic Master had faced a forgotten legacy, and the world had just seen a glimpse of its true power.
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