As we kept working on the wheelchair, Marlen came over to me. Her voice was quiet.
"Leader… the Fire Cycle. It's started."
She lifted her Synwatch and played the live feed. Outside, the sky had turned red not just bright or warm, but the kind of red that looked alive. The kind that bled. The forest swirled with smoke, waves of heat rising and blurring everything in sight.
I stood and wiped my hands, turning toward the wall display.
"How's the stronghold holding?"
"It's holding, but just barely," Marlen said as she pointed to the hologram. "The turrets and wall systems — anything with a circuit — are starting to overheat. If the core temperature rises much higher…"
I turned toward the nearest window. The red light burned through the haze, lighting up the cracks on the tile floor. My Mythrigan activated as I pulled on the last bits of my mana and pushed it outward.
