I forced myself to draw water through my gills in steady pulls, yet the fused mana-core ahead of us made each breath feel stolen. The sphere hovered in the centre of the antechamber, throbbing with light the colour of wounded coral. Dozens of stolen organs covered its surface, each one beating out of sync until they merged in a single, hypnotic pulse. With every throb the current thickened, tugging at the new organ in my chest, whispering that I belonged inside that glow.
Complete the circuit, the core seemed to murmur, feed and be fed.
Veshra slipped a mirror-patch from her belt, the last one she carried. She pressed the film against curved stone, angling it toward the sphere. Prismatic reflections spilled into the water, momentarily diffusing the core's lure. I exhaled, forcing a measure of calm into veins that still pulsed too brightly.
"We have minutes," Veshra said, voice low. "Sentinels woke when the lattice cracked. They will seal this level if we linger."
I nodded, yet my gaze stayed on the sphere. Power radiated from it, raw and tempting. With strength like that I could shield the Spiral Run, hold drills at bay, perhaps even shape currents large enough to turn battle tides. The thought scared me almost as much as the core itself. Hubris had built this monstrosity, and hubris could swallow me if I reached for it.
A faint glyph ping tickled my senses. I flicked a finger, decoding Yera's emergency pattern. Wounded stable, pinned near drill shaft, enemy closing. Her symbol pulsed twice, urgent but not panicked. Relief mingled with dread. She was alive, yet trapped.
Veshra checked her small slate, eyes narrowing. "Two escape corridors left open," she said, "one leads back to the reef, the other reaches your commander." She traced lines that glowed briefly on the screen, then looked up. "If we divert to rescue them, we may lose the telemetry shard."
I closed fingers around the pouch at my belt, feeling the shard's sharp edges. Duty pulled both ways. Leave Yera, lose trust; abandon the data, doom the reef to repeat this nightmare. My mind flashed to the hatchling in the nursery dome, tiny hand pressed to glass. I shook my head. "We save them," I said. "All of us leave or none."
Something softened in Veshra's gaze. "Then follow," she answered, no hesitation left.
She pivoted toward a narrow conduit lined with coolant veins. Water there flowed slower, heavy with chilled chemicals. The moment we entered, icy sting seeped into my scales. My gills ached, pulling frigid water that numbed my throat. I clenched teeth, curling tail in shorter strokes to conserve warmth. The organ in my chest pulsed harder, trying to keep blood from thickening.
Half-functioning mech arms hung from maintenance alcoves, twitching like broken crustaceans. As we slipped past, one jerked awake, metal claw lashing. I shaped a tight water filament, snapping it across hydraulic tendons. The arm sagged, inert, and we drifted onward before it could rouse again. Mana burned inside me, heat clashing against coolant chill, leaving my muscles trembling.
A glow flickered ahead. We emerged into a fractured shaft where Yera braced against a toppled strut, injured Watcher pinned behind her. Stone dust clouded the water, and sparks drifted from a torn cable. Two sentinels stalked the opposite ledge, runes flaring bright.
Veshra acted first, snapping her mirrored patch open like a fan. Silver light scattered, painting false targets in every direction. Sentinels' visors swung wide. Yera seized the moment, driving her spear into a cable hub. Electricity arced across stone, stunning both constructs. I lunged, forming twin currents that slammed the sentinels backward. Their limbs locked in seizure, runes guttering.
Veshra slid in behind Yera, placing small hydraulic wedges. With one push the strut lifted, freeing the trapped Watcher. He grimaced, tail torn but usable. Blood floated in thin ribbons.
Gratitude flashed in Yera's eyes, but urgency replaced it just as quickly. "Core chamber destabilised," she said, "we felt the shift. What did you do?"
"Cracked the coolant," I answered, gills flaring with each breath of cold. "Sent core into feedback, but the sphere is still alive." I handed her the telemetry shard. "Council needs that data. You take the wounded and run for the reef."
Yera hesitated, reading the exhaustion etched in every tremor of my fingers. "And you?"
Veshra touched the mirrored patch, now dim and useless. "We end the sphere," she said. "Otherwise the drills will restart." Her gaze found mine. "Your organ is the only current strong enough to trigger feedback."
Yera's mouth tightened. She scanned the dim corridor behind us, then cracked a glow bead, handing it to the injured Watcher. "Get this to Vonn," she ordered. "If the reef trembles, tell them we are still below." She clasped my shoulder, firm and warm despite the water's chill. "Guide the current, Kaelen," she said. "Do not let it guide you." She pushed off, escorting the Watcher toward a rising tunnel.
Alone with Veshra again, I felt the trench's emptiness tighten around us. The sphere's pulse echoed down distant halls, louder than before, as if sensing its prey slipping away. Sentinels clanked behind sealed bulkheads. We moved quickly, swimming through low arches and over cracked platforms until the core chamber opened before us once more.
No alarms now, only the steady thrum of that impossible heart. Its light had grown brighter, flare dancing through crimson veins. The lure felt stronger, a hungry tide that pushed at my thoughts.
Veshra positioned herself along the wall, removing polished shards from her satchel. She slotted them into fissures surrounding the sphere, forming a half-ring of angled mirrors. "When I say now, shape your filament," she whispered. "Guide, do not force. If you force, it feeds."
I centred myself, drawing water through my gills, each breath cold and heavy. I remembered the Demi-God's words on the island, balance over dominance, listening over shouting. My arms felt numb, yet the organ in my chest pulsed warm, ready.
"Now," Veshra hissed.
I lifted both palms and coaxed a narrow jet into existence. It whirled into a filament so thin it shimmered like glass. I guided it toward an exposed seam in the sphere, where flesh and iron met. Sweat prickled under my scales as heat drained from my limbs. The filament touched the seam. The mirrored arc flashed, hurling the sphere's pulse back onto itself.
The core convulsed, veins bulging, light exploding outward in a glare so fierce I had to avert my eyes. Energy feedback raced along the filament, slamming into my chest. Pain blossomed behind my ribs, yet I kept the flow steady, refusing to let panic tighten my grip. The sphere screamed, a noise that shook the chamber's walls, then buckled inward, collapsing like a punctured bladder. Stone shivered, consoles sparked, and every sentinel in the corridors beyond fell silent.
Silence hovered for a heartbeat, then the chamber roof cracked. Rock rained down. Veshra grabbed my arm and we kicked hard, darting through the west fissure as the core imploded into black stone behind us. A pressure wave slammed my back, battering my gills. The tunnel convulsed, but held.
We surfaced in a stabilised shaft where low amber lights flickered. A backup panel blinked.
Cycle Countdown: Offline
Relief flooded me, mingling with raw exhaustion. My vision blurred at the edges, and I felt the filament's drain lingering like acid in my veins. Yet before I could savour victory, the trench itself groaned. An enormous pressure wave rolled outward, echoing upriver toward the reef.
I tried weaving a warning glyph, shaping water into tight sigils, but the pulse flickered and died. My reserves were ash.
Veshra steadied me, her fingers firm. "Surface shock will hit the city first," she said, gaze fixed on the faint lights of the reef in the distance. "We have to reach them."
My mana organ throbbed, each beat harder than the last, steady as a cracked drum. Behind us the drill level fell silent, but ahead the reef lights trembled, bracing for the echo I had unleashed.
And I could only hope they would hold.