Mari hurled her body off the fracturing edge, her boots kicking out over twelve feet of superheated air, boiling plasma, and writhing, venomous muscle-cables.
The heat blasted upward like a furnace explosion, scorching the hair on her arms and instantly blistering the skin of her throat. Below her, the titan's massive, burning claw of fused bone and blackened iron lunged out of the shattered wall, its jagged pincers snapping shut inches beneath her dangling heels with a crack that shook her marrow.
Mari slammed full-force into the heavy iron cargo chain hanging over the abyss.
The rusted links bit viciously into her bare, raw palms, tearing through flesh to the bone as her momentum spun her wildly through the screaming blue fire. She gasped, her grip slipping through hot grease and spurting blood, but before the plasma below could swallow her whole, Sera lunged over the far railing.
Sera grabbed Mari by the collar of her shredded tactical vest with a guttural, terrifying roar, hauling her over the metal ledge with pure, desperate adrenaline.
They slammed brutally onto the grating together, rolling across the slick, blood-soaked steel as the cargo chain snapped behind them, plunging into the plasma soup with a violent hiss.
"I fucking got you!" Sera spat, her chest heaving violently as she pinned Mari beneath her, her hands frantically checking Mari’s bloody face, her mangled palms, her ribs. "You're okay—you're fucking okay!"
"Lift! Now!" Cassian roared, screaming through his teeth as he dragged his ruined, chemical-charred shoulder against the concrete wall, trailing dark fluid behind him.
The five of them threw themselves into the massive, rust-caked freight elevator. Kaelen slammed his bloody fist onto the manual override switch, his shattered wrist floppy and useless, his bone piercing through the skin of his forearm.
The blast doors slammed shut with a deafening, bone-rattling metallic thud, sealing them inside the cramped, pitch-black iron box just as the reactor core below went critical.
BOOM.
The detonation rocked the subterranean vault, sending a devastating kinetic shockwave straight up the shaft. The secondary counterweights blew with a series of deafening, explosive snaps, and the lift shot upward through the rock face like a bullet ripped from a barrel.
The violent acceleration slammed all five of them to the floor with bone-breaking force.
Mari was pinned flat on her back, the breath crushed completely from her lungs as the air pressure spiked, causing blood to spurt from her nose and ears. Sera was pressed directly on top of her, her body shielding Mari’s battered frame, her face buried into the crook of Mari's neck as the lift screamed and rattled like it was tearing itself apart.
The hellish roar from below faded into a deep, agonizing rumble as they tore through hundreds of feet of solid rock and calcified bone.
For a agonizing minute, nobody spoke. The only sounds inside the shuddering box were heavy, blood-choked gasps, the sickening stink of scorched meat, and the violent, terrifying pounding of Sera’s heart against Mari's chest.
Sera slowly lifted her head. In the dim, flickering amber strobe of the elevator’s emergency light, her face was a horrific, breathtaking mask of soot, sweat, and crimson blood.
Mari reached up with a hand dripping raw flesh and grease, her bloody fingers digging into the back of Sera’s neck, pulling her down until their bruised foreheads slammed together once more.
"We made it," Mari rasped, her voice a serrated whisper torn to shreds.
Sera let out a raw, shuddering sob that turned into a fierce, bloodthirsty growl. She leaned down, slamming a hard, filthy, ruthless kiss onto Mari’s lips—hot, violent, and reeking of iron and copper—possessing her completely in the dark.
"Of course we fucking did," Sera spat against her mouth, her grip tearing into Mari’s vest like she was trying to fuse their bodies together. "You think I’d let that dead bitch take you from me?"
Mari managed a bloody, wicked smile, her dark eyes locking onto Sera's with absolute, unyielding depth.
Above them, the heavy blast lift violently decelerated, its mechanical brakes screaming as they sheared into the guide rails, finally locking into place at the surface. The reinforced iron doors groaned, snapping open to let in a bitter draft of cold, clean night air.
The pit below was dead. They were alive.