[Ding!
Emergency Overide Terminated.]
[Motor and Vocal Control Returned to Host.]
The override ended as quickly as it had begun, Kaelen retreating into the haze of twenty-two percent access as a skeletal vanguard the size of a tower broke away the fissure’s edge, blade already arcing towards Valen’s unprotected flank
Valen moved instinctively this time–not bad instincts, not for someone who’d spent weeks basking in the applause of his own making–steel ringing against bone as the Knight-Commander held his ground through the spray of frost-rimmed sparks with a steady blade despite the toils his own body had seen in the last hour
Fight your own battle for a minute.
I’ve got one of my own to see to
[Ding!
Real-World Data Stream Available.]
[Partial Feed Restored–Bandwidth Limited.]
A window opened in the corner of his vision, dim and pixilated as if seeing through frosted glass, a rain-slick street somewhere in Lyra’s world framed within, neon signs winking their smudged colors against the wet pavement and storefronts
Show me.
Show me she’s alive
The picture resolved, fractions of a second at a time, until Kaelen saw her: hooded figure pressing against stormwater with the hollow ache of cold rain, back hunched at the entrance to a shuttered pawn shop, duffeled bag pressed tight against her chest
Alive.
She’s alive.
Relief threatened to spill entirely from his grasp, Valen’s parrying blade lagging a fraction as the vanguard swept in with a new attack–not captured.
Not caught.
Alive.
He forced his sense of the word to stay, even as the battle raged louder at the edge of his vision, the clashing of bone and steel demanding more of his attention than it had any right to have
[Data Stream: Audio Fragment Recovered.]
“Full charge, military grade, nothing salvaged.” A man’s voice, clipped, methodical, the voice Kaelen would remember for the rest of his life for selling him the weapon that had nearly killed him three fights ago.
“This is worth more than everything else in that bag combined.
You sure about this?”
“I’m sure.” Lyra’s voice, tight in a way that told him it cost her something to keep it in check, the kind of tension Kaelen knew meant the line would snap loose if she wasn’t careful.
“The cybernetics are good work.
Better than what you’ll get from most sellers tonight.
I need the battery.
Cash, not credit.”
She’s selling her rig…
Kaelen’s chest–as much muscle as it existed in him, even now, still a part of this world–twitched, his thoughts twisting away form the duel on the other side of the battlefield.
The arm augment.
The optic, saved up enough to finally get the last thing she’d wanted.
All gone, for a battery to power his damn pod.
“Confirmed,” Nix said, hushed in a way that indicated an almost painful sincerity, “She was not captured.
She is attempting to purchase emergency power reserves through unregulated channels, using her own physical enhancements as collateral.”
Because I’m not here to help her carry any of it.
Because none of it has been enough to save her.
The seller’s voice returned, colder in tone.
“Deal like this, in a zone like this–you understand I can’t guarantee you make it back in one piece.
Corp scouts cover this sector as well.
You’re risking standing in that doorway.”
“I know the risk,” Lyra said.
“Give me the battery.”
[Warning: Transaction Zone Flagged–Corporate Enforcement Patrol Frequency: High]
[Estimated Time Before Zone Sweep: Unknown–Recommend Urgency]
How much time.
How.
Much.
Time.
“Insufficient data for precise estimate,”
Nix admitted, “However, System reserves accumulated through significant in-dungeon achievement can be converted to real-world resource allocation–an emergency supply drop, untraceable funding, extraction assistance.
You currently lack the resources to trigger this.
The Lich Lord’s core, if harvested, would provide sufficient reserves.”
How long would it take to harvest the core
“Should engagement continue at current pace as only estimated one hour…”
One hour.
Kaelen took that fact and let it settle the weight of it in both worlds: the Lich Lord slashing Valen’s depleted knights to bits on one side, and his sister standing in a doorway, bartering her lifeblood for the promise of survival on the other.
One hour to save her, now that everything he’d fought to save her had failed to do so already.
The vanguard’s blade caught against Valen’s pauldron, the edge skimming off with a grunt of pain and a stumble, Kaelen’s awareness snapping back to the battlefield as Selene cried out from somewhere within the wedge formation
watch the flank–
The Lich Lord’s hand twisted upwards, an idle motion that contained more insult than intent, and a lance of pale, frost-blue light speared out and sent Selene spinning backwards, her silhouette caught in the air above the edge of the battlefield as her robes and circlet vanished over the lip of the ridge
“Selene!” One of the other knights took another step forward in the direction of the edge, the look on his face already resigned to the fact that there would be nothing for him to find
Valen did not turn, did not even slow as the vanguard pressed in with fresh strength.
Now, for the first time since the battle had begun, theKnight-Commander stood alone–no trusted advisor at his back, no honor guard close enough to offer even a token rebuff, nothing in the world to stand between him and the fate Kaelen would choose for him.
[Ding!
Host Isolation Confirmed.]
[No External Observers Within Immediate Range.]
[Neural Infection Progress: 22%.
Sufficent for Attempt–Not Guaranteed for Success.]
This is it…
Kaelen felt the two strands of him tangle together, felt one eye watching the rain-slick street on Earth as the other took in the open opportunity to finish the mission he’d begun in the blood of a dying wolf.
Now: finish the hijack and end this with him while no one is looking, or hold the line and wait for your pod to collapse under Lyra’s weight long enough for you to reach her.
Choose quickly, hurry!
Nix said, as flat as if he weren’t already pressed against the edge of a knife as “Both windows are closing at the same time.”