"Break what cannot be broken, and you become what cannot be stopped." — Unknown.
The energy pouring out of the core was getting wild.
It pulsed and surged in unpredictable bursts, each one sending a jolt through Micah’s arm that made his muscles seize.
The containment field that held the core’s energy in place was unraveling strand by strand, and the raw Flux leaking out was enough to make his hair stand on end.
The Stone-Ape’s optical sensors locked onto his face and for the first time since the fight began, the construct’s expression changed.
The burning red slits dimmed, flickered, went dark for half a second, then came back weaker.
It knew.
Somewhere inside its old, mechanical brain, the Stone-Ape knew it was dying.
The left hand tightened its grip on Micah’s forearms. The construct was trying to pull him free, trying to rip him away from the core before the damage became irreversible.
"Not a change in hell!"
Micah gritted his teeth. He channeled everything he had left into his right hand.
The purple glow around his fist intensified. The vibrational frequency locked onto the core’s atomic structure and pushed harder.
The stone around his arm turned to powder. It fell away in grey streams, pouring out of the chest cavity like sand through an hourglass.
His arm sank deeper, past his wristb and past his forearm, up to his elbow.
His knuckles hit the Nexus Core directly. There was no stone between them anymore, just skin against crystal.
The burn was immediate and savage. His fingers blistered and peeled, but the pain was so raw and so total that his vision went completely white.
He screamed, but no sound came out because the energy from the core had seized his vocal cords, locking his throat shut.
But he could still feel the crystal beneath his fingers, and he could feel it giving way.
The cracks widened and the crimson light poured through them in thick beams that cut across the vault like lasers.
The containment field around the core was gone, shredded completely. The raw Flux Energy inside was expanding, pressing against the crystal walls from the inside, looking for any way out.
The Stone-Ape’s body was falling apart. The red veins across its surface flickered and died, section by section.
The left arm lost its strength and the grip on Micah’s forearms loosened. The four blocky fingers went slack, dropping away from his arms like dead branches falling from a tree.
The construct’s legs gave way. Its right arm ripped free from the titanium wall with a loud screech of metal. The Stone-Ape stumbled backward, dragging Micah with it, his arm still buried deep in its chest.
Then the core shattered.
A shockwave of raw energy exploded outward from Micah’s fist. It hit him first, slamming into his chest with enough force to launch him backward off the construct.
He flew across the vault with arms and legs spread wide, blood trailing from his mouth in a long red stream.
The wall caught him again. Same wall, same spot!
His back hit the titanium and he slid down it like a wet rag. He hit the floor and couldn’t move.
Across the vault, the Stone-Ape stood frozen with both arms hanging limp at its sides. The optical sensors were completely dead, not flickering or dim.
The Nexus Core was gone, reduced to a cloud of tiny glittering shards that drifted through the air.
The construct swayed.
A low groan came from deep inside its body. It sounded like stone shifting and old machinery giving out.
The Stone-Ape leaned backward, then forward, then backward again, moving slowly and unsteadily like a drunk person who couldn’t decide which way to fall.
Then it went over.
The impact shook the entire vault. The floor cracked, the walls shook, and server racks fell over, sending sparks and pieces of metal everywhere. Dust rose into the air and quickly filled the room, covering everything in a thick grey cloud.
The sound lingered for a long time, a deep rumble that traveled through the floor and into Micah’s bones. Then it faded, replaced by a silence so complete that he could hear his own heartbeat hammering against his broken ribs.
He lay on the cold floor, staring at the ceiling through half-closed eyes. His chest didn’t hurt anymore, and that scared him more than the pain did.
Pain meant the nerves were still working. No pain meant the damage was so bad that his body had stopped bothering to report it.
His right hand was a mess. The skin from his fingertips to his elbow was blistered, and bleeding.
He let out a weak laugh that turned into a bloody cough. He spat a glob of red onto the floor beside his head and closed his eyes.
The thought of it made him grin. The smile stretched across his face, making the cut on his lip sting.
He pushed himself up onto his good elbow. His right arm was useless. The left one wasn’t in great shape either, but it still worked.
The Stone-Ape’s body lay in a crater of its own making. The impact had shattered the floor beneath it, creating a shallow depression filled with broken rock and twisted metal.
The construct was completely motionless.
There were no lights, no hum, no optical sensors tracking his every move.
Micah crawled toward it. Each meter took forever.
His knees scraped against concrete and his broken ribs shifted with every movement, sending fresh waves of agony through his upper body. But he kept going.
His Beast Analysis Talent activated as he reached the ruins of the construct’s chest. The golden hue was weak and flickering, barely functional.
His Flux reserves were nearly empty, but the system had enough juice left for one final scan.
[Scanning target: Stone-Ape Construct, Mark IV.]
[Status: PERMANENTLY DEACTIVATED.]
[Scanning core remains...]
[Intact power crystal detected.]
[Location: Base of chest cavity, embedded in secondary housing.]
[Quality: HIGH-TIER. Flux density: EXTREME.]
[Recommendation: Extract immediately. Crystal will destabilize within 6 hours.]
There, buried in the rubble at the bottom of the shattered chest cavity, something glowed.