The Herald moved like gravity forgot how to work.
One moment it stood still, monolithic, unmoving, arms like sculpted obsidian blades, and the next, it was everywhere.
Liam barely had time to shout before the first pulse hit.
It wasn't fire or force it was data. Raw, searing Vector code that tore through the air like invisible razors. Nova slammed her blades into the ground, generating a photon dome just in time to absorb the shockwave. Juno ducked behind Kairo, who absorbed the impact with a grunt as his gravity field rippled like a flexing muscle.
"This thing is a glitch," Juno spat, wiping blood from her temple. "It doesn't even exist correctly!"
"It's not supposed to," Rhea said, summoning a shard-construct that unfolded like a crystal flower. "It's a Herald. A Riftborn."
"They send one before every Collapse," Eira added, panting. "To soften the reality."
"Good," Liam growled, cracking his neck. "Then we soften it back."
He launched forward blue light flaring, feet leaving craters in the rooftop as he slammed into the Herald with a punch so hard it lit the sky. The Herald staggered.
But it didn't fall.
Instead, it turned its face, if you could call the glassy, static-hazed surface a face, toward Liam and raised a hand.
CODE: 001. DNA MATCH FOUND. TRIGGER LOCATED.
A beam of light shot from its palm straight into Liam's chest.
He screamed as his body arched, suspended mid-air, the Rift energy forcing itself into his core like a download at gunpoint. His veins pulsed blue, then white, then something darker.
Nova bolted.
She didn't think just moved.
Her body fractured into light, skipping across the battlefield, slamming into the Herald's side with a refracted blade aimed at its neck.
It didn't even blink.
Instead, it twisted its entire upper body, rotating independently like some horrible Rubik's cube of flesh and data, and backhanded her so hard she crashed through two rooftop vents and hit the gravel with a sickening crack.
"Nova!" Juno yelled.
Kairo threw himself forward, activating his gravity core to lock the Herald in place.
For one glorious second, it worked.
The Herald's limbs stuttered, as if caught in a frame-by-frame glitch.
"Now!" Kairo shouted.
Rhea reacted instantly, launching a barrage of crystallized spears that shattered on impact but punched deep into the Herald's armor.
Juno activated her sonic disruptors, unleashing a concussive blastwave that should have scrambled even the most hardened Vector's brain.
And Liam
Liam roared.
The beam cracked.
He dropped to one knee, panting, glowing, steam rising from his skin.
"I… hate… being used as a USB port."
The Herald twisted, glitching, limbs rearranging, code unraveling mid-air.
It looked… hurt.
And that was when Eira moved.
She appeared behind it in an instant plasma dagger in one hand, the other holding a disruptor shard glowing red.
She leapt.
Drove the blade into its neck.
And detonated the shard.
The Herald screamed a warping, collapsing sound that wasn't sound at all. Reality shuddered.
And then it dropped.
Silent.
Still.
Liam forced himself up. His ribs screamed in protest. Blood trickled from one ear.
"You kill-stealing traitor," he gasped, grinning through the pain.
Eira smirked. "You're welcome."
Nova groaned from the debris pile. "Next time, warn me before going full nuclear. My spleen has questions."
Kairo helped her up. Juno ran a quick diagnostic scan on Liam.
"Your vitals are… messed up," she said. "Like, 'haunted machine with abandonment issues' levels of messed up."
"I've been worse."
"You once sneezed and erased a vending machine."
"Exactly. Worse."
They regrouped, breathing hard, wounds raw, adrenaline fading.
And that's when the message came.
Rhea's tablet lit up. She frowned.
"It's from Cyn."
Nova turned. "What does it say?"
Rhea read aloud:
THE SEED HAS BEEN PLANTED. TRUST NO ONE. EVEN IN THIS ROOM.
The silence that followed was instant.
Juno looked around. "Uh… is this the part where one of us turns evil?"
"No," Liam said slowly. "It's the part where someone already has."
Nova's gaze swept the group Kairo, Rhea, Juno, Eira.
Her eyes narrowed.
Eira crossed her arms. "Don't look at me. I've already betrayed you once. Doing it again would be lazy writing."
But Liam wasn't looking at her.
He was staring at Kairo.
Because for the first time in hours, Kairo looked away.
Avoided Liam's gaze.
And said nothing.
Liam stepped forward.
"Kairo," he said. "What did you do?"
Kairo didn't respond.
But the guilt?
It pulsed louder than the Rift.