The lobby of Solis Research was a slaughterhouse in under a minute. Shattered marble crunched under Kael's boots as he parried a Harbinger's shard-blade, the impact jarring his teeth. The air buzzed with static, holo-screens flickering like dying fireflies. Toren's rifle roared somewhere to his left, each shot a thunderclap that shook Kael's ribs. Mira was gone bolted with the shard-case the second the Harbingers breached.
"Coward," Kael muttered, ducking a swipe that carved a gash in the wall. The Harbinger facing him was a wiry bastard, his violet eyes glowing through a cracked tactical mask. Kael's shard pulsed in his chest, feeding him kinetic energy. He channeled it into his palm and shoved, sending the Harbinger crashing into a pillar. The crack of bone was satisfying, but it didn't last. Another took his place, this one wielding twin shard daggers.
"Toren!" Kael shouted, blade clashing with daggers in a shower of sparks. "Little help?"
"Busy!" Toren growled. He was a blur of muscle and steel, grappling a Harbinger twice his size. The old man's shard-enhanced strength was terrifying, but blood seeped through his jacket. His illness was slowing him down.
Kael's comms crackled. Rhea's voice, sharp and pissed: "You idiots still alive? I'm in the tower's grid. Elevators are locked, but I've got eyes on Mira. She's heading for the lab, top floor."
"Tell her to stay put!" Kael snapped, diving behind a shattered counter as a Harbinger's energy blast scorched the air. His shoulder stung where the warehouse Harbinger had cut him, and the shard in his chest was screaming louder now, like it knew something he didn't.
The lead Harbinger, the woman from the warehouse, strode through the chaos. Her cybernetic arm crackled with violet energy, and her smile was all teeth. "Varn," she called, voice cutting through the gunfire. "Give me the shard, and I'll let your friends live."
Kael peeked over the counter, blade humming in his grip. "You're not my type," he shot back. "Also, pretty sure I killed you."
She laughed, low and guttural. "Shards don't let go that easy. Neither do I."
Toren's rifle clicked empty. He cursed, tossing it aside and drawing a shard axe. "Kael, we can't hold 'em. Get to Mira. Now."
Kael hesitated. Leaving Toren was a death sentence, but the shard was the mission. Always the mission. He bolted for the stairwell, Harbingers on his heels. The tower's lights flickered, Rhea's hacking throwing the system into chaos. He took the stairs three at a time, chest burning not just from the run, but from the shard. It was awake, whispering in fragments: *Fire. Ruins. The cycle.*
"Shut up," he growled, kicking open the door to the top floor. The lab was a sterile maze of glass and steel, lit by the faint glow of shard containment units. Mira stood at a console, the stolen shard case open beside her. The crystal inside pulsed, its light syncing with Kael's heartbeat.
"Mira, what the hell?" Kael snapped, slamming the door shut. "You ditched us."
She didn't look up, her fingers flying across the console. "I had to protect it. This shard, it's not just pre-Fall. It's… alive. It's communicating."
Kael's skin crawled. "Communicating? It's a rock."
"It's a god's heart," Mira said, her voice trembling with something like awe. "And it knows you, Kael."
Before he could process that, the door exploded inward. The warehouse Harbinger stepped through, her cyber-arm sparking. "Time's up," she said, raising her blade.
Kael readied his own, the shard's whispers deafening now. Whatever this crystal was, it wasn't just a key. It was a trap and he was already caught.