The others fled as the Evo ripped through another slum dweller with its fiery horns.
In a blink of an eye two slum dwellers had met their demise.
However, it didn't waste another moment before flinging the corpses away and chasing after the rest.
More slum dwellers were pierced through with their internal organs bursting into flames as they died on the spot.
Bodies were dropping left, right, and centre as the Evo mercilessly ripped through their ranks.
One of the slum dwellers pulled out a dagger and rammed it into the side of the Evo but the moment it collided with its body, the blade shattered.
"UH OH!"
Before the slum dweller could retreat, the creature swung its tail towards his face, sending him crashing into the wall.
The slum dweller's head burst open.
Lara who was standing in the distance with a blade in her hand, slowly kept it back in and turned around to flee.
"You guys... keep going, I'll lure it away!"
In a split-second decision, Atrixus chose to draw the creature away, to protect those who remained.
"Dude what? Don't..." before Jael could stop him, he was already gone.
His reckless yet brave plan, led him and the Evo to an area he had marked as particularly unstable.
"Come on, tiny!" Atrixus shouted in a bid to bait the Evo.
The creature charged with its horns aimed at Atrixus chest.
At the last moment, Atrixus leapt aside.
The Evo's momentum carried it forward and its horns pierced the wall, causing the world above to come crashing down.
Atrixus watched while breathing profusely as the rocks entombed the Evo, burying most of its body under the rubble.
A fleeting moment of relief washed over him, but it was short-lived.
Another tremor shook the ground, dislodging more rocks up ahead and forming an impenetrable wall.
"No!"
Atrixus instantly found himself trapped in a confined space with the dying creature.
The realization of his predicament settled in with a heavy finality. The rocks that sealed his fate were massive and immovable by his lone efforts.
No matter how much he tried, he couldn't get through to the other side.
He slumped to the ground in defeat after exhausting himself from repeatedly trying to cross through.
Across from him, the Evo lay breathing shallowly as its life ebbed away.
"Looks like we will both be dying here today," Atrixus voice echoed in the cramped space.
In the silence that followed, Atrixus allowed himself a moment of introspection. His thoughts drifted to his mother, to the slums that had been his home, and to the dreams that had brought him to that very moment.
The irony of seeking a better life only to meet his end in a world far off from his own was not lost on him.
As the echoes of the collapsing rocks faded into silence, Jael and Lara found themselves amidst the remaining slum dwellers with looks of concern and disbelief.
The summit was clearing out rapidly as the once busy site of extraction became a ghost of its former self. Dusk began to paint the sky with strokes of crimson and gold.
"He went in there to save us," Jael's voice broke the growing silence, directing his words at the System Bearers, Corin and Talia, who stood with an air of detachment from the unfolding drama.
"Atrixus is still in there. You have to go back for him!"
With her gaze fixed on the horizon, Talia responded without turning. "He stood no chance against an Evo. No non-System Bearer could. He's gone."
Corin's nod was the only other acknowledgement of Atrixus's sacrifice.
They had no doubt that he was certainly dead already.
Meanwhile, trapped in the confining darkness with the dying Evo, Atrixus felt the weight of his final moments pressing down upon him.
The passage of time in the alien tomb seemed to mock his fading hopes as each tick echoed the failures and regrets of his short life.
Anger and sorrow warred within him as he replayed the choices that led him to his end.
His thoughts inevitably circled back to his father.
"If you had never left us, this wouldn't have happened," he muttered in bitterness.
The memory of the box, a last memento from his father, sparked within his weary mind.
With resignation heavy in his heart, he retrieved the small container from his bag.
"Might as well see what you left me," he whispered.
The attempt to open the box was half-hearted final gesture in the face of impending death.
But as his thumb brushed against a sharp edge, a drop of blood welled up and fell onto the box's surface.
The reaction was instantaneous and unexpected; the blood seeped into the carved lines, causing them to glow with a red light.
Atrixus watched, transfixed, as the box opened, revealing its contents—
It looked like a golden microchip with intricate crimson lines that emitted a strange glow.
"A System Bearer's Microchip?" he whispered with a look of disbelief.
In that moment, the feeling of despair lifted and was replaced by a surge of clarity.
"So, this is what you left me, Dad. A chance...?" The realization ignited a spark of defiance within him, understanding that his story might not be at its end.
He lifted the microchip, studying it in the dim glow of the luminous rocks. It seemed to resonate with his touch, sending a jolt of electricity that coursed through his veins and filling him with a sense of potential; of possibilities yet to be realized.
However, Atrixus paused with a conflicted look.
"They said I was incompatible..." He muttered, wondering what good it was to have the answer right in front of him, yet unable to grasp it.
As if in response to his question, the golden microchip, pulsed with a light that seemed to be in sync with his heartbeat.
As the blood from his thumb mingled with the intricate carvings on the chip's surface, it began to levitate.
It's glow intensified until it became a beacon in the cramped space.
"What is goi...?" Atrixus eyes widened.
Without warning, the chip streaked forward with speed and embedded itself in the centre of Atrixus's forehead.
The pain was immediate and overwhelming as a burning sensation coursed through his veins like fire.
His vision blurred as consciousness slipped from his grasp.
In the next moment, Atrixus fell to the ground.
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