The sickly green energy from the officer's device ate into the Waystation's ancient obsidian wall like a techno-organic acid. The normally smooth, impervious surface warped and blistered, tendrils of diseased green crystal growing outwards, spiderwebbing across the pristine Aethel structure. The calm, resonant hum of the Waystation was disrupted by a harsh, grating static where the corruption spread.
"He's bypassing the main door's defenses!" Kai shouted, firing a sustained burst from his disruptor at the officer, but the shots sparked harmlessly against the UGF operative's personal energy dampeners. The officer ignored him, his entire focus on his gruesome task.
Alex maintained his Aethel shield against the combat drones' renewed assault, but his attention was torn. That spreading corruption felt… abhorrent, a violation of the Waystation's ancient purity. His Aethel-attuned senses recoiled from it.
"The dissonant frequency of the Alaris shard is designed to unravel harmonic structures," Elysius's mental voice explained, laced with a new urgency. "This Waystation has stood for millennia, but a focused, targeted attack of this nature on its compromised outer shell… it is vulnerable. The internal structural integrity fields are weakening in that sector."
"Can you repair it?" Alex mentally asked Elysius, while simultaneously deflecting a trio of plasma bolts.
"My primary functions are archival and guidance, Keybearer. Direct structural repair of this magnitude, especially against active Alaris corruption, is beyond my immediate capabilities. The Waystation's automated repair systems are attempting to counteract it, but they are slow against such a virulent attack."
The patch of corrupted wall was now nearly a meter wide, cracks beginning to form. Soon, the officer would have a new entry point, bypassing Alex's shield entirely.
Alex needed to stop that device. But how? The officer's personal dampeners were too strong for direct energy attacks from Kai, and Alex was tied down maintaining the primary shield.
His Aethel Cognition raced, analyzing the situation. The officer's device was clearly channeling the Alaris shard's corrupting energy. If he could disrupt that specific energy, not the officer himself…
He thought of the Xylossian's Thunderclap Core, the sonic power he'd absorbed. Sound could disrupt delicate structures, shatter crystals. Could a precisely focused sonic pulse interfere with the corrupting device, or even the Alaris shard it contained, without needing to penetrate the officer's dampeners?
It was a long shot. The sonic powers were still new to him, raw. But he was a Conduit now. He had the energy.
"Kai!" Alex yelled. "Keep those drones busy! I have an idea!"
He shifted a fraction of his focus from the main Aethel shield, drawing on the deep well of cosmic energy he now commanded. He then reached for the thrumming imprint of the Thunderclap Core, isolating its purest sonic essence with his enhanced cognition. He visualized the officer's corrupting device, picturing the tiny Alaris shard within it, resonating with that diseased green energy.
He then shaped the sonic energy, not into a wide blast, but into an incredibly fine, high-frequency resonant beam, almost like a surgical sonic scalpel. He aimed it directly at the handheld device in the officer's grip.
This wasn't about brute force. This was about sympathetic resonance. Shattering a wine glass with sound.
He unleashed the focused sonic lance.
There was no visible blast, only a piercing, almost inaudible whine that Alex felt more than heard. The UGF officer flinched, his head snapping up. The corrupting device in his hand suddenly glowed erratically, the diseased green light flickering violently. Then, with a sharp crack, a hairline fracture appeared across its casing.
The green beam faltered. The spread of corruption on the Waystation wall slowed, then halted.
The officer stared at his damaged device, then at Alex, a flicker of genuine surprise, perhaps even frustration, in his usually impassive demeanor. He'd clearly not anticipated such a precise, unconventional attack bypassing his defenses.
"Impressive, Chimera," the officer's voice, though still calm, held a new edge. "You are… annoyingly adaptive." He tossed the damaged device aside. "No matter. The primary objective remains."
He gestured to his two combat drones. They ceased firing on Alex's shield and instead turned their weapons on the weakened, partially corrupted section of the wall.
"No!" Alex cried out.
Before he could react, the drones unleashed a torrent of plasma fire directly onto the fractured, diseased Aethel material. The result was catastrophic. The already compromised structure couldn't withstand the assault. With a deafening explosion, a jagged hole, several meters wide, was blasted into the side of the Waystation. Diseased green crystal shards and obsidian debris flew inwards.
Alarms blared within the Waystation, no longer the gentle Aethel chimes, but urgent, discordant UGF-style warning klaxons – a sign that critical systems were breached.
The officer, without hesitation, stepped through the newly created, smoking breach, his personal cloak shimmering around him. His two combat drones followed, their weapons sweeping the interior.
They were inside.
Alex felt a surge of cold fury. This sanctuary, this place of ancient wisdom, violated. He dropped his primary Aethel shield at the main entrance – there was no point defending it now – and spun to face the new breach.
Kai was already there, firing desperately into the smoky hole, but the drones were heavily armored.
"Voss! Lena! Oracle! Fall back deeper into the Waystation!" Alex yelled into his comm. "Protect Elysius if you can!"
"Keybearer," Elysius's voice resonated, strained but still present. "The central archive chamber where I reside is heavily shielded. It will hold for a time. But the corruption… if it reaches the primary energy conduits that sustain me… this Waystation will fall silent. Forever."
The stakes had just become ultimate. Not just their escape, not just Alex's freedom, but the preservation of millennia of Aethel knowledge.
Alex, drawing on the limitless power of the Conduit art, felt a righteous anger solidify into cold, hard resolve. He was the Keybearer. This was his responsibility.
He met Kai's eyes. "No more defending. We take them down."
He stepped towards the breach, Aethel energy crackling around his hands, his newly enhanced mind already calculating attack vectors, weak points, and the perfect resonant frequencies for destruction. The student was about to give the UGF officer a lesson in Aethel power he would never forget.