The trench was not silent anymore.
It was listening.
Signal distortions warped the edges of Nahr's field. The Core-shell around him buzzed with unstable kinetic bleed. Beneath his stance, the stone surface thrummed.
Something enormous moved at the far end of the trench slope — not crawling, not mimicking, not walking.
Dragging.
Nahr turned without haste.
A massive Core unit — tall as four stations stacked — shambled into view.
It wasn't elegant.
It wasn't whole.
Its plating was shattered in places, welded tight in others. Extra cores jutted from its back like fused spinal branches. The lower third of its limbs were overgrown with armor rivets and exposed wire.
Its left arm was replaced with a chain-suspended column of fractured lance heads — Galieyas welded into a pendulum. Its right arm was normal… until the elbow, where a massive joint sat detached, dangling, swinging with every movement.
Its head was blank.
No ports.
No markings.
Just an empty designation ring — and one glowing rupture across its chestplate.
An Overform-class Reaction Shell.
Born in the moment the trench failed to classify Nahr as a trial aspirant.
This one had a name.
Not spoken.
Not heard.
But visible:
[BURDEN UNDESERVED]
The weight it carried wasn't for combat.
It was for correction.
Nahr didn't move.
He could barely stand.
He had already burned through two encounters, drained systems, and strained servos.
But the trench had changed its question.
Not: Could he endure?
Now: Would he refuse to be erased?
The giant Core lifted its chain-lance arm and dragged it across the trench wall.
Sparks lit the stone.
The motion alone cracked tiles.
Then it stepped forward.
Nahr rotated the Galieya into low sweep stance.
His left joint lagged.
He compensated with torso pressure.
If this didn't end fast, it wouldn't end at all.
The Overform accelerated.
Heavy.
Predictable.
That was the danger.
Predictable meant impossible to mislead.
Its chain-lance whirled, flinging shattered blades in erratic arcs.
Nahr ducked the first swing — barely.
Rolled under the second.
Skidded to the right and pressed himself against a fractured column of vault-stone.
The blade embedded in the rock behind him, missing his spine socket by less than a breath.
He dashed.
Momentum carried him along the trench curve.
He needed height.
Force.
A lever.
He saw a broken relay platform suspended at an incline to the left — anchored only by chain-link tension bolts.
That would have to do.
He climbed.
The Overform swung again — horizontally this time, chain-lance carving a trench into the trench itself.
Nahr threw himself to the edge of the platform.
It groaned.
It held.
The height gave him view.
Below, beneath the Overform's chestplate, hung a shattered rail-core cage — loose, glowing with pulse light.
That was the breach point.
But he couldn't reach it from below.
He needed it to fall.
To be pulled.
An idea formed.
One shaped not by brilliance, but by failure.
By residue.
By echo.
Nahr descended the platform again and pulled a severed chain from one of the fallen mimics nearby.
He looped it once.
Twice.
Secured the base against a collapsed support beam.
Then tied the other end — not to the Overform.
But to himself.
He didn't weigh enough to pull it down.
But he weighed enough to give it pause.
To redirect its movement.
To make it trip.
If he moved fast.
And placed the hook just right.
The Overform roared a non-sound — more vibration than noise — and charged again.
Nahr ran.
Straight at it.
Then sidestepped — at the last moment — and looped the free segment of chain around one of its knees.
He flung himself aside.
Pulled.
The chain caught.
The Overform stumbled.
Just slightly.
But that was enough.
It turned to correct its stance, and its foot caught on the opposite column edge.
One stagger became two.
The trench tilted — not literally, but in sync.
This was part of the test now.
The ground didn't shift.
The trial logic did.
The Overform fell.
And when it did, it yanked the chain with it.
Nahr, still attached, flew forward.
He hit the ground hard.
Rolled once.
Twice.
But he saw the glow.
The exposed rail-core chest was visible now, pointing upward.
Vulnerable.
Waiting.
Nahr stood.
He didn't shout.
He didn't pause.
He ran forward and drove the Galieya downward, spiraling its tip into the center of the rupture.
The Overform convulsed.
Arcs of kinetic energy exploded from its limbs.
Then it stilled.
The trench echoed again.
[CORE DISMANTLED: CLASS—REACTOR / BURDEN UNDESERVED]
[SYNC TRACE PURGED.]
[FALSE ECHO RESIDUE: ABSORBED INTO CONFIGURATION.]
[NEW ATTRIBUTE: Anchored Resolve]
[SIGNAL RECLASSIFICATION: CANDIDATE ACCEPTED.]
Nahr collapsed.
This time, not from injury.
But from release.
The weight hadn't lessened.
But now it was his.
Earned.
Integrated.
Anchored.
The trench was silent once more.
Not in defeat.
Not in fear.
In recognition.
And above, where the breaklines had parted, a new descent path unfolded — shaped like a lance.
Stone cut from shadow.
Dust rising.
Calling.
Waiting.