The Guardian's corpse lay still—shattered crystal and ruined armor smoldering in the pale Riftlight. But the air hadn't relaxed. It pressed inward, tight with tension, like the chamber itself was holding its breath.
Arix stayed kneeling for a long moment, his hand still tingling from the fragment's sync. The shard now pulsed faintly in his chest, embedded beneath the skin like a second heart. Each beat sent ripples through his system.
> [Vital Stability: Reestablished] [Fragment Integration: 100% – No Rejection Detected] [Ability Gained: Rift Pulse Lv.1 – Active Radius: 5m, Cooldown: 18s]
Footsteps approached.
Calyx knelt beside him, her voice low. "We need to move."
"I know," Arix said. "It's not dead. Not really."
She nodded. "The secondary core. I saw the light shift just before it fell."
Kael joined them, limping slightly. "The obelisk's surface readings just spiked again. This whole place is rigged to bury itself if we linger too long."
Thorne spat blood onto the ground and slammed his hammer onto his shoulder. "Then we don't linger."
Selis handed Arix a stim patch. "You burned through something raw in there. Heart rate's erratic. No internal damage, but your neural sync's running hot."
"I'll manage."
He always managed.
The team reformed quickly, weapons raised. They retraced their steps through the crumbling chamber, but the path behind them had shifted—walls that had once been stable now bore jagged cracks, Riftlight bleeding from them like open wounds.
> [Anomaly Field Expanding. Exit Route Compromised. Alternate Path Required.]
"System's flagging a new exit vector," Kael said, checking his wrist display. "Northwest corridor. Sealed, but the wall's weak."
They followed him through an arched tunnel choked with debris. As they moved, Arix's senses remained heightened. The fragment had changed him—not just in strength, but in perception. He felt movement in the stone, whispers in the walls.
At one point, the whisper took shape.
A soft voice—his voice?—spoke from the shadows.
"You belong to this now."
He said nothing.
They reached the sealed corridor—a collapsed entry choked by fallen stone and an old bulkhead door fused shut.
"Thorne," Calyx said.
He stepped forward with a grin, flexing his shoulders.
"Stand back."
With a bellow, Thorne brought his hammer down. The first strike cracked the wall. The second caved it in.
Dust poured out. A burst of hot air followed—warmer than the Vault, tinged with rust and heat.
> [Environmental Shift Detected – External Airflow Located]
They pushed through into a smaller tunnel lined with melted conduit and old emergency lighting. Some flickered weakly, enough to show the way.
Behind them, the Rift pulsed—once.
Then the sound of shattering crystal echoed from the main chamber.
"It's waking," Arix said.
"Then we move faster," Calyx snapped.
The tunnel angled upward. For the next ten minutes they climbed through metal-stained halls and warped steel, the pressure easing with every step.
When they breached the surface, it was like surfacing from a dream.
The sky was dark. A storm brewed far off to the east. Snow fell softly now, thin and silent.
They emerged on a ridge overlooking the basin. The obelisk behind them had collapsed inward, the Riftlight receding.
> [Mission Complete: Fragment Secured – Emotional Divergence 21%] [Party Sync Strengthened] [System Note: Emotional Anchor (Calyx) – Influence Increasing]
Arix looked at Calyx. She was watching the horizon, rifle at her back, hair pulled loose from her hood.
He didn't say anything.
Neither did she.
But the silence wasn't empty.
It was understanding.
For now.
They turned and headed west.
And the Guardian's distant scream faded into the wind.