The world dissolved into chaos.
Eldrin's vision blurred as the chamber erupted in a storm of shrapnel and shadow. The Blackthorn soldiers advanced, their source-shard weapons humming with lethal energy. Behind them, Ophira's shadow loomed, its form flickering between smoke and solidityaliving nightmare wearing his sister's face.
*Move!*"Liora's voice cut through the din. She shoved Eldrin sideways as a crystal-tipped spear embedded itself in the pedestal where hed stood moments before. The shard*the third shard*elattered to the floor, its blue light pulsing erratically.
Eldrin lunged for it, but Tira was faster.
The girlno, the *thing* that had been Tirascooped up the shard with hands half-transformed into crystalline claws. One eye remained human, wide with terror; the other glowed with the same eerie light as the shard. *She's coming,*"Tira whispered, her voice splitting into two tonesone childlike, one guttural.
Then the walls *exploded*.
---
The heart chamber convulsed as ancient mechanisms roared to life. The floor tilted violently, sending Eldrin sliding towarda gaping fissure. He barely caught the edge, his fingers scrambling against slick stone. Below him, the abyss yawneda void where even the blue torchlight dared not penetrate.
*Eldrin!*" Nim's voice echoed from above. Her spider-mech dangled precariously from the ceiling, its legs straining against the tremors. One of its claws lashed out, snagging the back of Eldrin's tunic and hauling him upward just as the floor crumbled away entirely.
Liora was already moving, her crystalline dagger carving through a Blackthorn soldier's throat. The spire's collapsing! We need to reach the upper levels*now!*"
Eldrin's sigils flared in response to the shard's proximity, a searing pain racing up his arms. Tiraor what was left of herserambled up the tilting walls like a spider, the shard clutched to her chest.
"We cant leave her!"Eldrin shouted.
Shes *gone*," Liora snapped. That thing inst Tira anymoreit's a vessel for Ophira's will!"
As if to prove her point, Tira's head *twisted* backward, her mouth stretching into a grin too wide for a human face.*Little brother,*" she crooned in Ophira's voice. "You cant outrun fate.*"
The ceiling above her split open, revealing a shaft of pale lightthe upper levels of the Sunken Spire. With a final, mocking laugh, Tira leaped into the shaft, her form dissolving into shadows.
*Damn it!*"Eldrin wrenched free of Nim's grasp and charged after her, his boots slipping on the crumbling stone.
Liora's hand clamped around his wrist like a vise. *Think!* The spire's defenses are triggered well be shredded if we follow blindly!"
As if on cue, the walls *moved*.
Hundreds of needle-thin filaments erupted from the stone, lashing out like living wires. One grazed Eldrin's cheek, drawing a line of fire. Another pierced Nim's mech, sending sparks cascading over its metal frame.
*Go go go!*" Nim yelped, her mech's legs pitoning as she carved a path through the deadly forest of wires.
Liora's dagger flashed, severing filaments with surgical precision. There's a maintenance conduit aheadsealed by Titan runes. Eldrin, *your turn!*"
Eldrin didt hesitate. He slammed his palm against the rune-covered door, the sigils on his skin flaring to life. Agony lanced through him as the door's ancient magic clashed with his chaos energybut it *opened*, revealing a narrow tunnel choked with dust and the scent of ozone.
The trio tumbled inside just as the filaments behind them *screamed*, their razor edges shredding the air where they'd stood.
---
The conduit was a claustrophobic nightmarea-labyrinth of rusted pipes and flickering glyphs. Eldrin's breath came in ragged gasps, his sigils still throbbing from the door's resistance.
Tira the shard"he panted.
Ts *gone*," Liora interrupted, her voice icy. Ophiras shadow has her now. But the spires layout is in the *Codex*we can intercept them at the summit."
Nim's mech whirred as she unfolded a holographic map from the *Titan Codex*. Bad news. The summits guarded by three Titan sentinels*big* ones. And worse"- She zoomed in on a pulsing red node. The spires core is destabilizing. If Ophira's shadow gets the shard to the summit, the whole place might blow."
Eldrin's fists clenched. Then we move faster."
The conduit spat them out into a vast chamberthe Spire's central atrium. Towering bronze automatons stood motionless along the walls, their hollow eyes fixed on a dais at the room's center. There, Tira knelt, her body convulsing as the shard's energy consumed her. Ophira's shadow circled her like a vulture, its form flickering with each pulse of the shard.
*Too late, little brother,*"the shadow purred. *The shard is mine.*"
The nearest automaton *twitched*.
Then, with a sound like grinding bones, it *lurched* forwardand the other two followed.
--
The first automatons fist slammed down where Eldrin had stood,cratering the stone floor. Nim's mech skittered up its arm, her plasma cutter screeching against its bronze plating. "Hit the joints!*"she yelled as the automaton backhanded her into a pillar.
Liora darted between the second automaton's legs, her dagger carving glowing runes into its ankles. Eldrin*the core!* Its chest cavity!"
Eldrin rolled beneath a sweeping strike, his palms igniting with liquid shadow. He vaulted onto the third automaton's back, driving his chaos-fire into the seams of its armor. Metal *screamed* as the plating melted, revealing a pulsing blue corea-smaller shard, powering the monstrosity.
*Now!*"Liora threw him her dagger.
Eldrin caught it midair and *plunged* it into the core.
The automaton *shuddered*, its limbs locking as the core's light flickered and died. It collapsed like a felled tree, nearly crushing Eldrin beneath its weight.
One down.
The second automaton staggered as Liora's runes flared to life, its legs fusing into solid metal. Nim, blood trickling from her temple, lobbed a grenade into its gaping mouth. The explosion tore its head clean off. Two down.
The third automatonthe largestturned its hollow gaze on Eldrin. Its chest split open, revealing not a core, but a *cage* of writhing filaments.
*Oh hell,*"Nim breathed.
The filaments *lashed* out, wrapping around Eldrins limbs and *pulling*. Agony seared through him as the filaments burrowed into his skin, his sigils flaring in protest. Visions flooded his mindOphira's face, the Titan War, a throne of shards waiting for a king.
*Eldrin!*"Lioras voice was distant, warped.
Then*taughter*.
Tira stood atop the dairy, the shard now embedded in her chest. Her human eye wept blood; the other glowed with triumph. *You lose,*" she whisperedand *plunged* her crystalline hand into the automaton's exposed cavity.
The world *exploded* in blue fire.
--.
Eldrin woke to the taste of ash and blood. The atrium was in ruins, the automatons carcass a smoldering heap beside him. Liora and Nim dragged him upright, their faces streaked with soot.
"Tira"he croaked.
*Gone,*"Liora said grimly. She pointed to the shattered remains of the dais- and the shadowy rift now pulsating where Tira had stood. Ophira's shadow took her. And the shard."
Nim's mech lay in pieces, its core flickering weakly. The spire's gonna blow. We need to *move*."
As they fled the collapsing ruins, Eldrin's sigils burned with a new intensitya hunger left unfulfilled. Somewhere above them, Ophira's shadow laughed, its voice carried on the wind.
*Until next time, little brother.*"
The Sunken Spire crumbled behind them, its secrets buried once more.
---