Morning slammed into them like a thrown bucket of ice.
Cyrus woke to the smell of cold stone and wet leaves, his breath fogging in the pale dawn light. The mountain air was thin, sharp, almost metallic—as if something enormous had been stirring the atmosphere all night.
Kina was already up.
Of course she was.
She moved like she'd been raised by the wind itself—quick, decisive, and annoyingly functional for someone who'd also barely slept.
She tightened her boot straps and nodded toward the slope looming above them.
"Goodra shifted during the night," she said, her voice low and alert. "Distortion trails changed direction. It's moving higher."
Cyrus sat up, groaning. "Morning to you too."
She tossed his pack at him.
"Yeah, yeah. Get up. We need a plan before the Titan relocates again."
They still didn't know what hit Titan Goodra's shell—only that something had cracked it with enough force to destabilize the aura flow.
This morning wasn't optional.
They needed readings.
Real readings.
And they needed them now.
Kina unrolled the map-tablet and projected the updated scan overlay. The whole screen pulsed with a web of light-purple distortions climbing higher up the ridge.
"Goal is simple," she said. "Find a shell fragment, get structural data, touch it to record aura response, then send everything to your parents."
Cyrus pulled out the sensor kit. "They should be able to design a reactive shell-binding with enough data."
Kina nodded. "If anyone can, it's them. But we need a clean imprint this time. So keep your hand still when you touch the fragment."
He gave her a flat look. "My hands are always—"
"Your hands shake when you're stressed."
"—only occasionally" Cyrus snipped back followed with a side eye.
She snorted.
They packed quickly, checking gear, double-checking it, then one more time because Kina didn't trust mountains that hummed.
The climb was a nightmare the moment they started.
Mud wasn't mud. It squirmed in place, rippling like a half-dissolved illusion. The rocks felt warm. Occasionally the air fizzed, like static electricity made audible.
Kina crouched beside a patch of steaming slime. "Fresh. Forty minutes, maybe."
Cyrus glanced around. "Meaning we're right behind it."
"Mm-hm." She didn't sound thrilled.
They kept going, following the Titan's trail—a path carved by something too heavy, too massive, too powerful to fight head-on.
As they climbed higher, trees bent back in unnatural angles, as if forced into positions they never grew into. The air shimmered with leftover aura, thick and oppressive.
Cyrus whispered, "That's… not normal."
Kina didn't answer.
She'd gone still, her hunter instincts locking onto something ahead.
A low vibration passed through the ground.
Not big enough to be Goodra.
But close.
Maybe whatever hit Goodra was still nearby.
The shell fragment
They found it in a narrow gorge—half-buried in broken stone, glowing faintly with internal heat.
A massive crescent-shaped shell piece, cracked down the middle.
Cyrus exhaled softly. "This is it…"
Kina pulled out the scanner.
"Alright. We follow protocol. Scan first."
He started the scan, watching the numbers bounce violently—stress fractures, aura overflow, thermal distortion.
The shell pulsed beneath his hand, as if the Titan's energy still clung to it.
"Okay," Kina said. "Touch it."
He did.
A surge of information burned up the sensor, lighting the display with a spectrum he'd never seen before. The shell wasn't just cracked—it had been hit so hard the inner aura layer ripped outward against its will.
His fingers tingled, like touching static with weight behind it.
"Kina…" he whispered.
"This wasn't internal failure. Something struck it."
"Hard," she murmured. "And with something it wasn't ready for."
He sent the readings through their uplink.
The device blinked.
TRANSMITTING…
SENT.
A few moments later, his parents replied:
"Data received. External-force impact confirmed. Running structural simulations now."
"Reactive-binding prototype underway. We will update with model results once complete."
"Stay cautious."
Cyrus's breath left him in a shudder.
Kina straightened, eyes scanning the foged slope above them where something enormous shifted behind the clouds.
The mountain trembled again.
"Well," she muttered, flexing her fingers around her weapon, "guess we keep climbing."
Cyrus nodded, swallowing the knot in his throat.
"Because whatever broke that shell… it's probably waiting for us."