Flames warped the frost-coated ground while streaks of condensed light carved lines through the rubble. Every collision between Foyd and the man sent shockwaves rattling through the abandoned stalls and shattered walkways.
Lux, Gavin, and Varik scrambled through the wreckage, clinging to the edges of derelict structures as debris rained around them.
The monstrous clash tore through the slum sector like two stars collapsing into each other.
Lux couldn't breathe.
Varik couldn't stand steady.
Gavin was the only one pulling them onward, half dragging, half shielding.
"Move!" Gavin yelled, voice hoarse. "Get behind the old barrier wall—GO!"
The boys stumbled through the smoke-choked air, boots sliding on cracked frost as they bolted down the slum street. Tarp roofs snapped in the violent wind. Metal panels clattered and fell. The air burned hot and cold in alternating violent pulses.
They were maybe twenty paces away from the remains of a toppled barricade when—
A flare of molten gold ripped down the street as the man slammed both palms into the ground. The stone fractured like thin ice, heat rippling outward in a wave. Foyd countered with a sweeping arc of radiant white, his blade glowing blindingly as it cleaved through the flare.
Light and heat collided, erupting into a soundless blast that shook the entire sector.
The boys were thrown forward.
Lux tumbled in the snow, head ringing. Varik crashed into a collapsed stall, crying out as splintered wood scraped his side. Gavin rolled, slammed a shoulder into the ground, and immediately got back up—pulling both boys to their feet.
"Stay low!" Gavin shouted. "Don't look back!"
Lux dared a glance anyway.
Foyd had changed.
His coat's lining glowed from beneath, shimmering with dangerous heat. His movements lost their controlled coldness—becoming sharper, faster, almost feral. Every swing of his blade left streaks of afterglow in the air, and each step cratered the ground beneath him.
The man noticed too.
His grin faltered.
For the first time…
he stepped back.
"You're pushing your limits, officer," he hissed through his teeth.
Foyd didn't answer. He vanished—
And reappeared behind the unknown man , kicking him so hard the armored man skidded across the street, carving a trench into the ground.
He caught himself, boots grinding sparks against the frost.
He wasn't laughing anymore.
His mutated scales along his jaw flexed as he gritted his teeth, golden slits narrowing.
He realised that the longer this battle was drawn out the more of a disadvantage he would be at. His body was slowly deteriorating.
"Ah fuck it, I wanted the boy but making sure they don't get him would also count as a win," the man sighed in resignation.
He bided his time waiting for an opening.
"Not yet."
He waited and waited staying on the defensive.
Then it happened.
The boys were running trying to escape the clash between powerhouses.
He shifted his stance.
Eyes narrowing.
The man growled, lifting one hand. "I'll take him now."
A spiral of molten light coiled around his arm.
Foyd blurred forward, intercepting—
but he redirected mid-motion.
The attack snapped toward the boys like a slingshot of pure sunfire.
Gavin's eyes widened.
He didn't think.
He moved.
"DOWN!"
It was as if time slowed down for Gavin. His body moved on its own with no time to consider his actions.
He grabbed Lux and Varik by the shoulders and shoved them with all his weight.
The blast struck the structure behind them.
A crash was heard.
The old multi-level scaffolding buckled instantly.
A shockwave tore the street open.
Flaming debris and steel beams rained like a meteor shower.
Lux hit the ground hard, tumbling into snow and ash.
Varik slammed into a cracked support pillar, crying out as metal tore into his side.
Lux looked up just in time to see—
The entire structure collapsing onto Gavin.
An avalanche of smoking metal beams.
Concrete shards.
Cracking frost-glass.
A wall of debris that swallowed him whole in an instant.
It was as if just for a moment, this tumultuous battle field grew silent.
Lux's vision blurred, his ears were ringing and he couldn't catch a breath.
For those brief moments it felt as though the world had stopped.
Then with all his voice he screamed
"GAVIN—!!"
Lux sprinted forward on instinct, skidding across stone and frost, fingers tearing at the rubble as he tried to dig him out.
Varik dragged himself forward, leaving streaks of blood in the snow.
He had a deep wound in his side and was bleeding out.
"Lux—stop—!" he choked, coughing. "Lux—you'll get crushed—!"
Lux didn't hear him.
He was sobbing—loud, panicked, raw.
His hands bled as he pulled at rocks twice his size.
His vision blurred with tears.
"G-GAVIN—!! GAVIN, GET UP—!! Please—please—!!"
Foyd didn't even look toward the rubble.
His focus was broken but only for a split second, he locked back on the man, calculating odds.
The man breathed sharply, steam rising from his cracked armor.
"Tsk, Damn it!" The man cursed.
He was aiming for Lux but the situation is still salvageable.
Foyd raised his blade.
"Another unnecessary death by your hands."
But the mans expression flicked—just a hair.
That one second of breath was all he needed. In that moment of distraction he secured his escape.
"It's a shame I couldn't recruit the child but I've gained some valuable insight so it's not a complete loss." The man said reluctantly, "I'm afraid our dance must end here officer, I am a man who values his time you see. The next time we meet however will have a different ending."
He detonated a shockburst of heat beneath his feet, propelling himself backward through a collapsing alley wall.
Foyd lunged, but the man was too fast—already vanishing into the smoke-choked maze of structures, his body seemingly breaking apart and scattered into the darkness.
Foyd stopped pursuit immediately and sighed in disappointment.
Lux was still screaming Gavin's name—even as blood dripped from his torn fingertips.
Foyd walked toward him, boots crunching over frostglass and ash.
Just completing the mission.
"Stand child," he ordered.
Lux whipped toward him, face streaked with tears, voice breaking.
"H-HE'S RIGHT THERE—!! HELP ME DIG HIM OUT—!!"
Foyd looked at the pile.
"He is already dead, I sense no life from him."
"WHAT—?!" Lux sobbed. "HE'S RIGHT THERE—!!"
"Structural collapse is fatal at that density," Foyd stated calmly. "He is not recoverable."
Lux's breath hitched violently.
His knees gave out.
He tried to throw himself back toward the rubble—
Foyd seized him by the back of his coat and lifted him effortlessly off the ground.
LET GO—!! GAVIN IS— GAVIN IS—!!" Lux screamed, kicking wildly.
All the memories of Gavin flashing wildly throughout his mind.
Then
A punch to the stomach.
Lux was knocked out immediately.
All his resistance ceased.
Foyd sighed.
He hit his communicator, tone clipped:
"Luminous Foyd reporting. Sector A12 compromised," Then a brief pause.
"One possible Sunborne escaped. One asset retrieved. Area secured"
He ended the transmission.
He hoisted Lux over his shoulder like an object, turning toward the extraction route.
Varik, bleeding and half-conscious, reached toward them with a shaking hand.
"L…ux… Ga…vin.."
Foyd didn't stop.
He didn't look back.
He didn't alter his pace.
The slum's rising smoke swallowed Varik's collapsed form
and Gavin's buried body
Officer Foyd carried Lux away without a second glance.