The fog thinned just enough for the shape to break through.
At first, it looked like a collapsed tower being dragged across the ground. Then the thing lifted its head, if the mess of metal and flesh twisting together could be called a head, and its cable-tendons writhed in the air like a nest of black snakes.
The scavenger line collectively inhaled.
"Machine-beast," someone whispered. "Tier 3… maybe Tier 4…"
"No way that's Tier 3," another muttered. "It's too big."
The creature lurched forward, limbs grinding. Its front appendages were steel struts fused with bone; its back legs were organic muscle wrapped in shifting layers of metal plates. System code crawled across its hide, glowing glyphs pulsing out of sync, jittering like corrupted text.
The thing's presence distorted the air. The ground dimmed where it stepped, as if the System was trying and failing to update the terrain fast enough.
Captain Mara yelled, "Fire on my mark—MARK!"
The barricade erupted.
Bullets cracked through the air. Energy bolts fired from jury-rigged rifles; thin, unstable beams leaving trails of shimmering static behind them. Sparks exploded across the creature's armored hide as projectiles hit, ricocheting off in two dozen directions.
The machine-beast roared. The sound was both mechanical and alive, a metallic scream layered over a deep organic bellow, vibrating through Kane's ribs.
Kane gripped the turret controls. The machine hummed beneath him, whining as it charged.
"Come on… don't jam now…"
Lira stood firm beside him, arm raised. A translucent hex-barrier snapped up just in time to deflect a spray of metal fragments the creature kicked into the air.
She shouted over the noise, "Null workers, behind me!"
A few terrified scavengers ducked behind her as her barrier flickered under the impact of the flying shrapnel.
The creature swung one of its front limbs, an enormous sharpened girder, and slammed it into one of the perimeter turrets further down the line. The turret folded like paper, crunching inward before exploding in a shower of sparks.
Someone screamed. Another volunteer stumbled backward, tripping over a pile of sandbags.
Kane locked the crosshairs on the creature's chest.
"Come on… almost charged…"
The beast pivoted, its head splitting open vertically, revealing a glowing red core inside; a whirring mass of code strings wrapped around exposed muscle.
Lira muttered, "What the hell…"
The creature lunged.
"FIRE!" Mara screamed.
Kane slammed the trigger.
The turret coughed once, then let loose a burst of concentrated rounds that tore through the air, each shot trailing a faint stream of heated vapor. The recoil rattled Kane's shoulders, but the weapon held steady.
The stream of bullets slammed into the monster's chest, punching through the layers of shifting metal. The creature staggered backward, cables whipping furiously.
"Keep shooting!" Mara yelled. "Hit the joints! Hips and shoulders!"
Energy blasts from the other defenders struck the beast's side, melting patches of its armor into glowing sludge. The mutated metal dripped onto the ground, sizzling as it dissolved the concrete.
The creature shrieked, bending its entire body back unnaturally before snapping forward again with violent force.
It charged, straight at Lira's position.
Kane's heart jumped. "Lira—!"
"I see it!" she shouted.
She braced herself, slamming her palm against the ground. A larger barrier expanded outward, shimmering blue through the dust storm the beast kicked up.
The creature slammed into it with the force of a collapsing building.
The barrier buckled immediately.
Kane felt the recoil in the turret as he adjusted the angle, forcing the barrel to realign with the creature's neck joint.
"Hold it, Lira!"
"I'm TRYING!"
Cracks splintered through her barrier, glowing brighter with every hit.
Kane exhaled once, steadying the turret, lining up the shot.
"Come on… come on…"
The creature pushed harder. Lira grunted through clenched teeth. "Kane!"
He fired.
The burst landed clean, right at the hinge where metal and flesh met.
The creature's head snapped sideways, half-detached.
"Again!" Kane muttered.
He fired another volley.
This time, the head tore free, ripped clean off the creature's body, tumbling through the air before landing in the rubble with a heavy, wet metallic thud.
For a moment, everything froze.
Then someone yelled, "It's down! The head's off!"
The volunteers broke into frantic cheers. A couple of scavengers raised their rifles in the air. The tension that had been crushing the barricade lifted just an inch.
Kane took a shaky breath, releasing the turret controls.
"Didn't jam," he said to himself in disbelief.
Lira lowered her barrier, panting hard, sweat streaking down her dirt-smeared cheek. She shot him a tired grin. "Nice shot."
But the smile didn't last.
The machine-beast's body convulsed, once, violently.
Kane straightened immediately. "Wait—"
The creature emitted a soft, warped whine… and then a pulse.
Invisible. Soundless. But instant.
Kane felt it hit him like a pressure wave.
HUD displays from the nearby Users flickered, glitched—then died completely.
Someone screamed, "My System—? It just—! I can't—!"
Another collapsed to their knees, clutching their temples.
Lira's bracer blinked once, then went completely dark.
On the sky-alert indicator, red text stuttered across the clouds:
Gravity flickered next, hard.
Kane's stomach dropped as the world tilted, weight doubling then vanishing instantly. Tools, debris, and even people lifted several inches off the ground before slamming back down in a staggered wave.
The barricade lights went out.
The air turned cold.
Kane steadied himself on the turret. "Lira—are you—?"
She stared past him, eyes wide with horror.
"Kane… the Anchor core—look."
He followed her gaze.
And his pulse froze.
The Anchor core looked wrong.
Normally it hovered steady above its support frame, quiet, humming, wrapped in a clean ring of blue system light. But now the ring flickered wildly, colors jumping between blue, red, and static white. Glitching code spiraled off it in jagged bursts, scattering across the perimeter like sparks.
The Anchor core, the thing meant to stabilize Sector 73's reality was destabilizing.
If it ruptured…
The entire residential zone would vanish.
Every scavenger near the barricade felt it.
The ground vibrated in weird, uneven pulses.
Captain Mara stared at the core, her expression collapsing into panic.
"Everyone fall back! If that thing ruptures—!"
"We're dead," a scavenger whispered.
"Not dead," another said. "Erased."
Lira's armor flickered uselessly, powerless without System support. She smacked the bracer once, then again.
Nothing.
She exhaled sharply. "The pulse must've corrupted the stabilizer field…"
Kane climbed down from the turret, boots crunching on shattered glass. "Lira, we need to get the civilians out. Evac the shelters first."
She didn't move.
Her eyes stayed locked on the Anchor core.
Kane stepped closer. "Lira?"
She finally spoke, quiet, but firm.
"If the core collapses, the shockwave will wipe out four blocks."
"Yeah, which is why we're leaving. Mara's already calling for—"
"No." Lira shook her head. "Kane, the beast's pulse didn't just scramble our Systems. It infected the Anchor. If we walk away, it goes critical."
He stared at her, chest tightening. "We can't fix that. You can't fix that. Not with everything offline."
She lifted her bracer again.
It didn't glow.
Didn't respond.
Didn't even hum.
"Lira," he said carefully, "you're a Barrier User. Not a Stabilizer. And even Stabilizers can't stop a meltdown manually."
"I know." She said it calmly. Too calmly.
Kane felt dread crawl under his ribs.
"…Then what are you planning?"
Another tremor rolled through the ground. The Anchor core flared bright white for a second, bright enough that several scavengers shielded their eyes, before dripping a stream of corrupted data down its frame like molten metal.
Someone in the distance shouted, "It's accelerating!"
Lira stepped forward.
Kane grabbed her arm immediately. "Lira—don't. Whatever you're thinking, don't."
She didn't pull away.
She just looked at him with an expression he hated; determined, resigned, already decided.
"Kane," she said softly, "if that core blows, everyone in the residential zone dies. Kids. Families. The scavenger camps. All of Sector 73."
He shook his head hard. "Then we drag those people out. We evacuate. We—"
"There's no time."
"Yes, there is!"
"Kane." Her voice cracked just a little. "There isn't."
She gently pried his fingers off her arm.
He stepped in front of her, blocking her path. "I'm not letting you walk toward that thing."
"You can't stop me."
"I will try."
For a moment, they just stood there. The chaos around them seemed to fade under the weight of the moment, gunfire silenced, shouting distant, wind still.
A small, sad smile crossed her face. "You're the one who always fixes things, Kane… but this time it's me."
He felt his throat tighten.
Then the Anchor core shrieked.
A ripple of corrupted energy blasted outward, knocking several scavengers to their knees. Even Kane staggered, grabbing onto a twisted metal beam to stay upright.
Lira didn't fall.
She braced herself, and her eyes hardened.
"This thing responds to System output," she said. "If I can force my Barrier System into Overdrive and anchor it manually—"
"That will kill you!" Kane snapped. "Overdrive without stabilizing modules, Lira, it'll burn you from the inside!"
She didn't argue.
That was the worst part.
Instead she pulled the cracked chest plate of her armor tighter, fingers trembling only once.
Kane stepped closer again. "Lira, please."
Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Kane… you get people out. You're good at that. You've always been the one who keeps everyone else breathing."
She lifted her hand.
Placed it against his shoulder.
"Let me do this part."
Kane stared at her fingers, the dirt under her nails, the faint tremble in her wrist. He wanted to grab her, drag her back, force her to run, but she was already turning away.
Her eyes glowed.
Faintly at first.
Then brighter.
Lines of unstable code flickered to life across her skin, crawling from her wrist to her elbow like luminous fractures.
Kane went cold.
"Lira, don't activate it—!"
She didn't look back.
"Get everyone clear, Kane!" she shouted, voice ringing across the crater. "Now!"
The air around her shuddered as the Overdrive sequence kicked in, system-light erupting from her palm and flooding outward.
The glow intensified, white, blue, and violent.
Kane took a step forward instinctively, but the heat pushed him back like a physical force.
"LIRA!" he yelled.
She raised both hands toward the destabilizing core.
Her entire body shook as code surged through her circuits.
The Overdrive built, growing brighter, louder, ripping the air apart with its force—
And then she triggered it.