The air in the Geothermal Tap was not air; it was a solid wall of heat.
Kai dodged to the right, his boots sliding on the metal grating of the central platform. The massive, glowing red wrench—a control rod made of super-dense alloy—smashed into the spot where he had been standing a microsecond before.
CLANG.
The impact shook the platform. Sparks the size of fireflies showered down into the magma pit below.
[ WARNING: EXTERNAL TEMPERATURE CRITICAL ][ SHIELD INTEGRITY: N/A ][ ENEMY: THE KEEPER ][ ATTACK FORCE: 3.5 TONS ]
"He's strong," Kai grit his teeth, the Entropy Sutra spinning wildly in his Dantian to process the influx of thermal energy. The heat here was so intense it was actually overcharging him. His Qi reserves were pegged at 500/500, but his biological body was struggling to dissipate the waste heat.
The Keeper didn't pause. He moved with a terrifying, jerky speed—like a video skipping frames. He spun the massive rod with one hand, the servos in his arms whining loudly.
"The Master sleeps!" The Keeper screamed, his voice distorted by static. "Do not wake him with your noise!"
He swung again, a horizontal arc meant to cut Kai in half.
Kai raised the Arc-Blade.
SNAP-HISS.
The blue plasma met the red-hot alloy.
ZZZRT.
There was a blinding flash. Kai was thrown backward, skidding across the platform. He didn't try to block the force; he deflected it. But the Keeper's raw strength was overwhelming.
[ DAMAGE DETECTED: RIGHT WRIST (MICRO-FRACTURE) ][ ARC-BLADE CHARGE: 85% ]
< HE IS OVERCLOCKED. > Cipher analyzed coolly. < HIS IMPLANTS ARE RUNNING AT 200% CAPACITY. HE IS BURNING HIS OWN LIFE FORCE AS FUEL. HE WILL BURN OUT IN 12 MINUTES. >
"I don't have 12 minutes," Kai snapped mentally. He scrambled to his feet.
The Keeper was charging again.
"Rin!" Kai shouted without looking back. "The control panel! Find the coolant flush!"
Rin was huddled behind a pillar of machinery near the entrance. She nodded, terror written on her face, and sprinted toward a sub-console on the far wall.
The Keeper saw her. His red optical sensors flared.
"No intruders!"
He changed trajectory, ignoring Kai, aiming for Rin. He raised the rod to throw it like a spear.
Kai's eyes widened. He couldn't reach him in time physically.
He had to use the code.
[ SKILL: SCRIPTING ][ TARGET: SPACE (COORDINATE X,Y,Z) ][ ACTION: INCREASE VISCOSITY ]
Kai thrust his hand out. He dumped 100 points of Qi into the command.
Script: Sludge.
The air between the Keeper and Rin didn't change color, but it changed texture. It shimmered, becoming thick and heavy.
The Keeper threw the rod.
The massive weapon flew through the air, but as it hit the scripted zone, it slowed down drastically, as if moving through invisible molasses. It wobbled, lost momentum, and clattered to the floor ten meters short of Rin.
Rin didn't stop. She reached the console and started slamming buttons.
The Keeper roared, a sound of pure digital rage. He turned back to Kai, empty-handed.
"You... corrupt... the... file..."
He reached into his tattered robes and pulled out a bundle of cables connected to his own chest. He ripped them free.
Arcs of red electricity danced over his body. He wasn't just a mechanic; he was a generator.
He slammed his hands onto the metal floor.
[ WARNING: ENERGY SURGE DETECTED ][ GROUND CONDUCTION ]
< JUMP! >
Kai leaped straight up.
A wave of red lightning swept across the platform floor, frying the circuitry of the dormant loader-bots lining the walls. Where Kai had been standing, the metal plate melted into slag.
Kai grabbed a hanging chain used for moving heavy crucibles. He swung over the magma pit, the heat searing the soles of his boots.
"Cipher, scan him! Where is the core?"
< HIS CHEST. UNDER THE ROBES. IT'S AN OLD FUSION BATTERY. UNSTABLE. IF YOU PUNCTURE IT, HE DETONATES. >
"If he detonates, he takes the Fabricator with him," Kai realized. "I have to shut him down. Softly."
He swung back toward the platform, landing behind the Keeper.
The Keeper spun around, faster than a human should be able to. He grabbed Kai by the throat with a hand made of cold steel and hot wires.
Kai choked. His feet dangled off the ground. The Keeper's red optical eyes zoomed in, inches from Kai's face. The smell of rotting meat and burning ozone was overpowering.
"Delete," the Keeper rasped.
He squeezed.
Kai's vision began to spot with black. The pressure on his windpipe was immense.
[ CRITICAL ALERT: OXYGEN DEPRIVATION ][ NECK INTEGRITY: 40% ]
Kai couldn't breathe. He couldn't swing the Arc-Blade.
But he could touch.
He brought his hands up, grabbing the Keeper's wrist.
"De... com... pile..."
He didn't try to break the metal arm. That would take too long.
He targeted the connection. The nerve interface where the metal met the flesh of the Keeper's shoulder.
[ TARGET: NEURAL LINKAGE ][ MATERIAL: ORGANIC / SYNTHETIC INTERFACE ][ EXECUTING: SEVER.EXE ]
Kai poured his Qi into the Keeper's arm.
The Keeper shrieked. The red lights in his eyes flickered wildly.
The metal arm didn't break. It simply... went dead. The command signals from the Keeper's brain were intercepted, scrambled, and deleted.
The grip loosened.
Kai dropped to the floor, gasping.
The Keeper stumbled back, his left arm hanging limp and useless. He looked at it in confusion, then at Kai with pure hatred.
"Virus!"
He raised his remaining hand—the right hand—and pointed it at Kai. A port opened in his palm.
A flamethrower nozzle.
WHOOSH.
A jet of liquid fire erupted.
Kai rolled backward, but the flames were too fast. They caught the hem of his coat.
He ripped the coat off and threw it aside, scrambling away in his shirt sleeves.
The heat in the room was rising. The magma pit below was bubbling violently. The Keeper's rage was destabilizing the thermal regulation of the entire facility.
"Rin!" Kai yelled. "Now!"
"I... I got it!" Rin shouted from the console. She pulled a heavy lever.
CLANK-HISS.
Above the platform, huge vents slammed open.
But instead of venting steam out, they dumped coolant in.
A deluge of freezing liquid nitrogen rained down on the center of the platform.
The Keeper, caught in the middle of his flamethrower attack, looked up too late.
The liquid nitrogen hit the superheated air, vaporizing instantly into a blinding white fog. But enough of it hit the Keeper.
CRACK.
Thermal shock.
The Keeper's armor plates, expanded by the heat, suddenly contracted. The metal fractured. The red lights on his body dimmed.
He froze, encased in a layer of rime ice, his flamethrower sputtering out.
Kai stopped rolling. He stood up, shivering as the temperature plummeted from 60 degrees to sub-zero in seconds.
The Keeper wasn't dead. He was twitching, trying to break the ice.
Kai walked forward. The Arc-Blade was in his hand.
He didn't ignite the plasma. He didn't need to.
He walked up to the frozen, immobilized monster.
He placed the tip of the baton against the Keeper's chest, right over the glowing fusion battery.
[ TARGET: FUSION CORE ][ STATUS: UNSTABLE ][ ACTION: DRAIN ]
"Your watch is over," Kai whispered.
He activated the Entropy Sutra.
He didn't decompile the battery. He drank it.
He pulled the energy out of the core.
The Keeper threw his head back in a silent scream. The red light in his chest flowed up the baton, into Kai's arm, into his Dantian.
It was a rush of power unlike anything Kai had felt. It was dirty, old energy, full of the Keeper's madness and the facility's history.
But Kai's Logic Lattice filtered it. Cleaned it. Stored it.
The light in the Keeper's eyes faded. The fusion core turned gray.
The Keeper slumped, turning into just another pile of scrap metal on the floor.
[ ENEMY DEFEATED ][ ENERGY ABSORBED: 5,000 KYL ][ QI RESERVES: OVERCHARGED (150%) ][ WARNING: VENT EXCESS ENERGY IMMEDIATELY ]
Kai stumbled back. He felt like he was glowing. His skin was actually emitting faint light.
"Kai!" Rin ran over to him, slipping on the icy floor. "Are you okay?"
"Don't touch me," Kai gasped. "I'm... hot."
He turned to the magma pit. He extended his hands.
He pushed the excess Qi out.
A bolt of pure white energy shot from his hands into the magma.
BOOM.
The lava exploded upward, a geyser of fire.
Kai collapsed to his knees, empty but stable.
[ STATUS: NORMAL ][ LOGIC GATE STAGE: STABILIZED ]
He breathed. In. Out.
Silence returned to the Geothermal Tap.
Kai looked up. The facility was intact. The massive machinery was humming quietly, waiting for orders.
He looked at the central console—the Fabricator Core.
He stood up, shaky but determined. He walked to the console.
[ SYSTEM: GEOTHERMAL TAP 01 ][ ADMIN ACCESS: OPEN ][ WELCOME, USER. ]
Kai placed his hand on the interface.
"Cipher," he said. "Lock it down. Change the codes. This is ours now."
< AFFIRMATIVE. ENCRYPTING... DONE. WELCOME HOME, KAI. >
Kai looked at the screen. A menu appeared.
> PRODUCTION QUEUE: EMPTY> RESOURCES: ABUNDANT> BLUEPRINTS: AVAILABLE
He scrolled through the blueprints.
[ DRONE CHASSIS ][ KINETIC AMMUNITION ][ PROSTHETIC LIMBS (TIER 2) ]
He stopped on the prosthetics.
"Rin," Kai said, waving her over.
She walked up to the console, looking at the glowing screen with awe.
"What is this place?" she asked.
"This," Kai said, pointing at the list, "is the future."
He selected [ PROSTHETIC LIMB (TIER 2) ].
[ INITIATING FABRICATION... ]
Behind them, a massive robotic arm descended from the ceiling. It grabbed a crucible of molten steel and poured it into a mold. Lasers flashed, carving circuits. Nanobots swarmed, weaving synthetic muscle.
In five minutes, a tray slid out from a slot in the wall.
On it lay a sleek, chrome arm. It wasn't bulky like the old one. It was elegant, articulated like a human limb, but stronger.
Rin stared at it. She reached out with her flesh hand, touching the cool metal.
"For me?"
"For you," Kai said.
He looked around the vast, subterranean factory.
He had power. He had a fortress. He had a means of production.
The Vipers were a nuisance. The Sect was a threat.
But now? Now Kai was a power.
< ALERT. > Cipher's voice interrupted the moment. < INCOMING TRANSMISSION ON THE REBEL FREQUENCY. IT'S NOVA. >
Kai tapped his ear. "Put her through."
"Kai?" Nova's voice was static-filled, urgent. "Are you there?"
"I'm here," Kai said. "I'm at the Tap."
"You... you took the Tap?" Nova sounded stunned. "Alone?"
"I had help," Kai said, glancing at Rin.
"Listen to me," Nova said. "The Sect... they aren't just sweeping. They're mobilizing. We intercepted a command signal from the Upper Ring. Prince Aethelgard is coming down personally."
Kai felt a chill. The Hunter.
"Why?" Kai asked.
"Because of the signal you sent when you upgraded," Nova said. "They traced the signature. They know you're a Null who cultivates. They're calling you a 'Logic Error.' A threat to the stability of the Heaven Server."
"Let him come," Kai said, looking at the rows of idle fabrication drones hanging from the ceiling.
He tapped a command on the console.
> PRODUCTION QUEUE: SENTRY DRONE (x50)
The factory roared to life.
"I'll be ready," Kai said.