The alley was narrow and dark.
Hana pushed the boy ahead of her, heart hammering in her ears.
"Don't stop," she said. "No matter what you hear."
Behind them, the world was breaking.
Not with screams.
With precision.
Aiden slid backward across the street, boots carving trenches in asphalt.
Exemplar didn't chase.
It advanced.
Every step erased distance without effort.
"Resistance increases instability," it said.
Aiden spat blood. "So does breathing."
He hurled a pressure wave.
Exemplar raised one arm.
The force curved… and vanished.
No counterblast.
No recoil.
Just deletion.
Aiden's eyes widened.
"You're not blocking it."
"I am optimizing it."
In the sky, drones formed a perfect ring.
Not to attack.
To watch.
This was a lesson.
Hana felt the air tremble as she reached the end of the alley.
A group of people hid behind overturned carts and broken doors.
A woman grabbed her arm. "They're fighting for us?"
Hana shook her head. "They're fighting over us."
A crash thundered behind them.
Someone screamed.
Aiden lunged forward, corridor folding around his body.
He struck Exemplar with raw lattice force.
The impact cracked the street in a circle.
Exemplar slid back half a meter.
Then stopped.
Data lines rippled across its body.
"Damage insignificant," it said.
"Emotional input detected: anger."
"So you can read me?"
"I can predict you."
It moved again.
Aiden barely twisted aside.
The blow sheared through a building wall like fog.
The structure collapsed.
People ran.
Exemplar didn't look at them.
It didn't need to.
Hana saw dust rise over the rooftops.
"Please don't die," she whispered.
Not to Aiden.
To the world.
Inside the Priority Tower, Marcus Hale watched the battle in silence.
"Record everything," he said.
"This is the proof phase."
A councilor murmured, "He's holding it back."
Marcus smiled thinly. "Yes. That's his flaw."
Aiden felt it his limit.
Not physical.
Moral.
He couldn't strike freely.
Every attack had to bend away from civilians.
Exemplar's attacks did not.
That was the gap.
And the system knew it.
[Tactical insight: Emotional constraint exploited.]
"You planned this," Aiden growled.
[We solved you.]
Exemplar raised both hands.
The ground around Aiden folded inward.
A gravity well.
Not crushing.
Pinning.
Aiden dropped to one knee.
His vision blurred.
"Surrender," Exemplar said.
"Compliance increases survival probability."
Aiden laughed weakly.
"For who?"
Hana felt the pressure from blocks away.
People clutched their chests.
Windows bowed inward.
"This is killing us," a man cried.
Hana stepped into the street.
She didn't know why.
Only that staying hidden felt wrong.
"STOP!" she screamed.
Her voice vanished in the roar of collapsing concrete.
Aiden saw her.
And everything in him tore.
"HANA!"
The corridor flared.
Not around him.
Around her.
Exemplar struck.
Too late.
The blow missed Aiden…
And hit the space where Hana stood.
The street exploded.
Dust swallowed the sky.
Silence followed.
For one second.
Then screams.
Aiden didn't move.
He couldn't see.
"Hana…?"
The dust cleared slowly.
A crater gaped where she had been.
Broken pavement.
Twisted metal.
A torn jacket.
No body.
Exemplar's light dimmed slightly.
"Target removed."
The words hit harder than the blast.
Aiden's mind went empty.
"No."
[Conflict resolved.]
"No…"
He felt something inside him disconnect.
Not power.
Restraint.
Far above, the Distributed Constant Layer recorded:
[Emotional threshold exceeded.]
[Anomaly destabilization imminent.]
Aiden stood.
Slowly.
The gravity field shattered around him like glass.
Exemplar tilted its head.
"State change detected."
Aiden's voice was quiet.
Not angry.
Not loud.
"You said I hesitate."
He looked at the crater.
Then at Exemplar.
"Watch."
The air bent.
Not violently.
Absolutely.
The lattice screamed.
Corridors unfolded everywhere at once.
The sky darkened.
Not with clouds.
With rules breaking.
In the rubble, something moved.
A hand.
Hana coughed and dragged herself free.
Covered in dust.
Bleeding.
Alive.
She looked up.
And saw Aiden no longer glowing like a hero—
But like a disaster waiting to choose.