The appearance of Vex was a punch to the gut, a final, insurmountable wall in their desperate race against time.
The two guards flanking him were unlike any soldiers they had seen before. They were enormous, easily over seven feet tall, and the air around them shimmered with the contained, violent energy of a controlled storm.
These were not enhanced grunts like Silas. They were something else entirely.
"Praetorians," Joric breathed, his face pale with a terror that went beyond the imminent reactor explosion.
"Vex's personal guard. The legends are true. They are the perfected ones." These were the product of the 'Phase Two' enhancements, stable, powerful, and utterly loyal warriors who had successfully integrated the corrupted ChainForce.
They were the culmination of everything Vex had been working towards, and they were impossibly, terrifyingly powerful.
The holographic timer of the self-destruct sequence, projected faintly on a nearby wall by Jax, now read less than sixty seconds.
"The boy," Vex commanded, his voice cold and clipped.
"Bring him to me. Subdue the others." The Praetorians moved.
Their speed was not human. It was a blur, a glitch in reality.
One moment they were beside Vex, the next they were upon them. Kiera, even in her wounded state, reacted with the instinct of a master.
Her blade was a silver flash, aimed at the visor of the first Praetorian. But the attack, which would have disabled any other soldier, was met with a casual, almost lazy, backhand.
The Praetorian didn't even flinch as her sword, a masterpiece of Azure Dragon forging, shattered against its helmet, the impact throwing her back against the elevator wall.
The power disparity was absolute. It was like a child throwing a pebble against a mountain.
Joric fired his plasma rifle, the bolt dissipating harmlessly against the Praetorian's armor.
It was useless. The second Praetorian moved towards Ryu.
Its movements were fluid, unstoppable. Ryu, his heart pounding, threw up a kinetic shield, the strongest he could muster.
The Praetorian didn't even slow down.
It walked through the shield as if it were a mild breeze, the shimmering energy rippling and dissolving against its advance.
It reached for Ryu, its massive, armored hand ready to seize its prize. This was it.
There were no more tricks, no more gambits. They were out of time, out of options, and utterly, hopelessly outmatched.
But as the Praetorian's fingers were about to close around Ryu's arm, another hand, this one made of flesh and wire, shot out and grabbed its wrist.
It was Jax. His cybernetically-enhanced body, piloted by his digital consciousness, was weak, clumsy, but it was standing in the way.
"My friend," Jax's synthesized voice echoed, his tone no longer cold, but filled with a strange, fierce protectiveness.
"You will not touch him." The Praetorian, surprised by this unexpected resistance, tried to swat him away.
But Jax, with a final, desperate command to the facility's network, did the only thing he had left to do.
He severed his own connection to the main console. He abandoned his godhood, his control over the facility, and focused every remaining ounce of his consciousness, every last drop of his will, into a single, suicidal act.
The neuro-link halo around his head glowed with the intensity of a dying star.
He wasn't trying to fight the Praetorian.
He was hijacking it.
The advanced technology woven into the Praetorian's armor, its corrupted ChainForce regulators, its very nervous system—it was all just another network.
And Jax was the greatest hacker the world had ever known. The Praetorian froze, its body locked in place, as a digital ghost invaded its machine soul.