The Warden didn't just walk. He made the ground quake also.
Every step he took on the metal catwalk sent vibrations through the soles of my boots, rattling my teeth. Eight feet of heavy plated armor and pure malice, painted a dark, bruised purple. The gravity-hammer in his hands hummed with a low, bone-shaking frequency that made the air feel thick.
"Run!" I yelled again, shoving Maya and Sarah toward the service hatch at the end of the walkway.
"No escape, little rats," the Warden boomed. His helmet had no visor — just a glowing purple slit where his eyes should be.
He swung the hammer.
He didn't even aim for us. He hit the railing ten feet away from us.
BOOM.
A shockwave of purple energy rippled out from the impact. It wasn't an explosion — it was a sudden crush of gravity, like the air itself got heavier. It hit us like a wall.
I was thrown off my feet, sliding across the metal floor like the world had tilted sideways. Sarah slammed into the wall with a sickening thud. Maya, still weak from stasis and barely conscious, tumbled toward the edge of the catwalk.
"Maya!" Sarah screamed, scrambling on her hands and knees. She caught her daughter's hand just as she slipped over the edge.
Maya dangled over the abyss, her metal arm scraping against the railing. Below her was a two-hundred-foot drop to the prison floor.
The Warden laughed. A deep, mechanical sound. "The famous Queen Lysandra. Look at you. Crawling in the dirt where you belong."
He raised the hammer again. The purple light grew brighter, sucking the dust from the air toward the weapon's head.
[GRAVITATIONAL CHARGE: 100%]
I stood up. My ribs were screaming. My armor was flashing red warnings across my vision.
[ENEMY: THE WARDEN — BOSS]
[LEVEL: ?? — TOO HIGH]
[THREAT: FATAL]
"Glitch!" I shouted into the comms. "We need an exit! Now!"
"I'm working on it!" Glitch yelled back, and i heard him frantically typing. "The Warden locked down the airlocks manually! I can't open the doors unless you shut off his command override!"
"Where is the override?"
"It's on HIM! His suit has a signal jammer acting as a master key. You have to shut off his suit!"
"Shut off his suit," I muttered, staring at the walking tank. "Sure. Easy. Let me just ask him nicely."
The Warden strode toward Sarah and Maya. He wasn't rushing. He was savoring it. He raised the hammer high, ready to bring the ceiling down on them.
I didn't think. I moved.
[Skill: Overcharge — Legs]
I didn't target a machine. I targeted my own legs.
I dumped 50 XP worth of energy directly into my Shadow-Weave Suit's leg joints.
[WARNING: SUIT SERVOS EXCEEDING SAFETY LIMITS]
I didn't care. I launched myself.
I flew through the air, covering the twenty feet between me and the Warden in split seconds. I landed on his back, grabbing the exhaust ports of his massive armor.
"Get off me, insect!" the Warden roared, thrashing like a bear with a wolf on its back.
He reached behind him with one massive armored hand and grabbed me by the neck. His grip was like a vice. I felt the metal of my suit bend under his fingers. Black spots flickered across my vision, like i was about to pass out.
[Skill: Energy Siphon]
I slapped my hand onto his helmet.
[TARGET: WARDEN'S ARMOR — LEGENDARY GRADE]
[ENERGY SOURCE: FUSION CORE]
[DRAIN RATE: SLOW]
It was like trying to drink the ocean through a straw. The energy inside his suit was too dense, too shielded. I was draining him, but it wasn't fast enough.
The Warden threw me.
He didn't just drop me — he hurled me. I slammed into the floor, skidding to a halt near the edge of the abyss, gasping for air.
"You have a unique trick," the Warden sneered, turning to face me. He cracked his neck, the sound echoing through his armor. "But you lack capacity. You are a cup trying to hold a storm."
He raised the hammer high. The purple light was blinding now. He was going to crush me flat.
I looked at Sarah. She was pulling Maya up, but they were trapped in the corner.
I looked at the Warden.
I can't drain him. He has too much power.
Wait.
Glitch's words echoed in my head. Technomancy isn't magic. It's code.
If I couldn't drain the battery... maybe I could reverse the flow.
I looked at the hammer.
It was charging up. Pulling energy from the suit's core to create a gravity well. A one-way flow — energy in, gravity out.
"Hey!" I yelled, spitting blood.
The Warden paused. "Any last words, Devourer?"
"Yeah," I said, standing up. My legs were shaking. "You forgot one thing."
"And what is that?"
"I'm not a battery," I said, raising my hand toward the floor. "I'm a conduit."
[Skill: Energy Siphon]
[TARGET: MAIN POWER LINE]
I didn't drain the Warden. I drained the main power cable running under the catwalk — the massive line powering the entire block.
[XP GAINED: +500]
[WARNING: CRITICAL OVERLOAD]
My body turned into a blinding blue star. I was holding enough electricity to power a city block. It hurt. It felt like my skin was melting off the bone. My veins turned black under the strain.
"Eat this!"
[Skill: Discharge]
But I didn't shoot him. I shot his hammer.
The purple gravity energy of the hammer met my blue lightning.
OVERLOAD.
The hammer was designed to pull gravity in. By flooding it with raw, chaotic electricity, I scrambled its flow.
VWREEEEEP.
The hammer screamed. The gravity field flipped.
Instead of crushing us down... it pushed out.
BOOM.
The Warden was launched backward by his own weapon. The sudden reversal of gravity threw him across the room like a cannonball. He smashed through three layers of reinforced steel walls.
CRASH. CRASH. CRASH.
He disappeared into the darkness of the ventilation shaft, taking half the wall with him.
Silence.
I fell to my knees, my armor smoking. Steam rose from my skin where the energy had burned through.
[XP GAINED: +0 — TARGET NOT KILLED]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: GRAVITY DEFIER]
"Elias!" Sarah ran over, and gently grabbed me.
"Did I... get him?" I wheezed.
"You knocked him into the next block," Sarah said, amazed. "But he's tough. He'll be back. We need to go."
"Airlocks open!" Glitch shouted in my ear. "Get to the shuttle! You bought me exactly three minutes!"
We ran. We practically carried Maya, who was staring at everything with wide, terrified eyes. She looked at me like I was a monster — a man glowing with blue fire.
We reached the trash compactor room. The shuttle was waiting, the engines was running.
We piled in.
"Go, go, go!" I yelled, collapsing onto the floor.
The shuttle detached. Glitch punched the thrusters. We rocketed away from the Iron Cloud, disappearing into the smog just as the station's defense cannons started lighting up the sky behind us.
I sat on the floor of the shuttle, leaning against the cold wall. I checked my stats.
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 8]
I looked at Maya. She was sitting with Sarah, gripping her mother's hand tight, and she was shivering.
"We did it," I whispered, closing my eyes.
But then, the radio crackled. A voice cut through the static. Not the Warden. Not Malachi.
"Asset 815 located," a cold, robotic voice said. "Tracking beacon active. Initiating Phase Two."
My eyes snapped open.
I looked at Maya.
I looked at her metal arm. The red light on her wrist was blinking. Slow. Rhythmic.
"Sarah," I said, my voice shaking. "Check her arm."
Sarah looked down. She saw the blinking light. Her face went pale.
"It's a tracker," Sarah gasped. "They let us escape. They wanted us to lead them to the Resistance."
"Glitch!" I yelled, scrambling toward the cockpit. "Scan for signals!"
"Already on it!" Glitch shouted, his voice shaking with panic. "Radar is lighting up! We have incoming! Gunships — dozens of them. They were hiding in the clouds!"
We hadn't escaped.
We had just started a war.