Vren stood in the Sanctum's command chamber, his void-warped form silhouetted against the pulsing rift crystal suspended above. His cracked helm glinted under flickering lumium lights, his violet eyes burning with resolve as he addressed his army. "The voidborn flees," he intoned, his voice a deep rasp echoing through the zealots' comms. "Kael, the key, must be taken alive. His blood will open the gate.
Deploy all units—zealots, drones, every blade and bolt. Hunt him through the Sanctum and beyond. Fail, and the void will claim you." The zealots, their spiral-embroidered robes swaying, saluted with lumium blades, while combat drones hummed to life, their shock nets sparking. Vren's gaze fixed on a holo-screen tracking Kael's path. "Your parents' defiance ends tonight," he murmured, a promise to the void itself.In the Sanctum's collapsing corridors,
Kael's boots pounded the steel floor, his breath ragged as he fled the vault. His satchel, heavy with the lumium shard, rift crystal, voltspire orb, cinderwisp blade, lumivore core, voidreaver chest plate, spiral-etched scale, and Talia's data-chip, slammed against his hip, a lifeline he could not lose. His scarred arm burned, the void's hum a storm in his chest, urging him forward.
Ryn sprinted beside him, her plasma pistol flashing blue as she fired at zealots charging from a side passage, their blades glinting. Talia, ahead, hacked a wall panel, her fingers disabling a lumium tripwire that pulsed with deadly energy. "Keep moving!" she shouted, her voice cutting through the alarms' wail.Kael's mind churned. Vren's words—his parents, Elara and Torren, defying the Sanctum to hide him as the "void key"—fueled his resolve.
The holo-log's image of them, standing before a rift, lingered like a wound. They had fought to keep him from this fate, but Vren's hunt proved their sacrifice unfinished. He teleported past a collapsing beam, reappearing beside Talia. "What else did they do?" he demanded, his voice rough. "Vren said they sabotaged a rift."Vren's voice crackled through the comms, cold and relentless. "Elara was our mind," he said, a bitter edge sharpening his tone. "She built rifts to tap the void's power, but saw its chaos.
She sabotaged our largest rift, sealing it to starve the gate. Torren, her shadow, hid you, the voidborn child, to deny us the key. Their betrayal delayed our work, but your blood, Kael, will complete it."Kael's heart twisted, rage and grief colliding. A zealot's plasma rifle shot grazed his cloak, and he raised his void shield, a shadow barrier deflecting the bolt. He drained the rifle's energy, its glow fading, and teleported behind the zealot, knocking him out with the cinderwisp blade's hilt.
Ryn's pistol cracked, dropping another, but her eyes flicked to Talia, narrow with suspicion. "You are too good with their tech," she said, dodging a shock net from a drone. "Sure you left this cult?"Talia's scar twitched, but she stayed focused, rerouting a drone to crash into a wall. "Save it," she said, sprinting toward a stairwell. Kael followed, his shield flickering as a drone's net grazed his arm, shocks stinging. The corridor shook, debris falling, and the stairwell opened to a shattered hall, its walls spilling into the rift-warped city's ruins.
The violet rift zone loomed outside, its energy crackling.Zealots poured from passages, their rifles and blades a deadly swarm. Kael teleported to a ledge, draining a drone's power to slow it, and sent a shadow clone to distract a squad. Ryn vaulted rubble, but a zealot tackled her, blade raised. Kael blinked down, his shield blocking the strike, and shoved the zealot back.
Ryn fired point-blank, her smirk grim. "Nice save," she said, but her glance at Talia stayed cold.Talia hacked a gate to the ruins. "This way," she said, but a zealot's shot sparked her shoulder. Kael pulled her behind a pillar, draining the shooter's rifle. A data-pad fell from the zealot's belt, its screen showing a journal fragment—Elara's name, a note about a hidden lab sealing void secrets.
Kael grabbed it, his pulse racing. "Her lab," he said, scanning it. "It exists."Vren's voice cut through,