Kiran had found a temporary refuge in the skeletal remains of an old, condemned factory, its rusted metal ribs reaching for the perpetually hazy sky. The Alpha units seemed to have lost his immediate trail, but he knew it was only a matter of time. The relentless pressure of the chase, combined with the growing intensity of the seed's power, was pushing him to his limits.
Suddenly, a wave of sickening nausea washed over him, a cold dread that squeezed his heart. The "seed" pulsed violently within his chest, not with power, but with raw, uncontrolled feedback. He gasped, clutching his ribs, his vision blurring. A kaleidoscope of raw energy and distorted screams filled his mind, images that were too vast, too alien to comprehend. He felt a sensation of tearing, of something vast and ancient trying to force its way through a too-small opening. It was the Eldritch, or their influence, directly pressing against his consciousness through the seed, and it was agonizing.
He slumped against a grimy pillar, barely conscious, his body wracked with tremors. The cracks on his skin flared, glowing with a painful, internal light, deeper than ever before. He was burning up, then freezing cold. He saw glimpses of a place beyond the Veil – impossible shapes, colors that didn't exist, and a chorus of whispers that were not words but pure, ancient thought, threatening to unravel his sanity. This wasn't controlled power; this was a seizure, a glimpse of the cosmic abyss.
He barely registered the soft thud of boots. An Alpha unit, its sensors glowing, rounded the corner. It saw him, weak, vulnerable, doubled over in pain. But before it could act, a loud, jarring screech split the air. A massive, derelict crane, precariously balanced above, chose that exact moment to give way, its rusted arm crashing down, narrowly missing Kiran but obliterating the Alpha unit in a shower of sparks and crumbling concrete. It was pure, dumb luck. Kiran, gasping, stumbled to his feet, barely able to move, the incident a stark reminder of the knife-edge he walked. The seed was his power, but it was also a direct link to his own undoing, a price he might not be able to pay for much longer.