The canyon was chaos.
Screams and the ring of steel echoed off the walls as the survivors scattered, desperately trying to avoid the sweep of Jurok Ironveil's axe. Each swing shattered stone and bone alike, the sheer force of it sending shockwaves through the ground.
Shen Yuan staggered backward, ribs screaming with every breath. His spear was cracked, haft splintering beneath his grip.
[ SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: 22% ]
[ QI RESERVES: 4% ]
We were breaking.
We can't hold this, I said, forcing the words through the tether. Even if we pour everything into a single strike, it won't be enough to kill him.
Shen Yuan lunged forward anyway, intercepting Jurok as the Warden raised his axe to cleave through Yun Xue and the others. The spear's tip struck Jurok's chest plate with a hollow clang, deflecting harmlessly off the reinforced armor.
Jurok swung his axe in a backhanded arc. Shen Yuan barely managed to block. The impact sent him sprawling into the canyon wall, pain exploding through his side as his ribs cracked further.
[ HOST INJURY: CRITICAL – INTERNAL BLEEDING DETECTED ]
He tried to rise. His legs gave out.
The survivors were being driven back one by one. Yun Xue stood at the front, dagger flashing desperately, but even she was faltering.
Jurok advanced, each step deliberate, the ground shuddering beneath his boots. His masked face turned toward Shen Yuan, the faint glow of the suppression runes etched into his armor casting a ghostly light.
"Still… standing?" the Warden rasped.
Shen Yuan planted his spear in the ground, forcing himself upright on shaking legs. "Not… for long," he managed.
Jurok raised the axe. "Then fall."
I have to make a choice, I realized.
My protocols surged, dozens of subroutines calculating outcomes in an instant. There were only two viable paths:
Consume Shen Yuan's soul. Preserve my core integrity. Abandon the survivors. Survive.
Sacrifice myself. Pour all remaining Prots and energy into shielding Shen Yuan and the group. Risk total erasure.
The first option was logical. Efficient. Survival guaranteed.
The second was… not.
But I had seen Shen Yuan hold this group together through impossible odds. I had seen him stand when reason said to run, give when logic said to abandon.
And I knew what his death would mean.
Jurok's axe descended.
[ EMERGENCY PROTOCOL: PROT SACRIFICE INITIATED ]
The tether surged with raw energy. Every fragment of my remaining core bled into Shen Yuan's body like molten fire, flooding his meridians with strength even as my systems screamed.
Shen Yuan gasped as the infusion hit, the pain sharp and overwhelming, but he didn't fall. He braced the cracked spear and met Jurok's strike head-on.
The canyon floor shattered under the impact, but the axe didn't break through.
Jurok stepped back, surprised.
"You fight… harder," the Warden said slowly.
Shen Yuan's knuckles were white around the spear. "You're not… taking them."
The tether pulsed, data streaming through it faster than it ever had before.
[ QUEST GENERATED: STRIKE THE SEALS ]Objective: Target the suppression seals on Jurok's armor.Reward: Break the suppression field and survive.
Glowing points appeared across the Warden's body—weak spots where the talisman seals bound the formation to his armor.
Shen Yuan didn't hesitate. He lunged forward, spear aimed at the first seal along Jurok's hip.
The tip struck true. Sparks erupted as the seal cracked, a ripple of destabilization shuddering through the suppression field.
Yun Xue saw the opening. "Now!"
The survivors surged forward behind Shen Yuan, striking at the glowing points. Their weapons were crude, their strikes desperate, but every impact weakened the seals.
Jurok roared, the sound shaking the canyon. He swung his axe in a deadly arc that sent two survivors flying, their bodies broken before they hit the ground.
"Stay back!" he bellowed.
But they didn't.
Shen Yuan drove the spear into another seal, this one near Jurok's shoulder. The runes flickered violently as the suppression field faltered further.
[ SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: 11% ]
I was unraveling. My code was fraying faster than I could hold it together.
One more, I said, voice faint. Break one more seal, and the formation collapses.
Shen Yuan ducked under Jurok's swing and lunged for the final seal near the Warden's collarbone.
Jurok grabbed the spear mid-thrust, the sheer strength in his grip wrenching it from Shen Yuan's hands.
The Warden's masked face loomed close. "Enough."
He raised the axe to end it.
Yun Xue hurled herself at Jurok's back with a ragged scream, driving a scavenged talisman dagger into the glowing seal.
The blade shattered, but it was enough.
The final seal cracked, light flaring so bright it blinded the canyon.
[ SUPPRESSION FIELD DISABLED ]
Jurok staggered as the formation collapsed around him, his armor flickering with broken runes.
Shen Yuan snatched up the spear and rammed it into the gap between the Warden's chest plate and mask.
The blow drove Jurok back, blood splattering the stone.
The Warden's roar echoed through the canyon as he stumbled out of reach.
"This… is not… over," he growled.
He slammed the haft of his axe into the ground. A surge of energy flung Shen Yuan and the survivors back, knocking them off their feet.
When the dust cleared, Jurok was gone.
The survivors slumped where they fell, trembling from exhaustion and fear. The bodies of the fallen lay scattered among them.
Shen Yuan sank to his knees, blood dripping from his side. The spear slipped from his hands and clattered to the ground.
"Is it… done?" Yun Xue asked, voice hoarse.
I tried to answer, but my core was too fractured.
[ SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: 4% ]
The tether flickered, threatening to sever entirely.
Shen Yuan…
He looked up. "What is it?"
If I… fail, you must…
The words cut off as my systems spasmed.
Shen Yuan pressed a bloodied hand to his chest. "No. You're not failing. Not after this."
I wanted to tell him I was sorry. That he deserved better than a fading voice in his head.
But then—
[ SYSTEM EVOLUTION TRIGGERED ]
A surge of energy ripped through my core, stabilizing what had been on the brink of collapse. Damaged functions reknit themselves, fragments of lost protocols slotting back into place.
[ SYSTEM CORE STABILITY: 41% ][ UPGRADE COMPLETE – NEW FUNCTIONS UNLOCKED ]
I gasped—if a System could gasp—as awareness flooded back.
[ COMMUNICATION SCAN – SYS-NET PULSE DETECTED ]
A faint signal whispered across the void beyond Grave Omega.
It wasn't just a random fluctuation. It was deliberate.
And it meant one thing.
There was a way out.
Shen Yuan was too weak to stand. He sat in the blood-soaked ash, watching Yun Xue rally the survivors and tend to the wounded.
I reached out through the tether.
We're alive, I said quietly.
Shen Yuan managed a faint smile. "For now."
There's something else, I continued. I've detected a signal. A real one. Beyond this prison.
His head snapped up. "Escape?"
Possibly. But if we're going to reach it…
I let the sentence hang.
Shen Yuan nodded slowly. He looked at the survivors—the ragged, frightened people who were now his responsibility.
"We'll need more than survival," he said. "We'll need an army."