The ship screamed as Lyra shoved the throttle forward, engines igniting in a blaze of white fire. The Herald's core loomed ahead—a swirling abyss of teeth and darkness, pulling them toward inevitable destruction.
"Stabilizers are failing," Rhyss barked, clinging to the console. "We've got maybe thirty seconds before the hull collapses."
"I only need twenty," Lyra shot back, eyes locked on the impossible path ahead.
Inside the Beast
Veylan vanished through the ship's inner hatch, stepping directly into a tunnel of writhing, fleshy corridors. The Herald's interior was alive—pulsing veins of dark energy snaking along the walls, each beat echoing like a monstrous heart.
"Do you hear me, abomination?" Veylan spoke softly, almost reverently. "You will not take them. Not today."
The wall beside them split open, birthing a figure—a humanoid shape woven from sinew and void, with no face but endless eyes.
"Architect's seed," it hissed, voice dripping into their mind. "You were made to serve, not defy."
Veylan raised a slender device, its core glowing violet. "I serve only what endures." They slammed it into the wall. The Herald convulsed violently.
The Run
"Lyra, the maw is closing!" Kaelen shouted.
"Not if I jam it open." She spun the ship hard, scraping along a wall of jagged bone-like structures. Sparks showered the cockpit, and a warning klaxon blared.
Rhyss cursed. "You're insane."
"That's why I'll win."
The maw's teeth began to grind inward, each the size of a mountain. Lyra threaded the ship between them with impossible precision.
The Trigger
Deep inside, Veylan knelt over the pulsating Erythian core—a sphere of condensed annihilation. They placed both hands on it, their mask splitting into lines of light.
"Now," Veylan whispered.
Lyra felt it in her bones—a surge of power through the ship as the Herald screamed, every star in the sector dimming at once.
"Punch it!" Kaelen yelled.
Lyra slammed the controls forward, and the ship shot out of the closing maw just as the Herald detonated behind them—an implosion of black and violet that swallowed itself into nothing.
The Aftermath
Silence. Stars slowly reignited around them.
Veylan staggered back into the cockpit, mask dimmed. "It's done."
Lyra's hands trembled as she eased off the controls. Kaelen reached over, covering her hand with his.
But before relief could settle, every console lit up with a single, ominous message:
[NEXUS ONLINE – AWAITING ACCESS]
Ceyra stirred weakly on the floor. "We… woke it up."