The Zuhdar Bar still trembled from the chaos Alya had left behind. The scent of ozone and sweat hung heavy in the air, the shattered remains of tables and chairs groaning beneath the weight of silence. What should have been a den of laughter and sin now stood like a battlefield baptized in ruin.
And then Shiwunki moved.
Without warning, he drove his taloned fingers into the floorboards. Metal shrieked as his blades carved deep into the ground, splintering wood and stone. A gaping wound opened in the bar's floor, a yawning pit of darkness that breathed out damp, sour air. With a grunt like a landslide collapsing, he dropped into the void.
Alya's pulse quickened.
"No don't!" Kaylin's voice cracked across the wreckage, desperate, but too late.
Alya did not hesitate. She dove into abyss after him.
The fall was longer than she expected, as though gravity itself had been lengthened in this place. The walls rushed past her, wet stone glistening with forgotten filth. And yet, she landed not in clumsy survival but in deliberate defiance.....one knee down, fist pressed to the ground, head lowered slightly, her silhouette framed like a knight descending from heaven. The impact cracked the ground beneath her, dust coiling upward like smoke to crown her.
The world around her was a forgotten underworld. It smelled of rust and rot, echoing with the hollow drip of water through unseen tunnels. Pipes veined the walls, hissing faintly with steam. It was an underground city, a corpse of some lost age, carved from nanofiber walls that glowed faintly like the ghost of stars.
A voice rolled through the darkness, deep and resonant, reverberating like a cathedral bell:
"Welcome to the underworld … my world."
The sound slithered from every direction, fractured by echo until it felt as if the shadows themselves were mocking her. "This place," Shiwunki's voice drawled, "was once a sanctuary of beauty, carved from nanofiber, radiant and alive. But beauty rots, stray. Beauty always rots."
She turned sharply, sensing him behind her.
"This was where I onced lived," Shiwunki said, stepping from the darkness like a shadow given form. His hulking chassis gleamed faintly, fresh grafts of polished steel mismatched against the scarred ruin of his older plating. His blades flexed like skeletal fingers yearning for flesh.
"And this is where you'll die," Alya said, her voice cutting the silence like a blade.
She launched herself forward, closing the gap with the speed of vengeance. Shiwunki swung first...a brutal strike of his fist, the air itself tearing in its wake. Alya bent back, a backflip carrying her clear of the impact, before snapping up into an upper kick that cracked against his chin. Without pause, she darted onto a mound of rubble, bounding higher, and with a war cry descended with a ferocious heel kick that hammered into his shoulder. The blow made the giant stagger, his frame grinding as if insulted.
She retreated lightly, her stance coiled like a predator's, watching him.
Shiwunki's lips peeled back in a mechanical snarl. His finger-blades extended, five steel spears glinting with murderous hunger. "Now stray...let us dance."
He slashed, the first blade hissing toward her like lightning. Alya met it head-on not foolishly, but to redirect, deflecting with the flat of her palm before spiraling into a sideways flip. She landed flawlessly, only to roll instantly, evading the second strike by a whisper. The third blade came slicing like a guillotine, but Alya whirled into a cartwheel, her legs sailing gracefully over death itself.
Her breath was sharp, controlled, as the fourth and fifth blades carved the air. She bent into a side flip, passing between them like a dancer threading the needle between life and death. When her boots hit the ground, she knelt in a pose that glimmered with defiance, dust curling around her like smoke to frame the silhouette of a warrior unbroken.
Shiwunki's eyes glowed brighter with rage. His voice was a snarl, guttural and hungry. "You infuriating little stray!"
He surged, blades a storm of steel. Alya met the storm with grace, each movement flowing into the next. She flipped sideways, rolled across the dirt, spun through another barrel roll that carried her just beyond his reach. Then, planting one hand against the stone, she vaulted forward in a front flip. The final blade sliced beneath her midair body by a hair's breadth.
She landed, twisted on her heel, and delivered a roundhouse kick. It was not just a strike it was a tempest in motion, a whiplash arc of fury. Her boot hammered into Shiwunki's torso, sending him crashing backward into a crumbling wall of rubble. The debris collapsed atop him in a roar of stone.
For a moment, silence.
Then the rubble burst outward as though detonated from within. Shards of stone and nanofiber scattered across the sewer like shrapnel. Shiwunki emerged, his frame towering, his eyes blazing like molten suns. Dust swirled around him, wrapping his figure in the guise of a demon risen from hell.
"You annoying stray!" His voice thundered through the cavern, resonant with a fury that seemed to rattle the very bones of the underground.
This time he did not hesitate. His finger-blades lashed out, not as calculated strikes but as a storm of savage, unrelenting steel. Each thrust ripped the air apart, a flurry designed not merely to kill but to mutilate.
Alya moved.
Her body bent and twisted with the grace of water, each dodge a seamless extension of the last. She side-flipped, the blur of her boots tracing arcs of defiance. She rolled to the ground, stone scraping her palms as another blade hissed over her back. A barrel roll carried her away from death again, her body coiling like a serpent unbroken.
Then she launched herself forward, vaulting into a front flip. The final blade slashed through the space beneath her, missing by the breadth of a heartbeat.
She landed in a crouch, spinning sharply on her heel, and snapped into a roundhouse kick. It was not simply a strike; it was a hurricane condensed into motion. Her boot collided with Shiwunki's chest in a thunderclap of impact. The brute was hurled backward, crashing into a brittle wall of rubble. Stone collapsed atop him once more, the sound reverberating like thunder rolling through the cavern.
Again.....silence.
But silence, in this place, was never mercy.
The rubble stirred. A guttural growl bled into the air. Then Shiwunki tore free from the collapse, his chest heaving with wrath, his blades gleaming like the fangs of a beast.
This time he was merciless.
The strikes came faster than even Alya's sharpened eyes could fully follow. Five blades darted in spirals and arcs, weaving a storm around her. She leapt, spun, and twisted but perfection falters under infinity.
Steel kissed flesh.
One blade slashed across her side, searing her ribs with pain. Another split into her arm, the sting of blood spraying into the darkness. A third carved a deep line across her thigh.
Her breath faltered. Her footing slipped.
Wide open.
Shiwunki surged with predatory speed. His knee drove into her ribs, the impact echoing with the crack of bone. The force lifted her from the ground before she collapsed to her knees. Blood sprayed from her lips, dark and bitter.
Then his fist crashed into her jaw, snapping her head sideways with brutal precision.
Her body shuddered, her face pale and broken, blood spilling freely from her wounds. Yet her eyes still blazed with a light that refused surrender.
Shiwunki seized her by the throat, lifting her effortlessly as though she were nothing but a fragile doll. His blades extended once more, and with deliberate cruelty, he drove them through her limbs.
Metal punctured flesh.
"Aaaaahhhh!" Alya's scream ripped through the cavern, raw and agonizing, the sound of agony distilled into its purest form.
"Ahhh…yes," Shiwunki hissed, intoxicated by her suffering. His eyes gleamed, drinking in her pain. "The scream of pure suffering. The music of despair. Come, stray...scream louder."
Blood ran freely down her arms and legs, dripping into the dirt like a sacrificial offering. Her body trembled, but her spirit clenched like a fist.
Her lips curled into a grimace. Through ragged breath and trembling limbs, she spat defiance.
Her fist snapped forward.
It was weak, it was desperate and yet it was enough. Her knuckles cracked against his jaw with a resounding blow, the force of sheer will alone throwing the giant back. The blades remained embedded in her flesh, tearing deeper as he staggered away, but Alya did not relent.
Her body bled. Her lungs burned. Yet her voice rose, hoarse but resolute.
"There is nothing I despise...more than evil."
And then the impossible happened.
From her mangled arm, light blossomed. Nanofiber surged to life, weaving across her skin like molten threads of divinity. It coiled and bound her flesh, a lattice of violet light streaked with furious pink. The glow intensified, humming with energy, until her entire arm trembled with imminent release.
Then it detonated.
The explosion roared like the birth of a star. Violet light burst outward in a hurricane of power, shredding Shiwunki's finger-blades into shards. Fragments clattered to the ground, glowing hot from the energy that had shattered them. The cavern itself quaked as dust and rubble fell in choking waves.
Shiwunki staggered back, his spine crawling with dread.
"What...what is this?" His voice cracked, disbelief corroding the edges of his bravado. "What the hell are you…?"
Alya stood.
Her body was broken, but her presence had transformed. Her eyes blazed with violet fire, incandescent and merciless. The nanofiber swirled around her arm, reshaping into a colossal cannon that pulsed with destructive power. Each step she took toward him was slow, deliberate, inevitable.....the march of judgment itself.
Shiwunki's breaths came fast, shallow. For the first time, fear stained his every motion.
Alya raised her arm.
The cannon roared, violet blasts erupting in every direction. The underworld was drowned in fire, walls collapsing, ancient supports crumbling into ruin. Explosions ripped through the tunnels, shockwaves shaking the surface above.
The Zuhdar Bar above gave its death cry. Wood and steel splintered as the entire structure caved in, collapsing into the chasm with thunderous finality. Patrons fled into the night, their screams mingling with the roar of destruction as the ground beneath them gave way.
In the choking haze of dust and flame, Shiwunki writhed. His arms once weapons of death lay in shredded ruin. He clawed pathetically at the dirt, dragging himself like a broken beast.
And then a shadow fell over him.
Alya stepped into view. Bloodied, battered, yet utterly unbowed. Her violet eyes glowed with a brilliance that seemed not human, but something higher, something beyond. Her presence pressed down upon him like the weight of the cosmos itself.
His breath caught. His heart trembled. For the first time, Shiwunki.....predator, butcher, monster felt true terror.
Her boot pressed down onto his chest, pinning him with cruel authority. She leaned forward, her left arm resting upon her bent knee, while her right.....the cannon lowered until its glowing maw hovered inches from his face.
Her voice was not loud, but cold, deliberate, absolute.
"I won't kill you. Not yet."
Her eyes pierced his soul. "Whoever you serve...tell em this: the Stellaris are coming."
The words struck deeper than any blade.
Shiwunki's body trembled violently, his fear overflowing into desperate instinct. The moment she lifted her boot, he turned and fled.....scrambling, stumbling, his armless body reduced to pitiful retreat.
And Alya stood alone in the wreckage, victorious.
Not because she survived. But because she refused to fall.