Lyra took cover behind a stack of rusted machinery, pulling the volatile Aether power core from her pack. She was now armed with only her mind and a small, unstable bomb.
I see you, my love, Lyra projected, pushing the thought with maximum clarity to Elias's pain-wracked mind. Do not move. This is my fight now.
Kaelen, seeing a flicker of Elias's struggle, sneered. "Still fighting for the Ascendant witch, Ghost? A pathetic end to a great career."
Lyra moved toward the central Aether grid—a massive, humming network of wires and energy conduits. She found the main regulator and began to splice her volatile power core into the grid, a precise, suicidal act of technical sabotage.
He's overloading the system, Elias thought, a faint, desperate warning finally making it through. Lyra, you will die!
I know the limits of the system better than Kaelen does! Lyra retorted, her hands working furiously. The overload will cause a focused containment breach, not an explosion. It will knock out the power for twenty seconds. That's all I need.
Lyra completed the splice and sprinted back into the shadows.
A moment later, the Foundry shrieked. The massive Aether core bucked, and a brilliant, focused burst of white-hot plasma erupted from the regulator—exactly where Lyra had been standing moments before.
The lights went dark. The hum of the massive machinery died. Blackout.
The sudden, focused plasma blast had not caused a total explosion, but the temporary blindness and silence were enough. Kaelen and his remaining guards were disoriented.
Lyra moved instantly toward Elias, the Nullifier Blade now unwrapped and cold in her hand. The Blade's Aether-neutralizing field immediately calmed the residual energy in the room, creating an unnatural zone of silence.
She reached Elias, who was barely conscious. She quickly used the blade to sever the Aether-locked chains holding him to the ceiling. The chains snapped instantly under the blade's nullifying field. Elias fell heavily into her arms, the pain of the impact hitting her with incapacitating force.
She fought the agonizing wave of shared pain, gripping the blade for stability. Kaelen was stirring in the darkness, roaring his frustration.
"Lyra!" Kaelen's voice was filled with pure fury. "I will break every bone in your body for this! Give me the Blade!"
Lyra pulled Elias's dead weight over her shoulder, trying to move him toward the exit. She was slow, struggling against her own compromised body and Elias's massive weight.
Kaelen found them, guided by the sound of their struggle. He lunged out of the darkness, grappling with Lyra.
Kaelen, unaware of the Blade's true power, focused on overpowering the physically weaker Lyra. But as his hands closed around her arm, the Nullifier Blade's field, which was neutralizing the residual Aether in the air, reacted violently to Kaelen's own life force, which was heavily imbued with years of Aether-crystal exposure.
Kaelen screamed, not from physical pain, but from the sudden, profound sense of emptiness as the Blade's field stripped away his life-long connection to Aether-magic. He staggered back, suddenly feeling fragile and mortal.
Lyra used the momentary shock to slam the hilt of the Blade into Kaelen's temple. He dropped, stunned, but not defeated.
The vent! Now! Lyra screamed mentally, dragging Elias's unconscious body toward the hole she had cut.
She managed to shove Elias through the opening, then scrambled after him, pulling the unstable power core she had used for the sabotage with her.
They were back in the narrow, suffocating exhaust pipe. Lyra sealed the breach with a desperate blast of the remaining Aether core power, collapsing the pipe behind them.
They had escaped, but Elias was dying, and the clock was ticking down to the Syndicate Exchange.