The guardian moved first.
It was too fast for its size—a blur of jagged armor plating and burning red eyes crashing across the chamber floor.
Aria barely had time to pull Elias out of the creature's path.The ground split open behind them as the guardian's fist slammed down, metal screaming under the impact.
The force sent a shockwave ripping outward.
Kellan staggered.Jarek fell face-first onto the steel walkway.
Aria shielded Elias' unconscious body with her own.
"Kellan!" she shouted."Take Jarek and MOVE!"
Kellan lifted his head with a snarl.
His eyes were changing again—the veins along his neck darkening, spreading like branching cracks underneath his skin.
"The hell do you think I'm doing?!"
He dragged Jarek toward the nearest support pillar just as the guardian rose from its crouch, turning its head toward Elias like a predator irritated its prey wasn't dead yet.
Aria stepped between them, blade trembling in her grip.
"Look at me," she breathed."Come on. Look at me."
The guardian did.
Twelve red eyes locked on her with cold, perfect hatred.
Then it spoke—
deep, mechanical, vibrating through her bones:
"Interference detected."
Aria tightened her stance.
"Good. Try me."
The guardian's arm segmented—splitting open into multiple overlapping plates that extended into a massive blade-like limb.
Kellan swore softly.
"Aria—DON'T—"
But it was too late.
The guardian swung.
The metal floor peeled open beneath the force of the blow.Aria spun aside at the last possible instant—its blade ripping through the space her head had occupied a breath before.
She countered—her blade scraping sparks off the guardian's armor.
The strike might as well have been a fingernail scratching stone.
The guardian barely reacted.
Kellan yelled:
"Get back! That thing's built to kill level-twenty elites, not cadets!"
Aria ignored him.
She lunged again.
She wasn't trying to kill it—she knew that was impossible.
But she could buy time.
Elias' unconscious form lay behind her, unmoving.His breath shallow.His threshold aura leaking around him like faint white steam.
Every pulse from his body made the guardian's eyes twitch.
It wanted him.
It needed him.
Aria refused to let it touch him.
She deflected a downward strike—
barely—
but the force launched her across the chamber, slamming her into a metal railing.
Her ribs cracked.
Kellan roared and entered the fight.
His Beast-Spine ignited—bones shifting, muscles tightening, a dark, primal aura exploding off him.
He didn't wait for Aria to recover.
He sprinted at the guardian with a ferocity that bordered on suicidal.
"KELLAN—NO!"
Too late.
He smashed into the guardian with enough strength to snap steel beams.
But he might as well have tackled a building.
The guardian didn't budge.
One arm swung out.
Fast.
Brutally fast.
It hit Kellan across the chest and sent him flying halfway up the chamber wall, where he crashed with a sickening crunch.
He slid down, coughing blood.
His eyes dimmed.His Beast-Spine flickered.
Aria turned toward him.
"KELLAN!"
But she didn't get to move.
The guardian lunged for Elias.
Aria hurled herself in its path.
She didn't have the strength.She didn't have the speed.She didn't have the defense.
But she had no choice.
Her blade met the guardian's arm—
and shattered.
The impact sent her skidding across the floor, blood spraying from her mouth.
"Aria!" Kellan choked out.
Jarek screamed something incoherent from behind a pillar.
And Elias—
Elias didn't stir.
Or so it seemed.
Aria forced her body up onto one elbow, vision spinning.
"No… you don't touch him… you don't… get to—"
The guardian raised its arm for the finishing blow.
A blade twice her size.
Aria closed her eyes for half a heartbeat.
Then—
Elias' hand moved.
Just a finger.
Barely perceptible.
The guardian froze mid-strike.
Every red eye flickered.
Kellan's breath hitched.
Jarek's scream died in his throat.
Aria stared, bleeding and breathless.
The air around Elias bent—a faint distortion in the shape of a pulse.
A whisper slipped from his lips.
Not in his voice.
Not fully.
Something layered behind it.
"It's not your turn."
The guardian staggered back as though shoved by a giant invisible hand.
Aria's blood turned cold.
Kellan felt his Beast-Spine recoil instinctively, like prey recognizing a superior predator.
Jarek fainted on the spot.
Elias' eyes fluttered—still closed, barely conscious.
His voice cracked:
"…Aria…"
She crawled toward him despite her injuries.
"I'm here. I'm here, Ward."
"…move…"
"What? Elias—what do you—"
His voice sharpened, cutting through the air like a blade.
"…MOVE—NOW!"
Aria didn't question it.
She grabbed him under the shoulders and dragged him away just as—
The guardian detonated.
A pulse of red energy exploded outward from its chest, tearing the floor apart in a circular shockwave.
Aria shielded Elias with her body.Kellan dove over Jarek.
The blast ripped through metal, dust, and steam.
Then—
Silence.
Aria coughed blood and forced her eyes open.
The guardian was still standing.
But barely.
Its armor flickered.Energy leaked from cracks across its torso.Its eyes dimmed, then reignited.
It looked directly at Elias again.
"Priority target confirmed."
Aria whispered:
"No… no, no—"
It charged.
It didn't walk.It didn't leap.
It shot forward like a missile.
Aria tightened her grip around Elias.
Kellan rose shakily.
Jarek tried to stand but fell again.
And the guardian closed in—
relentless, unstoppable, inches away from killing them all—
Until the air ripped open behind them.
A rift.
Black and gold.
And from it—
the golden-eyed watcher stepped forward.
For the first time—
not observing.
Not waiting.
Not passive.
It raised its hand.
And spoke:
"You are not permitted to touch what is mine."
The guardian froze.
Every red eye went dark.
The Descent trembled.