The ballroom of the Gilded Gear had gone from a soirée of elegance to a slaughterhouse of chrome and glass in less than ten seconds.
"Kill them!" Dr. Valerius screamed, pointing a trembling finger at the stage. "Secure the asset! Don't let the armor leave the building!"
Ten Security Droids—sleek, silver automata armed with shock-batons—surged toward the stage.
Varian stood next to the kneeling Abyssal Knight. He could feel the connection between them, a cold, dark tether linking the Symbiote on his arm to the empty suit of armor.
"Up," Varian commanded, his voice tight.
The Abyssal Knight rose. It didn't move like a machine. It moved like smoke caught in a gale.
A droid swung its baton at Varian.
FWOOSH.
The Knight stepped in front of Varian. It didn't block. It caught the droid's arm with a gauntlet made of black steel.
CRUNCH.
The droid's arm crumpled like aluminum foil. The Knight ripped the limb off and used it to bludgeon the droid's head into scrap.
[Caloric Debt: +200.]
Varian gasped, clutching his chest.
The Knight didn't have a host. It didn't have a biological battery. It was drawing energy directly from Varian through the resonance link. Every punch the Knight threw burned Varian's calories.
"It's a parasite," Varian gritted his teeth, raising the Sun-Piercer. "Gorgon! Clear a path to the windows!"
"With pleasure!" Gorgon roared.
The giant, still covered in gray paint but shedding it with every movement, charged into the crowd of terrified Cog-Lords. He swung a massive velvet rope stanchion like a club, knocking wealthy criminals into the buffet tables.
"My leg! My cyber-leg!" a Cog-Lord screamed as Gorgon trampled him.
"Venom! Flank!"
Lady Venom was no longer playing the Baroness. She had ripped the skirt of her gown, freeing her serpentine tail. She moved through the chaos like a viper, dodging laser fire from the Union officers.
She reached a Union Captain who was aiming at Varian. She didn't strike him. She blew a kiss.
A cloud of purple dust hit his face.
The Captain choked, clawing at his throat as his airways constricted.
"Rude to shoot at royalty," Venom hissed, snatching his keycard from his belt.
The Bio-Titan
Dr. Valerius hadn't fled. He stood behind a wall of bodyguards, watching Varian with an intense, scientific hunger.
"The resonance is absolute," Valerius muttered into his recorder. "The armor obeys him. But the energy cost... look at him. He's sweating. He can't sustain it."
Valerius tapped his wrist-comp.
"Activate Subject Omega."
Behind the stage, a concealed wall panel hissed open.
Something stepped out.
It was eight feet tall. A mound of pale, stitched-together muscle. It had no skin, only raw, red flesh held together by metal staples. Its head was encased in a steel dome with no eyes, only sensors.
[Enemy Encounter.][Subject: Bio-Titan (Prototype 01).][Rank: Commander (Mid-Tier).][Attributes: Regeneration / Pain Immunity.]
"Stop him," Valerius ordered.
The Bio-Titan roared—a wet, gurgling sound—and charged Varian.
The Abyssal Knight stepped forward to intercept.
"No!" Varian yelled, feeling his energy dip. "Save the energy! I'll take it!"
Varian pushed past the Knight. He spun the Sun-Piercer, the golden blade igniting with thermal fury.
The Bio-Titan swung a fist the size of a wrecking ball.
Varian slid underneath the blow, the heat of the passing fist singing his hair. He thrust the spear upward, aiming for the Titan's armpit.
SHH-LICK.
The Sun-Piercer sliced through the muscle and bone. The Titan's arm fell to the floor with a wet thud.
But there was no blood. Only a gray, viscous fluid.
And as Varian watched, the flesh on the Titan's stump began to bubble. Tendrils of meat shot out, knitting together. The arm on the floor dissolved into gray slush and slithered back to the main body.
[Regeneration Factor: Extreme.]
"It heals faster than I can cut!" Varian shouted.
The Titan grew a new arm in seconds. It backhanded Varian.
BAM.
Varian flew across the stage, crashing into the podium. His vision swam. His chest felt like it had been hit by a truck.
[Host Damage: 15%.][Rib Fracture Detected.]
The Titan loomed over him, raising both fists to crush his skull.
The Abyssal Knight moved.
It didn't ask for permission. It sensed its Sovereign was in danger.
It vanished into a blur of shadow. It reappeared on top of the Titan's shoulders.
The Knight grabbed the Titan's steel helmet with both hands.
CREAAAK.
The black metal gauntlets squeezed. The steel dome crumpled inward.
[Caloric Debt: +500... +800...]
Varian screamed as his energy reserves plummeted. It felt like his blood was turning to ice.
"Enough!" Varian gasped. "Stop!"
The Knight twisted.
SNAP.
The Titan's neck broke. The massive flesh-golem collapsed.
The Knight hopped off, standing silently over the corpse.
Varian staggered to his feet, leaning on the spear. He was pale, trembling.
"We need to go," Varian wheezed. "Now."
The Lockdown
"You aren't going anywhere," Valerius's voice boomed over the PA system.
"Lockdown Protocol."
Heavy blast shutters slammed down over the panoramic windows, sealing the penthouse in steel. The exits hissed shut.
From the ceiling vents, a green gas began to hiss.
[Warning: Neuro-Paralytic Gas.][Symbiote Filter: Engaging.]
"Gas!" Venom shouted, covering her face with her veil. "Ash! We're trapped!"
Gorgon smashed his hammer against the blast shutters. CLANG. A dent, but no break. "Reinforced titanium! I can't break it!"
Varian looked at the shutters. He looked at the Sun-Piercer.
"The spear can cut it," Varian said. "But I don't have the energy to swing it."
He looked at the Abyssal Knight.
The armor stood still, the empty visor watching him.
"You took my energy," Varian whispered to the armor. "Give it back."
He reached out and grabbed the Knight's gauntlet.
[Resonance Inversion.][Requesting Energy Transfer.]
The Abyssal Knight hesitated. It was a parasite. It took; it didn't give.
But Varian wasn't asking. He was the Sovereign.
"Obey."
The Knight shuddered. A pulse of cold, dark energy flowed back from the armor into Varian. It wasn't caloric energy. It was Void Essence.
Varian's veins turned black. The exhaustion vanished, replaced by a cold, numbing power.
He spun the spear. The golden blade turned black.
"Gorgon! Move!"
Varian sprinted at the shutter. He didn't slash. He threw the spear.
[Void-Piercer Strike.]
The spear flew like a bolt of darkness. It hit the titanium shutter.
It didn't melt it. It erased it.
A circular hole, three meters wide, simply vanished from the wall. The wind from outside howled into the room, sucking the green gas out.
"Go!" Varian yelled, recalling the spear to his hand with a magnetic pulse of the Symbiote.
They ran to the hole.
Three hundred meters down, the city lights twinkled.
"That's a long drop," Venom noted, looking down.
"Where is the rat?" Gorgon yelled.
"Right here!"
From the smog above, a heavy industrial Cargo Drone descended. It was painted yellow and rust, stolen from the docks.
Rix was sitting on top of it, piloting it with a hacked controller.
"Taxi for Rust-Walkers!" Rix squeaked.
He lowered a heavy magnetic winch.
"Attach the Asset!" Varian ordered.
Gorgon grabbed the winch cable and wrapped it around the Abyssal Knight's chest. The armor didn't resist.
"Hold onto the armor!" Varian shouted.
Gorgon grabbed the Knight's left leg. Venom grabbed the right. Varian grabbed the cape.
"Pull us up, Rix!"
The drone's engines screamed as it took the weight. Slowly, agonizingly, it lifted them away from the balcony.
Inside the penthouse, Dr. Valerius stood at the broken window, wind whipping his lab coat. He watched them fly away into the night.
He wasn't angry. He was smiling.
He picked up a glass of champagne from a fallen tray.
"Subject 744," Valerius whispered, toasting the retreating drone. "You survived. And you brought me the data I needed."
He tapped his earpiece.
"Prepare the Hunter-Killer teams. And send a message to the Church. Tell them... tell them the Antichrist has risen."
The Getaway
The wind howled around them as they dangled over the Rust-Jungle.
Varian clung to the Abyssal Knight. The armor was cold, lifeless now that the combat was over.
He looked at his team. Gorgon was laughing maniacally. Venom was clutching her dress, looking pale but alive. Rix was cackling on the drone above.
They had done it.
They had stolen an Emperor-Rank beast from under the nose of the Union.
Varian looked at the Sun-Piercer strapped to his back. Then at the black armor he was holding.
Daylight and Darkness. Sun and Void.
He felt a headache building behind his eyes. The Void energy he had drawn from the Knight was fading, leaving him hollowed out.
[Caloric Debt: 6,500.][Status: Critical Starvation.][Warning: Host consciousness failing.]
"Rix," Varian whispered into the comms. "Get us to Station Zero. Fast."
"Why, Boss?"
"Because," Varian's vision went black. "I'm going to pass out."
His grip loosened.
But he didn't fall.
The Abyssal Knight's gauntlet moved. It grabbed Varian's wrist.
It held him.
Suspended in the sky, the empty armor cradled its unconscious master, carrying him home.