We stood in the very heart of the Node of Three Forces. Around us, in the gigantic underground cavern, colossal stone boulders slowly rotated, pierced by pulsating veins of emerald and gold energy.
Ephraim took one more step and collapsed to his knees at the very base of the central spire. His left shoulder was a gruesome mess of torn tissue, dried blood, and shattered bone after Richter's blow and the subsequent cave-in.
I closed my eyes, gathering all the available power of the crystal, and cranked my skill to the maximum.
Pain scorched my chest with an icy flame.
"Iron, listen to me," - "You need to direct the ether into the soft tissues. Stimulate cellular regeneration, let the mana gently bypass the tears and grow new vessels..."
"Too long," I interrupted, reaching my hand toward the wound.
Somewhere in the collarbone area was a massive "leak"—a severed artery was flooding the adjacent nodes, catastrophically lowering the pressure in the main pump. If the leak wasn't stopped immediately, the system would shut down forever.
I shoved my fingers right into the open wound. Finding the torn vessel, I created a focused thermal discharge of static mana on my fingertips and simply "welded" it shut.
The air took on the foul stench of burning flesh.
"There's never a dull moment with you," Zeno said.
"Sealing complete," I exhaled through clenched teeth, sweat rolling down my face in beads. "Now the power frame."
The collarbone was shattered into three segments. I reached for the crystal's energy and began drawing threads of hard, compressed mana from my fingers. I sewed them right into the old man's flesh, pulling the bone fragments together, building an external reinforcing bandage around them.
Ephraim snapped his eyes open. He let out a muffled wheeze, looking at my hand.
"You'll live," I pulled my smoking hand back and slumped heavily onto the cold stone. "Main thing is, don't make any sudden movements."
After a while, the hum of the Node changed from a chaotic crackle into a steady resonance that vibrated right in the bones. I felt the crystal stop burning and start pleasantly cooling my skin.
"O-o-oh yes..." "Finally the interference is gone. Thanks, kid."
I leaned against the pulsating column, trying to calm the trembling in my hands.
"I never thought you could be like this, Zeno."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just that before you tried to act appropriately and even too wisely, and now..."
"You'll understand with age," Zeno said quietly.
"And he's saying this to me..." I said mentally.
"Alright, Zeno," "How do we get you back to a normal state? How do we make you human again?"
Silence fell. Even the hum of the Node seemed quieter.
"The short answer: no way," Zeno finally said. "'Soul Crystallization' is a spell that, instead of victory, takes your biology."
"There has to be a way," I grumbled stubbornly.
"There are only two paths," Zeno sighed. "First is possession. I can force out your consciousness or someone else's and take over a foreign shell. But I'd rather permanently die than use this method."
"And the second path... the easiest," Zeno paused. "The one the Order takes."
The hum of the Node was suddenly drowned out by another sound.
THUD.
Distant, but so powerful that the floating boulders in the hall swayed. Crumb fell from the ceiling.
BA-BANG!
The sound came from the direction of the collapsed passage.
CRACK!
The central boulder that dead-locked the passage became covered in deep cracks and split in half with a deafening crash. A massive arm, encased in dented, scratched metal, squeezed into the formed breach. Steel fingers dug into the edge of the stone with a vile screech and, with inhuman strength, yanked it forward.
The remains of the debris sprayed in all directions.
Through a cloud of crushed stone and caustic dust, he stepped heavily into the hall of the Node.
The left side of his heavy breastplate was smashed to a pulp, exposing a gruesome weave of synthetic muscles and torn alchemical tubes from which thick black liquid splurged in spurts. The helmet was half torn off, revealing a mutilated steel skull implanted right into the remains of flesh.
"You've got to be kidding me..." I exhaled, falling into a stupor. "Is he still not dead?!"
"He has no pain receptors. His central nervous system is short-circuited to a single, solitary goal. Until we destroy his alchemical core, he will crawl after us to the very end."
"Couldn't you have said that earlier?! Zeno!"
Richter took another heavy step onto the stone platform of the hall. The crimson visor slowly turned, scanning the space through the Node's interference, until it locked right onto me and Ephraim.
A distorted growl, full of static interference, tore out of a damaged speaker somewhere around his neck:
"T-t-target... locked. Priority... elimination."
Ephraim, swaying, got to his feet with difficulty, leaning heavily against the wall with his good shoulder.
"Kid," the old man's voice trembled, "We can't fight him off. I don't have enough mana even for a spark, and you're squeezed dry. We're trapped."
Richter slowly raised his two-handed sword. The blade was broken off almost halfway, turned into a crude, jagged cleaver.
Richter dashed forward.
"Choose faster, kid!" Ephraim yelled, thrusting his trembling hand with the broken staff out in front of him.
Two options instantly flashed in my head, highlighted by Zeno's "interface":
Left tunnel (Technical shafts): "That way!" Zeno commanded. "There are clean currents and terminals there. I can hijack the pressure seal controls and lock him outside!"
Middle tunnel (Abandoned mines): "Just not the shafts!" Ephraim interrupted. "Those are dead ends. We go to the mines, there are hundreds of forks there, we'll lose our trail!"
I shifted my gaze down. Right under our feet, clogged with garbage and a rusty grate, yawned a narrow vertical technical discharge shaft.
"We're going down."
"Are you crazy?" Zeno gasped. "That's a drainpipe! That's spent, toxic mana down there."
"That is exactly why we're going there."
I yanked the rusty grate. The metal, eaten away by time, gave way with a wild screech.
I grabbed Ephraim by the collar, dragging him to the hole.
Richter was already ten paces away.
"Jump, old man! Or have you decided to just die!"
I shoved the dumbfounded Ephraim into the black maw of the chute and, without looking back, jumped after him.
In the last second, I saw Richter freeze at the edge. His crimson visor was blinking.
The fall was short, but disgusting. We flew about ten meters before landing in a pile of soft, rotting waste and viscous silt, soaked in the caustic stench of spent ether.
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