The auction hall burned.
Smoke curled through shattered chandeliers. Velvet curtains smoldered. The polished marble floor was littered with broken masks, fallen bodies, and the echo of screams that hadn't yet realized they were dead.
Elaris landed hard, wings flaring wide to steady herself.
Energy bolts screamed past her shoulder. She twisted mid-air, feathers snapping free and slicing through the dark. A syndicate enforcer dropped before he could scream.
Across the hall, Kael stood like a blade given flesh.
His mechanized sword hummed with restrained fury, every strike precise, economical lethal. He didn't waste movement. Didn't waste breath. Wherever he stepped, enemies didn't follow.
Their eyes met once.
No words.
Just understanding.
Another wave poured in through the shattered balcony — armored, augmented, hungry. This wasn't a raid anymore.
This was an execution attempt.
"Left," Kael said sharply.
Elaris reacted instantly, wings folding as she dropped low. Kael's blade carved through the space where her head had been a second earlier. Blood sprayed the air.
She spun, back-to-back with him, breath quickening.
"They're not here for the artifact," she said, scanning the attackers. "They're here for me."
Kael didn't deny it.
"I know."
The Heart of Seraphis pulsed violently inside its glass prison, light thrashing like something alive and afraid. Each beat sent a tremor through Elaris's chest. Her circuits glowed faint beneath her skin.
It's calling louder…
A heavy impact rocked the hall.
The floor split.
From beneath the stage, a massive exo-frame surged upward plated in crimson alloy, eyes glowing hostile red. The rival syndicate's enforcer unit.
The crowd that hadn't escaped screamed again.
Kael's jaw tightened. "That thing's built to hunt hybrids."
Elaris swallowed. "Then it's hunting the right prey."
The exo-frame locked onto her.
Target acquired.
It charged.
Kael moved first.
He stepped into its path without hesitation, blade slamming against reinforced armor. Sparks exploded, but the machine didn't slow. A massive fist swung toward his chest.
Elaris screamed, wings flaring.
She slammed into the enforcer from above, neon-blue fire roaring as her feathers pierced weak joints in its armor. The impact threw her sideways hard into a pillar.
Pain flared white.
Her wings stuttered.
The exo-frame turned back to her.
Kael saw it.
"No—!"
He didn't reach her in time.
The machine raised its arm cannon.
For a heartbeat, everything slowed.
Elaris forced herself upright, vision blurring. She lifted her wrist-console instinctively, fingers shaking as code flashed across the holographic interface.
Override… breach… now.
She slammed the command.
The Heart of Seraphis screamed.
Light detonated.
The glass prism shattered outward, fragments dissolving into sparks before they could touch the ground. The crystalline orb surged into the air — and then—
It slammed into Elaris's chest.
Her scream ripped the air apart.
Blue-white light engulfed her body. Circuits flared open along her arms, wings expanding, reshaping, burning brighter than before. Symbols ancient, unknown spiraled around her like living code.
The exo-frame staggered.
Kael froze.
For the first time, uncertainty crossed his face.
"Elaris…"
Her eyes snapped open.
Not neon.
Not human.
Something deeper.
She moved.
One strike.
The exo-frame collapsed inward, crushed by invisible force, armor folding like paper. It hit the ground in silence.
The hall fell deathly still.
Smoke drifted.
Fire crackled.
Elaris stood at the center of the ruin, wings blazing, chest rising and falling fast. The Heart of Seraphis pulsed within her, now fused claimed.
She looked at Kael.
Fear flickered in her gaze.
"Don't look at me like that," she said hoarsely. "I didn't choose this."
Kael stepped closer.
Slow. Careful. As if approaching something dangerous and sacred all at once.
"Neither did I," he replied quietly. "But it seems the world just did."
Sirens wailed in the distance.
More enemies would come.
Elaris folded her wings slightly, exhaustion finally bleeding through the adrenaline.
"We can't stay," she said.
Kael nodded once.
"Then don't."
He extended his hand.
Not a command.
An offer.
Elaris stared at it for a heartbeat then took it.
Together, they vanished into the smoke.
Behind them, the auction house burned.
And somewhere deep within the Crimson Coast's network, alarms began to scream.