The Emperor's Avatar hit the ground with the force of a meteor.
It stood nearly as tall as the Titan, a jagged silhouette of obsidian and violet energy against the grey sky. Unlike the Titan, which looked like a noble statue of marble and gold, the Avatar was a skeleton of war. Its limbs were too long, its armor spiked, and its "face" was a single, burning purple eye that emitted a beam of pure Void light.
It didn't stand on the ground. It hovered on anti-gravity thrusters, levitating just above the wasteland floor, staring up at the Gilded King.
Julian, connected to the Neural Stem in the penthouse, felt the Titan's fear. But beneath the fear, he felt something else.
Indignation.
This is my world, the Titan's thought rumbled through Julian's bones. He is a guest who overstayed his welcome.
"He's charging weapons," Marcus shouted, his hands flying across holographic displays. "Void-Cannons detected in the chest and palms. Julian, if he hits us, the kinetic impact alone will shatter the city's support struts!"
"I know," Julian gritted his teeth, sweat stinging his eyes. "I have to block it."
He moved his hands. Outside, miles below, the Titan moved its massive golden hands.
Round One
The Avatar fired.
THWUMP-ZZZT.
Three beams of concentrated purple Void energy shot toward the Titan's chest—aiming directly for the Undercity where the Heart was located.
Julian slammed his palms together.
SHIELD.
The Titan mimicked the motion. It clapped its hands, generating a massive wall of Hard-Light—amplified by the city's own generator.
BOOM.
The Void beams hit the shield. The sky turned white.
The impact shook the entire city of Aureus Prime. Skyscrapers swayed dangerously. In the streets, citizens screamed as statues toppled and hover-cars lost control.
"Stabilizers are at 120%!" Marcus yelled. "You can't take another hit like that! The Financial District is buckling!"
"I can't dodge!" Julian shouted back. "I'm carrying five million people! I'm heavy!"
The Avatar didn't wait. It drew a sword from thin air—a blade made of "Silence," a tear in reality that looked like a black hole shaped into an edge.
It lunged, slashing at the Titan's legs.
If it cuts the legs, the city falls.
Julian stomped his foot.
The Titan lifted its massive leg and brought it down, creating a shockwave that disrupted the Avatar's flight path. The Void-Blade missed, slicing a deep gash into the wasteland rock instead.
"Counter-attack!" Zephyr cheered from the window. "Smash him!"
"I can't just punch," Julian gasped. "Every movement causes an earthquake on my back. I have to be... precise."
The Precision Strike
Julian closed his eyes. He focused on the Titan's right arm.
Extend.
The Titan reached out. It didn't make a fist. It extended two fingers, glowing with blinding Aether.
It wasn't a punch. It was a Lance.
The Titan thrust its fingers forward with blinding speed, aiming for the Avatar's single purple eye.
CRACK.
The strike connected. The Titan's fingers smashed into the Avatar's faceplate.
The Avatar reeled back, its head snapping violently. The purple eye flickered.
"Direct hit!" Lyra shouted.
But the Avatar recovered instantly. It reached up, grabbed the Titan's wrist with its clawed hand, and pulled.
It wasn't trying to throw the Titan. It was trying to drain it.
Violet tendrils of energy shot from the Avatar's grip, eating into the Titan's golden armor. The white marble turned grey and crumbled.
It's infecting me, the Titan screamed in Julian's mind. The Rust... the Silence... it spreads.
Julian felt his own arm—the nanite arm—burning. The corruption in his blood spiked.
"Let go!" Julian roared.
He channeled a Sonic Pulse through the Titan's arm.
The Titan's arm vibrated at a high frequency. The massive golden limb turned into a jackhammer.
RRRRR-RUMBLE.
The vibration shattered the Avatar's grip. The obsidian claws cracked and fell away.
The Emperor's Voice
The Avatar floated back, repairing its hand with nanites of its own.
The Emperor's voice boomed from the machine, amplified over the entire city.
"You fight well, thief. But you are fighting with a handicap."
The Avatar raised its hand. It didn't aim at the Titan.
It aimed at the Aether-Wall Generator in the Undercity—exposed now that the armor was damaged.
"You value the insects on your back," the Emperor sneered. "Let us see how much."
The Avatar began to charge a massive sphere of Void energy. A World-Eater Bomb.
"He's going to nuke the city," Isolde whispered, horrified.
"He can't," Marcus said, pale. "He needs the Titan alive to harvest it."
"He changed the plan," Skid said, reading the energy signature. "He doesn't want to harvest it anymore. He wants to kill it to stop the rebellion. He's cutting his losses."
"Julian!" Lyra grabbed his shoulder. "Do something!"
Julian looked at the massive bomb forming in the Avatar's hands. If that hit, Aureus Prime would be vaporized.
"I can't block that," Julian whispered. "The shield isn't strong enough."
He looked at the Titan's hand.
"I have to catch it."
"If you catch raw Void energy," Marcus warned, "it will dissolve the Titan's arm. And yours."
"Better an arm than the city," Julian said.
He twisted the Black-Iron ring.
Focus: Absorption.
Titan... we have to eat the fire.
I am ready, the Titan replied solemnly.
The Sacrifice
The Avatar threw the bomb.
A sphere of black-and-purple destruction, the size of a stadium, hurtled toward the city.
The Titan didn't shield up. It threw its arms wide open.
It caught the bomb.
BOOM.
The impact was silent. The Void swallowed the sound.
The Titan's hands began to disintegrate. The golden armor turned to dust. The white marble flesh beneath blackened and withered.
In the penthouse, Julian screamed.
His left arm—the nanite arm—began to smoke. The black metal turned red hot. The skin of his shoulder blistered.
"Hold it!" Julian roared, veins bulging in his neck. "Contain it!"
The Titan crushed the sphere. It forced the energy to collapse in on itself.
Compress. Compress.
The Titan's hands were gone now, burned away to the stumps. But the bomb was shrinking.
With a final, earth-shaking effort, the Titan clapped its ruined stumps together.
POP.
The bomb vanished, snuffed out.
The Titan fell to its knees. The shockwave of the fall knocked people off their feet all over the city.
Julian collapsed on the floor, his arm smoking, his vision blurring.
"Julian!" Lyra knelt beside him.
"Did we... save it?" Julian wheezed.
"The city is safe," Marcus said, looking at the monitors. "But the Titan... its hands are gone. It can't fight."
The Avatar hovered over the kneeling Titan. It drew its Void-Blade again.
"Noble," the Emperor mocked. "And foolish. Now you have no hands to hold your sword."
The Avatar raised the blade for the execution strike.
The Reinforcements
Suddenly, a sound cut through the air.
Whooooooo.
A high-pitched whistle.
Then, a roar of engines.
"Incoming!" Skid shouted. "From the North!"
A massive shape burst through the cloud layer.
It wasn't a ship.
It was Titan 05: The Frost-Breaker.
The giant, wolf-like Titan from the ice caps leaped from the sky (dropped by a high-altitude carrier? No, it had jumped).
It slammed into the Avatar from the side, its ice-claws digging into the obsidian armor.
CRASH.
The Avatar was knocked out of the sky.
Then, the ground shook.
From the East, a cyclone of sand appeared. Titan 04: The Gale-Warden hovered into view, blasting wind blades.
From the West, a river of magma erupted from the earth. Titan 03: The Magma Strider crawled over the horizon, spewing fire.
And from the ocean, a massive hydro-blast signaled the arrival of Titan 02: The Leviathan (firing from the coast).
"They're here," Julian whispered, smiling through the pain. "The family reunion."
The Seven Titans (minus the orbital one) had answered the call.
The Avatar stood up, surrounded by four angry gods.
The Emperor paused.
"Interesting," the Emperor said. "It seems we have a war."