"Right in front of us."

At the end of the corridor, the purple light gathered into one bright spot. The remaining nineteen data-ghosts flew into the light, tearing themselves apart to feed a larger creature.

The floor buckled while cables snapped from the ceiling.

Out of the bright light, a huge monster stepped out. It was about fifteen feet tall, looking a bit like a heavily armored knight, but it was made of screaming, broken code and raw Void energy. It held a huge, jagged broadsword made of pure static.

"That is... not supposed to happen," Nyx murmured, her digital eyes widening slightly.

"Finally," Valeria grinned, her psychotic yandere expression bleeding back into her face. "A real target. I claim the head."

"You cannot fight that alone, Valeria," Zen warned. "System, scan it."

[Scanning...]

[Entity is a Mid B-Rank Void-Corrupted Server Guardian. Physical attacks will result in a 99% damage reflection. Energy attacks will be absorbed and redirected. Threat level: High.]

"I said I claim the head!" Valeria shouted, ignoring Zen completely.

She charged forward, the ground cracking under her boots as she swung her broadsword with both hands, aiming for the massive creature’s knee.

The giant knight didn’t even try to block; it simply let the blade hit its leg.

The instant the metal touched the static, the force violently bounced back. Valeria was thrown backward through the air like a ragdoll, crashing into the steel wall with a sickening crunch.

"Valeria!" Zen yelled.

"I am fine!" she coughed, pulling herself out of the dented wall. "Just a scratch!"

The Guardian didn’t wait for her to recover. It took a heavy, thunderous step forward, raising its massive static broadsword with both hands, and brought it down directly where she was pinned.

Zen moved.

He didn’t have Valeria’s S-Rank speed or Nyx’s advanced tech, but he had five centuries of muscle memory. He drew his tungsten sword and stepped straight into the giant’s shadow.

"Zen, get back!" Nyx shouted.

But Zen ignored her.

He didn’t try to block the massive broadsword as trying to meet a Mid B-Rank strike with raw force would shatter every bone in his body.

Instead, he stepped precisely into the monster’s blind spot and thrust his blade upward, tapping the flat of his sword against the side of the falling weapon.

It was a flawless execution of ancient martial redirection... using the monster’s own weight against it and sliding the kinetic energy off target.

The giant broadsword slammed into the floor mere inches from Valeria’s leg, tearing a massive trench in the steel but missing her entirely.

"I did not need your help!" Valeria snapped, already pushing off the wall.

"You are welcome," Zen replied calmly.

He immediately dropped to one knee, letting a massive backhand from the Guardian pass cleanly over his head. The wind pressure alone tore at his jacket.

"I am attempting kinetic overload!" Nyx called out from the backline.

Six of her drones zipped past Zen’s head in a tight formation. They didn’t fire staggered shots this time; they unleashed a continuous, blinding beam of concentrated thermal energy directly into the Guardian’s chestplate.

The giant knight staggered.

The corrupted code rippled and screeched under the heat. But then, the blue light stopped burning and started sinking into the armor.

"It is eating my lasers," Nyx noted, sounding personally offended.

"Because you fight like a coward!" Valeria roared.

She jumped over the broadsword that was stuck in the floor, her fists covered in a blindingly thick layer of golden Aegis mana. She unleashed a brutal flurry of punches against the Guardian’s chest. Each punch sounded like a cannon firing in the tight corridor.

But with every hit, Zen could see the golden light violently bounce back. The force was sending shockwaves back up Valeria’s arms. She was clenching her teeth, stubbornly ignoring the damage she was causing to herself.

Zen dashed in, weaving under the giant’s swinging arm.

"System. Structural weak points."

[Scanning. Armor density fluctuates at the elbow and knee joints every 1.2 seconds to allow for movement.]

"Valeria, the knees!" Zen shouted, slicing his blade across the creature’s wrist joint right as it swung. The blade didn’t cut the static, but the precise timing disrupted the monster’s balance just enough. "Wait for the drop in density!"

"I do not wait!" Valeria yelled. She drove an uppercut right into the knee guard anyway.

The kinetic reflection triggered instantly. The blast sent Valeria sliding backward across the metal floor, her boots digging deep grooves into the steel to stop herself.

The Guardian raised its empty hand. A heavy pressure filled the air as it gathered a swirling orb of raw, purple Void energy.

"Shields!" Nyx snapped.

A hexagonal hard-light barrier materialized perfectly in front of Zen. The Void pulse slammed into it. The shield shattered instantly like cheap glass, but it absorbed enough of the impact to give Zen the split second he needed to roll backward to safety.

Zen got to his feet, breathing heavily. His newly healed pathways were burning from the sudden exertion. And the rusted sword in his hand was already cracking.

He glanced at the monster. It was completely unharmed. It was absorbing physical hits, eating energy weapons, and using their own power to make itself stronger.

Zen backed up to the center of the corridor.

Nyx hovered back to join him, her drones automatically re-forming a defensive perimeter around them. Valeria stalked back as well, shaking out her bruised hands and glaring at the Guardian like it had insulted her mother.

They couldn’t just punch their way through this.

"Nyx, analyze its absorption limit," Zen ordered, keeping his eyes on the giant.

"It is a closed-loop system," Nyx said, typing frantically. "It feeds on whatever we throw at it. If I hit it with my orbital lasers, it will just shoot orbital lasers back at us."

"So we overload the loop," Zen said.

"With what?" Nyx asked. "My maximum localized output is currently capped to prevent collapsing the tunnel roof."

The giant knight raised its static broadsword and swung it down, sending a wave of purple energy tearing through the floor straight toward Zen.

"Move!" Valeria screamed, tackling Zen out of the way just as the energy wave carved a massive trench into the ground where he had been standing.

Zen hit the floor hard, his recovering body screaming in pain.

[Fragment ’Body’ passive transfer paused. Adrenaline levels critical.]

"Nyx," Zen called. "What heavy infrastructure do you have in this tunnel overhead?"

Nyx’s visor flickered as she ran the scan. "Industrial maintenance rail-gun. Plasma-grade. For clearing collapsed rubble in the lower tunnels."

"Can you command it remotely?"

"I command everything in this city remotely."

"Then get it online," Zen said.

"Rail-gun Online," Nyx said after a few seconds. "But Zen, the rail-gun fires pure concentrated plasma. The knight will just absorb it and fire it back. It will vaporize us."

"Not if it cannot contain it," Zen said. He turned to Valeria. "Valeria. How much of your Aegis aura can you condense into a single point?"

"All of it," she said, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Why?"

"Nyx is going to drop a plasma cannon from the ceiling," Zen explained quickly. "When she fires it, I need you to strike the back of the plasma bolt with everything you have. You are going to infuse your golden aura into her tech."

"I am not touching her garbage," Valeria spat.

"You will mix your mana with my plasma?" Nyx asked, equally disgusted. "The frequencies will clash. It will create a highly unstable, catastrophic payload."

"Exactly," Zen said, smiling faintly. "It will be a payload too unstable for the monster to absorb. It will break the closed loop."

The giant knight roared, raising its sword for another strike.

"Do it now!" Zen ordered.

"Fine!" Nyx shouted.

The ceiling above the knight tore open, and a massive industrial rail-gun descended on hydraulic arms. Its barrel glowed with a blinding blue plasma as it charged with a deafening hum.

"Get ready, you brute," Nyx sneered.

"Just fire the gun, wires," Valeria retorted, her entire body erupting into a blinding golden light. She bent her knees, her muscles coiling like a spring.

"Firing!" Nyx yelled.

The rail-gun unleashed a massive sphere of concentrated blue plasma. It shot downward toward the giant knight.

At the exact same moment, Valeria launched herself into the air. She intercepted the plasma bolt mid-flight, driving her glowing fist directly into the back of the energy sphere.

The impact did not reflect. Instead, the golden Aegis mana forced its way into the blue plasma, instantly turning the sphere a chaotic and violently unstable green.

It hissed and shrieked as the two opposing S-Rank energies fought for dominance within it.

The unstable payload slammed into the giant knight’s chest. As the creature tried to absorb it, its static code rippled while attempting to decode and assimilate the energy.

It failed.

"Take cover!" Zen shouted.

The resulting explosion stayed completely silent for a split second before a massive shockwave ripped through the corridor. The giant knight shattered into billions of corrupted pixels and was erased from existence, while the central node behind it cracked and turned to ash.

Dust rained from the ceiling. The emergency lights flickered and died, leaving only the soft blue glow of Nyx’s drones.

"Well," Valeria panted, landing heavily on her feet and brushing dust from her shoulder. "That was adequate."

Nyx sighed, tapping her terminal to retract the smoking rail-gun back into the ceiling. "You lack any concept of collateral damage. I will have to dispatch three repair teams just to fix the structural integrity of this floor."

"You can send me the bill," Valeria smirked. "Oh wait, I don’t care."

"Are you both done?" Zen asked, dusting off his jacket. His ribs ached, but the node was dead.

"We are done," Nyx said, turning her back on the destroyed corridor. "The data-ghosts are purged. My network is already routing around the damaged node. Let us return to the surface before she breaks anything else."

"I break what I want," Valeria muttered, but she fell into step beside Zen, casually slipping her hand into his.

They stepped back through the invisible boundary of the fracture zone.

The suffocating, static-filled air vanished instantly, replaced by the damp, metallic chill of Sector Nine’s normal maintenance corridors. The purple hue faded, leaving only the soft blue glow of Nyx’s drones lighting the way.

They walked in silence for about five minutes, going through the twisting, non-corrupted tunnels back toward the private transit elevator Nyx had used to bring them down. Zen checked his System interface, reviewing the combat logs.

He was just about to close the screen when Nyx abruptly stopped walking.

She stood perfectly still in the middle of the tunnel. Her drones, which had been peacefully floating around them, suddenly snapped into defensive formations, their lights turning a harsh red.

"Nyx?" Zen asked, stopping alongside her. "What is it?"

Valeria immediately dropped Zen’s hand and drew her sword, stepping in front of him. "Are there more of them?"

Nyx didn’t answer.

She was frozen, her gaze locked on the data streaming rapidly across her visor’s HUD. The frantic, red warning lights of her internal display washed over her pale face, making her purple digital eyes look unnervingly wide.

"Nyx. Talk to me," Zen said, stepping past Valeria.

Nyx slowly looked up, the visor retracting into her headpiece with a soft mechanical hiss.

Her facial expression was blank and completely unreadable. Zen hadn’t seen her look like that since before the Empire fell.

With a flick of her hand, the projector built into her gauntlet whirred to life, throwing a massive holographic globe into the air between them.

The globe represented their world. The five continents. The Omni Domain. The Vanguard territory. All of it.

But the globe was wrong.

Across every single continent, tiny red fractures were blinking. Hundreds, then thousands of them spread like a spiderweb over the planet’s surface, pulsing with a sick and erratic rhythm.

"What am I looking at?" Valeria asked, her voice dropping all its usual arrogance.

"The structural integrity of the realm," Nyx whispered.

Zen felt a cold knot form in his stomach. He looked at the red fractures, then at his own hand, where the faint, lingering warmth of Valeria’s absorbed fragment still pulsed.

"They are Void fractures," Nyx continued, her voice trembling slightly. "Massive ones. Global scale. They just spiked in severity three minutes ago."

She looked directly at Zen, her eyes terrified.

"The bandaids are coming off."