The geothermal sanctuary's peace shattered like glass. Elara's psychic shriek – *Clean burn! Deep cold angry!* – coincided with the Engine's crimson scream: **\[ERROR PATCHER SIGNATURE CONFIRMED! SCAN INTENSITY CRITICAL! MASKING FAILURE IMMINENT!\]** **\[HOLLOW KING RESIDUAL CORE: AGITATION CRITICAL! ENERGY SURGE DETECTED!\]**
No time for strategy. Only instinct. Kael snatched the Seedling fragment, its warmth a stark contrast to the icy dread. "Hold on!" he projected to Elara, already sprinting for the upward tunnel. The cavern's vibrant light now felt like a target. The Patchers were above, scanning relentlessly. The Hollow King's wounded rage pulsed below, drawn to the System's sterile signature like acid to metal. Trapped in the middle.
He hit the ascending tunnel at full speed, claws scrabbling on vitrified rock. Behind him, the geothermal spring *boiled*. Not naturally. A geyser of superheated water and steam erupted, laced with strands of corrosive void-energy vomited up by the enraged Hollow King fragment. It slammed into the cavern ceiling, showering the entrance Kael had just vacated with scalding, dissolving death. **\[HOLLOW KING ACTIVITY: DIRECTED GEOTHERMAL/VOID ERUPTION.\]**
*Cold burn! Hurts!* Elara cried, recoiling from the void-tainted energy even through the crystal.
Kael didn't look back. He burst out of the lower fissure onto the precarious ledge overlooking the Canyon chasm. The scene above was chaos. Two blinding white beams – thinner, more focused than the orbital blast – lanced down from the Canyon rim, *not* from the sky. **\[ERROR PATCHER GROUND UNIT(S) DEPLOYED: PURIFICATION LANCES.\]** They swept the opposite cliff face, turning rock instantly into glowing slag. They weren't indiscriminately cleansing; they were probing, searching, their scan focused like scalpels now that masking was failing.
**\[MASKING EFFICIENCY: 72%\]** **\[ANOMALY SIGNATURE DETECTABLE.\]**
Across the chasm, Lyra's Wrecker scout team was caught in the crossfire. One scout vanished in a pinpoint flash of white light, erased without a sound. Another screamed as a lance beam clipped his leg, the limb dissolving into ash above the knee. Panic erupted. They scrambled for cover, firing wildly upwards at the unseen Patchers. Their shots sparked harmlessly against an invisible energy shield meters above the rim. **\[PATTER DEFENSIVE SHIELDING: ACTIVE.\]**
Kael's path across the fallen tower bridge was blocked by a smoldering crater where a purification lance had struck moments before. He needed to go *down*, deeper into the Canyon's maze, away from the rim. His **Void-Sense** mapped a potential route: a series of crumbling ledges and mineral outcroppings descending the sheer rock face into the gloom. It was treacherous, exposed.
He leaped onto the first ledge, the Seedling fragment secured tightly. He moved like a shadow, **Enhanced Musculature** and **Void-Chitin Plating** allowing him to make jumps that would shatter a normal human. He used **Mineral Sense** instinctively, finding secure handholds invisible to the eye. Elara fed him constant updates: *Scratchy men hiding… left cliff! Clean burn moving… right! Deep cold… rising fast!*
A purification lance beam sizzled past, close enough to sear the air near his shoulder. He threw himself flat against the rock face. Above, a Patcher unit – humanoid, clad in seamless white armor that seemed to drink the light, faceless visor glowing faintly – stepped into view on the rim, its lance recharging. **\[ERROR PATCHER SENTINEL (Lvl. ???). THREAT: EXTREME.\]**
Before it could fire again, the Canyon *shuddered*. A massive crack ripped open in the rock face directly below Kael's position. Not from a lance. From *below*. A torrent of superheated mud, rock, and seething, dark purple void-energy erupted. The Hollow King fragment wasn't just angry; it was striking back, using the geothermal conduits as weapons. The scalding mud-flow engulfed the ledge where Kael had been seconds before and slammed into the Canyon wall opposite, right where Lyra's surviving scouts were pinned. Their screams were swallowed by the hissing mud and void-static. **\[HOLLOW KING RESIDUAL CORE: DIRECTED GEOTHERMAL/VOID DISCHARGE.\]**
The eruption provided momentary cover. Kael scrambled down, leaping from outcrop to outcrop, the heat and choking fumes intense. He reached a wider shelf partially shielded by a massive, fallen stalactite. He risked a glance back. The Patcher Sentinel was now engaged – not with him, but with the void-energy surging from the new fissure. Lances of pure white energy stabbed downwards, meeting torrents of corrosive void-mud in explosions of steam and discordant energy. The System was fighting the Void directly.
*Use it!* The void-whispers hissed, sensing opportunity. *The clean ones distracted! Strike! Feed!*
Kael's gaze snapped upwards. Not at the battling titans, but higher on the Canyon rim. Movement. More figures. Not Patchers. Humans. Larger group. And among them, a figure radiating palpable authority and malice. Clad in scavenged power-armor plates fused with polished Void-Hound chitin, wielding a massive, crackling energy maul. His face was obscured by a reinforced helmet, but his name tag pulsed crimson: **\[MALAKAI - WRECKER SUPREME Lvl. 10\]**. He surveyed the chaos below – the Patchers, the void-eruption, Kael clinging to the cliff face – with cold calculation.
Malakai gestured. His crew, better armed and armored than the scouts, began rappelling down multiple lines into the Canyon, flanking the ongoing Patcher/Hollow King battle. Their target was clear: Kael, and the artifact glowing against his chest. Malakai himself secured his own line and began descending, his energy maul sparking.
Trapped. Patchers above fighting the Void below. Malakai's elite closing in from the sides. Kael's Engine screamed options, probabilities plummeting. **\[EVASION PROBABILITY: 18%\]** **\[COMBAT PROBABILITY (VS MALAKAI): 32% SURVIVAL (EST.)\]**
"Elara," Kael projected, desperation cutting through. "The deep cold… the big shadow piece… can you feel its anger? Can you… push it? Towards the clean ones? Or the scratchy men?"
*Hurt… angry… loud…* Elara focused, her psionic presence straining. *Like pulling… heavy…* She projected a sensation of immense, chaotic pressure. *There! Void conduits! Weak rock near… scratchy men ropes!*
Kael understood. The geothermal conduits the Hollow King was using. Elara sensed a weakness near where Malakai's main force was rappelling. He couldn't control the Hollow King, but he could exploit its rage, redirect its attention.
He focused his entire will, channeling it through the Synthesis link to Elara. *Show me! Show the big shadow the ropes! The invaders!* He poured the image of Malakai's descending crew into the link, amplifying their presence, their *intrusion*, through Elara's void-attuned senses.
Elara shrieked, a sound of psychic effort. *PUSHING!*
Deep below, the Hollow King's fragment pulsed violently. The void-mud geyser faltered for a second. Then, with a sound like tearing reality, a *new* fissure erupted directly beneath the cluster of rappelling Wrecker elites. Not mud. A focused jet of pure, corrosive void-energy, amplified by superheated geothermal steam. It struck the Canyon wall where their ropes were anchored.
The effect was catastrophic. Rock dissolved. Anchor points vaporized. Ropes snapped like threads. A dozen elite Wreckers, including heavily armored bruisers, plummeted into the chasm, silently erased by the void-jet or smashed on the rocks below. Malakai, further along the rim, cursed viciously as his own line went slack; only his quick grab onto a girder saved him. **\[WRECKER CREW ELITES: NEUTRALIZED.\]**
The diversion worked. But the cost was immense. Elara's presence in the crystal fragment flickered wildly, dimmed. *Tired… so tired… head hurts…* **\[ELARA PSIONIC INTEGRITY: CRITICAL. SYNTHESIS INTERFACE STRAINED.\]**
The redirected blast also caught the edge of the Patcher Sentinel's position. The white-armored figure staggered as its shield flared under the void/geothermal assault. Its focus shifted momentarily from the original fissure to the new threat.
Kael didn't wait. He saw his opening. A narrow crack in the rock face leading deeper into the Canyon's maze, away from the rim, shielded from direct line of sight. He lunged for it, scrambling inside just as another purification lance seared the spot he'd occupied.
He collapsed in the narrow, dark space, gasping. The Seedling fragment pulsed weakly in his hands. Elara was silent, her presence a faint ember. He could feel Malakai's burning rage from across the chasm. The Patcher Sentinel was recovering, its lance reorienting. The Hollow King's fragment pulsed with sullen fury below.
He'd survived the convergence, but barely. He'd used Elara's power to devastating effect, but crippled her. He'd angered Malakai beyond reason. He'd confirmed the Patchers were actively hunting him on the ground.
As he caught his breath in the oppressive dark, the Engine interface pulsed with a new, chilling analysis of the chaotic energies witnessed during the convergence:
**\[ANALYSIS: PURIFICATION LANCE ENERGY SIGNATURE CROSS-REFERENCED WITH PREVIOUS SYSTEM INTERFACES.\]**
**\[HYPOTHESIS: SYSTEM ENERGY MATRIX SHARES 89.7% RESONANCE WITH APOTHEOSIS ENGINE CORE PROTOCOLS (PRE-CORRUPTION STATE).\]**
**\[THEOREM: APOTHEOSIS ENGINE IS NOT A GLITCH. IT IS A CORRUPTED/DERIVATIVE VERSION OF SYSTEM FOUNDATIONAL CODE.\]**
**\[IMPLICATION: HOST DESIGNATION NULL MAY NOT BE A SOUL FRACTURE. IT MAY BE A COMPATIBILITY REQUIREMENT FOR ENGINE INITIATION.\]**
The revelation hit Kael harder than any physical blow. The Engine wasn't an accident. It was related to the *System itself*. And his Null status… was it a flaw, or a *prerequisite*? The power he wielded, the thing threatening to corrupt him, was a dark mirror of the very force that had rejected him. The implications were world-shattering.
The immediate danger hadn't lessened. Malakai was still out there. Patchers were hunting. The Hollow King remnant was wounded but furious. And Elara needed time to recover that he didn't have. But now, the path of Apotheosis wasn't just about survival or power. It was about understanding the terrifying truth of what he carried within him, and why the System feared it enough to send its ultimate cleaners.