The Architect, in Kael's body, stalked towards Aki with the unnatural grace of a predator. Aki, with Lyra's desperate cries still echoing in his mind, turned and ran. He wasn't thinking of a plan, only of survival. He was a boy, and the cold-eyed monster behind him was a god. But the Architect was too fast, too efficient. It closed the distance in a single, terrifying bound.
Before Aki could even scream, a powerful, vicious kick landed squarely in his back. It was not a normal kick; it was a blow imbued with the raw, cosmic power of a fallen god. Aki's body arched in a silent shriek of pain, the air forced from his lungs. The world became a blur of green and brown as he was sent flying, a projectile of mortal flesh and divine magic. He soared over the jagged branches of a large tree, his body a mix of raw agony and the cold shock of helplessness, before he finally crashed into the soft earth on the other side.
The Architect did not pursue him immediately. It stood over a dazed Aki, its cold eyes watching, an echo of a devilish smile on Kael's lips. It was toying with him, enjoying the terror.
But that moment of hesitation was all the heroes needed.
"Jace! Get him!" Elara screamed, her voice cutting through the horror. Her hands were already a blur of motion, her alchemy now a weapon of precision and speed. She knew they couldn't defeat a god, but they could delay a fragment of one. She hurled a flask of her concoction at the possessed Kael. It shattered, releasing a blinding flash of light and a cloud of alchemical dust that worked to disrupt the Architect's magical essence in Kael's body.
Jace, his face a mask of pure rage and grief, followed her lead. "You're a disgrace, Kael," he snarled, knowing it was an empty taunt. He launched himself at his possessed friend with a powerful magical punch. His fist, wrapped in crackling, pure magical energy, connected with Kael's chest with a bone-jarring thud. The Architect's form within Kael's body shuddered, but it did not break. The body was a mere puppet, and it was a resilient one.
The fight that followed was a brutal, up-close struggle. Jace's attacks were filled with a desperate, heartbreaking force. He wasn't just fighting a monster; he was fighting the body of his best friend, a body he had fought beside for over a hundred years. He dodged Kael's unnaturally swift attacks, his movements filled with the desperate fluidity of a man trying not to kill his brother. The hits landed with sickening force. The sounds of cracking ribs and tearing muscle were all too real, a raw, brutal reminder that the man in front of him was a friend, a person he once shared a lifetime of memories with. The pain in Jace's heart was a hundred times worse than the agony of the blows he was receiving.
Elara continued to support him, her alchemical flasks now a steady stream of projectiles. She threw liquids that turned to ice on impact to slow the Architect, and others that burned with a pure light to disrupt its corrupting essence. She and Jace were a symphony of desperate survival, their attacks uncoordinated and raw, but filled with a shared, powerful love for the man they were trying to save.
Aki, meanwhile, was fighting a battle of his own. He lay on the ground, the pain in his back a dull throb. But it was Lyra's voice, not the pain, that he focused on. She was a hurricane of frantic energy in his mind, urging him to get up, to sense the Echo-Wells. He closed his eyes, ignoring the fight raging behind him. He pushed his own essence outward, reaching out to the world's wild magic, searching for a place where its energy was most concentrated. He felt it—a vibrant, pulsating heart of raw magic in the distance, a point on the map that glowed with a pure, chaotic brilliance. It was the nearest Echo-Well.
He knew what he had to do. He had to reach it. It was the only way to save Lyra and the world. But the Architect in Kael's body was still a monstrous force, and his friends were quickly being outmatched. They had bought him a few precious seconds. Now, he had to make them count.