---....
The entire room trembled violently as yet another pulse round blasted through the ceiling above, sending a swirling cloud of concrete dust cascading down like ash from a dying fire. Kael, fueled by raw adrenaline and seething anger, violently slammed a mercenary against the wall. His knuckles were slick with blood, a visceral testament to his ferocity, which was morphing him into a primal beast. The trench coat he wore billowed around him like a dark, swirling shadow, and his strikes were executed with surgical precision, utterly merciless—each mercenary falling to the ground quicker than Ezra could even catch his breath and fully take in the chaos that enveloped them.
Yet, amidst the pandemonium, Nico stood unfazed, bathed in fractured light. His fingers moved deftly over a wrist-console, his lips curled into a mocking smirk that only fueled Kael's fury.
"Didn't you always believe you were invincible, Kael?" he taunted over the deafening gunfire. "But remember, the higher you ascend, the further you have to crash."
With a fierce growl, Kael lunged forward, slicing through the smoky haze and debris, but just as he was about to close the distance between them, Nico activated a command.
Suddenly, the holo-crystal that rested in Ezra's palm blazed to life.
With a startled gasp, Ezra felt an intense heat scorch his skin—the sensation was as if the crystal itself had been seared with Nico's malevolent code. Crimson glyphs began to crawl across the surface of the crystal, pulsating ominously in a rhythm that filled him with dread. It dawned on him that this was far beyond simple sabotage; it was a tether binding him in ways he could scarcely comprehend.
"Ezra—drop that thing!" Kael's voice boomed with authority and fear.
But Ezra found himself unable to comply. His fingers were ensnared around the crystal, which felt as though it was pulling at his very essence, drawing him in with relentless magnetism. As he felt his knees buckle beneath the weight of it, he caught sight of Nico's grin widening with malicious satisfaction.
"There it is," Nico spoke in a low voice, his gaze not on Kael but on Ezra, his eyes narrowing. "The fracture. I always knew you were hiding something from us."
Kael froze, a fierce storm of anger and a flicker of anxiety mingling within him. "What the hell have you done, Nico?"
Nico's laughter rang out, a brittle sound akin to shattering glass. "I haven't done anything outside of bringing to light what was already lurking within. The shadows in you are mine to unveil."
Before Kael could even react, a smoke charge erupted at Nico's feet, engulfing him in a thick cloud of choking gray. And by the time the air began to clear, revealing the disarray, Nico had vanished, leaving only scorch marks on the floor and an eerie, suffocating silence in his wake.
Collapsing to his knees, Ezra felt the glow of the crystal still pulsing faintly in his palm. Each breath he took was ragged, his chest ablaze—not solely from the tether, but from the terrifying truth that Nico had almost torn from the depths of his soul.
Kael crouched down to Ezra's level, his face cast in shadow, eyes smoldering with disappointment deeper than any physical injury. "He was under my roof, Ezra. My company, my trust, and he turned it into a weapon to be used against me." His voice broke under the weight of betrayal. "I won't make that grave mistake again."
Ezra struggled to find the words to reply, knowing that speaking would only threaten to shatter the delicate balance they had left.
In the oppressive silence that followed, Nico's ominous parting words lingered in the air like a dark cloud looming overhead:
"The fracture is already there."