There was no time for hesitation. The moment Valeria's command left her lips, Ren's world dissolved. The grimy corridor, the yawning chasm, the approaching terror—it all faded into the background, replaced by the shimmering, golden tapestry of Covenants.
He looked up, his focus latching onto the thick, interwoven threads of the support struts holding the ceiling's jungle of wreckage in place. There were three primary anchors. Unmaking one wouldn't be enough. He had to take them all.
The ethereal wail of the Phantasms grew sharp, a razor blade against his ears. Their cold, unnatural light began to spill into the corridor behind them.
Ren took a mental breath and reached for all three threads at once.
Pain, white-hot and absolute, exploded in his skull. It was a foolish, arrogant move. His mind wasn't strong enough to deconstruct three complex Covenants simultaneously. The system buckled under the strain, threatening to snap his consciousness in two.
He recoiled, gasping, a trickle of blood running from his nose.
Behind him, Valeria shouted, "They're here!"
He saw her turn, her face set in a mask of grim determination. She slammed the butt of her sidearm into the floor, and a shimmering hexagon of golden light—her [Ordinance Field]—materialized in front of her. It was a futile gesture against an enemy that ignored physical laws, but it was a gesture of defiance. She was holding the line. She was buying him seconds.
Ren grit his teeth, the taste of blood sharp in his mouth. He couldn't take them all at once. So he would take them one by one.
He focused again, this time on the nearest support strut. He grabbed its core thread and pulled. It resisted, but it was only one. With a silent snap, it unspooled.
The first support dissolved into dust. A section of the ceiling groaned, heavy cables snapping and raining sparks into the chasm.
One down.
He shifted his focus to the second. The Phantasms were at Valeria's barrier, their intangible blades phasing through it, causing her to cry out in pain as the corrupting energy washed over her.
Ren pulled the second thread. It snapped faster than the first. More wreckage cascaded down, the noise deafening.
Two down.
The final strut. The Phantasms were past her now. She fired her weapon, the physical slugs passing harmlessly through their glowing forms. They were almost on him.
He grabbed the final thread, pouring every last ounce of his will into the pull.
[System Lag] catastrophic…
The Covenant shattered.
With a final, thunderous roar, the entire ceiling section gave way. Tons of server racks, conduits, and twisted metal plunged into the chasm, piling up in a chaotic, tangled mountain of debris that spanned the gap. Their bridge of chaos was complete.
The Phantasms halted, their mindless forms momentarily confused by the sheer physicality of the collapse.
"Go!" Ren croaked, his vision already starting to blur.
Valeria didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed his arm, hauling him forward. They scrambled onto the unstable wreckage, sharp edges of torn metal tearing at their boots. Cables sparked around them, and the entire structure shifted precariously under their weight.
They made it to the other side just as the first Phantasm phased through the debris pile. They were across. They were safe.
Ren's world collapsed.
The catastrophic lag hit him not as a wave, but as an abyss. The thunder of the collapse, Valeria's ragged breathing, his own frantic heartbeat—all sounds vanished, only to crash into his mind moments later in a disorienting tidal wave. His vision dissolved into a smear of strobing lights and swimming shadows. He fell to the floor, his body completely disconnected from his mind, every signal from his nerves arriving late and corrupted.
He was a prisoner in his own skull.
Through the dizzying haze, he was vaguely aware of Valeria standing over him, her weapon raised, her body positioned between him and the chasm. She was guarding him. Protecting her asset.
He had proven his point. Chaos was faster. Chaos worked. But this was the price. For a few precious moments of god-like power, he was rendered as helpless as a newborn.
As his senses slowly began to reboot, a new sound cut through the ringing in his ears. It wasn't the groan of the city or the wail of a monster.
It was a human voice, weak and laced with disbelief, calling out from the darkness ahead.
"Hello? Is someone there?"