Chapter 20: Ninety Seconds in Hell
The second guard closed the distance in a blur of obsidian and searing light. There was no time to chamber another round. I dropped the heavy rifle, its weight a sudden absence, and rolled to the side as the energy shard sliced through the air where my head had been. The heat of it scorched my cheek.
I came up with my machete in hand, the steel feeling pathetically small against the creature's crackling weapon. It was faster than a Reaper, its movements precise, calculated. It wasn't just trying to kill me; it was eliminating a system error.
"Seventy seconds!" Hacker's voice was a tense, digital snarl from the drone. "The counter-intrusion protocols are aggressive. It's fighting me!"
The guard lunged again. I parried, the machete meeting the energy shard with a shower of sparks that stung my hands. The impact numbed my arm to the shoulder. I was outmatched. This thing was built to destroy anything that breached this sanctum.
I backed away, leading it on a path around the perimeter of the humming, pulsing nexus. My mind raced, discarding one desperate plan after another. A gunshot would be useless. A direct blow was suicide.
My boot kicked something metallic. A severed pipe, jutting from the fused floor. An idea, born of pure desperation, flickered to life.
"Fifty seconds! It's rerouting primary power! I'm losing access points!" Hacker yelled.
The guard pressed its attack, herding me towards a corner. It knew it had me. I feinted left, then dove right, towards the hive-like wall of fused machinery and biomass. I swung my machete not at the guard, but at a thick, pulsating cable of the organic wiring that snaked across the wall.
The blade bit deep. A gush of viscous, black fluid erupted, and the entire room flickered. The guard staggered, a stutter in its fluid motion. The blow hadn't hurt it, but it had hurt the system it was connected to.
It was my only advantage. I wasn't fighting the guard. I was fighting the room.
"Forty seconds! Whatever you just did, do it again!" Hacker shouted, a note of frantic hope in his voice.
The guard recovered and charged, enraged. I didn't try to parry. I threw myself under its swing, sliding across the slick floor, and hacked at another cluster of cables. Another flicker. A low groan echoed through the chamber as the nexus sphere stuttered.
The guard shrieked, a sound of pure, systemic fury. It turned, its focus absolute, and raised its shard for a final, plunging strike. I was on my back, cornered, with no way to dodge.
THOOM.
The entire bulkhead door exploded inwards, shorn from its hinges. Standing in the smoke-filled doorway was Brawler. His chest was heaving, his knuckles were bloody, and his eyes held a familiar, grim fire. Behind him, the corridor was littered with the twitching bodies of Rippers.
He didn't look at me. His gaze was fixed on the Keeper's guard.
With a roar that shook the very foundations of the room, he charged.
The guard was fast, but Brawler was an avalanche. He took the energy shard strike on his thick, armored shoulder pad, grunting in pain but not slowing. He wrapped his massive arms around the creature and slammed it, back first, into the central nexus core.
There was a sound like shattering glass and tearing metal. The obsidian guard went rigid, its form flickering as raw dimensional energy arced over it. Brawler held it there, his muscles straining, a conduit of pure, destructive force.
"TWENTY SECONDS!" Hacker screamed. "The core is destabilizing! Plant the charge! NOW!"
I scrambled to my feet, shrugging off my pack. I pulled out the brick of C4 we'd salvaged from the police depot, slapped the magnetic trigger on it, and lunged for the shuddering nexus core. I planted it right next to the convulsing guard, right in the heart of the abomination.
"Done!" I yelled.
"Get out!" Hacker's voice was a triumphant shout. "I'm initiating the final data purge! The whole system is going critical!"
Brawler gave one final, mighty heave, shoving the guard deeper into the core, then turned and ran. I was right behind him. We sprinted down the corridor, the thrumming heartbeat of the nexus turning into a frantic, dying arrhythmia behind us.
We burst out of the service entrance into the chaotic din of Ade's ongoing diversion. The gunfire had lessened. The Rippers seemed confused, their coordinated attacks breaking down into mindless, individual skirmishes.
Ade saw us and signaled a retreat.
We ran, not looking back, putting as much distance as we could between us and the Stock Exchange.
We were two blocks away when the ground heaved. A deep, subterranean WHUMP was followed by a geyser of black energy and debris erupting from the building. The strange, veined growths on the surrounding structures withered and turned to gray dust in an instant.
The neural network had been severed. The Keeper was blind.
We collapsed, panting, in the ruins of a coffee shop. Brawler leaned against a counter, inspecting the burn on his shoulder. Ade clapped me on the back, a wild look in his eyes.
Hacker's drone rolled up to us, its screen flickering.
"A satisfactory purge," his voice crackled. "The domain is fragmented. The Keeper is just a beast again. Our deal is complete."
The screen went dark. The little robot powered down, its purpose served.
I looked at Brawler. He gave a single, curt nod, then turned and melted back into the ruins, a ghost returning to the shadows.
We had won. We had taken down a god. And we had done it with the help of two devils. The victory felt hollow, terrifying, and necessary all at once. The Keeper was dethroned, but the war was far from over. We had just won a single, bloody battle in a world now filled with a thousand such kings.