The world outside the ruin was a graveyard of ambition. Sun-bleached bones of mega-structures clawed at a sky the color of rust. The skeletal remains of ancient highways stretched into the haze, their surfaces fractured and reclaimed by hardy, thorned weeds. An acrid wind whipped iron-oxide dust into Valen's face, a wind that would have chapped the old Valen's lips and stung his eyes. Now, he barely noticed it.
He did not run. He moved at a sustained, rapid pace that the Codex defined as "optimal energy-to-distance expenditure." It was a ground-eating trot that was faster than a normal man's sprint, a rhythm he could maintain for hours without tiring.
[Travel time to Rusthaven at current velocity: 3 hours, 41 minutes.]
[Stamina expenditure: 0.12% per kilometer.]
[Alert: Maintain vigilance. This region is known territory for mutated fauna and rogue automata.]
For the first hour, the wasteland was empty, a desolate canvas of rock and ruin. Valen's mind was a silent, focused instrument. He wasn't thinking of the past, of the betrayal. That was a fixed point, a destination. He was focused on the process, on the data stream from the Codex, learning the feedback loop of his new body. He was a pilot in a brand-new machine, testing the controls.
It was the Codex that saw it first.
[Anomaly detected. 70 meters ahead. Sub-surface.]
Valen's pace didn't falter, but his senses sharpened. A patch of scrap metal and debris lay directly in his path—a common sight. To his enhanced vision, however, it was a dead spot. There was no wind disturbance, no faint heat signature from the sun-baked metal. It was unnaturally still.
[Analysis: Camouflaged entity. Bio-mechanical signature detected. Threat level: Moderate.]
He kept moving forward, his path unaltered. He was the bait.
Thirty meters. Twenty. Ten.
The world exploded.
The scrap pile burst upwards as a creature of nightmare launched itself from the dust. It was a chittering horror of rusted metal and sinewy, grey flesh. Four bladed legs, likely scavenged from Architect drones, propelled a torso bristling with sharpened rebar and plating. A single, multi-lensed optical sensor glowed with malevolent red light. A Scrap Lurker. Vicious, territorial, and fast enough to eviscerate a man before he could scream.
It closed the distance in a blur of motion, one of its forelimbs, a serrated pincer, scything directly for Valen's throat.
The old Valen would have died. He wouldn't have even had time to register the attack.
The new Valen stood his ground. He didn't dodge. He didn't flinch. He acted on the Codex's silent command.
[Threat vector calculated. Optimal response: Absorb impact with left forearm. Activate Kinetic Augmentation.]
He raised his arm. The pincer slammed into his forearm with the force of a hydraulic press. The sound was a deafening CRUMP of metal on flesh and bone. He was thrown back a step, his boots digging trenches in the hard-packed earth.
To any observer, it would have looked like a devastating, crippling blow. But Valen felt no pain. He only felt a surge of pure, crackling energy.
The point of impact on his arm glowed with a brilliant blue light as the Codex absorbed the kinetic force of the blow, storing it.
[Kinetic energy absorption at 100%. Host system super-charged.]
[Recommendation: Execute counter-attack within the next 1.8 seconds for maximum effect.]
The Lurker reared back, its optical sensor flickering in confusion at its prey's impossible resilience. It was all the time Valen needed.
He stepped forward, closing the distance. Blue light, a visible aura of raw power, now sheathed his right fist. He didn't just throw a punch; he unleashed a stored cataclysm.
His fist connected with the creature's central chassis.
The sound was not like flesh hitting metal. It was the sound of a forge hammer striking an anvil in a clap of thunder. A blinding flash of blue energy erupted from the point of impact, and the Lurker's armored torso didn't just dent. It imploded.
Plates of metal shattered. Fused vertebrae of man and machine snapped. The creature was thrown backwards, not as a single entity, but as a shower of broken parts and sizzling bio-coolant that hissed as it hit the hot dust. It landed in a heap, twitched once, and then its red eye went dark.
Silence returned to the wasteland, broken only by the faint hum of Valen's own super-charged system. He looked at his fist, then at the smoking wreckage of the Lurker. The blue glow faded.
[Threat neutralized.]
[Kinetic Augmentation expended. System returning to standby.]
[Performance analysis: Flawless.]
Valen felt nothing. No triumph. No relief. He simply processed the data. He had taken a blow that would have shorn a man's arm off and turned it into the weapon of his enemy's destruction.
This was the logic of the Codex. This was the logic of his new world. Strength was a resource to be gathered and spent.
Without a backward glance at the fallen creature, he resumed his journey. The sun was beginning its slow descent, painting the rusted sky in shades of blood and fire. Ahead, on the horizon, a smudge of flickering, artificial light began to pierce the gloom.
Rusthaven.