The journey through the ruins was slower than Felix had hoped. Every few hundred meters, they had to stop and hide as corrupted machines passed by, some small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, others the size of vehicles. Cyber navigated them through the safest routes she could find, using her sensors to detect movement before they stumbled into anything dangerous.
They'd been walking for maybe an hour when Felix started to feel like something was wrong. The air had grown heavier somehow, thick with an electric tension that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. The purple mist that hung over everything seemed to be moving in a specific direction now, flowing like water toward some unseen drain.
"Cyber," he said quietly. "Do you feel that?"
She stopped immediately, her head tilting as her sensors swept the area. Her glowing eyes dimmed for a moment, then flared bright with alarm.
"Run. Now."
Felix didn't question her. He turned and ran, his enhanced legs carrying him faster than he'd ever moved before. Behind them, he heard it. A sound like thunder mixed with the screech of tearing metal, growing louder with every second.
The ground shook. Not a small tremor, but a massive impact that sent chunks of concrete bouncing into the air. Felix risked a glance back and immediately wished he hadn't.
The thing emerging from between two collapsed buildings was enormous. It had probably been some kind of construction mech once, designed to lift heavy materials and demolish structures.
Now it was a towering nightmare of twisted metal and crystallized Mana, easily fifteen meters tall. Its arms had been replaced with massive crushing claws that dragged along the ground, carving furrows in the concrete. Purple energy poured from its joints like blood, and its head was a mess of sensor arrays that tracked their movement with terrifying precision.
"That's a Titan class," Cyber shouted over the noise. "We can't fight it. We need to find cover."
She grabbed Felix's arm and yanked him sideways, pulling him into what remained of a building. The Titan's roar followed them inside, a sound that was part mechanical and part organic, wrong in every possible way. One of its massive claws smashed through the wall behind them, missing Felix by inches and showering them both with debris.
They ran deeper into the building, through corridors choked with rubble and rooms that had collapsed in on themselves. Felix could hear the Titan tearing through the structure behind them, reducing walls to dust in its pursuit.
His rifle was useless against something that size. He could empty an entire magazine into it and probably not even slow it down.
"There," Cyber pointed ahead to where daylight was streaming through a hole in the far wall. "We can jump to the next building."
Felix didn't slow down. He hit the gap at full speed and launched himself across, his enhanced legs giving him more than enough power to clear the distance. He landed hard on the other side, rolled, and came up ready to keep running.
The Titan's claw came through the wall before Cyber could follow. It swept across the gap in a horizontal arc, and Felix watched in horror as it connected with her midsection. The impact sent her flying backward into the building they'd just left, her body crashing through what remained of an interior wall.
"Cyber!" Felix turned back toward the gap, but another piece of the wall collapsed, blocking the opening.
He could hear the Titan moving, could feel the vibrations as it repositioned itself. It knew it had them separated now.
Felix raised his rifle, knowing it was futile but not caring. If that thing had hurt Cyber, he was going to make it pay even if it killed him in the process.
Blue light began to flow through his arms and into the weapon, more power than he'd channeled before. The rifle started to hum, almost vibrating in his hands.
The Titan's head appeared through the hole in the wall, its sensor arrays focusing on him. Its claw raised, ready to crush him like an insect.
Then Felix heard something new. An engine, high-pitched and powerful, rapidly approaching. The sound of a vehicle moving fast, too fast for the ruined streets.
The motorcycle came out of nowhere, launching off a collapsed section of road and sailing through the air like it had been shot from a cannon. It was sleek and aggressive, glowing with blue Mana lines that pulsed in rhythm with its engine. But what really caught Felix's attention was the rider.
She was young, maybe in her early twenties, with jet black hair pulled back in a high ponytail that whipped behind her like a banner. Her outfit was practical but striking, a futuristic crop top that showed off arms covered in glowing tattoos that looked like circuit patterns, paired with tactical pants and boots designed for combat. A mask covered the lower half of her face, but her eyes were visible above it, fierce and focused.
The bike didn't slow down. Instead, it angled directly toward the Titan, and the rider stood up on the footpegs. As the motorcycle passed within meters of the massive machine's head, she jumped, twisting in midair with impossible grace.
Twin blades appeared in her hands, materializing from pure Mana in a flash of blue light. They were beautiful and deadly, curved like katanas but made entirely of solidified energy. The girl spun as she fell, and those blades carved through the Titan's sensor arrays like they were made of paper.
The machine roared and staggered, its head now sparking and smoking where the blades had struck. The rider landed in a crouch on a pile of rubble, her blades still glowing in her hands.
She didn't waste a second. She was already moving again, running straight at the Titan as it tried to locate her with its damaged sensors.
Felix watched in awe as she moved. Every step was precise, every movement calculated. She dodged a claw swipe by sliding under it, came up running, and leaped onto the Titan's arm.
Her blades flashed again, cutting through the hydraulic lines that powered the limb. Purple Mana sprayed out like arterial blood, and the arm went limp.
The Titan tried to grab her with its other claw, but she was already gone, jumping to its shoulder and driving both blades into what looked like a power junction. More sparks erupted, and the machine's movements became jerky and uncoordinated.
Behind Felix, Cyber burst through the rubble blocking the gap, her chassis dented but still functional. "That's a Fabricator."
"One of the rarest types of Mana Wielder. She can create solid objects from pure Mana." she said, sounding impressed.
The girl with the ponytail ran up the Titan's back like it was a ladder, her boots finding purchase on the uneven surface. When she reached the top, where the machine's corrupted core was housed, she crossed her blades in front of her and drove them in with both hands.
The effect was immediate and dramatic. Blue light erupted from the wound, spreading through the Titan's entire frame like an infection in reverse.
The purple corruption began to crystallize and shatter, falling away in chunks. The machine let out one final roar, then collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
The girl rode it down, jumping clear at the last second and landing in another perfect crouch as tons of metal crashed into the street behind her. Her blades dissolved back into motes of light, and she straightened up, rolling her shoulders like she'd just finished a warm-up exercise rather than taken down a Titan class corrupted machine by herself.
She turned to look at Felix and Cyber, and even with the mask covering part of her face, he could see the smile in her eyes. She pulled the mask down, revealing a grin that was equal parts friendly and dangerous.
"You two looked like you could use a hand," she said, her voice carrying easily across the distance despite the ringing in Felix's ears from all the noise. "Or maybe two swords would be more accurate."
Her motorcycle, which had somehow landed upright and intact, rolled up beside her on its own like a trained pet. She patted its handlebars affectionately before turning her attention back to them.
"Name's Ashley," she continued, walking closer with the casual confidence of someone who'd just proven exactly how capable they were.
"And judging by the way you two move and that fancy integration system you're sporting, I'm guessing you're not from around here. At least not from this time period."
Felix exchanged a glance with Cyber, who gave a small nod. There wasn't much point in hiding it, especially not from someone who'd just saved their lives.
"Felix Brixton," he said, lowering his rifle. "And you're right."
"I've been out of circulation for a while. About two centuries, give or take."
Ashley's eyebrows rose, and her grin widened. "No shit? You're one of the old world survivors? Man, wait until the people at Haven hear about this. They're going to lose their minds."
She gestured toward her bike. "Speaking of Haven, that's where you're headed, right?"
"It's the only settlement within reasonable distance that would make sense. Lucky for you, I was heading back there anyway."
"Hop on, and I'll give you a ride. It's a lot faster than walking, and a lot safer than running into another Titan."
Felix looked at the motorcycle, then at Ashley, then back at Cyber. The AI gave another small nod, her sensors indicating no immediate threat from the girl.
"Alright," Felix said. "But I have questions. A lot of them."
Ashley laughed, already swinging her leg over her bike. "Yeah, I bet you do. Two hundred years is a hell of a nap to wake up from."
"Come on, we can talk on the way. And trust me, you're going to want to hear what I have to tell you about what's been happening lately."
She revved the engine, and it roared to life with a sound that was pure power and speed. "Because things are about to get a whole lot more interesting."