TIME : T-31:20 → T-30:05
Key in hand, edge biting my palm, blood mixing that red tear—warm, thick, 38-second spread.
Real Elias yanked me up the rusted ladder—
CLANG! CLANG!
Traitors battered the door below.
Rooftop wind tearing at me.
Eidolon's dark spires loomed like beast vertebrae.
Distantly, Sector-7 Mall's glass dome glowed—the only light.
Fuck! Evac point at the mall?
Real Elias pointed: "B3 exit… leads to mall alley…"
Cut off—
Ladder creaked!
Below, reanimated climbed!
Cook leading, joints inverted, silent, gliding up the rungs.
Nails lengthening—black, keratin-hard, digging into rust.
"Fuck!" I rasped, groping my waist—half a tactical knife left.
Real Elias pressed the EMP into my hand: "Cover me."
He lunged for the edge, Orchid sweeping the horde—all red.
"Hybrids!" He roared. "Blood clot: 50.2 seconds!"
Cook five meters from the top… four…
I stepped back, key raised.
"Elias… are you human?"
He froze.
Sleeve slipped, revealing his inner forearm—
A thin scar, crescent-shaped.
Three years ago. Facility collapse. He'd taken it for my tampered data drive. Real.
But as his wrist turned—
Skin bulged slightly at the elbow bend.
Like a steel bead buried under flesh.
Fuck!
Cook struck!
Bone blade slashing for my neck!
I dropped, rolling, key whipping up for his throat!
HISS-SLASH!
Copper-on-flesh—wet, sticky, with tracheal hiss.
Blue gel spurted my face—cold, almond-scented.
He clutched his neck, staggering, pupils flickering: "…pain feedback… 99.5%…"
Girl dove from the side, nails lengthening.
I hurled the key at her hand!
CLANG!
Key bounced back, edge slicing my palm—blood welling, warm.
"AAAAH—!" She screamed, hybrid blood arcing three meters.
Kid leapt onto the edge, looming, throat clicking.
Fuck! Triple flanking!
Real Elias exploded!
Orchid jammed into Cook's pineal seam—
ZZT-PAK!
Blue sparks erupted!
Cook froze.
Pupils flickering.
Now.
I roared, swinging the key into his temple!
CLANG!
He staggered, blade flying.
I twisted his wrist, key reversed, tip aiming at his pineal copper ring!
Thumb mashed the lever—
Click!
Cu-Cluster popped free!
Blue gel blooped, he convulsed, pupils fading to cloudy human eyes.
Last whisper: "…Xiao Ya…"
Hand fell.
Girl retreated, hand over her wrist—blood seeping between fingers—dark red threaded with blue (hybrid blood).
She fled.
Real Elias hauled me up: "Go! While they're glitching!"
I lunged for the edge—
Eight meters down.
Dumpsters stacked below.
Jump? Broken legs would be lucky.
Kid dropped, hand grabbing my ankle—
Nails driving for my Achilles!
Fuck!
I roared, jamming the EMP into his mouth!
"Three…"
He bit down, copper coils sparking blue.
"Two…"
I yanked free—
"One—!"
BOOM!!!
EMP detonated, blue-white arcs crackling!
Kid convulsed, pupils fizzing gray-white.
Real Elias yanked me: "Jump! Mall skylight!"
I kicked off the wall, lunging toward the mall—
Wind filled my ears.
Stomach dropped.
Eight meters… six… five…
Sector-7 Mall's glass dome rushed up—
Jade-green curve, reflecting my falling silhouette.
I tucked, right shoulder leading—
CRASH—!!!
Glass exploded, spiderwebbing instantly, shriek piercing my eardrums.
Body slammed in, glass shards pelting my back like hail.
Right shoulder—fire. Collarbone probably cracked.
Left arm wound split wide open, blood and glass spraying warm, thick.
I rolled three times in the shards, stopped.
Above, the skylight breach, Real Elias landed, boots crunching glass.
Reanimated didn't follow.
They crouched on the edge, pupils locking on me, throats clicking.
Real Elias hauled me up, breathing hard: "…99.5%… fuck, they're almost full."
I wiped my face, sweat and blood gumming my eyes.
Looked down at the key—
Surface blooping red tears.
Liora's copper leaf, somehow lodged in the keyhole—
Veins oozing, drip… drip…
Onto my palm—
Faint crimson halo, 38 seconds.
Human tear fluid.
Real Elias stared at the leaf, Orchid zooming: "…she swapped it…"
I clenched the key, edge biting flesh, blood mixing that red tear—
Warm, thick, 38-second spread.
T-30:05.
Minute Twenty-Five: complete.
Key still in hand.
But in my palm—
Real blood burned.
"T-3Thanks for the rooftop leap. When glass shards buried in Kai's back—did you flinch? 💎
Drop a "💎"—top comment gets Kai's exact curse mid-fall in Ch26!
Real blood cuts deeper than copper. #Chrono600:05. The copper key was warm. But the blood in my palm? Still real.
Thank you for the minute. — K."