The first blade sliced past her cheek before she even realized the fight had begun.
It sang, a cold, clean whisper of metal, cutting a line through the mist as its curved back toward her in an impossible arc. The Fox dove to her side, her six limbs clattering against the trembling walkway, sparks skidding beneath her. More blades followed, thin needle-sharp slivers of chrome.
The Seraphim hovered in the air above her, its six wings unfolding like an eclipse. The magnetic fields rippled from its body, she couldn't see them, but she felt the hum inside her bones. The shards danced between its fingers, swirling in orbit like a metallic halo.
Then they shot toward her as one.
[Fox] "Oh come on, thats not fair—!"
She spun, limbs striking the cracked concrete, flipping herself backward as the barrage peppered the ground behind her. Each blade embedded cleanly, humming with trapped momentum. If she'd been just a fraction slower, she would've looked like a pincushion.
Above her, the Seraphim tilted its head, silent, watching her with that single vertical eye of white fire.
The Fox landed low and sprinted.
Her only chance was to close the distance.
If she stayed out here, exposed, she'd die by a thousand cuts.
The seraphim reacted instantly.
The blades rose again, dozens now, orbiting its body like hungry moons. They elongated, merging into a single massive razor that curved like a scythe. With the flick of its wrist, the weapon shrieked downward toward her.
She leapt, felt the heat of air splitting inches beneath her, landed on a tilted pillar, and used it to vault forward. The Seraphim's wings fluttered, soft as feathers, sharp as equations, repositioning with divine, terrifying precision.
[M.A.R.S.]
"Your chances of closing distance are decreasing."
[Fox] "I know!"
[M.A.R.S.]
"You are injured."
[Fox] "Not yet!"
She hit the ground and rolled just as the Seraphim snapped its fingers. The massive blade shattered into dozens of tiny shards.
They turned midair.
Locked onto her heat.
And converged.
Like rain condensed into murder.
The Fox's limbs blurred, swatting aside what she could, letting others skate across her mechanical arms. The sound was deafening, a hailstorm of metal ringing off metal. She lunged forward, pushing past the pain in her joints.
Just a little closer.
Just a little—
The Seraphim moved.
It didn't glide or fly. It clipped, vanishing from its airborne perch and reappearing a breath in front of her. The shift displaced the air, sinding ripples across the water.
Its arms flashed.
The strike was too fast to dodge.
Two of her mechanical legs were severed clean, sliced off as if they were paper. They clattered onto the walkway, twitching like severed insect limbs. Pain sparked through her nerves, even though the legs weren't flesh. Her body registered the loss anyway.
She stumbled.
Collapsed to one knee.
The Seraphim raised its arm again, preparing to bisect her.
She reached into her coat. And pulled out her hidden weapon.
It was small, no bigger than her palm, a strange fusion of a flash drive and a stiletto blade. Even M.A.R.S. didn't know she carried it.
[Fox] "Open wide,"
She lunged upward, ignoring the scream of torn servos in her remaining limbs, and slammed the blade into the Seraphim's eye.
For the first time, the angel reacted.
Its whole body jerked.
The white slit of its eye flared bright, then flickered, as streams of data flooded its vision. Her drive pumped corrupted code straight into its neural lattice. Not enough to kill it. Just enough to disrupt.
The Seraphim staggered backward, wings spasming. The blades orbiting it dropped suddenly, raining harmlessly onto the walkway.
Its movements slowed, just slightly.
Like a god learning hesitation.
But hesitation wasn't defeat.
Before she could jump away, one of the fallen blades shot upward, impailing her left shoulder. The pain was immediate, hot, sharp, deep. She gasped, stumbling back, pulling herself free from the Seraphim's proximity.
Her vision blurred.
Her mask hid her expression, but she felt her heartbeat echo in her throat.
[M.A.R.S.]
"Your vitals are unstable."
[Fox] "Thank—you—captain obvious..."
[M.A.R.S.]
"You are losing. Fall back."
[Fox] "Trying."
She pushed herself behind a broken column as the Seraphim steadied itself, the corrupted data already being overwritten. Its wings clicked back into alignment, though slower, less perfectly.
The Fox panted, clutching her shoulder. The blade had gone deep. Warm blood seeped between her fingers. Her remaining limbs trembled, struggling to compensate for their missing partners.
The Seraphim stepped forward.
Even weakened, it moved with terrible grace.
Like an angel descending.
She tried to stand.
Failed.
Tried again.
[Fox] "M.A.R.S... anytime... would be great..."
M.A.R.S.' voice lowered.
[M.A.R.S.]
"Look up."
She did.
At first, she thought the sky was breaking.
Then she realized. It was a swarm.
Dozens of drones streaked downward from the cloudline, their lights blinking red in a familiar pattern. The same pattern she saw when M.A.R.S. inhabited her screens.
The Seraphim sensed them too.
It raised its wings defensively, bending magnetic fields into shields.
The first drone hit.
The explosion shook the entire walkway, sending fragments of metal and concrete cascading into the water below. The Seraphim staggered, just a fraction, and that was all the invitation the swarm needed.
They struck like a meteor shower.
One after the other, slamming into the Seraphim's armor, detonating in controlled bursts. Shrapnel spat into the air. The angel tried again to regain control, but its corrupted systems lagged, its calculations slipping.
A final drone spiraled downward. Straight into the Seraphim's chest.
The explosion tore through its core.
Its wings shattered into fragments of fallen light. The body convulsed, a dying angel losing its song, and toppled backward into the glowing waters below.
The crater city swallowed it whole.
Silence returned, slow, heavy, suffocating.
The Fox sagged against a pillar, breathing hard.
[M.A.R.S.]
"You should thank me."
[Fox] "I'll consider it... when I stop bleeding..."
[M.A.R.S.]
"You are welcome."
She groaned.
Pain shot through her shoulder, but she forced herself upright, looking at the rippling water below where the Seraphim had vanished.
One thought settled in her mind.
Their journey had only just begun.