The express elevator from the Undercity shot upward at g-force speeds, blurring the levels of the city into a streak of light.
"We have company," Marcus's voice came over the elevator's speaker system. "The Emperor's flagship, the Sovereign's Will, has latched onto the Spire. He's deploying the Harvesters."
"Harvesters?" Julian asked, checking the charge on his nanite arm.
"Drones," Marcus explained. "Designed to strip Aether from biological matter. They don't shoot; they dissolve. If they touch you, your nervous system liquefies."
The elevator jolted to a halt. The doors hissed open.
They weren't at the penthouse. They were in the Grand Lobby of the Palace of the Echo.
"The shaft is blocked by debris," Marcus apologized. "You have to climb the last fifty floors. I'm locking down the stairwells to slow the Guard, but I can't stop the drones."
The Grand Lobby
The lobby was a scene of opulent devastation. The massive glass atrium, which usually offered a view of the golden city, was shattered. Through the jagged holes, they could see the dark, rusted hull of the Emperor's flagship hovering menacingly close. A massive energy tether—a beam of violet light—was drilling into the side of the building, shaking the very foundations.
"Move!" Julian shouted.
Swarms of Harvester Drones—black, spherical machines with writhing metallic tentacles—buzzed through the broken windows.
"Don't let them touch you!" Lyra yelled, firing precise bursts.
Her bullets hit a drone. It didn't explode; it burst into a cloud of corrosive gas.
"Gas!" Zephyr swung his staff. He summoned a localized updraft, blowing the corrosive cloud back out the window. "The air is poison!"
They sprinted across the polished marble floor toward the Grand Staircase.
A Harvester swooped down at Isolde. She swung her wrench, but Julian was faster.
He extended his left hand. The nanite arm elongated, the fibers stretching like a whip. He snatched the drone out of the air and crushed it.
HISSS.
The acid sprayed over his black metal hand. It sizzled, pitting the nanite mesh, but didn't burn through.
"Regenerating," Skid noted on the HUD. "But don't make a habit of high-fiving acid bots."
The Climb
They reached the stairs. It was a spiral of gold and crystal winding up the interior of the Spire.
They climbed. Ten floors. Twenty.
The building shook violently. Dust and plaster rained down.
"The beam!" Skid shouted, pointing out a window. "It's cutting through the support columns!"
The violet beam from the flagship wasn't just drilling; it was widening the hole, preparing to insert a siphon tube directly into the Titan's brain stem beneath the tower.
On the 80th floor, the door to the stairwell blew open.
The Praetorian Guard.
These weren't the standard Red-Guard or Gold-Sentinels. There were only three of them. They wore armor made of White Noise Ceramic—a material that absorbed all sound. They moved in absolute silence. They wielded dual energy-blades.
"Julian," Zephyr whispered. "I can't hear them. They have no wind."
"They're void-shielded," Julian realized. "Sonic attacks won't work."
The lead Praetorian charged. He moved like a phantom.
Julian raised his arm to block.
CLASH.
The energy blades hit his nanite arm. The force was immense. Julian was pushed back down two steps.
"Lyra! Isolde! Go around!" Julian shouted. "Get to Marcus! I'll hold them!"
"We aren't leaving you!"
"Go!" Julian roared, parrying a strike that would have taken his head off. "If we don't wake the Titan, the fight doesn't matter!"
Lyra hesitated, then grabbed Isolde and Zephyr. "Move!"
They scrambled past the duel, heading for the upper floors.
Julian stood alone on the stairs against the three Praetorians.
"Three against one," Julian grinned, his blue eyes flashing. "Fair fight."
He didn't use sound. He used mass.
He activated the Grav-Driver in his arm (integrated from the Prime's data).
He punched the air.
THWUMP.
A gravity pulse distorted the space in front of him. The Praetorians stumbled, their perfect balance disrupted.
Julian lunged. He grabbed the first Praetorian by the helmet and slammed him into the wall. The ceramic shattered.
He spun, catching the second Praetorian's blade with his nanite fingers. The metal heated up, melting the energy emitter. He head-butted the guard, the impact ringing like a bell.
The third Praetorian slashed Julian's leg. The blade cut deep, cauterizing the wound instantly. Julian grunted but didn't fall. He swept the guard's legs and kicked him over the railing.
The guard fell eighty stories down the central shaft.
Julian limped up the stairs.
"Keep the change," he muttered.
The Architect's Office
The Penthouse was the highest point in the city. The walls were floor-to-ceiling glass (now cracked).
Marcus Vane stood by his desk, watching the Emperor's ship destroy his city. He held a glass of whiskey, his hand trembling slightly.
The door burst open. Lyra, Isolde, and Zephyr rushed in, weapons raised.
"Where is it?" Lyra demanded. "The Brain."
Marcus turned. He looked tired.
"Hello," he said softly. "You're late."
Julian limped in a moment later, bleeding from his leg, his metal arm smoking.
"The Brain, Marcus," Julian said, leaning against the doorframe. "Show us."
Marcus pressed a button on his desk.
The floor in the center of the room retracted.
Rising from the sub-floor was not a computer. It was a massive, crystalline Flower Bud, identical to the one in the Jungle Titan, but this one was made of gold and white neural fiber.
It was closed tight.
"The Neural Stem," Marcus said. "It runs through the entire Spire. This is the interface node."
He looked at Julian.
"I tried to open it," Marcus admitted. "For years. I thought if I could control it, I could make the energy flow more efficient. But it never responded to me. It rejected my codes."
"Because you were giving it orders," Julian said, walking toward the flower. "You were trying to program it."
"And how will you do it?" Marcus asked bitter-sweetly. "Sing it a lullaby?"
"No," Julian placed his nanite hand on the golden petals. "I'm going to listen to its nightmare."
The Interface
Julian closed his eyes.
Resonate.
He dove into the mind of the Titan.
It wasn't like the others. The Jungle Titan was sleepy. The Volcano Titan was angry. The Ocean Titan was calm.
Titan 01: The Gilded King was Sorrowful.
It was a crushing weight of grief. The Titan felt every death in the city. It felt the weight of the buildings crushing its chest. It felt the Emperor's greed parasitic on its heart.
Let me sleep... the voice echoed in Julian's mind. It hurts to wake...
I know, Julian projected back. But if you sleep, they die.
He showed the Titan the Undercity. He showed it the people huddling in the dark.
They are your children, Julian said. Not the Emperor's. Yours.
The Titan hesitated.
My children... are silent.
Not anymore, Julian promised.
He twisted the Black-Iron ring. He poured his own energy—the silver blood, the nanites, the resonance—into the flower.
WAKE UP.
The Awakening
The golden flower bloomed.
A pulse of pure, white light shot up from the stem, blasting through the roof of the Palace, hitting the Emperor's ship directly.
BOOM.
The Sovereign's Will was knocked sideways. The harvest beam severed.
The entire Palace shook. But this time, it wasn't collapsing. It was Rising.
"The foundations!" Marcus yelled, grabbing his desk. "They're moving!"
In the Undercity, the massive pillars supporting the capital cracked. The "foundations" revealed themselves. They weren't stone. They were Limbs.
Titan 01 stood up.
It was colossal. A humanoid giant made of white marble and gold, miles high. The city of Aureus Prime was built upon its shoulders and back.
As it stood, the buildings shifted on gyroscopic plates (Marcus's design, finally working as intended).
The Titan let out a sound.
It wasn't a roar. It was a Bell Toll.
GONG.
The sound wave shattered every window in the city. It knocked the Emperor's ship back a mile.
Julian pulled his hand back from the flower. He collapsed, exhausted.
"It's awake," Julian gasped.
Marcus stared out the broken window. He saw the horizon moving. He saw the Emperor's fleet scrambling.
"You did it," Marcus whispered. "You actually moved the world."
Suddenly, the air in the room grew cold. The shadows stretched.
A voice—the Emperor's voice—echoed from the ship above.
"So be it. If the vessel will not submit... the vessel will be broken."
The Sovereign's Will opened its main hangar bays.
Something massive dropped out.
It wasn't a bomb. It was a Mecha.
A dark, twisted reflection of a Titan. Powered by Void energy.
The Emperor's Avatar.
"He's not leaving," Julian realized, struggling to stand. "He's coming down to fight."