Pushing off from the churning crystalline matrix underfoot, dodging reawakening crystalline tendrils, Kael moved like an agile predator. In a few leaps, he reached the area directly beneath the shaft!
He jumped high! His hands caught the jagged, blasted metal rim of the shaft opening with precision!
"Urgh!" he grunted, his arm muscles (bionic) bulging. Explosive strength propelled his entire body upwards in a powerful pull-up motion, swiftly hauling himself over the edge and rolling into the dark, upward-sloping passage.
From behind him came the "Pandora Stone's" utterly enraged, reality-tearing psychic shriek!
**"Escape... cannot... escape... marked... will... return..."**
Kael didn't look back. He scrambled upwards with all his strength along the sloping shaft. In the darkness, only his heavy breathing, the scrape of his armor against the walls, and the increasingly distant, unnerving gray-white glow and shrieks from below accompanied him.
He had made it. At least for now.
But the crisis was far from over. He needed to rendezvous with the *Nightingale*, and fast... and execute that final plan.
The Purification Protocol *had* to be initiated.
And this time, he would not hesitate.
The interior of the ventilation shaft was pitch black, filled with years of accumulated dust and the unique, cloying stench of ozone and metal. Fortunately, there was almost no sign of the active crystalline growth here. Only occasional gray specks on the shaft walls indicated the transformative energy field had tried to penetrate this far, but seemed to have failed to spread, likely due to a lack of sufficient organic material or energy sources.
Kael ignored it all. He set his helmet lights to maximum and climbed vigorously up the steep, rough-walled shaft, its surface studded with cold rivets and pipes. The shaft wasn't vertical but angled at roughly sixty degrees, allowing him to use both hands and feet to ascend more quickly, though it was still arduous. With every movement, the pain lancing through his body and the system warnings reminded him of the damage from the explosion and impact.
Left arm actuator efficiency down 17%. Minor hydraulic leak in the right leg's damping system. Multiple cracks in the chest armor. Life support indicated a minor internal fluid leak... The data streamed coldly across his visual display. He suppressed the warnings, diverting the majority of his processing power to movement and environmental awareness.
From the direction of the lab below, the unnerving gray-white glow and the crystal's shrieking did not follow him up, as if contained by some invisible boundary deep underground. But this brought Kael no relief. He knew that containment might be temporary, or merely a result of the shaft's physical structure attenuating the energy radiation. Once the crystalline sentience fully recovered from the blast, there was no telling what it might do.
He *had* to reach the surface and link up with the *Nightingale*.
He climbed for what felt like an eternity, time stretching in the darkness and silence. Finally, a faint light appeared ahead, accompanied by a rush of frigid air—the vacuum of the planetoid's surface.
The exit was near!
Bolstered, Kael increased his pace. The light grew, and finally, he reached the shaft's end. It opened onto the crater wall, where a massive protective cover should have been, now missing—either due to decay or destroyed in some past incident.
He cautiously peered out.