The hairline fracture in the stone wall pulsed red.
The color was a digital bleed from the Architect's deletion space, bright against the pale stone.
Raziel lay on the cold stone, breathing harsh, desperate air.
He stared at the crack. His vision felt grainy, still recovering from the white flash of the Sovereign Override.
Mirael's voice, a dry rasp that sounded impossibly loud in the reliquary, cut through the deep exhaustion of the chamber.
"It felt you push. Now it's pushing back."
A tendril of black static leaked through the fissure.
It was fluid, composed of vibrating error code that seemed to pull the reliquary light into its mass. It slithered across the reliquary floor toward Raziel's worn boots.
Caius moved. The transfer novice did not shout a warning or look to Aerion for an order. Caius channeled the raw, gold energy of the Pantheon core straight into his fist.
