The long, grueling battle finally broke. The augmented man collapsed onto the fractured courtyard, his heavy chassis cracking the stone beneath him as his damaged systems shrieked and slowly died out.
For a moment, he lay completely still.
Valer stood over him without answering, his breathing steady, his posture already unwinding from the fight.
Across the courtyard, the fight still churned—steel clashing, bodies moving, dust and debris hanging thick in the air—but his focus narrowed quickly and precisely onto a single figure. Mario Vance stood partially shielded behind a broken column, the last of his men forming a loose, uncertain barrier that didn't hold for long.
Valer advanced without urgency. Mario straightened as Valer approached, attempting to gather some measure of control over a situation that had already slipped beyond him.
"I was wondering if he'd be enough," Mario said, forcing a thin composure that didn't quite settle.
Valer didn't respond. He stepped in and struck him cleanly in the midsection, the impact folding Mario forward as the air left his lungs in a harsh, involuntary sound. Before he could recover, Valer seized his collar and drove him back into the column behind him, the stone giving slightly under the force.
"Stop the hunters," Valer said, his voice even and unraised, carrying more weight for its restraint.
Mario coughed, trying to pull in breath, a strained sound of disbelief slipping through. "You think I control them?" he managed, though the question lacked conviction.
Valer answered with another short, controlled strike to the ribs, "I'm not asking twice."
Mario's expression shifted—not into panic, but into something quieter, more calculating. "I thought you knew," he said, the words steadier than before.
Mario looked at him directly now, "I didn't put the bounty."
Valer held him for a moment longer, measuring the claim, then asked the only question that mattered. "Then who did?"
"That," he said quietly, "is where it gets complicated."
Valer had Mario pinned against the cracked stone of the courtyard, his forearm crushing the informant's windpipe.
"Give me a name," Valer snarled, applying pressure.
Mario choked, his hands uselessly clawing at Valer's arm, but his panicked eyes darted past Valer's shoulder.
Slow, deliberate footsteps echoed across the courtyard, cutting through the fading sounds of gunfire.
A familiar figure emerged from the settling dust. It was the man from atop the Spero Estate, walking with the same slouched, unassuming posture. He carried no weapon, nor did he radiate any visible Essence. But his visible eye remained completely still—razor-sharp and glinting with that chilling, clinical curiosity.
"I believe," the man said mildly, tilting his head, "you are looking for me."
Valer dropped Mario to the stone. He didn't speak. He just moved.
The distance between them collapsed in a heartbeat. Valer's boots shattered the paving stones as he lunged.
But the doctor didn't even raise a hand to defend himself.
The courtyard floor simply erupted.
Not just beneath Valer—everywhere. Dozens of pale, wet shapes burst from the fractured rock. Their torsos were split open along vertical seams, and thick, sinewy appendages lashed out like whips.
They didn't just target Valer. They targeted everyone.
Darian didn't even have time to react. A fleshy, living iron tendril wrapped around his chest, slamming him brutally into the marble floor. Beside him, Boro roared, trying to plant his feet, but three appendages seized his limbs, dragging the massive cadet down to the stone. Zeri was pinned mid-stride, her blasters disappeared. The surviving guards were swept off their feet, crushed against the ground in a terrifying, synchronized wave of violence.
Valer's momentum died instantly. Two of the creatures anchored their limbs deep into the stone, their tongues wrapping around Valer's arms and waist, suspending him mid-strike.
The entire courtyard was subdued in seconds. The man stood perfectly untouched in the center of the slaughter.
"That instinct," he murmured, stepping casually into Valer's striking range. "Always the same with your kind. So much will. So little understanding."
Valer wrenched violently against the bindings. The creatures vibrated in response, sending a paralyzing, high-frequency hum directly into his nervous system. Still, Valer forced his head up, his teeth bared.
"Let. Me. Go."
"Why?" the doctor asked gently. His gaze drifted past Valer, locking dead onto Lyra, who stood frozen near the estate doors. "So you can protect your daughter? Blood is usually such an inefficient mechanism. Prone to decay. Full of limitations. But hers... hers is different."
Lyra couldn't move. The air in her lungs felt like glass.
Pinned to the floor ten feet away, Darian strained against his restraints, gritting his teeth until he tasted copper. "Shit!" But the sinews only tightened, crushing the breath out of him. He was completely paralyzed.
Valer thrashed, the stone cracking further beneath his boots. "Don't you look at her!"
He sighed. The mild amusement bled out of his voice, leaving behind a terrifying coldness. "You attach meaning where there is only function. I removed those variables long ago. What remains is purity."
From the periphery, a blur of motion cut through the ash.
Elara.
She struck from the shadows without hesitation, a silent phantom flanking her target. Her blade was aimed straight for the doctor's neck, a flawless, lethal arc that would have decapitated him.
He didn't even blink.
Before Elara's blade could touch the fabric of his coat, the courtyard lagged for a fraction of a second. A wet, tearing sound split the air.
Elara jerked mid-leap. The tip of a fleshy, crimson-soaked appendage had ripped cleanly through the front of her chest, showering the stone in blood. One of the creatures had struck blindly from his blind spot, moving faster than humanly possible.
"Elara?" Lyra's voice came out small. Fragile.
Elara's fingers went slack. Her weapon slipped, the hollow clang of metal against stone ringing out like a death knell. The creature violently retracted its appendage.
Elara dropped. Dead weight on unforgiving stone.
"No… no, no—" Lyra stumbled forward, her knees hitting the ground hard. "Elara, get up. Get up, you're—"
She choked on the words. Elara wasn't moving.