The air in the circular chamber didn't just vibrate; it shrieked.
The Origin Stabilizer was glowing a violent, pulsating violet, its mechanical heart struggling to swallow the sheer volume of mana Rowan was forcing into its intake valves. On the floor, the three Gold-Filigree Knights—Valerius's personal guard—moved with a twitching, uncanny speed. Unlike the previous Void Knights, these weren't hollow shells; they were the "Successful" prototypes of the God-Core project.
"You think overcharging the system is a victory?" Valerius shouted over the roar of the mana-storm. He stood behind a reinforced terminal, his face illuminated by the flickering holograms. "You're just providing the final spark! The God-Core requires a massive influx of synchronized purity to prime its ignition!"
Rowan didn't care about the science. He felt Lyria's heart beating against his right side and Seraphine's cold, lethal focus on his left.
"Seraphine, take the left one. Lyria, the right. The center one is mine," Rowan commanded, his voice cutting through the noise like a blade.
[ Triple-Tether: Aggressive Output Mode ]
[ Sync Efficiency: 96.8% ]
They broke apart like three shards of a single explosion.
Seraphine met the first Gold Knight in a clash of silver and gold. Her blade, now wreathed in the pressurized white light of the 96% bond, sliced through the knight's shield as if it were parchment. The knight fought back with a lance of solidified shadow, but Seraphine was no longer just a Knight; she was a conduit. She didn't parry—she absorbed the impact into the bond and redirected it into a counter-swing that took the knight's arm at the shoulder.
Lyria, meanwhile, was a crimson blur of pure ecstasy and violence. She dived between the legs of the second knight, her daggers carving glowing lines across its joints. With Rowan's mana acting as an infinite reservoir, she didn't have to hold back. Every strike was a "Core-Strike."
"I can feel you, Master!" she laughed, her eyes glowing with a manic light. She leaped onto the knight's back, driving both daggers into the nape of its neck. "Everything is so... clear!"
Rowan faced the center knight. This one was different. Its visor was transparent, revealing a face that looked hauntingly familiar—a former High-Scout who had disappeared a year ago.
The knight didn't use a weapon. It raised its hands, and a miniature black hole began to form between its palms.
[ Warning: Void Singularity Detected ]
[ Counter-Measure: Internal Discharge (Max) ]
Rowan didn't wait for the singularity to stabilize. He stepped into the knight's range, his palm flat against its chest plate. He didn't just discharge mana; he channeled the "rejection" of the Origin Stabilizer's drain through his own arm.
BOOM.
The knight's chest plate didn't just crack; it vaporized. The man inside was gone in an instant, turned to ash by the sheer friction of the 96.8% resonance.
But as the three knights fell, the room didn't grow quieter. The Origin Stabilizer hit its limit.
"Ignition!" Valerius screamed, his hand slamming down on the final override.
In the center of the mechanical heart, a small, blackened sphere—the First Key that Lyria had stolen—began to spin. It wasn't just a catalyst. It was the "Brain." The sphere cracked open, revealing a core that didn't glow blue or gold. It glowed a deep, abyssal purple that seemed to suck the color out of the room.
[ Alert: God-Core Prototype Initialized ]
[ Status: 15% Synchronization ]
From the center of the machine, a new form began to coalesce. It used the scrap metal of the fallen knights and the liquid mana from the vats to build a body. It was ten feet tall, a four-armed monstrosity of silver filigree and void-flesh, with the First Key acting as its single, unblinking eye.
This was Valerius's dream. A knight that didn't need a partner because it was its own anchor.
The God-Core prototype let out a sound that wasn't a roar, but a frequency that made Rowan's teeth ache. It swung two of its arms, sending a wave of gravitational force that threw Seraphine and Lyria against the far wall.
"Rowan!" Seraphine cried out, struggling to stand as the artificial gravity in the room began to shift.
Rowan felt the bond stretch. The God-Core was trying to "hijack" the anchor. It was reaching out with invisible tendrils, trying to latch onto Seraphine and Lyria's souls, sensing their high compatibility.
"It's trying to steal them," Rowan realized, his eyes narrowing.
"It needs a harem to stabilize!" Valerius shouted from his balcony. "And your women are the highest-quality components in the district! Once it consumes their cores, the God-Core will be unstoppable!"
Rowan looked at the monstrosity. He felt the pull on the bond—a slimy, cold sensation that tried to pry his hands off the girls' souls.
He didn't pull back. He did something much more dangerous.
"You want a bond?" Rowan asked, the golden-white light around him turning a sharp, lethal gold. "I'll give you a bond you can't survive."
Rowan turned his back on the monster and ran toward the wall where Seraphine and Lyria were pinned. He grabbed them both, pulling them into a tight, three-way embrace.
"Rowan, it's pulling too hard!" Lyria gasped, her skin turning grey as the God-Core's gravity began to drain her.
"Let it pull," Rowan growled. "We're going to use the drain as a bridge."
[ Sync Maneuver: Reverse Siphon ]
[ Synchronization: 97.0% (Breaking Limits) ]
Instead of resisting the God-Core's pull, Rowan opened the bond completely. He let the monster "latch" onto them. But the moment the connection was established, Rowan didn't let it take. He sent a "Virus" through the link.
He took the collective trauma of the failed experiments in the vats, the cold fury of Seraphine, and the desperate hunger of Lyria, and he distilled it into a single, high-frequency pulse of 97% resonance.
It was too pure. Too dense.
The God-Core prototype froze. The abyssal purple eye flickered. It was like a man trying to drink a lake through a straw. The machine started to smoke, its four arms twitching uncontrollably as Rowan's "Absolute Will" began to rewrite its internal logic.
"What are you doing?!" Valerius screamed, franticly hitting keys on his console. "The core is redlining! It's—"
"It's dying," Rowan said.
With a final, agonizing surge of power, Rowan pushed.
The God-Core exploded from the inside out. The silver filigree shattered, and the First Key was ejected from its chest, skipping across the floor like a spent shell casing. The monstrosity dissolved back into emerald fluid and scrap metal.
The Origin Stabilizer shattered, its mechanical heart finally giving up.
The laboratory went dark, save for the faint, golden glow emanating from the three of them. Rowan stood in the center of the ruin, his arms still around Seraphine and Lyria. They were both breathing hard, their bodies flushed and trembling from the 97% surge.
Rowan looked up at the balcony. Valerius was gone. A hidden door behind the console was swinging open.
"He's running," Seraphine said, her voice raspy.
"Let him," Rowan said, his gaze falling on the First Key lying on the floor. It was no longer black; it was glowing with a soft, pulsing silver light. "We have what he wanted. And we have the map to Sector D-17's main reactor."
Rowan picked up the Key. As his fingers touched the surface, the system chimed.
[ Origin Artifact — Purified ]
[ New Skill Unlocked: Abyss Command ]
He looked at Lyria, who was leaning her head against his chest, her eyes closed in total exhaustion and bliss. He looked at Seraphine, who was watching him with a look of fierce, undeniable pride.
The raid wasn't over. It had just entered its final, most destructive phase.