The Elite Guard Androids didn't hesitate. As the dust from the elevator crash settled, they opened fire. A barrage of ruby-red laser beams converged on Ray's position, hot enough to melt solid titanium.
"Ray, look out!" Elara ducked behind a fallen metal pillar.
Ray didn't move an inch. He raised his right hand, and a shimmering violet barrier—the 'Aegis of the Forbidden'—manifested in front of him. The lasers hit the shield and refracted, bouncing harmlessly off the walls.
"Target identified as Class-S Threat," the lead Android droned. "Initiating 'Absolute-Zero' protocol."
The Androids didn't just have guns; they were weapons themselves. Their chest plates opened, releasing a freezing mist designed to stop molecular movement. The temperature in the research hall plummeted to -200 degrees in seconds.
Ray felt his joints stiffening. His breath turned into ice crystals in mid-air. Technology trying to control physics? Cute, he thought.
"Mana Circuit: Solar Flare!" Ray whispered.
He didn't use fire. He used the mana in his blood to vibrate his own atoms at an impossible speed. A wave of intense heat erupted from his body, turning the freezing mist into scalding steam.
In the confusion of the steam cloud, Ray moved. He was a blur of violet light.
CLANG! CRACK!
With every strike of his bare hands, he punched through the Androids' reinforced armor. He wasn't just hitting them; he was injecting a 'Mana-Virus' into their neural processors. One by one, the million-dollar machines began to twitch and spark, their optic sensors turning from red to a dead, flickering purple.
"Impossible," a voice boomed from the overhead speakers. It was the Scarred Man from the Hexagon Council. "No human can withstand the Absolute-Zero protocol."
"I stopped being human the moment you killed my father," Ray shouted, his voice echoing through the massive hall.
He turned toward the Nexus Core. It was a massive, rotating sphere of blue energy, trapped within a cage of magnetic dampeners. He could feel the core crying out—it was being drained, its life-force being turned into electricity to power the luxury of the High City.
"Ray, wait!" Viper yelled from the corner, his eyes wide with greed. "That core... if you touch it without a neural-jack, you'll be vaporized! Let me use the Syndicate's bypass tool."
Ray ignored him. He walked straight toward the glowing blue sun. His hand reached out, the violet mana on his skin reacting violently with the blue energy of the core.
"I don't need a tool to talk to my own legacy," Ray said, his fingers grazing the glass.
Suddenly, a massive alarm blared through the entire facility. Warning: Core Instability. Self-Destruct Sequence Initiated in T-Minus 60 Seconds.