Silas stood in the center of the crystalline plaza, his white suit glowing faintly against the dark obsidian floor. He didn't raise a weapon. He didn't even look like he was ready to fight. But the air around him was vibrating with a frequency that made Ray's teeth ache.
"You speak of freedom, Subject 402," Silas said, his voice smooth and melodic. "But do you even know what that means? In a world of chaos, freedom is just another word for suicide."
"My name is Ray," Ray answered, his violet-light arm crackling with energy. "And I'm done being an experiment."
Ray lunged forward, his speed enhanced by the mana-surge from the Aether-Spire. He swung his glowing fist, aiming for Silas's chest. But as his hand reached the man, Silas simply dissolved into a cloud of white, digital petals.
"A projection?" Elara yelled, firing her rifle at the petals.
"Not a projection," Silas's voice came from behind them. "A redirection."
Ray turned to see Silas standing exactly where he had been before, but now he was holding Ray's own kinetic energy in a small, glowing sphere between his fingers. With a flick of his wrist, Silas threw the energy back.
Ray was slammed into an obsidian pillar, the force of his own blow rattling his bones.
"You see, Ray, I am the High Arbitrator of the Neon-Citadel because I understand balance," Silas explained, stepping closer. "Your power is raw, chaotic, and wasteful. Mine is efficient. I don't fight you; I let you fight yourself."
Ray struggled to his feet, his violet-gold eyes narrowing. He realized that Silas wasn't using magic or technology in the traditional sense. He was manipulating the 'Code of Reality'—the very laws of physics that governed the Deep-Core.
"The Aether-Spire is the source of all mana-flow in this sector," Ray whispered, his hand touching the ground. "If you're using the Spire to balance the world, then you're the one holding the scale."
"Precisely," Silas smiled. "And a glitch like you is a heavy weight that needs to be removed."
Silas raised his light-cane, and the ground beneath Ray's feet turned into liquid glass. Ray began to sink, the obsidian hardening around his legs like a trap.
"Elara! Get to the control panel!" Ray roared, his violet arm beginning to pulse with a dark, unstable light. "I'm going to unbalance the scale!"
Ray didn't try to pull his legs out. Instead, he forced his mana downward, into the very veins of the Aether-Spire. If Silas wanted to play with balance, Ray was going to give him more power than he could handle.