The tension in the shipyard was thick enough to taste. Kaelen didn't move his hand from the Mana-Generator, but his fingers twitched, ready to activate the kinetic pulse in his gauntlet at a millisecond's notice.
Seraphina stood thirty feet away, her white bone-bow notched with an arrow that shimmered with a pale green light. This wasn't a normal arrow; it was a [Soul-Piercer], capable of bypassing physical armor to strike the mana-veins directly.
"The 'Architect'?" Seraphina repeated, her eyes narrowing. "That's a bold title for a man standing in the middle of a slaughterhouse. How do you know that name?"
Kaelen's mind raced. In the past timeline, he hadn't earned the title 'The Architect' until three years after the Rifts opened. By using it now, he had made a mistake—or perhaps, he had made a move.
"I know many things, Seraphina," Kaelen said, his voice steady. "I know that bow was carved from the rib of a Frost-Drake. I know you're currently working for a government agency that will abandon you the moment the first Tier-3 Rift opens in the capital. And I know that if you fire that arrow, you'll kill me, but the resulting mana-explosion from this generator will vaporize you along with me."
Seraphina didn't lower the bow, but the emerald glow flickered. "You talk too much for a scavenger."
[System: Psychological Pressure detected. Target's Heart Rate: 110 BPM.]
[Warning: A second signature is approaching from the North. Distance: 500 meters.]
Kaelen glanced toward the darkness beyond the cranes. "We don't have time for this standoff. Someone else is coming. Someone louder and much less polite than you."
"My team is on the way," Seraphina countered.
"Your team is dead," Kaelen said coldly. "I saw their signatures on my map five minutes ago. They were intercepted by a pack of Shadow-Stalkers near the main gate. You're the only one left."
The bow stayed up, but Seraphina's expression changed. A flash of grief and rage crossed her face before it settled back into a mask of stone. "If they're dead, then I have even less reason to let you walk away with that generator. My mission was to secure it for the city's power grid."
"The city's power grid is a lost cause," Kaelen stepped toward her, ignoring the arrow aimed at his throat. "In forty-eight hours, the grid will fail permanently. This generator won't save a million people. It will barely save one building. But if you help me take it to my warehouse, I can use it to build something that actually survives."
"And why would I trust you?"
Kaelen reached into his belt and pulled out a small, glowing shard he had taken from the Ravager's heart. He tossed it toward her. She caught it with one hand, her bow still trained on him.
"Because that shard can heal the mana-poisoning you're currently hiding in your left shoulder," Kaelen said. "And because I'm the only person on this planet who knows how to survive what's coming next."
Seraphina looked at the shard, then back at Kaelen. The sound of heavy, rhythmic thumping—the footsteps of something massive—echoed from the shipyard entrance.
[System: Tier-3 'Goliath' detected. Distance: 200 meters.]
Seraphina slowly lowered her bow. "If you're lying, Architect, I'll make sure my last arrow finds your heart."
"Fair enough," Kaelen said, grabbing the handle of the generator crate. "Now, help me load this onto the bike. We have exactly sixty seconds before that thing kills us both."