The Fury against the Fragment

The hangar filled with the stench of ozone and burnt flesh as the creature, once a man, completed its grotesque metamorphosis. Its eyes, now mere slits of violet light, fixed on Lion. The being lunged toward him with terrifying speed, claws like sharp scythes.

Lion reacted out of pure instinct, dodging the first swipe that left a furrow in the metal of the floor. He drew his two pistols, firing quick, accurate bursts at the creature's head and chest. The bullets impacted with a dull metallic clang, but the Herald's mutated skin was like armor. It showed no pain, not even a hint of slowing.

"This is useless!" shouted Lion above the roar of the creature and the roar of gunfire.

Airen, at his side, was not firing. With calculated coolness, he moved through the shattered wreckage of the auxiliary ships, eyes fixed on the control panels and systems, desperately searching for a functional ship.

Lion's battle was a dance of survival. He dodged, rolled, slid, relying on his agility and trained reflexes. The Herald was faster than its size suggested, its blows were devastating, each swipe was an attempt to tear. Lion knew that a single direct hit would mean the end.

The battle dragged on, a desperate choreography amidst the chaos of the hangar. But even the best soldier makes mistakes when exhaustion sets in.

In an oversight, Lion was not fast enough. The creature intercepted him, grabbing him by the torso with one of its huge claws. It didn't squeeze, it simply threw him with brutal force against a metal wall.

Lion impacted with a muffled groan. The armor cushioned the blow, but his head bounced back, sending waves of pain and confusion through his brain. He fell to the ground, dazed, vision blurred. He raised a hand, trying to focus.

"What the hell was that thing?" he wondered, his military mind struggling to categorize the monster. He had never seen anything like it.

The creature approached slowly, its elongated shadow enveloping Lion. With a claw, it lifted him by the hair, exposing his chest. The Herald's violet eyes fixed on the Quetzal pendant Lion wore around his neck. Then, with ominous slowness, he placed his free hand on Lion's chest armor, as if attempting to merge with it.

At that instant, Lion's pendant seemed to pulsate with a light of its own.

But before the creature could complete its action, an orange flash shattered the darkness of the hangar. 

Airen, who had been searching for a ship, had joined the battle. From a secret compartment in his suit, he had pulled out a small black capsule that unfolded and transformed into a compact combat shotgun. The kinetic energy shot impacted squarely on the Herald's distorted face. It caused no structural damage, but the creature let out a roar of blind fury, its violet eyes contracted and flared.

"Move Lion!" shouted Airen, taking advantage of the monster's seconds of blindness to lift his Commander.

Lion reeled, his mind still foggy, but the survival instinct was strong. "We don't hurt him!" he growled.

"The chip. It's the source of their power," Airen explained, with breathtaking speed. "We have to destroy it with explosives."

Lion felt an icy chill. The chip. The broken god's gift. He pulled a grenade from his equipment belt, weighing it in his hand. "Do you think this will do?"

Airen did not respond with words, only with a slight, almost imperceptible smile. It was an expression Lion had never seen on Airen's always impassive face, and for a second, it surprised him even more than the mutant creature.

They moved far enough away to avoid a direct attack. Lion nodded. "Distraction plan."

Lion emerged from the darkness with his two pistols, firing steady, accurate bursts at the creature's head. He emptied the magazines, moving to attract its attention. The creature turned, furious, ignoring Airen. At that moment, Lion pulled out the shotgun Airen had used and, with some effort, managed to fire another kinetic energy round straight into the Herald's eyes.

Blind once again, the creature staggered.

That was Airen's moment. Like a shadow, he slipped under the monster's arm, pulled out a small pistol and fired directly at the chip embedded in the Herald's chest. But even with several shots, all he could manage to do was crack the chip, he didn't stop there. In one fluid motion, he pulled out a grenade, activated it and brutally plunged it into the wound that now surrounded the chip.

"Take cover!" shouted Airen.

They both dove behind a pile of rubble just as the grenade detonated.

A blinding violet light burst from the Herald's chest, followed by a groan that was not a scream, but the sound of the Void itself. The creature decayed, its mutated body breaking apart into particles of violet energy and a kind of dark mist that quickly dissipated.

But even in its disintegration, the Herald launched one last desperate attack. A phantom swipe, a blast of energy that shot straight at Lion. The creature evaporated before it could touch him, but Lion felt the cold air of death brush against his skin. He was inches away from annihilation.

Outside, the battle had been a maelstrom of gunfire, explosions and screams. The assault team had fulfilled its objective of distraction and damage. But the absence of Lion and Airen, and the constant delay, was beginning to worry everyone.

"What the hell happened in there?" growled Corinelle, as Lynel finished off the last of the cult guards on the perimeter.

Hood and Prince of Vael, from the hill, also wondered why there had been no sign of the stolen supply ship, reinforcements could arrive at any moment and that would be a real problem.

Inside the hangar, silence settled again, broken only by the dripping of unfamiliar liquids and the distant hum of the dying base. Lion stood up, his body sore, but alive.

Airen approached the Herald's remains, which were now nothing more than a pool of dark liquid and fragments of what appeared to be charred bones. He scanned the remains quickly with his fingers, then bent down.

Lion limped over. "What was that thing, Airen, what did you find?"

Airen stood up. His face, again expressionless. But then, a smile. A slow, cold, triumphant smile that made Lion's blood run cold.

Before Lion could process that smile, before he could even raise a hand, Airen raised a second shotgun he had concealed.

A thunderclap. A brutal point-blank impact that robbed him of air and threw him backwards like a dummy. The armor of his chest shattered, and a burning pain spread through his torso.

He fell backwards, the world moving in a slow, confused nightmare. The ringing in his ears was deafening. His mind, dazed and in shock, could only form a single, silent question.

"Why...?"

His last sight, before the world went black, was Airen's face, laughing soundlessly. In one hand he held the smoking shotgun. And in the other, raised like a trophy, the chip, which now glowed with a violet light, pure and intense. The pendant of Lion's Quetzal detached from his neck from the force of the impact and fell to the metal floor with an almost inaudible clink.

Then, there was only darkness.