Kael didn't need to look back to know the Nullborn was still following.
He could hear the sound of its movements—too fast, too fluid for its size. Like bone wrapped in corrupted code.
The stairwell blurred past him and Juno as they dove through a shattered service door at the base of the old data tower. The hallway beyond was flooded ankle-deep with water, lit only by the pulsing red glow of damaged wall-lights.
Kael slammed the door shut behind them and dropped the steel beam into place. It groaned against the frame.
"You good?" Juno asked, turning sharply, already sweeping the corridor.
Kael nodded, breath ragged.
"Bleeding from the ribs. Probably bruised a kidney. All things considered? Yeah, I'm fantastic."
Juno didn't smile. She just reloaded.
"They adapt fast," she said. "That one wasn't supposed to be here."
"You sound like someone who knows a lot about them."
"I do."
Kael narrowed his eyes.
"And you're not gonna explain that?"
"No time."
The steel door behind them buckled once. Just slightly.
Then again—louder.
Kael looked at her, confused.
"That door's reinforced."
"It won't matter."
A pause. Then—
Kael reached into his coat, clutching the frame core.
"You ever seen one of these activate?" he asked.
Juno nodded once. "I've seen three people die doing it."
Kael stared at the floor.
"I almost did."
"Then you're not synced yet. Not fully."
Another crash from the door.
Kael felt his hand trembling.
Juno glanced at him. Then, slowly, she unlatched a second clip from her back—what looked like a resonance bolt packed in a reinforced canister.
"This won't kill it," she said, voice low. "But it'll slow it down."
"You carry stuff like that all the time?"
"I prepare."
The door split slightly at the corner.
Kael gritted his teeth and stepped in front of her.
"What're you doing?" she asked.
He activated the core again. Sparks ran up his arm like ice beneath skin. His fingers locked tight. His shoulder cracked back into place as the armor began to bind itself to him.
"No choice," he muttered. "Just keep the thing off my back if I black out."
Red light flared.
The helmet locked on last.
Kael stood fully armored again—but not steady.
His knees shook beneath the weight. His HUD glitched, flickering with red errors. Pulse: 124 BPM. Internal strain: climbing.
Juno's voice came through static. Not over comms—just barely audible through the frame's sensor.
"Don't die showing off."
The door burst inward.
The Nullborn charged.
Kael roared and met it head-on.
Somewhere else – Just beneath the outer arc
A massive figure sat in a maintenance tunnel, leaning against the pipe wall, listening to a distant rumble vibrate through the steel.
His body was motionless.
But his eyes were open.
Ryke Solen watched the tremor data shift across the mini-map on his portable terminal. It pulsed red for a moment. Then blue. Then stabilized.
Someone was using an EXE Frame again.
Another one.
That made two in the last 48 hours.
He looked down at the old core sitting beside him. It hadn't responded to him in weeks.
Not until now.
The screen blinked.
Just once.
Ryke clenched his fist.
And waited.
Back in the data tunnel
Kael ducked under the first swing.
The Nullborn was bigger—more refined than the last one. It moved with tactical awareness now. Not just hunger. It struck low, high, spun with perfect body weight transfer. It had a fighting pattern.
That was new.
Kael's armor caught a blow to the side. Warning alerts flared in his HUD. Blood splattered from his mouth inside the helmet.
His ribs screamed.
"Fuck—!"
He countered anyway. Pivoted off one foot, brought his blade arm down on the thing's neck. It glanced off with a screech of twisted metal.
Too thick.
He jumped back—and that was when the Nullborn hit him square in the chest.
Kael flew backward, slammed through a metal cabinet, and skidded along the floor.
Armor held. Barely.
Everything hurt.
"Get up," he whispered.
The HUD flickered again.
Juno moved past him before he could. She launched the canister into the hallway. It burst midair—detonating in a cloud of kinetic pulses that jammed the Nullborn's vision sensors.
It screamed. A wild, shrieking feedback loop. Kael's ears rang.
But it worked.
The thing reeled back.
Juno turned to him.
"Five seconds."
Kael nodded.
He planted both hands on the ground, pushed himself up.
"I've got three," he said.
Then he sprinted.
No hesitation this time.
He ducked under the smoke cloud, leapt off the wall, twisted in midair, and buried his arm-blade into the Nullborn's chest. Deep.
The creature spasmed.
Sparks exploded outward. Data bled from its body.
Kael gritted his teeth, pressed in harder.
"Get out of my fucking city," he growled.
With a final surge of strength, he drove the blade all the way through.
The Nullborn collapsed, its body glitching out—flickering, writhing, then gone.
Deleted.
Kael dropped to his knees again.
The armor peeled off slowly this time, like it was trying to be gentle.
It didn't help.
He collapsed forward, coughing blood into his hand.
Juno caught him before he hit the ground fully.
"Stay awake," she said.
"I'm fine," he wheezed. "Just… bleeding out of everything."
"You're syncing too fast," she muttered.
Kael looked up, eyes unfocused.
"Then why do I feel like I'm finally alive?"