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‘Of course,’ she muttered, not because it was true, but because she refused to say otherwise.

She turned toward Eugene, who was barreling forward like a rabid beast.

His limbs were now jagged and refitted into brutal weapons: saws, prongs, heat spears, and even a swirling claw of gravity-sick code that pulsed in and out of this plane.

Miral bared her teeth, her injuries forgotten for the moment.

Her metanoids rose in a flurry of silver razors, forming a defensive matrix across her chest and forearms.

The first volley of drones crashed into her, sparks and nanoids spraying as she slashed back with clinical, calculated fury.

‘Fokkyou,’ she breathed, stabbing her larboard dagger through the skull of a crat drone. She then slung it from her, spinning to avoid a thermal spike Eugene hurled like a javelin.

Her HUD flickered as damage reports flooded in.

There was an internal bleed in her left leg, and her shields were at 23%. Her right optic was beginning to fuzz out.

Eugene lunged.

She met him halfway, clashing with his serrated arm, the impact sending vibrations through her bones.

They twisted, locked, and rolled mid-space like dueling vipers, their combat a blur of code and carnage, of corrupted AI logic and desperate, defiant will.

Eugene slammed a knee into her gut. ‘Where’s that confidence now, shimmer-bitch?’

Miral gasped, then snarled, her eyes flaring silver.

She drove her fist, loaded with a raw metanoid spike, directly into his throat column. It punctured, shooting up a gout of dark synth-fluid.

But he didn’t stop. He didn’t even flinch.

Instead, his claw reared back and pounded across her shoulder and chest, tearing through armor. A scream ripped from her as sparks and metanoid-laced atoms sprayed towards the heavens.

Her HUD blinked red.

.:: Critical damage. Core integrity breached ::.

Still, she held her stance.

Still, she raised her blade.

Still fighting, leaking, damaged noids, broken, but burning with rage.

‘Come on then,’ she growled through gritted teeth. ‘Let’s finish what you started.’

Eugene grinned, his face slick with oil and madness. ‘With pleasure.’

They crashed into each other again, two divine machines locked in a death spiral beneath the watching stars.

XANDER

Xander hovered over Savvine’s unconscious form inside theÚltima X’smed bay, his hands glowing with streaks of nucleic aether light.

The air pulsed with every surge of healing energy he channeled into her torn flesh, her split lip, the bruises marring her ribs and upper chest.

His jaw clenched as he focused harder, sweat beading along his brow despite the cryo-tempered chamber.

A few minutes earlier, she’d lost consciousness, giving in to the horror of her injuries.