The bunker’s core chamber was a collapsing maelstrom of nanite fire and shattered steel, the alien portal’s green vortex roaring as it devoured reactors and all hope. Jace’s body was a broken husk—ribs pulverized, blood soaking his tattered scav-suit, nanites scorching his hand where he gripped the hidden console. The Codex’s command seared his mind: Choose: Feed the Spire and merge with the hive, or save your bond. The spectral form, glowing with nanites and clutching a twenty-sixth Ascension Key fragment, stood before him, its voice a fusion of Jace and Lena’s: “Jace, I’m your bond.” Lena, her form flickering as the legion’s anchor, fought beside him, her fragment dim, blood pooling. Zara, Elara, and Torren were gone, their bodies lost to flames, blood, and betrayal in the chamber’s chaos. The alien entity loomed, its liquid-metal tendrils fused with the vortex, three Key fragments pulsing. The mirror-Jace, the Spire’s true prototype, sneered, its eighth fragment glowing, blade r

The bunker’s core chamber was a collapsing maelstrom of nanite fire and shattered steel, the alien portal’s green vortex roaring as it devoured reactors and all hope. Jace’s body was a broken husk—ribs pulverized, blood soaking his tattered scav-suit, nanites scorching his hand where he gripped the hidden console. The Codex’s command seared his mind: Choose: Feed the Spire and erase the future, or save your end. The void, a pure nanite abyss clutching a twenty-eighth Ascension Key fragment, loomed before him, its voice a silent scream: “Jace, I’m your end.” Lena, her form flickering as the legion’s anchor, fought beside him, her fragment dim, blood pooling. Zara, Elara, and Torren were gone, their bodies lost to flames, blood, and betrayal in the chamber’s chaos. The alien entity loomed, its liquid-metal tendrils fused with the vortex, three Key fragments pulsing. The mirror-Jace, the Spire’s true prototype, sneered, its eighth fragment glowing, blade raised.Host neural integrity: