The massive wave of blue, disintegrating heat shot across Medical Ward 4. The metal beds instantly melted into hot liquid slag. Silas Kapito did not hesitate. His 0.08-second reflexes fired. "Get behind me!" Silas roared. Elara floated quickly behind him. Silas planted his heavy tungsten boots into the floor. He raised his good right arm. He could not use "The Catch" on pure, formless heat. He had to use the room itself. Silas drove his iron-grey fist directly into the thick steel floor. He sent a massive, violent kinetic shockwave traveling across the metal plates. The floor instantly buckled and snapped. A huge wall of thick steel ripped upward, standing between them and the Purifier. The blue heat hit the steel wall. The metal instantly turned bright orange and began to melt, but it absorbed the deadliest part of the blast. Silas grabbed Elara’s hand. They ran behind a row of metal lockers near the back wall. "We are trapped!" Elara yelled over the roaring fire. "The door is

The blinding white blast of raw energy shot from Cassius’s hand. It lit up the dark Engine room like a miniature sun, flying straight toward Silas Kapito. "Silas!" Elara screamed, raising her hands to throw a kinetic shield over him. But Silas did not wait for her shield. He engaged his 0.08-second reflexes. He dove to the right, sliding across the smooth, cold floor. The white energy beam missed Silas by inches. It hit the heavy metal medical chair where Marcus was sitting. The blast vaporized the heavy steel back of the chair instantly, leaving a glowing, melted crater in the wall behind it. Silas rolled to his feet. He looked at Marcus. The broken boy had fallen to the floor, terrified but unhurt. Silas looked back up at Cassius. The Rank 5 Elite stood on top of the glowing green vat, laughing wildly. The thick black cables plugged into Cassius’s spine pulsed with stolen power. Cassius was pulling infinite energy directly from Silas’s original, tortured brain inside the glass.

The bright red countdown timer on the computer screen flashed ominously. [Nine minutes to global structural collapse.] Silas Kapito stood in the clean, white room of Medical Ward 1. He looked at the bloody, shiny silver cybernetic spine lying dead on the floor. Marcus, the former Rank 2 Elite, lay face-down on the medical bed. He was breathing easily for the first time in weeks, but he looked incredibly weak. The deep, surgical cuts on his back were still bleeding slowly. "I have to go back to The Engine," Silas told Elara. "Stay here and watch him." "Wait," Marcus gasped. He slowly pushed himself up on his elbows. He looked at Silas with tired, confused eyes. "Why did it hurt so much? The Chrome Council promised that the 'Titan-Spine' would make me perfect. They said my body was rejecting it because I was weak." Silas stopped in the doorway. He turned around and looked at the broken boy. This was Silas’s core struggle. He was a King, but he was also a teacher. He needed these

The clean, white room of Medical Ward 1 felt suffocating. The bright red countdown timer on the wall flashed faster and faster. “Eight minutes to global structural collapse.”Silas Kapito stood over the medical bed. His tungsten-dense fingers were pushed deep into the bloody, synthetic skin on Marcus’s back. He ignored the Rank 2 Elite's terrible, panicked screams. "Stop! Please stop!" Marcus cried, his tears mixing with the blood on the clean white sheets. Elara held Marcus’s shoulders down tightly. "Hold still, Marcus," she said softly, though her silver eyes darted nervously to the flashing red clock. Silas’s face was completely emotionless. His solid black eyes were fixed entirely on the task. This was his core struggle. He was hurting a boy to save him, using cold machine logic to perform an act of human mercy. Silas’s metal fingers found the hard, white bone of Marcus’s real spine. He felt exactly where the heavy silver bracket of the cybernetic machine was pinching the nerv

The sky above the ruined Citadel was completely black. The massive, golden warship of the First Architect blocked out the sun. The giant ship hovered silently, casting a terrible, heavy shadow over the earth. Down in the mud, Silas Kapito stood in front of the Great Legion. The newly Awakened Dregs held their scrap-metal pipes and sharp rocks. They looked at the giant golden God standing in the white light, and they felt real fear. The First Architect pointed his glowing white spear directly at the ruined Citadel. "The rogue assets will be deleted," the First Architect’s cold, alien voice echoed inside their minds. "Prepare for formatting." The First Architect swung his white spear. A massive wave of pure, destructive white energy shot across the battlefield. It did not hit Silas. It hit the side of the ruined Citadel, completely vaporizing a huge section of the white marble wall. "He is too powerful!" Ren yelled, covering his head as hot dust rained down. "We cannot fight a God