I am going to get that script, Vaelen, so stop yelling in my ear," Lennon roared, throwing his entire body weight forward into a desperate, low-profile slide across the shaking stone floor.​The six-inch-thick granite slab was dropping like a guillotine, its heavy bottom edge whistling through the dusty air as it rushed to seal the alcove forever. Lennon did not hesitate. He extended his left arm fully, his fingers wrapping around the cold glass case containing the glowing scroll at the absolute last second. With a violent twist of his hips, he yanked the artifact toward his chest and rolled sideways into the dark opening of the narrow escape tunnel.​A deafening crash shook the very foundations of the cavern as the massive stone slab slammed into the floorboards, missing his heels by less than an inch.​Immediately after, the main ceiling arches of the forgotten armory gave out completely. Thousands of tons of ancient granite and iron support beams came tumbling down in a massive, th

I am not breaking my own hand off, Vaelen, so think of something else," Lennon yelled, his voice cracking as the crimson digital matrix on the drone's forehead flashed with terrifying speed.​The machine's internal containment fields were completely gone, and the heavy iron chassis vibrated violently against his trapped right forearm. The metallic countdown was unyielding, leaving no room for error or hesitation. He could feel the intense, bubbling heat generating deep within the copper gears, threatening to reduce the entire narrow escape tunnel to a pile of smoking ash.​"One and a half seconds," the synthesized voice chirped coldly from the internal backup speakers.​"Lennon, you are going to die," Vaelen screamed, his spiritual presence completely frantic inside the boy's mind. "The blast will crush your soul-core into nothing."​"Then I will use the outlawed style again," Lennon hissed, his teeth grinding together so hard a fresh stream of dark blood

Kill the overseers before they can reset the blast doors," a burly slave roared, swinging a massive iron mining pick straight into the chest plate of an advancing guard.​The entire underground processing facility erupted into absolute chaos as the enslaved miners launched a massive, desperate riot against their masters. Hundreds of men and women in tattered rags moved like a tidal wave, using their heavy rusty mining picks, iron crowbars, and jagged raw stones to clash with the startled enforcers. The clinical white light of the room was constantly broken by the bright purple flashes of discharging shock-batons and the heavy smoke of exploding plasma rounds.​"Keep the line tight," the guard captain yelled, his voice barely audible over the deafening screams of the rebelling workers. "Drive them back to the sorting bins!"​"They are not going back to the bins, captain," Lennon said, his voice cold as he watched the front line buckle under the sheer weight of th

Look out behind you, Lennon," the old miner screamed, his voice cracking through the thick, suffocating haze of the processing pit.​Before the Chief Overseer could bring his white-hot energy whip down across Lennon’s unprotected neck, the elderly worker lunged out from the swirling smoke. With every scrap of his remaining strength, the old man threw a heavy metal toolbox straight into the master's face. The solid iron box struck the Overseer squarely across his jaw, shattering his nose and sending a shower of loose bolts and heavy wrenches clattering across the iron floorboards.​"Ah, you filthy slave," the Chief Overseer roared, his head snapping backward as his boots skidded through the purple dust.​The unexpected blow completely threw off his aim. The crackling electrical cord of the whip sliced wildly through the air, missing Lennon’s shoulder by a fraction of an inch and striking the dented emergency door with a loud, metallic hiss that spit fat yellow sparks into the darkness.

Fire upon the target immediately, eliminate the catalyst," the Black-Guard commander barked, his voice carrying zero emotion behind his thick black visor.​The elite units did not waste a single second with warnings or demands. In a single, fluid movement, the entire front line of soldiers squeezed their triggers, and their long-range heavy repeaters let out a deafening, metallic roar. A massive hail of blinding white plasma bolts ripped through the cool canyon air, traveling with a terrifying velocity that turned the mountain breeze into a searing wall of heat.​"Lennon, move," Vaelen yelled at the absolute limit of his spiritual voice.​Lennon did not try to block the incoming volley with his newly fused right arm. He did not look back at the miners behind him. Relying purely on his raw survival reflex, he twisted his torso sideways and threw his entire body backward off the edge of the sheer cliff face, diving directly into the wide, bottomless canyon abyss b