"It’s not just redirected, it’s feeding," Alarion hissed, his fingers digging into the cold, basalt floor until his nails cracked. He pointed toward the pulsating, luminescent core suspended in the center of the vault. "The conduit isn't pulling energy from the Academy to power the sink. It’s pulling energy from us—from the students—to stabilize a regional grid that doesn't even belong to this province.""Stay down, Alarion," Lysandra commanded, though her own breath hitched. She looked up at the ceiling of the cavernous chamber. High above, massive obsidian pipes, thick as oak trunks, pulsed with a rhythmic, sickly golden light. "You’re hemorrhaging mana. If you try to trace that flow again, your nervous system will snap like a dry twig.""He’s right, though," Merovin whispered, his voice trembling as he stepped away from the relative safety of the shadows. He held a brass-casing gauge in his hand, the needle vibrating so violently it was a blur. "Look at the atmospheric pressure. It

The floor beneath them didn't just vibrate; it shrieked. A high-pitched, metallic whine tore through the chamber, signaling the activation of the vault’s final, lethal safeguard. From the shadows of the far bulkhead, a series of rhythmic, heavy thuds announced the arrival of the cleaning crew."Maintenance constructs," Eldric snarled, his fingers white-knuckled around the hilt of his blade. "They’re not here to tidy up. They’re here to liquidate the mess.""The mess being us," Merovin added, his voice thin, bordering on hysteria as he fumbled with a loose panel near the terminal. "Eldric, move! If those things catch you in the open, they’ll turn your armor into a coffin."Three figures emerged from the gloom of the lower maintenance shaft. They weren’t human, though they mimicked the silhouette of a man with terrifying precision. They were hulking frames of brass and blackened iron, their faces nothing more than single, glowing crimson ocular lenses that cut through the haze like surg

"Just open it!" Lysandra snapped, her palm pressed against the trembling wall. "We are already dead if you don't!"Merovin hissed a curse, jammed his multitool into the emergency pressure vent, and shoved with every ounce of his frazzled energy. A metallic shriek echoed through the chamber, and the lead-lined cabinet groaned open, spilling a cascade of crumbling, yellowed ledgers onto the freezing floor."Not just archives," Merovin whispered, his voice catching as he snatched a heavy tome from the pile. He flipped it open. His eyes widened, reflecting the crimson glow of the nearby maintenance constructs. "It’s a ledger of accounts. Debts. Gambling markers. Look at these signatures—the Board of Directors, all of them."Eldric, currently blocking a savage, hydraulic-powered punch from one of the constructs, glanced over his shoulder. "Keep reading! Tell me there's something there that can kill them!""It’s not just corruption, Eldric," Lysandra said, leaning over Merovin’s shoulder as

"They don’t have an 'off' switch; they have a termination protocol!" Eldric roared, his voice cracking under the rhythmic, bone-jarring impact of the maintenance construct’s heavy, piston-driven fist. The metal wall behind him groaned, the steel rivets popping one by one like a series of rapid-fire gunshots. "If you’re going to do something, do it now, or I’m going to be a red smear on this ventilation shaft!" Lysandra looked at the terminal, her hands hovering over the flickering, amber-hued interface. "I’m trying to override the command sequence, but the Board has the entire sub-grid slaved to their personal encryption keys. It’s a closed loop, Eldric!" "Then break the loop!" Alarion coughed, his body slumped against the cold stone floor, his skin looking alarmingly translucent in the harsh light of the flickering lamps. He gripped the edge of the console, his fingers trembling with a residual, sparking

"Move!" Eldric bellowed, his voice straining with the effort of holding the behemoth. "I can't maintain this posture for another thirty seconds, Alarion! If your little theory about the reverse flow doesn't work, we're all going to be converted into atomized mist!" Alarion didn’t waste breath on an apology. He hauled himself upright, his legs wobbling, his vision swimming with the violent, strobe-like flickering of the overhead conduits. He slammed his palms onto the central terminal, his fingers dancing across the keys with a frantic, desperate precision. "Lysandra, keep the override active! If the Board’s encryption senses a dip in the siphon’s draw, they’ll trigger a complete system collapse. Keep it steady, no matter what happens!" Lysandra’s face was deathly pale, her knuckles white as she gripped the side of the desk. "I’m at the limit of the encryption filter, Alarion! The Board’s security pro