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Chapter 95: The Quiet After the Storm
"The ceiling is coming down!" Galang shrieked, his voice tearing as a slab of carved masonry crashed directly into the spot where he had been sitting a second prior, sending up a blinding plume of white dust and sharp-edged rubble."Move, move, move!" Bayu roared, grabbing the back of Galang’s tunic and hauling the injured man upright by sheer force, ignoring the fiery protest in his own battered muscles. "If you trip, I am leaving you here to become a permanent part of the Sultan’s floor tile!""Don’t joke about that right now!" Galang gasped, coughing violently as the thick, choking cloud of mortar and soot filled his throat, his useless, gray-tinged arm dangling limply against his side. "My lungs are already half-full of palace history!""Then stop breathing it in!" Alaric shouted over the deafening, bone-rattling roar of the collapsing foundation, limping hard on his bandaged thigh while using his notched broadsword like a cane to keep from pitching face-first into the debris. "Th
Chapter 94: The Ashes of the Spire
"Get back!" Bayu roared, his hand shooting out to shove Alaric’s shoulder hard enough to send the limping man stumbling backward across the marble floor."What are you—?" Alaric started, his face contorting in sudden anger as his boot slipped on the slick stone, but the rest of his words were instantly swallowed by a deafening, metallic shriek that echoed off the high vaulted ceiling.The massive, jagged throne—welded together from industrial rivets and the petrified remnants of the region’s original energy conduits—did not merely vibrate; it fractured down its central spine with a sound like a mountain splitting in half."The foundation is shearing!" Draven yelled over the deafening roar, planting his boots wide on the shifting floorboards as a cascade of mortar dust and pulverized stone rained down from the ceiling above. "The whole palace is coming down on our heads!""It’s not just the palace," Galang screamed, his voice cracking with panic as he scrambled backward on his hands an
Chapter 93: The Weight of the Ruin
"Look at the base of the throne," Alaric muttered, his voice dropping into a harsh rasp as he pointed a trembling, blood-flecked finger toward the floorboards beneath the jagged mass of welded tank plating.Bayu didn’t break his stride, his boots slapping heavily against the cracked marble as he closed the distance between them. "I see it. Move your hand, Alaric.""It’s not just a leak," Galang gasped from where he still knelt on the floor, cradling his broken arm against his ribs with a grimace of pure agony. The violet glow that had once made his veins pulse like trapped lightning was entirely gone, leaving his skin a sickly, ashen gray. "That’s the main feed line. The core didn't just shut down; it’s being bled dry from the inside out.""Shut up, Galang," Draven growled, stepping up beside Bayu and hefting his notched broadsword with a dull, heavy clang of steel against his metal gauntlet. "The air is getting thicker. Hear that?"A low, rhythmic grinding sound vibrated through the
Chapter 92: The Collapse of Stone and Bone
"The room is entirely empty," Bayu announced, his boots clicking sharply against the polished marble as he advanced further into the vast expanse of the throne room. "There is no Sultan. There are no guards waiting in the shadows. We fought our way through half a burning city for a ghost ship.""Don't speak too soon," Alaric muttered, limping in from the heavy iron doorway with a crude bandage wrapped tightly around his thigh, his hand resting heavily on the pommel of his notched broadsword. "The air tastes like sulfur and old copper. Someone was sitting on that monstrosity of a seat not ten minutes ago."At the far end of the cavernous hall sat the throne—a colossal, jagged monstrosity welded together from scavenged tank plating, industrial rivets, and the petrified remnants of the region’s original energy conduits. It loomed over the room like an idol of a forgotten, brutalist god, its jagged edges catching the faint, flickering moonlight that poured through the shattered stained-gl
Chapter 91: The Empty Throne
"Drop him," Draven grunted, his metal gauntlet releasing Galang’s arm with a sharp, metallic clatter as the heavy iron doors of the throne room groaned inward, yielding to their combined weight.Galang collapsed onto the polished marble floor, his chest heaving, the violet veins across his collarbones flickering out with a faint, dying hiss of ozone. "You broke my wrist, you bastard," he spat, cradling his limp arm against his ribs as he glared up at the massive warrior."Count yourself lucky I didn't take the whole arm off," Draven replied flatly, stepping past him into the vast, echoing expanse of the throne room without sparing another glance. "The tethers are entirely dead. No sparks, no glow, nothing. If the Sultan's guard decides to rush us now, we do this the old-fashioned way."Bayu stepped across the threshold last, his eyes scanning the cavernous hall with a cold, methodical precision. The room was immense, its vaulted ceiling lost in towering shadows, flanked by rows of bla
Chapter 90: The Final Conduit
"I’ll do it myself, Galang. Do not test me on this," Bayu finished, his voice dropping into a register so chillingly devoid of threat that the frantic scavenger actually stopped thrashing.Galang swallowed hard, the violet veins pulsing furiously beneath the pale skin of his throat like trapped lightning. "You're... you're really going to kill me here? Outside the door? After everything?""If you blow us all to ash before we cross the threshold, the point is entirely moot," Bayu replied, not an inch of warmth in his dark eyes as he shoved Galang forward toward the towering, soot-stained iron doors of the palace. "Draven, keep his arm pinned. If that hand so much as twitches toward a conduit seam, snap the bone.""Already positioned," Draven rumbled, his massive metal gauntlet twisting Galang’s wrist into a vicious, agonizing lock that wrung a sharp gasp of pain from the smaller man. "Move, scavenger. The lanterns on the parapet are swinging back this way."They surged forward, boots c
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