It was not merely a crack in shattered marble. It was a localized breach, a biological gateway the Substrate had burned through miles of shielded flooring. From within, writhing in absolute darkness, stretched hundreds of ravenous violet capillaries, ready to pierce the soft flesh of an eight-year-old boy and begin the process of forced integration.

  "FATHER!" Elias’s frantic scream tore through the hum of the deactivated gravity.

  Kai, his weighted lead-soled boots anchoring him to the floor, made an impossible leap. He lunged forward, ignoring the shards of glass and clumps of soil drifting in the air. He collapsed to his knees at the very edge of the vortex and blindly plunged both hands into the icy, squelching void.

  His fingers locked onto his son’s wrists a fraction of a second before the vine could drag him into the Core. Kai held Elias in a death grip. The Director of Deep Security was now simply a father, engaged in a tug-of-war with the Abyss itself.

  Kai’s muscles creaked under the strain. The Substrate pulled downward with hydraulic force.

  "Let him go, Gardener," Avelo’s voice rumbled in his head like the grinding of shifting tectonic plates. "He resonates with your code. He belongs in my nodes."

  "Get... out!" Kai rasped through gritted teeth.

  He attempted to command the vine to release, but here, at the top of the world, the signal was too diffuse. Avelo was no longer obeying. Avelo had come to collect his tax.

  Maya, drifting helplessly beneath the dome, watched in horror as her husband’s shoulders sank inch by inch into the black sludge. The Abyss wanted them both.

  "Kai! Your blood!" Maya shouted, her Architect’s brain frantically calculating the critical point. "It reacts to your bio-signature! Give it a willpower overload!"

  Kai heard her through the roar of the pulse in his temples. He had no knife; his hands were occupied. But a symbiont host always has a way. Kai lunged forward and slammed his face against the jagged, sharp edge of the broken marble.

  The stone cut deep into his forehead. Hot crimson blood, saturated with Substrate cells and his own "Master" will, surged directly into the gaping black maw.

  A sound followed, like the hissing of water on white-hot metal. Kai’s blood was a toxin to the Abyss—it carried the dominant control code. The concentration of this will triggered a system crash in the local network. The black vine convulsed. The violet veins within it flared with a blinding white light and burst.

  The grip loosened for a heartbeat. It was all Kai needed. With a superhuman wrench, he hauled his son from the vortex, casting him aside. In that same instant, the breach collapsed. The black mass retracted into the ground with a vacuum-like pop. Gravity rebooted with a low hum.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Everything suspended in the air plummeted. Tons of water from the pool crashed onto the floor in an artificial tsunami. Maya hit her knees hard. Shards of glass and the remains of orchids rained down across the terrace.

  Kai lay on his back, gasping for air. Blood flooded one eye. He turned his head and saw Maya clutching the sobbing Elias to her chest. The boy was intact, but a horrific mark remained on his right ankle—a black, chemical-burn-like brand in the shape of intertwined veins. The connection mark.

  "You won a minute, brother," the voice in Kai’s head was no longer roaring. It sounded monotonic and dry. "But my expenditure for this impulse must be compensated. The Obelisk... is losing stability."

  In confirmation, the penthouse floor vibrated faintly. It was a low-frequency tremor emanating from the Core itself. Buenos Aires shuddered.

  "I want an equivalent," the Substrate whispered. "I don't want your handouts of three hundred bodies. I want pure life. Panic energy. Ten thousand connections for the life of your son. By sunrise. Or I will pull the White Needle."

  Kai rose slowly. Water dripped from his suit, mingling with the blood. He looked at Maya. She understood everything from his gaze.

  "Take Elias to the tower’s central sector; the dampers are reinforced there," Kai ordered hoarsely. "Do not go below the hundredth tier."

  "What is he demanding?" Maya’s voice broke. "Kai, what does he want this time?!"

  "What I am obligated to give."

  Kai entered his office. He activated the Sigma terminal. Colonel Thorne’s face appeared on the screen.

  "Director," Thorne looked strained. "The Middle Tier seismic sensors are off the charts. The Obelisk is at its breaking point."

  "I know, Marcus," Kai’s voice was devoid of emotion. "Activate the 'Red Harvest' protocol. Target—Transit Hub Number Seven."

  Thorne turned pale. Even for him, this was beyond the pale. "Director... Hub Seven is the largest gravity-train interchange. It’s peak hour. There are twelve thousand civilians there."

  "Execute, Colonel. If you do not deactivate the magnets in three minutes, the City will cease to exist. Drop the trains into the technosphere. That is a direct order."

  "Copy that, Director. Executing."

  Kai walked to the panoramic window. Maya entered the room, holding Elias by the hand. She had heard every word.

  "Twelve thousand people," she whispered. "You just gave twelve thousand people to the network."

  Kai did not turn. He looked down to where the lights of the Middle Tiers shimmered beneath the clouds. Three minutes later, the vibration in the floor stopped. The Obelisk grew still. And far below, in the sector of Hub Seven, a massive cluster of lights went out. A web of thousands of glowing threads vanished all at once.

  The sound of the falling trains did not reach the Upper Tiers. Но Kai felt them. Through his link, he sensed the Abyss beginning to greedily absorb the potential of thousands. Avelo’s energy hunger was sated. Balance restored.

  "He wanted to take our son into his roots, Maya," Kai said softly. "To make him part of his neural network. I traded their lives for his. And I will do it again. I will give this Abyss half the City if I must, so that he never claims Elias again."

  Maya stared at her husband’s broad back. The illusion of paradise was finally shattered. She realized a terrifying truth: Kai would never stop the Abyss. He would feed it forever until the City was empty. The only way to save humanity and her son was to destroy Avelo.

  And to destroy Avelo... she had to eliminate the one who served as his conduit.

  Maya tightened her grip on Elias’s hand. In her eyes, the cold, steel light of the Architect ignited. She turned silently and led her son away. The decision was made.