Chapter 2

"You'll treat it as though nothing happened?"

Marcus stepped closer as if he'd heard something impossibly absurd. The pressure of an S-class operative descended across the room like solid gravity.

"What are you, that you dare speak down to me?"

Jealousy nearly overflowed from his eyes as he stared at me. "I didn't come here to argue about reserved supplies. Tell me whether Commander Frost is inside."

My heart jumped at Serena's name, and I instinctively glanced toward the sealed inner isolation chamber.

"So she is." Marcus caught the movement, and his expression twisted.

"During the battle in the North Ruins two days ago, the commander fought three A-plus aberrations alone so the main force could withdraw. Their venom tore through one of her lungs, and her contamination level rose to the edge of irreversible mutation."

His voice sharpened until it nearly pierced my ears. "The medical division prepared its highest-grade purification chamber. But she dragged herself here without even sealing the wound and brought the purest altered core straight into your room.

"She hasn't stepped outside for three days. What filthy method did you use on her? Why should an SSS-class war commander let a useless parasite drain her life?"

The implant at my neck grew hotter with every accusation.

Marcus didn't know that a conventional purification chamber couldn't contain Serena's SSS-level mental collapse.

Only inside the center of my anchoring field, with me personally guiding her shattered mental landscape, could she survive.

The so-called altered core was only an energy medium she'd brought because she feared the treatment would exhaust me.

"Marcus, you don't understand what Gabriel means to the commander or to this bastion."

Cole stayed between us and issued one final warning.

"Leave now. When the commander finishes treatment and wakes, a military tribunal will be the least of your problems."

"A tribunal? Fine. I'll remove this parasite first and take whatever punishment follows."

Marcus completely lost control. In his mind, I was a leech who'd bewitched command and Serena through some hidden method.

He raised his right hand. A sphere of black annihilation energy began compressing and spinning above his palm.

It was the technique that had made him famous: S-class Particle Collapse.

The instant the energy appeared, the sanctuary alarms rose to maximum volume.

"Warning. High-energy reaction detected. Protective shielding overloaded."

"You're insane. If you use Particle Collapse in the core zone, you could destroy half this structure." I shot to my feet, my face draining white.

Inside the isolation chamber, Serena had reached the most delicate stage of mental reconstruction. If an explosion disrupted the anchoring field, she'd instantly lose reason and mutate.

"If killing you destroys this building, I'll still have done the bastion a service."

Marcus grinned, turned his wrist, and hurled the black sphere, powerful enough to vaporize an armored transport, straight at my face.