The Hidden Hybrid’s Redemption
The imperial steel didn't melt; it turned a blinding, radiant white-hot, transferring the immense thermal energy directly into Killian’s collarbone and down into the dead, frozen nerves of his left side.
The sudden, brutal thermal shock acted like a lightning strike to his dormant nervous system. The slate-grey flesh of his left shoulder violently convulsed, the frozen muscles cracking open as the blood rushed back into the dead tissue with a localized, agonizing roar of returning life.
Killian’s left hand, dead for weeks, suddenly twitched. His scarred fingers curled into a fist, crushing the green marble beneath him into dust.
"Fourteen seconds," Vane’s voice cracked slightly for the first