Snow blew in slow spirals outside the depot walls, whispering against rusted steel like a voice too tired to speak. Morning came pale and windless, casting a silver light over the cracked concrete floor. The facility's defenses had held overnight, but the cold crept in through seams no generator could seal.
Arix stood in the shadow of the entrance, watching the wind play over the frozen wastes. The Echo Fragment pulsed faintly inside his chest, rhythmic and calm, but it made him uneasy. The longer it remained, the more aware it became—not just of him, but of the world around them.
He could feel it paying attention.
Selis joined him, her medkit slung across one shoulder and her breath visible in the frigid air. "You didn't sleep."
"I rested," Arix said.
"That's not the same."
He didn't respond. The silence stretched between them, broken only by the faint hum of the depot's backup power coils.
Selis adjusted her gloves. "Your vitals are steady, but the resonance is spiking. It's adapting to your system faster than we thought."
"I feel that."
"Be careful, Arix. Sync too far, too fast—you stop being the one in control."
He met her eyes. "Is that what happened to the others?"
She hesitated. "Some. Others burned out. A few just… vanished."
The idea lingered.
He could feel the weight of the shard inside him—not heavy, not hostile, but undeniably present. It was like standing in the eye of a storm and knowing, deep down, that the wind was watching.
Calyx's voice crackled over the comm. "Movement southwest. Two scout-class walkers. Obsidian tags."
The quiet vanished. Instinct kicked in.
Kael was already at the upper window, rifle leveled. "They're sweeping the terrain. Slow, wide pattern. They're looking for something."
"Us," Thorne muttered from deeper inside. "Or him."
The team moved quickly. Calyx led the coordination from the depot's central chamber, her voice clipped and efficient. "Kael and I will pin from the left. Thorne and Arix—flank right and cut the uplink cables. We can't risk them transmitting."
Arix nodded, already moving. Thorne's heavy steps followed, his breath steaming as they exited into the snow.
Outside, the wind bit harder. The white expanse was blinding under the midday sun, everything too still. The walkers moved in deliberate arcs, long limbs unfolding like blades through the frost. Every step they took sent a muted rumble through the ice.
They crept along the collapsed fence line, ice crackling beneath their boots. The walkers loomed ahead—tall, skeletal constructs with obsidian-black limbs and glowing underbellies, their long sensor arms sweeping slowly side to side. Each footstep left steaming craters in the snow.
> [Target Lock – Uplink Node: Right Rear Strut]
[System Notice: Echo Interference Field Detected – Synchronization Decreased by 4%]
Arix squinted against the wind. The fragment inside him seemed hesitant now, dimmed but present.
"We hit the node on my signal," Thorne whispered. "Follow me in. You drop the pulse when I make contact."
Arix tightened his grip on the hilt of his blade. "Got it."
They waited. The machines turned their backs.
Then Thorne lunged.
The hammer came down like thunder, striking the first walker's leg joint and sending the machine into a sideways stagger. It screeched, systems compensating, sensors flaring bright. The second turned fast, too fast.
Arix darted in, feet kicking up snow as he skidded behind the first. He activated Rift Pulse with a thought.
> [Rift Pulse Activated – Radius: 5m. Target Systems Disrupted.]
The pulse rippled outward in violet arcs, slamming into the node. Circuits sparked. The walker's sensors flickered, then shorted. It shrieked in mechanical protest.
Calyx's voice rang clear. "Confirmed—transmission offline. Second unit disoriented. Take it down!"
Kael's shots punctuated the air, each one precise, battering the unit's optic cluster. Selis flanked from the other side, launching a cryo-grenade that exploded in a wave of frost, slowing the walker's escape.
Arix slid under a sweeping leg and sliced upward. The blade skidded across the armor—almost—but then the Echo Fragment surged again. A second strike, infused with Riftlight, cleaved through the uplink arm.
The walker collapsed, its joints locking as coolant hissed from shattered lines.
Steam rose from the ruined machines, melting the snow around them. The team regrouped in the clearing, breath coming fast but controlled.
Calyx looked at Arix. "That pulse—stronger than before."
"It's evolving," he said.
> [Echo Sync: 29%. Emotional Anchor: Stabilizing]
She gave a small nod, her expression unreadable. "We'll need every edge we can get."
Thorne inspected the wreckage. "They were scouts, but they were hunting."
"For me," Arix said quietly.
No one argued.
Kael looked over, rifle still slung across his chest. "What happens when they send more? Or worse?"
Arix didn't answer. He didn't know.
The Echo Fragment hummed in his chest, steady and deliberate. He could feel it learning from the encounter, almost… curious.
Later, back in the depot, the mood was grim. The power flickered. The walls groaned. No one spoke for a while.
Selis patched a shallow cut on Arix's arm. "You've got accelerated healing now," she noted. "It's not dramatic yet, but your system's reinforcing cellular repair."
"Perks of bonding with a sentient anomaly?" he said with a weak smile.
"Not funny," she muttered, but didn't deny it.
As night fell, Arix sat alone again near the outer hatch, staring at the black horizon.
Calyx joined him after a time, sitting beside him without a word. The silence between them was no longer cold. It was familiar. Heavy. True.
"We move at dusk tomorrow," she said. "No more hiding. We find the next vault before they do."
"Yeah."
She didn't look at him, but her voice was softer. "You're holding up better than I expected."
"I'm not," he admitted. "I'm just not breaking yet."
She glanced at him then, eyes sharp. "That's enough. For now."
And they sat there in the cold, shoulder to shoulder, watching the dark swallow the world.
> [System Notice: Divergence Threshold Approaching – User Stability Holding]
[Next Vault Location Acquired – Estimated Time: 38 Hours]
The wind howled again, but this time, it sounded like something deeper than cold.
Like the world itself was warning them.
And Arix could feel the threshold approaching.