Chapter 13 · The Weight of Ruin

"Get back! Now!" Kaelen barked, his voice cutting through the screech of twisting metal.

He shoved Mina behind his back, his hand still gripping her shoulder. The lobby of the Vanguard corporate hub wasn't a lobby anymore—it was a killbox. Blue light pulsed from the ceiling, humming with a frequency that made Kaelen’s teeth ache.

"What is this?" Mina whispered, her voice trembling. "Kaelen, I can't... I can't see a way out. Everything is shifting."

"Shut up and stay small," he snapped.

He didn't need her visions right now. He needed the air to stop pretending it didn't have mass. The blue pulse hit again, and suddenly, Kaelen felt his boots leave the polished marble. He wasn't falling—he was floating. Around them, shattered glass and expensive office chairs drifted upward like slow-motion shrapnel.

Artificial zero-G. A corporate toy designed to neutralize power-users by stripping them of leverage.

"Cute," Kaelen muttered. He tried to plant his feet, but there was no friction. He was a ghost in a vacuum.

"You're floating, you idiot!" Roxie’s voice echoed from the mezzanine. She was a blur of crimson and chrome, skating along the wall using her speed to fight the drift.