Chapter 18 · Steel and Nightmares

"Get your ass out of the way, Vesper! Now!"

Lucian didn't shout it—he didn't have the breath—but the command ripped through the chaos of the burning lab. A massive ceiling beam, blackened by fire and humming with unstable energy, groaned and snapped. It didn't just fall; it plummeted like a guillotine aimed straight for Vesper’s head.

She didn't see it. She was too busy jamming a fresh power cell into the leg of the prototype mech, her fingers slick with oil and sweat. "Almost... got it... just one more second!"

Lucian didn't have a second. He didn't have legs that worked. But he had the Rift.

He slammed his consciousness forward, diving into the Obsidian Rift with a violent jerk. For a split second, the world blurred—the smell of ozone and burning rubber vanished, replaced by the freezing, oppressive void of his nightmare realm.

In the Rift, he wasn't a broken man in a chair. He was the Sovereign.

*Now.*

He didn't just move; he manifested. A colossal, spectral arm made of solidified shadow and jagged obsidian tore through the veil between worlds.