Chapter 9 · Kane! Let go!

He ignored her. He reached out, his palm flat against the cold surface of the sphere.

*ZAP.*

White light exploded behind his eyelids. For a second, the room vanished. He wasn't in a scrap-city; he was in a white void, surrounded by thousands of versions of himself, all screaming in silence. He saw flashes of a laboratory, the smell of sterile chemicals, a man with a scarred face looking down at him with a mixture of pride and disgust.

Then, the voice hit him. It wasn't a whisper. It was a command. A directive burned into the very architecture of his soul.

*DEVOUR.*

Kane gasped, his body arching back as a surge of black energy erupted from the sphere, slamming into his chest. It didn't push him away—it pulled him in. He felt his veins turn to liquid fire, his muscles tightening as the device began to dump raw, unfiltered power into his system.

"Kane! Let go!" Lyra screamed. She lunged forward, grabbing his shoulder, trying to yank him away from the pedestal.

But the energy was already looping.