The digital timer on the central console hit forty five seconds, its harsh red numbers flashing like an open wound against the white stone walls.
The black plate vanguard guards completely panicked. Realizing they were locked inside a sealed cavern with a ticking thermal bomb, their strict military discipline dissolved into pure survival instinct. They threw their loaded crossbows to their shoulders and fired a frantic volley directly at the center of the cracked crystal chrysalis.
"Kill it! Kill the anomaly before it hatches!" a guard screamed, his fingers shaking as he reloaded his weapon.
"Stop shooting, you idiots!" Talia shouted, throwing herself behind a heavy iron supply crate. "You're just feeding the machine!"
She was exactly right.
