Steven did not follow.
He remained at the mouth of the narrow passage, leaning against fractured concrete, arms folded loosely — but nothing about him was relaxed.
The sanctuary streets were restless. Eyes lingered. Whispers spread. A hunt always stirred ambition.
He wasn't there to assist.
He was there to prevent interference.
If anyone attempted to sabotage One… If anyone thought the "errand boy" was easy prey…
They would meet Steven first.
Far in the distance—
A thunderous metallic detonation rolled across the sanctuary edge.
Steven lifted his gaze.
"It's started."
The air grew heavier near the boundary.
The Armament's influence weakened here. Pollution thickened into visible currents, drifting like oily mist.
The Warframe absorbed it greedily. Intake vents along its spine glowed faintly as energy converted and circulated.
Each of One's steps cracked the asphalt beneath reinforced feet.
Sensors swept.
Silence.
Then—
A flash.
A colossal dark-red Lazer like beam tore through the haze.
Impact.
The laser struck center mass.
The world detonated in heat.
The Warframe screamed as armor plating flared white-hot. The force hurled One backward, carving a trench through broken ground before slamming him into a collapsed transport hull.
Warnings exploded across his visor.
Thermal spike.
Armor compromise: 11%. Structural strain detected.
The smell of ionized air filled the cockpit.
One exhaled once.
Alive.
He rose through smoke.
The abomination stood fifty meters ahead.
Dwarfish.
Lean.
Compact with dense muscle beneath greyed flesh.
Its face was a flat circular disk, humming violently with swirling pollution particles — no eyes, no mouth.
Just a furnace.
The disk brightened.
A high-pitched hum drilled into the air.
One moved.
Five razor-thin beams erupted outward in a radial sweep.
He rolled left.
Two lances sliced through where he had stood. One grazed his shoulder, melting outer plating instantly.
Armor compromise: 19%.
He raised his rifle-arm and fired.
Thermal rounds exploded against the creature's torso. Flesh blackened.
Then regenerated.
Pollution crawled like liquid veins, sealing damage in seconds.
"Regenerative", One thought.
The hum spiked again — louder.
This time the beam was thicker.
One braced for impact.
The blast struck his raised forearm shield. The world became vibration and blinding red light.
Metal softened under sustained contact.
Armor compromise: 34%.
Heat bled inward.
He disengaged and countered immediately.
The shoulder cannon locked.
Charged.
Discharged.
A compressed sphere of thermal force erupted outward, warping the air as it struck the abomination's face.
Detonation.
The creature was hurled through skeletal building frames, debris raining down in waves.
One did not advance.
He waited.
The rubble shifted.
The abomination rose.
Half its facial disk was gone.
Pollution swarmed violently, rebuilding it in grotesque spirals.
It emitted a low-frequency vibration that rattled the ground.
The next charge was different.
Denser.
More concentrated.
If that hit directly, the core would be breached.
One diverted power to propulsion.
The Warframe roared forward, asphalt exploding beneath its feet.
The beam fired.
Point blank.
He twisted mid-lunge.
The laser grazed his right torso instead of center mass.
Armor liquefied and peeled away in glowing fragments.
Armor compromise: 48%.
Inside minimum threshold.
He was already within its guard.
Both rifle-arms reconfigured, locking into sustained output mode.
He unleashed a relentless barrage directly into the creature's facial core.
Recoil hammered through the cockpit.
The disk destabilized.
Pollution spiraled chaotically.
The abomination convulsed.
One drove the shoulder cannon forward and released an overcharged blast straight into the center.
The explosion swallowed them both in white light.
Shockwave.
Crater.
Silence.
Smoke drifted slowly across a twenty-meter scar in the earth.
The abomination lay broken, its facial disk shattered and unstable.
Regeneration flickered — weaker now, stuttering.
One stood over it.
The Warframe hissed.
Metal cracked softly as cooling systems fought thermal overload.
Armor integrity: 52%. Corrosion increasing.
The creature twitched.
Pollution tried to gather again.
Not fast enough.
One flexed his right arm.
The rifle assembly retracted inward with a grinding mechanical shift. Plates rotated. Internal segments extended.
Energy conduits realigned.
The arm elongated.
Compressed thermal energy condensed along its edge.
With a sharp mechanical snap—
The arm morphed into a massive energy saber.
A blade of dense, vibrating light erupted outward, humming with contained fury.
The air around it shimmered from heat distortion.
The abomination attempted one final pulse.
Too late.
One stepped forward and brought the saber down in a single brutal arc.
The blade passed cleanly through the creature's neck.
Resistance lasted less than a second.
Then separation.
The head fell, still faintly glowing, rolling across fractured earth before sputtering violently.
The body collapsed.
This time—
No regeneration.
Pollution dispersed aimlessly into the air.
One deactivated the blade.
The saber retracted, armor plates sealing back into rifle configuration.
He bent and gripped the severed head.
It was warm.
Still humming faintly.
Proof of kill.
He turned toward the sanctuary.
Behind him, the crater smoked under a red-stained sky.
One down.
One remaining.
And deeper in the wasteland—
Something had felt that explosion.