The building fell away as if swallowed by the ground.
In the aftermath of the fall, only a yawning, smoking crater remained. Millions of tons of shattered masonry, reinforced titanium girders, and pulverized concrete had plummeted down creating an apocalyptic pit.
High above the wreckage, a towering, gargantuan mushroom cloud of dense black soot, chemical fumes, and burning ash billowed into the sky, mimicking a bomb detonation.
Down in the ruins, severed high-voltage conduits hissed against the rubble, spitting cascades of white sparks across pools of leaking stasis fluid. Overturned diagnostic consoles and chemical cooling tanks caught fire, sending tongues of oily orange flames licking up the rubble.
It resembled a graveyard.
Then, amidst the smoking slag, the air subtly rippled.
A silhouette flickered into existence, passing smoothly through the solid face of a fallen ceiling slab as if it were nothing more than morning fog.
Arius stumbled onto the surface of the rubble.
