The lower levels of the Labyrinth were a graveyard of brass and violet fire.
Matthew stood amidst the wreckage of three Divine Sentinels, his chest heaving. His black hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat and silver ichor. His blue eyes were no longer clear; they were swirling with a dark, unstable gravity. Every time he breathed, the air around him distorted. The Void Core was roaring, demanding he erase everything left standing.
Then, the temperature in the sub-chamber plummeted. Not the cold of the Void, but a sharp, pressurized chill—the kind that preceded a mountain-leveling strike.
Clang.
A heavy spear-butt struck the cracked marble floor, the sound echoing like a death knell.
"So," a voice drawled, dripping with a dry, lethal boredom. "You're the 'Anomaly' that's been making my cousin cry."
Matthew spun around, his hand instinctively flaring with violet energy. Standing at the entrance of the chamber was a girl he didn't recognize. Her emerald eyes were cold, analytical, and utterly unimpressed by the carnage he had wrought. She held a spear that seemed to drink the light of the room, and her presence felt like a physical weight pressing against his lungs.
"Who are you?" Matthew rasped, his voice distorted by the Void. "If you're with the Architects, leave. Now. Before I lose my grip."
Seraphina didn't flinch. She stepped forward, her boots clicking rhythmically against the debris.
"I am Seraphina," she said, her eyes narrowing as she took in the state of his power. "The ranking student of the 1st year. Lyra's blood. And the person who is currently deciding whether to kill you for putting her in the middle of a war she wasn't ready for."
"I saved her," Matthew hissed, the violet fire around his fists brightening.
"You broke her," Seraphina countered, her voice rising with a sharp, metallic edge. "She was the Perfect Vessel. She had a path. And now she's standing at the edge of a grave, watching the world burn because of your 'Core.' You're a virus, Matthew. A flicker of darkness that thinks it's a sun."
In a blur of motion too fast for the human eye to track, Seraphina lunged.
Her spear didn't just thrust; it pierced the very fabric of the air. Matthew barely managed to conjure a Void Shield, the green tip of her weapon grinding against the violet barrier with a screeching hum. The shockwave shattered the remaining pillars in the room.
"Is this it?" Seraphina sneered, her face inches from his. "The power that terrified the Gods? It feels unrefined. Filthy."
Matthew's eyes snapped to hers, the blue drowning in a sea of deep violet. "You don't know anything about her. You weren't there when the Spire fell. You were playing soldier at the border while she was bleeding!"
"And I'm back now," Seraphina growled, putting her full weight into the spear, her emerald eyes glowing with a terrifying, piercing light. "Which means your time as her 'protector' is over. If you can't even withstand a single 1st-year's strike, how do you expect to keep her alive against the Architects?"
The ground beneath them disintegrated. The Abyss and the Emerald clashed in the dark, two titans fighting for the right to claim the ruins—and the girl waiting at the top.