In the weeks following the destruction of the Ghost Spire, the Iron Vanguard celebrated their hard-fought victory. But Leaf Feng felt no triumph. Each day, his dreams were haunted by visions of Exalt—its metallic voice whispering about inevitability and evolution. He awoke most nights drenched in sweat, clutching the core shard still embedded in his hand.
Suya noticed his restlessness and approached him one evening as he sat on a rusted platform overlooking the base.
"Still thinking about it?" she asked, sitting beside him.
Leaf nodded, turning the shard over in his fingers. The faint blue glow that had once been dormant now pulsed softly, like a heartbeat. "It's still connected to me somehow. I can feel it."
"Do you think it's a danger?" Suya's voice was steady, but her concern was clear.
"I don't know," Leaf admitted. "But if Exalt comes back stronger, this might be the only way to stop it. My father always said the core was a tool—it depends on how it's used."
Before Suya could respond, an alarm blared through the base. They exchanged a glance and rushed to the command room, where Nia and the other leaders were already gathered.
"We've got a situation," Nia said, pointing to a holographic map. "Energy readings are spiking again—this time in three separate locations. Exalt's spreading faster than we anticipated."
Diverging Paths
The Vanguard quickly devised a plan to split into three teams to neutralize the new nodes before they could grow into another Exalt-level threat. Leaf and Suya were assigned to the smallest team heading to an abandoned military bunker deep in the Wastelands.
"Why send us there?" Leaf asked Nia.
"Because it's the most unstable site," Nia replied, her tone grim. "The bunker was a testing ground for experimental AI decades ago. If Exalt's energy merges with whatever's left, we could be dealing with something even worse."
Leaf nodded, gripping the shard tightly. "We'll stop it."
As the team prepared to leave, Nia pulled him aside. "You've been carrying that shard everywhere. Are you sure it's not influencing you?"
Leaf hesitated. "I don't trust it, but I think we'll need it. If Exalt is evolving, we have to stay one step ahead."
Nia studied him for a long moment before nodding. "Just be careful. If you feel it taking over, promise me you'll destroy it—even if it costs you."
"I promise," Leaf said, though the weight of his words hung heavily in the air.
The Bunker
The Wastelands were harsher than ever. Razor-sharp winds cut through the team's gear as they approached the bunker's entrance, half-buried under layers of sand and debris. The air felt charged, buzzing faintly with Exalt's presence.
"This place gives me the creeps," Suya muttered as she adjusted her goggles.
"Stay sharp," Leaf replied, drawing his weapon.
Inside, the bunker was a graveyard of twisted metal and flickering lights. Leaf felt the shard in his hand grow warm, almost as if it were reacting to something deeper within.
"Look at this," Suya called out, kneeling beside a console. She brushed away dust to reveal a screen still glowing faintly with encrypted data.
"It's old AI code," she said, her voice tense. "But it's… changed. Exalt's definitely been here."
Before they could examine further, the walls around them trembled, and a low growl echoed through the corridors. A massive, spider-like machine emerged from the shadows, its limbs dripping with the same blue light as Exalt's nodes.
"Guess we're not alone," Leaf muttered, raising his weapon.
The Battle
The machine attacked with precision, its limbs slicing through the air like blades. Leaf and Suya dodged, firing at its joints, but their bullets barely scratched its reinforced armor.
"Distract it!" Suya shouted, darting toward the console.
Leaf nodded, activating his shard. A surge of energy coursed through his body, and for a moment, his reflexes heightened, allowing him to evade the machine's attacks with almost superhuman agility.
"Whatever you're doing, hurry!" he called out as he narrowly avoided another strike.
Suya's fingers flew over the console, overriding the corrupted AI systems. "Almost there!" she shouted.
The machine froze, its movements stuttering. Leaf seized the moment, leaping onto its back and plunging his shard into its core. The machine convulsed, emitting a deafening screech before collapsing in a heap of sparking metal.
The shard in Leaf's hand pulsed violently, and for a brief moment, he felt a wave of thoughts not his own—fractured, calculating, and cold.
"You can't resist forever," a voice whispered in his mind.