The smell of ozone and burning heat padding drifted from the shattered narrow high walkways like funeral incense.
Across the underground chamber, Array Master Qi Heng was crawling through the pooling oil and debris. He dragged the cut, smoking upper torso of Envoy Chu Rong by its armored shoulder strap.
Chu Rong’s wired spine sputtered with pathetic, dying sparks of yellow electricity.
His one leftover clockwork eye-prism hung from its socket by a twisted copper filament. His black starmetal lips twitched with silent, impotent rage as he looked back at the glowing, revitalized distributor pipe hub.
Qi Heng reached the emergency escape dais in the far corner of the cave.
With bloody, trembling fingers, the array master smashed a black glass emergency token against the teleportation altar.
HUMMM.
A pale column of golden extraction light dropped from the smoking Cloud Gateway high above. It wrapped the two broken sky officers.
