The ground started shaking again—worse than before. This wasn't the usual rumble from artillery or those massive siege walkers stomping around. No, this felt different. Ancient. Like something huge was moving down there with a purpose.
Micah whipped around toward the hills just as the sound of stone tearing apart screamed across the sky.
The earth split wide open.
A massive drill transport burst up through the battlefield with a shriek of twisted metal and boiling steam. This thing was enormous—a tower of grinding, spinning teeth that chewed up rock and ash as it clawed its way to the surface like some kind of mechanical monster. Huge clawed wheels slammed down and locked into place, making the whole ground shake. Then the transport's belly cracked open like it was giving birth to something terrible.
Three Omniraith heavy tanks rolled out, each one as big as a siege walker but way nastier. Their armor wasn't just regular metal—it had this weird, shimmering coating that made roots wither on contact and bounced Ashari plasma shots right off like they were nothing. Steam hissed from vents everywhere. Cannons started turning. The air filled with this horrible mechanical roar.
"Heads up, people!" Kaelin Vorr's voice crackled over the comms. "We've got new players, and these bastards are built to handle everything the forest can throw at them!"
The Thornkin defenders tried their usual trick—rootspike barricades shot up from the ground, trying to punch holes in the tanks' bellies. It was a disaster. The roots just cracked and died the second they touched those machines, couldn't even slow them down.
The Ashari siege walkers opened fire from the ridges, sending their arc rounds slamming into the tanks. One blast hit the lead tank square in the side, but the thing just shrugged it off like it was a gentle tap.
Micah watched it all go down from his perch on a twisted chunk of rock. The whole battle had just gotten a lot worse. And damn it—he spotted Sera Lin collapsed near the forest edge, still out of it from whatever she'd done with that Verdancy thing.
One of the tanks slowly turned its turret.
Its cannon locked right onto her.
"Hell no!" Micah took off running, hitting the trigger on his acceleration boots. The Hollow buzzed to life, pumping power into his legs. Everything became a blur as he shot across the broken ground, dodging chunks of root and molten rock like a bolt of lightning.
The tank fired.
He dove hard, hitting the dirt right in front of Sera and throwing up his hand to activate the portable field generator. The blast curved around him in a brilliant arc, but the shockwave still sent both of them tumbling through ferns and debris.
Sera groaned, looking dazed but breathing.
Micah rolled over, gasping for air. "You still with me?"
"Yeah," she whispered. "Still here."
Before the tank could line up another shot, something massive slammed into its side—a Rootstrider Captain covered head to toe in living armor made from vine-steel and barkstone. He brought down a hammer the size of a grown man right on one of the tank's joints. Sparks went flying everywhere.
"We go for the legs," the Rootstrider growled.
Micah didn't need to be told twice. He darted forward again, Hollow patterns lighting up all over his skin. He jumped onto the tank's side, jammed a cluster charge into a vent, and dropped back just as the explosion knocked the whole machine sideways.
"Hit it again!" he yelled.
The Rootstrider let out a battle cry and called up a living chain of roots that wrapped around the tank's back legs. With a grunt of effort, he pulled hard.
One of the tank's legs buckled. Another cluster round went off, and the tank lurched to one side.
Micah sprinted across the back armor, dodging that scorpion-tail cannon as it swung around wildly. He landed next to the Rootstrider just as they both dove for cover.
With a final metallic groan, the tank toppled over—reactor hissing, weapons sparking out. It twitched once and went still.
All around them, Ashari and Thornkin soldiers were watching what they'd just pulled off and copying the same tactic. The other two tanks were getting swarmed now, their joints wrapped up in root chains while Ashari siege teams pounded their weak spots.
Commander Sol's voice came through the comms from somewhere up in the forest: "You bring one down, you make sure it stays down."
The battle had shifted again.
But this time, it wasn't in the Omniraith's favor.
For once—just for a moment—things were going their way.
Micah stood up in the dirt, keeping one arm around Sera as more soldiers charged past them toward the ridge.
They weren't done fighting yet.
Not even close.
Way down below Elora's surface—past the war rooms, deeper than the power cores, even below the evacuation bunkers—there was a place most people didn't know existed. The walls were made of obsidian alloy reinforced with hollowweave mesh, designed to soak up shockwaves from pretty much any disaster you could imagine. This was the Ashari deep lab, code name Vault Zero.
And right in the middle of it stood three human-shaped figures, each one resting upright in sleek magnetic pods lined with glowing circuits.
Lio Venn stood in front of them, his fingers flying over a high-security control panel that projected from his gauntlet. Sweat was running down his face, but his hands never stopped moving.
"This is completely insane," he muttered, his voice tight with stress. "They're not ready. The neural network isn't tested properly, and I haven't even figured out how to make the command interface work right."
"You said the exact same thing about our last shield upgrade," Dr. Eland Voss replied, calm as always. "Then you saved the whole city with two minutes to spare."
Lio shot him a look. "This isn't just a shield upgrade, Doc. This is Ascendant Infinity."
The lights flickered as the whole mountain shook—explosions echoing through the stone like angry gods pounding on the door.
Commander Sol's voice burst through the emergency comms. "Upper shields are down to twenty percent. We've got flying titans dropping drones right onto people's rooftops. We need something now, Voss."
Dr. Voss stepped forward, his long coat brushing the platform's edge. "Power systems?"
"Running fine," Lio answered. "Reactors one and two are synced up. Three's dead, but we're pulling from solar grid epsilon. The armor's holding steady, but the biosync readings are... jumpy."
"We're out of time," Voss said. "Do it."
Lio hesitated for a second. Then he swallowed hard and pressed his palm against the center of the control node.
Everything went quiet.
Then all hell broke loose.
The stasis pods hissed open, releasing clouds of white vapor. The three towering figures inside lit up like dying stars—each one built from some kind of advanced alloy that shifted between matte black, ash-gray, and pale blue light.
ASCENDANT INFINITY—UNIT DESIGNATION: IF-1, IF-2, IF-3.
Lio read off the specs, more to keep himself grounded than anything else.
"IF-1," he said, staring at the first figure. "Codename: Solarblade. Ultra-heated solar blade system, plasma field shielding, core temperature over 12,000 degrees. Built for close-range devastation."
The figure took its first step forward. A low hum came from its core. The sword on its back glowed like the edge of the sun.
"IF-2," Lio continued. "Codename: Fission Lance. Internal micro-fission reactor. Can channel radiation into a coherent particle beam. Long-range destruction that might punch through the atmosphere."
The second unit hovered just above the ground. Its chest was covered in glowing fins. Tubes pulsed with internal heat. It raised one arm, and a long-barreled cannon emerged from inside.
"IF-3," Lio whispered. "Codename: Guardian. High-speed multi-vector mobility, impact shielding, priority protocols for civilian extraction and defense. Internal dampening field for sonic resistance and emergency medical evacuation."
The final figure stepped forward—slimmer than the others but clearly just as dangerous. Its shoulders retracted, revealing massive pulse boosters along its back. Its eyes glowed not with rage, but with determination.
All three units now stood on the deployment platform.
Voss walked over and tapped a glyph on the wall. "Unit authority goes to command AI LUX. Secondary access to Lio Venn, override codes pending."
"I still hate this idea," Lio muttered.
Voss actually smiled. "You're not supposed to like it."
Another tremor hit the bunker—stronger this time.
Alarms started flashing on the walls. A red glyph pulsed urgently.
>> ALERT: EVACUATION SECTOR DELTA COMPROMISED.
Lio's eyes went wide. "What the hell?"
The comms exploded with screams. Not orders or tactical calls.
Pure terror.
Static, then a kid's voice—scared out of their mind. "They're here! It broke right through the stone!"
Another voice, distorted by interference. "We need help! It's—oh god, it's drilling straight through the—!"
The feed went dead.
Lio stumbled backward, his mouth hanging open. His brain went blank for a second. Then another tremor hit, this one with a faint mechanical shriek so deep and low it felt like it was coming from the planet's bones.
Dr. Voss stepped closer. "Which sector?"
"Delta... that's the eastern chamber. One of the main evacuation shelters."
Sol's voice cut through—raw, hoarse, and furious. "We've lost contact with three bunkers. Say again—three bunkers. Civilians inside. Something tunneled through—one of those Omniraith drilling machines made it all the way down."
Lio stared in horror at the command screen. Red lines blinked across Elora's map like open wounds.
"Hundreds of people," he said quietly. "There were hundreds down there."
Commander Sol's voice came back, quieter now. "We heard them screaming, Lio. Now there's nothing."
Dead silence.
Even the machines seemed to understand.
Then the Ascendant Infinity units straightened up. Their glowing cores got brighter—like something inside them had clicked.
"Authorization level three confirmed," LUX spoke through the platform's speakers. "Ascendant Infinity units now active. Awaiting orders."
Lio clenched his fists. "IF-3 Guardian."
"Destination?" LUX asked.
Dr. Voss didn't even blink. "The evacuation chamber."
"Confirmed," IF-3 Guardian replied.