Chapter 58: Impact
I exhaled slowly, the deepest breath of my life.
It felt like I was letting go of something I had been holding onto for years. My lungs burned. My chest ached. Every part of me trembled as the weight I had been carrying finally began to shift.
Soren stood right beside me, his hand still on my shoulder. “You did it, Elias. They’re all out. You can let go now. Lower your hands. Gently.”
I nodded, tears streaming down my face, mixing with the sweat and dust. “I’m scared. What if I drop it too fast? What if it still crushes someone? What if I lose control at the last second?”
“You won’t,” Soren said, his voice steady despite the chaos around us. “You held it this long. You can finish this. Let it down slowly. Guide it. You’re still in control.”
I lowered my hands.
The building began falling immediately, gravity reclaiming its hold with brutal force.
The massive structure tilted violently in the air above us, concrete groaning and steel beams snapping like twigs. Flames roared louder as the building crashed into itself in a thunderous collapse. The impact sent a massive shockwave across the city block, shaking the ground so hard I felt it in my bones. Dust exploded outward in a thick, choking cloud that swallowed everything in its path.
I stood there for one more second, watching the building I had held in the air come crashing down.
Then my legs finally gave out.
I collapsed to the ground, knees hitting the cracked pavement hard. My body gave up completely. The hunter suit felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. My arms dropped limply at my sides. I couldn’t even lift my head.
Soren dropped beside me instantly, catching my shoulders before I could fall face-first into the dust. “Elias! Talk to me! Are you okay? Say something!”
I tried to speak, but only a weak groan came out. My vision swam. The world tilted around me. The pressure in my chest finally eased, but it left behind a deep, hollow emptiness that felt worse than the pain.
“I… I held it,” I whispered, voice barely audible. “They’re safe… right? Tell me they’re safe.”
Soren pulled me against him, supporting my weight as the dust cloud rolled over us. “They’re safe. The last group made it out. You did it, Elias. You held the whole damn building long enough. You saved them.”
I felt tears burning in my eyes again. “It hurt so much. The Core… it didn’t want to hold. It wanted to drop everything. It wanted me to let go. I felt it fighting me the entire time. Like it was angry I was still trying to be human.”
Soren kept his arm around me, his voice low. “But you did it anyway. You chose them. Even when it was destroying you. That’s what matters. That’s what makes you different from the Core.”
The system interface appeared in my vision, flashing weakly now.
\[STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: 71%\]
Another massive drop.
I coughed, tasting blood and dust. “It keeps dropping. Every time I do something good, it takes more from me. I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this, Soren. I feel like I’m running out of pieces of myself to give.”
Soren helped me sit up slowly, his hand steady on my back. “Then we find another way. We stabilize the seal. We fight the Core together. You’re not alone in this. Not anymore.”
I looked up at the collapsing ruins of the facility, flames roaring high into the night sky. The dust cloud slowly settled around us. Rescue teams moved through the perimeter, helping the last survivors.
“I saved them,” I whispered, more to myself than to him. “But at what cost? How many more times can I do this before there’s nothing left of me?”
Soren didn’t answer right away. He just stayed beside me, supporting my weight as the building continued to crumble behind us.
The Core inside my chest pulsed quietly now, almost patient. Waiting.
Watching.
Learning from every choice I made.
And I knew, with cold certainty, that the next time I had to hold something this heavy…
I might not be able to let go without breaking completely.