Chapter 260 Two.

Chapter 260: 260 Two.

"Then let it be done!" Glacia exclaimed.

Okay, time for my cue. I extended my hands, manipulating the heavy, rusted wreckage of the old tiltrotor hovering high above the shattered glass.

I fed a pulse into the winch mechanism, letting a single, blinding spotlight snap on, shining directly down into the breach.

Caught in the heavy beam, Glacia looked absolutely radiant.

The stark white of her hair, the pristine cut of her costume, and the heavy fur collar of her coat glowed against the dark laboratory floor like a supernova.

She was breathtaking. I couldn’t wait to get her back to the chalet after we wrapped this contract.

But first, we had a machine to steal. I flicked my wrist, manipulating the magnetic catch on the heavy steel cable coiled inside the hovering aircraft.

The thick line rattled downward, ending in a massive iron hook.

The designated Steve standing atop the generator caught the descending iron and expertly latched it onto the nylon straps securing the Atoma Cell.

"We’re good to go!" the clone shouted up at the ceiling.

"Excellent!" Glacia declared, sweeping her hand upward in a grand, theatrical gesture. "Then bring it up to the heavens, my loyal minions! The master eagerly awaits his prize!"

Another precise tweak of my magnetism pulled the cable taut. I engaged the winch, lifting the massive prototype exactly one inch off the concrete floor.

"Now?" Vanessa whispered beside me in the shadows of the roof.

"Now," I said.

Vanessa stepped directly to the edge of the jagged hole. She pointed her palm downward, and a brilliant, crackling burst of raw arcane power fired straight into the lab.

The blast ripped through the air like a localized comet. It cleanly severed the taut steel cable, then violently slammed into the chest of the Steve standing on the generator housing.

The clone was thrown backward, skidding violently across the polished floor in a tangled heap before lying perfectly still.

With a deafening, metallic bang, the Atoma Cell crashed back down onto the concrete.

Glacia whirled around, her white coat whipping around her ankles like the wings of a predatory bird.

"Who dares interfere!" she snarled, projecting her voice perfectly to reach the observation deck.

"I do!"

Vanessa stepped over the edge of the skylight and descended slowly into the room.

Glowing, crimson magic runes burned in the air around her, orbiting her body like miniature satellites. The kid absolutely knew how to sell an entrance; I had to give her credit.

Glacia scoffed, tilting her head back in a flawless mask of aristocratic contempt. "So," she sneered, tossing a lock of white hair over her shoulder. "The meddlesome Hex dares to challenge me and my master once more?"

"Your master meddles in forces he cannot possibly understand!" Vanessa declared firmly, hovering a few feet above the floorboards. "Surrender immediately! You will not leave this facility with that machine."

Glacia let out a harsh, haughty laugh. "If you think—"

A sudden, explosive crash splintered the air.

One of the Steves stationed inside the VIP observation deck flew backward through the four-inch ballistic glass.

He slammed violently onto the concrete floor of the lab, the entire front of his trench coat reduced to a smoking, charred mess.

What in the actual fuck?

My eyes snapped to the shattered observation window. A man was actively climbing out of the jagged frame. Thick black smoke poured off his shoulders.

His skin was actively cracking and fissuring, bleeding out a hellish, blinding glow of raw flame from underneath the tearing flesh.

His expensive, tailored suit marked him as one of the billionaire attendees from the tour group.

Son of a bitch.

Legion jumped down from the elevated deck, hitting the laboratory floor with a heavy, unnatural boom. He dragged himself upright, actual fire licking outward from his grinning, splitting mouth.

"Found you," he growled, the overlapping demonic voices vibrating the remaining glass in the room.

I immediately clamped a hand to the encrypted receiver in my ear. "Do not break character!" I hissed over the comms. I had to think. Fast.

The investors were watching, and if they realized a literal demon was actively murdering the security staff, the panic would cause a stampede.

Got it.

"Repeat after me," I barked into the mic. "So it seems another hero has joined the party!"

"So it seems another hero has joined the party!" Glacia announced aloud, catching the pivot with barely a microsecond of hesitation.

Legion paused, cocking his burning head. His brow furrowed in deep confusion, a motion that caused the skin across his forehead to split open, leaking bright magma. "What?"

"But no matter!" I fed the line, and Glacia instantly repeated it to the room. "I have absolutely no time to deal with the Hot Poker!"

"Poker!" Legion snapped, his overlapping voices rising in sudden, furious indignation. "Fool! I am—"

"Blast him into the air! Now!" I barked over the comms.

Glacia didn’t hesitate. She drew her arm back, a massive, swirling sphere of freezing power gathering in her palm. She threw it forward, sending a jagged spear of solid ice spitting violently across the concrete.

Legion’s burning eyes went wide as the ice slicked directly beneath his boots.

Before he could vent a blast of fire, the localized freeze erupted upward in a massive, solid pillar.

The block of dense ice slammed directly into his stomach, driving the wind out of his stolen lungs with such force that he instantly half-melted the pillar just as he was hurled skyward.

The second he cleared the floor, I extended my hands. I locked onto the heavy metal belt buckle, the zipper, and the cuff links of his burning suit.

I wrenched him violently upward, dragging him straight through the shattered skylight.

Legion ragdolled through the opening and flopped heavily onto the roof, thumping hard across the gravel surface before rolling to a halt near the ventilation units.

"Sir?" Glacia’s voice hissed urgently into my ear.

"Finish the choreographed fight with Vanessa," I ordered. I stood up, my heavy iron plating snapping and clicking into place as it deployed fully around my suit.

Across the roof, Legion dragged himself back to his feet, the last remnants of his civilian clothes burning away into ash. "I will handle the pest control up here."

"Now," Glacia shouted dramatically from the floor below, smoothly regaining the crowd’s attention, "where were we?"

Good girl. Total professional.

Legion turned to face me. A molten, terrifying grin stretched across his host’s incinerating face. He cackled, intense heat radiating off his body, glowing like a corrupted lighthouse beacon in the dark.

"There you are, Polaris," he hissed.

"You are an absolute, massive pain in the ass," I growled. I flicked my armored fingers, instantly shifting the hovering, multi-ton bulk of the hollowed-out tiltrotor directly over his head.

"I will bring you greater pain than a mere inconvenience," Legion boasted, stepping forward.

More fire licked through his splitting skin, his entire body glowing a furious gold like a freshly minted Oscar statue left in a furnace. "You will know torments entirely beyond your mortal reckoning! Pain unheard of in this modern age! I will have the cube, and you shall not—"

"Shut up," I said.

I entirely released my magnetic hold on the aircraft.

Legion looked up just in time to hear the agonizing groan of unsupported metal.

His burning eyes widened as several thousand pounds of reinforced aerospace titanium plummeted straight down. He threw his arms up to shield himself, but it didn’t matter.

With a catastrophic, earth-shaking crash, he was completely buried under the massive heap of twisted steel, heavy paneling, and crushed glass.

The impact was utterly deafening. I winced at the volume of the clamor ringing across the rooftop. But oh well.

I shook my hand, rolling my shoulders in annoyance. Fucking prick. Always interrupting the workflow.

Now, where was I? Oh right, monitoring the climax of the scheme in the room below. I turned back toward the edge of the skylight.

We had successfully salvaged the scenario, but—

Rrrrrrrrk.

No way.

I turned back toward the crushed wreckage of the rotocopter just in time to see the center of the heap rising.

The heavy black metal was glowing bright orange, actively melting like a stick of butter hit by an industrial blowtorch.

The bubbling, glowing mound of liquid steel began to pull itself upward, forcibly reshaping itself.

Thick, heavy metal warped and bubbled, forming a massive, grinning skull. Two jagged horns curved outward from the molten brow.

More of the liquid titanium gathered and fused as Legion rose from the wreckage, adopting a massive, terrifying new form sculpted entirely out of liquid metal and hellfire.

He grinned down at me, sporting a flaming, goopy rictus of an iron skull.

"Round two," the demon hissed, his voice echoing from tongues of pure flame.