Krill felt the prongs of Kazna's trident pierce his chest. The pain was exquisitely excruciating, beyond anything he had ever felt before. As a Vrul he had once experienced pain differently, but in human form, the difference was something he simply couldn't describe.

But he knew, this was worse.

All his senses were heightened, all his nerves more acutely tuned to the instinct of survival.

And that instinct told him he was dying.

The prong of her spear had punched through the wall of his thoracic cavity and pierced straight through an atrium of his heart, blood gushed briefly over the facade of his chest as his heart spasmed for life, but it was no use. He felt his extremities go cold as everything around him faded to black.

-

His next moment of awareness came with a sudden sense of cold, like being plunged into a pool of Earth-Arctic water. Krill opened his mouth to gasp but found he could not pull in the air. What followed was immediate panic as he realized he couldn't breathe. All other senses were momentarily blocked from his consciousness as he fought for breath. His respiratory system flatlined, then struggled, but finally, with one great, choking gasp, he began to expel the embryonic mucus that had done its job to protect him during the fight. Air rushed into his body, whose senses seemed surprisingly dull and muted after experiencing death as a human.

Krill gasped limbs flailing as he tried to push himself upright, body thick with the protective slime that had preserved his construct. The armor he had been wearing was now an empty husk without a driver. Slowly, his vision resolved, brain attempted to adjust from the sharp clarity of human sight to the prismatic nature of Vrul vision.

It was the blood he noticed first, so much of it, covering the deck and pooling in great ruby pools.

And then there was Adam.

He lay chest down on the deck, half of his helmet cracked away to reveal his face which glowed ghostly pale with blood loss. Blood loss, because the blood was everywhere else,, coating his body and cracked suit.... And the SE hardware trailing behind him. The spine of the SE exoskeleton had been ripped completely off. The attachments for the arms and chest had either been ripped off or snapped away from the force, and now it was attached by only the bloody cables that still held the suit to his lower body.

The rest dragged on the ground like spilled viscera.

"Krill" He wheezed.

He didn't know what to do.... Not here, not without an immediate surgical suite.

All around them, there was carnage.

Ramirez and, to his surprise, maverick lay in a heap at the far end of the disk, Sunny lay next to them, just beginning to stir, while kazna and lanus battled for dominion, though he was fighting a losing battle.

Every moment another flickering of the architect's light would mark a rise in her power.

And just behind them, a streak of light and energy was headed in their direction.

He looked back at the suit.

Adam had crawled over, and let him out of the suit, it had likely taken the last of what remained in him.

Sunny groaned and began to crawl to her feet.

And that's when krill saw it.

The console.

Kazna had been standing in front of it before, but the fight with Lanus had pulled her away, leaving it open. He was no fighter, even in human form that was true, but he was smart, and that was not up for debate.

In that moment he knew what he needed to do.

As much as it killed him to do it.

He stood.

"Fealty, are you there?'

Adam's suit let off a soft and mournful whine, almost painful, "Start the clotting agent and lower his body temperature. Help as long as you can."

The Suit chirped.

"Krill>" Adam mumbled.

"Don't worry, I have a plan," Krill said, scuttling across the deck as fast as his legs would carry him, which was a pace somewhere between frustrating and mind-numbing after being a human. Behind him, Sunny had made it to her feet.

Kazna screamed, Lanus stepped forward, scything through another set of tendrils eyes burning with golden anger.

Krill could see the console now, very simple, with a joystick and a keypad with a single screen. The screen blinked a green display, marking the center of the black hole as its target. If Krill could get to that console, he might be able to redirect the beam of energy and blast the anima off into space.

Sure that wasn't ideal, but at least they wouldn't be gone forever, and Apollyon wouldn't gain more power.

Pity for him Kazna knew what he intended.

Krill heard a roar, turning just in time to see Kazna pelting across the deck towards him at full tilt, black tendrils fanning out behind her like great, black wings. Lanus ran behind her arm outstretched. Krill squealed and tried to dive out of the way, but his legs were slow and awkward.

Kazna ran past Adam, who had just enough strength left in him to reach up and stab at her exposed ankle. Kazna screamed and stumbled, just long enough to give Sunny an opening. She dove forward going nearly horizontal as she reached for Krill. In a moment his world was turned upside down as Sunny wrapped her arms around him, tucking him into her chest and rolling just as kazna blazed through the space where he had been.

Sunny landed in a crouch, skidding across the deck with one hand on the metal, and two hands around Krill. Her fourth hand held a short double-sided combat knife that krill hadn't seen her recover.

Her eyes blazed with golden fire.

She set Krill down, "GO!"

He didn't waste time, racing the last few feet towards the console as Sunny Ran to intercept kazna both her and lanus reaching Kazna just as she was coming back around to take another pass at Krill.

Lanus came in hard, shoulder-checking Kazna off course and into Sunny's line of attack. Sunny swung and stabbed in arching sweeps from left to right cutting through tendrils in rapid succession. Lanus flanked from the other side confusing kazna's tendrils long enough for Sunny to scythe through them.

Kazna turned from Lanus to Sunny, trying to maneuver herself out of a flanked position, but, Lanus and Sunny refused to allow it, dancing deftly on either side of her, lanus a burning warrior of gold, and his daughter Sunny, small, limping, blood-stained, and broken, but vicious.

She said nothing.

But her actions spoke louder than any curse or diatribe ever could have.

She spoke instead with her blade, dicing her mother's blackness to ribbons with unerring precision.

Krill, had flung himself at the console frantically scrambling at the controls. He tried moving the joystick, but it did nothing.

He cursed viciously with all the human curses he knew.

What did he need to do!

Krill frantically started pressing buttons as the distant column of light approached, growing larger with every seconds.

What was he doing!.

Kazna was backed against the railing, and out of their flank, managing to scoot along the edge and towards Krill, She was now doing her best to fight Lanus and Sunny off from the front.

And she was winning.

Krill's eyes scanned over the console all four hemispheres of his brain working in desperate tandem to determine how the machine worked.

In the sky before him the battle between Apollyon and the Architect raged on, tendrils of blackness, against a humanoid silhouette of shifting white light. The architect ripped and pulled at Apollyon, and in turn Apollyon's tendrils ripped chunks from the Architect.

Krill's eyes swept desperately over the console.

Kasna was in tatterers backed nearly against the rail just behind him.

Sunny stood between them.

AHA! He found it!

Overhead the architect began to flicker.

Kazna broke into manic laughter as all her tendrils sprouted back into place, the wounds in her body fusing shut. Apollyon pulsed with triumph as Kazna lunged forward towards Sunny, bloody, broken, and no match for her sudden surge of power.

Krill was seconds behind.

Sunny braced herself for impact, Krill did the same.

Kazna's scream of triumph was cut off as four massive golden arms encircled her from behind. Lanus's weapon lay on the deck, discarded, his back against the railing. From over Kazna's shoulder, and behind a wall of waving tendrils he uttered a phrase that echoed through both physical and cognitive spaces, soothing, sad, and resigned but also glowing with pride and warmth.

"I love you Chalan, and I always will."

Then General Lanus of Anin braced one foot hard against the railing, and pitched them both over the edge.

"NO!" Sunny screamed

The beam of golden light hit the ring and began to burn.

Krill slammed his fist against the joystick.

The ring fired.

A beam of golden energy streaked across the night sky and hit the architect directly in the center of his chest.

Apollyon Screamed, with a psychic wave so powerful it brought Krill and Sunny to their knees.

The architect's back bowed, arms held out to either side fingers curling into talons, his head thrown back. Light and energy poured into him as a torrent, his skin began to brighten. Krill turned his head away, but still, the light was terrible, brighter than the first flash of a nuclear eruption and growing brighter.

Krill curled into a ball.

So bright, that briefly across both Andromeda and the milky way, a new star burst into existence, brighter than a supernova.

And then the architect flexed his hand.

A wave of energy burst out from him in all directions, searing away Apollyon's tendrils, frying the necritorium, shutting down void power, searing away void infection, and forcing Apollyon back into the blackness of the hole from whence he came.

As the light faded, Sunny, Chalan, Lanusdaughter staggered to her feet, half blind and almost deff she threw herself against the railing looking down into the swirling darkness of the black hole, no longer rimmed by light, "No.... no no no." She whispered, "Please no." Her body shook with a sob,

"Nane, Tak, gda tsa." Please, father, where are you?

She repeated the words again through another sob.

But a cough broke through her pleading.

She turned, to find Adam lying on his back, the last bit of energy spent. He coughed against and blood bubbled from his lips.

"No."

She ran to him, gently pulling him up to rest in her arms, "Je nane jee jeeanish." No, please don't die

He would have reached up to touch her face, but he didn't have the energy. "Zhak Chaleel (My sunlight), I've made it through worse."