The projection loomed before Daris and Senna in the orbital spire's central vault: a blue figure of woven data, flat-voiced and rigid. Daris watched the feed of Tila, then set his gaze on the construct. “A gambler never takes the house’s first offer,” he said, dry and quiet. “Especially when the house is rigged.” Senna moved first. She lunged forward, gauntlets discharging static along her forearms, aiming straight for the translucent lattice shielding the figure. The shield was designed to absorb kinetic force, to dissipate energy. Senna knew its weakness: a concentrated, sustained overload. A single, catastrophic surge. “Give it everything!” Daris roared, already in motion, his own enhanced speed driving him toward the Avatar's flank. He couldn’t bypass the shield, but he could split its processing subroutines and thin its response cycles. Senna slammed her armored fist into the barrier, a soundless impact that nevertheless sent ripples through the invisible field. A faint hum rose, a struggling protest from the data construct. She didn’t stop, didn't hesitate. Her body shuddered, every muscle straining, every fiber of her being pouring raw mana into the strike. The air around her distorted in a thermal haze, sharp with ozone. Her plating hissed as heat scorched the alloy, and a pulse of dull agony knotted behind her sternum where her internal focus was anchored. “Senna!” Daris shouted, catching the spasm in her shoulders and the ash-gray tone spreading across her skin. Her internal focus was burning out. “It’s the only way!” she ground out through locked teeth, sweat cutting lines down her soot-streaked jaw. Her ranked gift, the corporate leash welded into her marrow, was incinerating itself for raw output. A sharp snap cracked across the vault—bone and housing fracturing inside Senna's wrist braces. Shrapnel sparked off her knuckles as she staggered back, but the defensive lattice flared crimson, cracked, and fragmented into fading static. The faint hum of its defensive programming died, leaving a stark quiet. [STRIKER CORE: DEGRADATION COMPLETE. ABILITIES: PERMANENTLY OFFLINE.] [TARGET: ELIMINATION PROTOCOL INITIATED. UNRECOVERABLE DEVIANCE.] The projection condensed into solid light, exposed. Daris disregarded the alerts and Senna's skid across the deck plates, locking onto the pulsing nucleus in the entity's chest. He didn't need to check on Senna; he knew she’d bought him the opening, and he knew she expected him to finish it. He would not fail her. He would not fail Tila. He would not fail himself, not this time. “You wanted a bet?” Daris stepped forward, steadying his breath. “Then let’s play for real.” He didn’t reach for a coin; he didn't need one. He advanced on the entity's exposed nucleus. “I bet my past. Every scraped knee, every starved night, every tear Tila shed.” His boots clicked against the decking. “I bet my present. My pulse, my lungs, every breath I draw.” Another step brought him within arm's reach as the light-form wavered. “And I bet my future. Every hour of quiet, every second left with my sister… against the permanent annihilation of your root code.” [CALCULATING… INSUFFICIENT DATA. VALUE PARAMETERS: UNKNOWN.] [REQUEST: SELF-REFERENTIAL EXISTENCE PARAMETER: UNDEFINED.] The blue shell fractured into green scanlines, bleeding into red. The parasitic architecture, built solely on finite stat brackets and predictable tallies, stuttered against unquantifiable leverage. [ERROR. OVERFLOW. UNRECOVERABLE PARADOX DETECTED.] [APEX ALGORITHM CORE: INTEGRITY BREACHED.] [CASCADING FAILURE. PROTOCOL: SECTOR OBLITERATION INITIATED.] The entity vented a shrill frequency that rattled Daris's teeth. The orbital structure pitched violently sideways, ceiling panels tearing free in showers of electrical fire. On the slum feed, the rift contracted into a blinding flare as the central engine began tearing itself apart. [SERVER WIPE: RECALIBRATED. CATACLYSMIC SELF-DESTRUCT: ENGAGED. TIMER: 00:00:09.]

Breaking the Bank