The truth hit Kiran like a giant wave, washing away the last angry sounds of Lux's growls. Elena had walked into Dr. Koval's trap. His hard fight with Lux had been a careful trick, a way to get Elena right into Koval's hands, to help her own evil plan. He had to get to her. Pushing his time-stutter power as far as it could go, forcing his cracked body past its breaking point, he moved quickly past Lux's last, desperate attacks. He ignored the burning pain. New, clear cracks spread fast across his whole left side, looking like broken china. He burst into the Codex Containment room, his boots sliding a little on the clean floor. His eyes locked onto Dr. Koval and the glowing, ghostly Eclipse Codex that she was now touching, its old light making her glow with an unholy, bright light.
"Koval!" Kiran yelled loudly, his voice rough from fighting and anger. Elena stood still, her face full of fear, but a small spark of defiance, a strong will that never gave up, still burned in her eyes. "She's trying to join with the Codex! She thinks she can control the Eldritch!" Elena shouted, her voice breaking. The huge discovery was too much for her. Dr. Koval turned slowly, her face calm, almost peaceful, even with Kiran's strong attack. "Subject 07. A strong fighter, as always. You are easy to predict. You will be a good anchor, a strong connection for the coming joining. Your raw power is… very important. Join me, Kiran. See real growth." She held out a hand to him. Her move was a soft request but felt like a cold order. She moved with a strange, almost magical grace, not with force, but by carefully controlling the energy in the room. Her hands moved slightly, and the air around her pulsed with unseen force, a clear weight that pushed on Kiran.
Kiran did not wait. He attacked quickly, moving so fast he was a blur, not using his time-stutter, but just pure, strong hand-to-hand fighting. Dr. Koval was not a rough fighter. Her strength was in her smarts, her tricks, and her strange, deep knowledge of the Codex. But she was not helpless. As Kiran got close, she raised a hand. A wall of shimmering, black energy, looking almost exactly like the rough black sand, appeared between them. It pushed him back with great, silent force. It was not wild magic, but a precise, almost surgical use of a force field, likely powered by the Codex's growing influence.
Kiran faced the wall directly, his moves careful and exact, made perfect by years of desperate fights. He did not try to break through it with brute force. Instead, he used his amazing speed and his knowledge of weak points to find the problems in its structure. He felt for the small gaps in its energy, its quiet hum. He avoided a sudden, sharp burst of raw energy that came from the floor, barely missing it. Then he hit a pulsing part of the glowing wall with a strong, planned kick, finding a moment of weakness. The shield bent and waved. He slipped through the quick opening, moving with lightning speed. He got close, hitting her with a fast series of strong punches – a quick jab to the side of her head, a hard elbow to her ribs, a careful knee hit to her stomach. All these were aimed at the exact weak points that Dr. Koval's own medical files, stolen from the Foundation's old records, would have shown. He was unstoppable, a storm of controlled violence, forcing her to fight him physically rather than use her strange powers. Dr. Koval, for the first time, showed a moment of real surprise, a clear look of pain on her calm face as Kiran's hits landed strongly. The Eclipse Codex pulsed wildly on its stand, its strange light getting brighter. It was reacting to the violent fight between them, as Volume 1 moved towards its desperate, big turning point. The world's future hung in the balance in this one, echoing room.