Kara's fading ember of defiance flickered as the slab's edge crushed her brain, the molten rock sealing her mouth shut, its searing heat melting her tongue into a silent scream, the pain a supernova collapsing her consciousness. The neural clamp's prongs, lodged in her brainstem, pulsed with a final siphon, draining her brother's laugh into a void of static, the feedback loop frying her nerves, her body jerking in a convulsive death throe. The chasm's walls, fully collapsed, groaned with a deafening rumble, the drill's mechanical arm retracting its claw, only to jam and spark, its tether snapping back to lash her charred stump, severing it with a grotesque tear. The air thickened to a suffocating sludge, ash and molten vapor choking her last breath.
The molten rock crested her chin, fusing her jaw to the stone, the heat blistering her eyelids shut, blinding her to the encroaching dark. A new explosion rocked the crevice, a hidden charge igniting, blasting a torrent of molten shards that peppered her face, one embedding in her socket, the agony a white-hot lance piercing her skull. The mechanical arm's drill whirred, breaking through the wall beside her, its blade grazing her side, slicing a rib free, the wet crunch echoing as blood mingled with the molten flood. The clamp's siphon stuttered, a glitch preserving a fragment of her will—her brother's voice—but the prongs plunged deeper, targeting her spinal core.
The enforcer's limp body, half-buried, shifted, his knife dislodging to stab her thigh, twisting as it melted into her flesh, the pain a tidal wave crashing through her. The fireball's remnants surged, igniting the molten rock around her, the flames consuming her chest, reducing her ribs to ash, the heat searing her heart to a stuttering beat. The chasm's tremor unleashed a secondary collapse, a slab fracturing overhead, its jagged edge hurtling toward her head, missing by a hair but lodging against her shoulder, pinning it and snapping her clavicle with a sickening crack. The mechanical arm fired a laser, its beam slicing her ear off, the sizzle deafening in the void.
Marcus's voice, a ghostly wail through the rubble, gasped, "Kara… last… chance…"—but a cave-in crushed the sound, burying him forever. The clamp's prongs struck her spinal core, a cold void spreading, her vision exploding into a kaleidoscope of torment—Lena's triumph, her brother's fading smile—merging as the siphon neared total erasure. The molten flood rose to her nose, burning her nostrils shut, the heat melting her sinuses, suffocating her as her pulse weakened. The mechanical arm's claw jammed again, sparking a feedback explosion, hurling debris that gashed her throat, blood gushing as she choked.
The chasm's walls pulsed, a final seal imminent, and the slab tilted, its weight fracturing her skull further, the edge a millimeter from her brain. The clamp's hum peaked, the siphon at 99.9%, a single spark of her defiance jamming it, but the molten rock engulfed her head, sealing her in a cocoon of fire. The mechanical arm retracted, the drill whirring for a final extraction, and the chasm's silence roared—her last pulse a defiant flicker against the eternal dark.