Nikos shoved the loose vent cover aside and emerged onto the soot-stained roof of the factory, gulping down the cool night air. Below him, the industrial district was a grid of dark, silent shapes. He could still hear muffled shouting from inside the building, confirming he had escaped, but the danger was far from over.
He reached into his pocket. The ruby red fragment was vibrating slightly against the smooth wood of the red box. The two artifacts seemed to recognize each other, humming with a low, resonant frequency that Nikos could feel in his bones. He quickly pulled out the journal, flipping pages until he found the section on fragment alignment.
"When two fragments are in close proximity," the text read, "the combined force will create a directional wave, always pointing toward the nearest uncollected piece." As if on cue, a thin, intensely bright beam of crimson light shot not from the box, but from the ruby fragment itself, slicing through the night sky. It aimed sharply southeast, toward the city’s historic waterfront.
Before he could jump down and follow the lead, a brilliant pale blue searchlight swept the roof. A sleek, black hovercraft, silent and menacing, rose from behind a silo. A loudspeaker crackled to life. “Attention, Red Boy! We know what you possess. Surrender the Ember Orb fragments now, or face the consequences.” The voice was the same metallic rasp from the warehouse. Nikos clutched the journal and the powerful red shard. The waterfront was his only chance. He took a running jump off the low parapet, landing on a stack of empty pallets below, and vanished into the shadows.
