The holographic face projection of Aegis Core, resembling the creator, still wore a cynical smile before Davin. Yet, there was no time for Davin to ponder his family's legacy any longer.

Woo... woo... woo!

The deafening red emergency alarms instantly detonated across every corner of the Veridian Spire tower. The steel doors of the main server room burst open with hydraulic hisses, and dozens of corporate cyber special forces (Enforcers) armed with heavy plasma poured in from all directions, firing volleys of energy rounds that shattered the surrounding server consoles.

"Davin... wake up, please!" a weak groan echoed from the floor. Lyra slowly regained consciousness from the sleeping gas's effects, her eyes widening as she saw dozens of cyber soldiers surrounding their position. "Damn... are we trapped?!"

Davin dropped to his knees instantly, grabbing Lyra’s arm and helping her up. "Not yet!" Davin shouted amid the chaotic din of plasma gunfire raining across the room.

He glanced toward the giant bulletproof glass window behind the primary terminal—which directly revealed the expanse of Neo-Veridia's toxic cloud abyss outside, as well as the high-speed maglev train track running horizontally right in front of the tower.

"Hold on to me tightly!" Davin ordered quickly.

Before the cyber soldiers' barrage of bullets could tear through their bodies, Davin took a stance, aiming a hard spinning kick using his remaining strength to strike the thick glass of the server window.

Crack... SMASH!

The giant glass fracture exploded outward together with a high-pressure gale from outside the tower, carrying along dust and metal shards. Without hesitation, Davin wrapped an arm around Lyra’s waist and leaped out from the hundredth-floor window toward the void below.

"Waaaaah!" Lyra screamed hysterically, clutching Davin’s jacket tightly as they fell freely through the toxic cloud fog.

Thud!

Right below their falling point, an express maglev train zipped at sonic speed along the levitating magnetic track. Davin and Lyra landed with a heavy impact on the metal roof of the speeding rear carriage, nearly tumbling off had Davin not instantly driven his fingers into the iron plate joint of the carriage.

On the carriage roof hurtling through the night windstorm and toxic clouds, a lethal chase commenced.

"Intruders detected on the express train roof!" a status report over the cyber soldiers' communication radio echoed from the front carriage.

Three elite corporate cyber soldiers climbed out from the front carriage roof emergency hatch, wearing magnetic boots that kept them standing firmly atop a train racing hundreds of kilometers per hour. They instantly aimed their plasma rifles at Davin and Lyra.

"Stay behind me, Lyra!" Davin called out.

Davin struggled to his feet, his stance adjusted to the violent swaying of the train carriage. When the first soldier fired a plasma beam, Davin leapt agilely to the side, dodging the shot that melted the iron roof behind him.

He retaliated swiftly, lunging forward and slamming his right palm against the cyber soldier's chest. The Echo ability activated instantly, reading the wear history on the enemy's chest armor joint and rewinding it to the point of structural fragility.

Crack!

The soldier's armor shattered to pieces from within, sending him stumbling sideways to be swept away by the fierce wind into the cloud abyss below.

Davin did not stop. He pivoted and deployed a similar tactical technique to incapacitate the second soldier, leveraging the train's sway momentum to bring down his opponent without engaging in raw physical combat.

Yet, the third soldier managed to discharge a ricochet shot grazing Davin's left shoulder, causing him to hiss in pain while pressing against the torn wound on his coat.

"Davin, your left shoulder is bleeding!" Lyra screamed from behind the roof ventilation cowl where she had taken temporary shelter.

"I'm fine! Hurry up and find a way inside the engineer's carriage!" Davin replied, parrying a vibro-blade strike from the final soldier and knocking him off the train roof.

Lyra nodded quickly. She wasted not a single second. Using her portable decoder device, she cracked the engineer carriage roof emergency door electronic lock in seconds, then shoved her way inside the control cabin.

"I'm inside!" Lyra's voice sounded over the mini radio comms in Davin's ear. "The steering system is automatically controlled by the Aegis Core AI... but don't worry, I'm hacking its navigation protocols to divert this train off the city grid!"

Inside the dark control cabin, Lyra’s fingers danced furiously across the holographic keyboard, cold sweat dampening her temples as lines of hacking code clashed with the AI's military-grade firewall.

"Good, Lyra! Hold on!" Davin shouted from the carriage roof, standing ready to monitor their surroundings.

Yet, just as they thought they had seized control, the night sky above the train track suddenly lit up with a blinding bright red light.

Zzzt... Bip! Bip! Bip!

Davin looked up quickly into the air. From a distance above the toxic clouds, a corporate Model-Goliath Heavy Combat Drone streaked downward at incredible speed, its plasma propellers roaring to shatter the night. At the bottom of the giant drone's hull, dual missile launchers opened automatically, locking body heat coordinates right onto the carriage where Davin and Lyra stood.

"Damn it...!" Davin growled, his eyes widening as he watched the guidance missile tips glow brightly.

The combat drone fired. Two high-speed plasma missiles zipped straight through the air, leaving white smoke trails behind them, heading unmercifully right toward the maglev train carriage where they stood.