The ring lifted me above the square and dragged me towards the tower.
Styx darted after me. I asked her to stop.
"He's waiting for you."
"For you," she replied.
The basilisk could not enter the voluntary contract. Kane controlled my muscles with short pulses, but he could not reach Styx. So he decided to use simpler leverage.
The ring tightened. My ribs creaked.
Styx came closer.
"Don't."
She did not retreat.
Kane pulled us both onto the tower's upper platform. The unfinished Crown circuit stood at its centre. A shard of a titanic core was melting in its holder.
"You both still think you're choosing," Kane said. "But choice exists only between different prices."
He showed us the square below. The guards were closing the exits again. Fewer hostages remained, but every one of them was still vulnerable.
Arden appeared on one of the screens, the bodyguard Styx had entered inside the Guild. Kane placed him beside the prisoners and declared him the victim of a forbidden ability.
Kane did not lie in a single word, and that made the blow more precise.
Arden was afraid of me. I could feel the residue of his fear even without the parasite. If I ordered the swarm to attack, his would be the first human imprint the System offered to turn into energy.
Kane had not simply gathered innocent hostages. He had chosen a man I truly had wronged and made any attempt to save him look like an effort to conceal the crime.
Lily saw him on the screen.
"We can't cut this part out," she said.
"I know."
We had to save Arden and leave him the right to testify against both of us.
"Kill my people, Rex. The System will restore your strength. Absorb the circuit, become master of the city and save the rest. Or keep your hands clean while they die."
A panel appeared before my eyes.
"Conditions for accelerated ascension almost fulfilled. Human energy required."
Styx caught the scent of blood below.
Kane smiled.
"Hunger is always more honest than freedom."
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