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The defeat of your strongest foe thus far is a sobering experience; but you have no time to reflect on it. The timer in your goggles is critically low. You sprint down the left fork, towards that precious square of open sky at the end of the hallway. With only minutes to spare before you're marked and hunted down forever, you go as fast as you possibly can, panting in exertion as your feet come down on textureless ground over and over. Your flight is so frenzied that you trip and fall numerous times, only to push yourself back up and sprint like a wild beast, hunched forward and with your arms outstretched.
Phascomon beeps urgently from within the Linker, unable to help or boost you in any way. All he can do is stay put and leave you with one less burden to carry. You reach the bridge and stare at the distant core to the West, where you planted your explosive. You won't be able to stick around and watch it detonate like Squid wanted.
[Marnie. You at the exit?]
"I see it!"
At the end of the orange road, somewhere below your current altitude, is an opening. It's completely identical to the one you entered through. There are no servitors guarding this one. You see a tiny shape in the distance, flying in frenzied loops. A quick zoom with your goggles reveals it to be Kaus Gammamon.
One final stretch. You step onto the bridge, eyeing the clock while you move towards salvation. The bridge ends abruptly, but you don't even activate your f1oat.app. Instead, you leap off and allow yourself to fall full-speed. You smash into the segment of orange hardlight beneath you, feeling pain shoot through your body, then fade away once it hits the limit. You get up and go, refusing to writhe on the floor and waste the precious seconds that the free-fall bought you.
One minute left. Forty-five seconds. Wind is standing at the exit, one hand on the door, poised to leave as soon as his own timer runs out. Kaus Gammamon stops flying and joins him in waiting.
Thirty seconds. You're running and running, trying to get down there before it's too late. The air buzzes with warning signs, and the red hue from the sabotaged core begins spreading outwards, initiating alert mode for the entirety of the partition. It overtakes your position in an instant, bathing the world in that harrowing shade for the third time. It's a fitting ambience for impending doom.
Twenty. Wind stretches his hands out while you're too far away to take them. Light flashes across his goggles, and with an inaudible swear, he turns away from you. He points to the door urgently, then clasps his partner's arm and loads himself out, leaving you to run solo.
Ten. You land on the platform that hosts the exit, at the very end of the shortest segment of bridge yet.
Nine. You run
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
You make it.
