The will of the False God was as cold as the frost of a thousand ages. A low hum, resembling grinding metal, drifted unhurriedly beyond the fissures of the shattered rock, scraping against the skull like claws. Ajji curled into the narrow shadow cast by that peculiar dark red metal plate. Every icy rasp of metal made her heart pound wildly against her ribs. The lingering taste of blood in her throat intertwined with the searing heat of the fragment in her arms, burning her consciousness. The claustrophobic darkness and the pressure of impending death squeezed her nerves, and every difficult expansion of her lungs came with a sharp, tearing pain.
She must not sleep... must not be found... she told herself over and over, digging her fingernails deep into the wounds in her palms, using the pain to fight off the weakness and lethargy sweeping through her entire body. Her consciousness felt as though it could slip away from this battered shell at any moment.
Beyond the rock crevice, the icy scraping of metal finally stopped. A dead silence descended, heavy enough to crush the breath out of her lungs. The False God's scanning unit... had it moved away?
Chapter 141