Felicity worked the living anvil with the practiced ease of an artisan, her movements precise and fluid. The chitin, pliable and soft under her touch, began to take shape. I watched as she fed the raw bonewire into the crucible, where it melted and reformed into a series of jagged, iridescent discs.
As she worked, I returned to the console, placing my hand on the smooth, cool surface. The Aegis Node pulsed above me, its glyph-eyes fixed on my form.
"Tell me about the Bonekind Engine," I commanded, my voice low.
The AI didn't hesitate. It didn't speak in words, but in a torrent of images and sensations. I felt Zerask's long-dormant ambition, her vision for a new kind of world. The Bonekind Engine wasn't a weapon. It was a terraformer. A living heart that could convert existing biomes into something else entirely—a "flesh pit." A vast, organic landscape forged from the very essence of the Vein itself. A biome that would be a living extension of my will, a landscape I could command and control.
My heart hammered against my ribs. This was more than power. It was godhood.
While I was lost in this torrent of information, Felicity laid the finished chakrams on the tool bench. They hummed softly, and as I looked, I saw the runes on their surfaces glow. They weren't just throwing discs; they were a part of Felicity now, linked to her bio-field energy signature. They would return to her hand after every strike, a kinetic boomerang of pure Animus.
The Aegis Node's voice, cold and ancient, returned to my mind. "There were other projects. Zerask had grand designs for a new world."
A new blackprint flared on the console. It was a blueprint for a colossal, pseudo-vessel. A nascent bio-mechanical organic entity, half-sentient, designed to be a living fortress. Its title glowed in a new, crimson font: THE HAND.
The blackprint detailed a vast, multi-digited creature, designed to patrol and protect the Gutter Nest. But its design was incomplete. It lacked key materials. Materials I knew were not in this territory.
I felt a surge of frustration. "Where are these materials?"
The Aegis Node pulsed three times. A new, ancient glyph appeared on the console, glowing with a soft, inviting light. The wall behind the console, a solid sheet of veinstone and fused bone, slid open with a soft hiss.
A new corridor stretched into the darkness, lined with pulsating nerve-strands and smelling of ancient decay. This was not the Gutter Nest. This was a secret, unexplored passage into the deeper parts of the Vein.
The Aegis Node's voice was a whisper in my skull. "The materials you seek are found in the lower, unmapped levels. The exotic, forbidden parts of the Vein. Zerask believed they were the key to true evolution. They can only be found in the Spire Wastes, a place where the old world and the new world collide."
Felicity looked up from her work, her eyes wide as she saw the opened passage. "What's down there?"
I just looked at the Spineburst Chakrams resting on the table, and at the half-finished cloak draped over the forge. We had new tools, a new base, and a new goal.
"Our third claim" I said.
CENO: Board Room 7-A
The air in the CENO boardroom was sterile and cold, a stark contrast to the humid, pulsing chaos of the Beast Vein. Outside, the city was a quiet, organized grid of sky-high towers. Inside, a team of analysts and commanders sat around a polished Mahagony table, their faces illuminated by the eerie glow of a projection screen.
Marla stood at the head of the table, her posture rigid, her voice a clipped monotone. On the screen behind her, a high-resolution, data-tracked video of the Fangdome battle played on a loop. Every plasma burst, every brutal slam, every humiliating pin was rendered in perfect, chilling clarity.
"...as you can see," Marla said, pointing to a series of graphs that tracked energy output and combat efficiency, "the Hybrid Core is rapidly evolving. The host, designated Subject-Ash, and the symbiote, designated Herja, are achieving a level of combat synergy we did not predict."
The footage shifted to the Zerask fight. A red dot labeled VEINBORN moved with frightening speed across a glowing-blue topographical map of the Hollow Gutter Nest, dodging dozens of orange dots labeled ZERASK BROOD. The climax of the fight played out, the screen erupting in a nova of plasma and burning chitin.
"Initial projections placed a 70% chance of mission failure," Marla continued, her voice flat. "They not only succeeded, they salvaged high-value components, including a Tier 5 Genetic Catalyst and a Territory Key. Their combat rank has officially surpassed all known Tier 3 combatants."
A new video clip played, this time of the Fangdome match. It showed Ash/Herja's brutal, methodical assault on the Bloodbrine twins. The humiliation pins, the taunts, the feral grin—it was all there, recorded by a CENO drone hidden high in the stadium's rafters.
Doctor Syn, her hands clasped on the table, did not flinch. But her knuckles were white. Her eyes were fixed on the screen, a complex mix of professional analysis and maternal horror. She watched as her daughter, cloaked in feral power, slapped Kira's rear and threw her back to her corner. Syn's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
Doctor Nash, a thin man with a perpetually skeptical expression, cleared his throat. "The Orgone palm suckers. Can you confirm their efficiency?"
"They completely neutralized the psychic energy of the opponent designated Lana," Marla answered, bringing up a new graph. "The energy drain was absolute and immediate. It's a combat application we couldn't have anticipated."
"The core is becoming an anomaly," said Mister Kent, his voice a low rumble. "It's adapting. This is no longer just a viable combat solution. It's a risk."
Commander Mya Tarq, the head of CENO, remained silent. She was a presence of pure, coiled authority. Her gaze was fixed on the screen, not on the data, but on Ash's face as the raw, unbridled power of Herja consumed him.
Marla took a deep breath. "The subject has recently claimed the Hollow Gutter Nest. This makes them a sovereign power in the Vein. They have a territory, a forge, and access to knowledge they did not have before." She pointed to a final graph, this one showing a single, rapidly rising red line. "The evolution is exponential. And it is accelerating."
The room fell into a heavy silence, broken only by the distant hum of the building's climate control.
Commander Tarq finally spoke, her voice calm and even. "Doctor Syn. Your analysis?"
Syn swallowed, her gaze still on the screen, where her child was now a myth, a legend, a living weapon of mass destruction. "The subject is no longer an asset to be studied. It is a dominant force. If we do not act to contain it, it will continue to evolve outside of our control."
Commander Tarq nodded slowly, her eyes still on the screen. "And that, Doctor, is not an option. We will have to acquire them, no matter the cost. Contact the field agents. Begin preparing an extraction. The subject must be brought back to the facility."
The Flesh Orchid came into view.
Fifteen feet tall, swollen with sap and muscle-flesh, it bloomed from the cliff like a cathedral had been swallowed by a meat-eating flower. Its petals—veined in red-gold and twitching at the edges—curled open like they were listening.
Or laughing.
Beneath it, thorned brambles coiled in spinographic patterns—a carpet of vine-flesh, alert and shivering.
I took a slow breath; information coursed through my mind from Aegis node 7 "That's it. That thing contains some of the ingredients for the hand. Not all of them but a few"
"It's not a thing," Felicity said, "it's a viscous Polyander Snapping Maw plant."
The petals of the Polyander quivered.
Pheromones spilled from the folds—a warm, syrupy fog that targeted our sensory cortex.
I blinked than shouted, "Quick activate your cloak! it will shield us from the pheromones!
Me and Felicity both activated our Swarm skin cloaks instantly blocking us from the illusory pheromone attack.
The vision broke.
Just in time to see the central flower lurch open, revealing six vine-tongues tipped in serrated fangbuds, wet with anticipation.
CRACK!
A tongue snapped toward Felicity!
She cartwheeled under it and launched a Ricochet Chakram attack, the spinning disc crashing into the side-vines!
I ducked under a second tendril lash my bioplasmic armor taking a grazing hit—but caught the counter-attack in time, backflipping into a slope.
Felicity had no time for evasion.
She charged straight in, with a viper whip coil attack!
Felicity executed a series of acrobatic kicks and multi claw strikes with her talons, tail curling in the air like a gymnast's ribbon.
Felicity shouted ''Drones NOW!''
I somersaulted backward and slammed my oculus palm to the ground summoning dozens of undead spine weasels; with the hive mind connection I sicked them onto the polyander maw plant!
The Polyander Maw screamed and twisted as the spine weasel sunk their teeth into its tendrils, unleashing a necrotic bite that rotted the plant flesh!
Simultaneously I targeted several thick stalks with my Plasma canon tail unleashing electrical plasma burst of hellfire!
Felicity launched forward with violent velocity; she pounded the stalk cracking it at the stem and driving it into the dirt like a broken jawbone!
The orchid screamed—a triple-layered voice, both plant and predator.
The bloom peeled open one final time, unveiling a brain-bulb surrounded by twitching stamens that looked like leech tongues.
The Polyander Maw screamed. The sound wasn't just noise; it was a shriek of violated photosynthesis, a wave of concentrated, mind-numbing pain radiated from the brain-bulb, a final psychic assault meant to paralyze us.
"Felicity, watch out!" I screamed. The leech tongues snapped outward, aiming for Felicity with unnerving speed.
Felicity was a blur, dodging one, two, three of the tongues with a series of frantic acrobatic flips. Her chakrams, returning from their ricochet attack, spun in a protective whirlwind around her, clashing against the fleshy tongues with a metallic clang. But the tongues were relentless, moving faster than the eye could follow.
I knew this was our only chance.
Herja surged inside me, her feral mind locking onto the pulsing brain-bulb. I channeled every ounce of mana I had, overloading my plasma canon tail with a build-up of raw energy. The heat was immense, searing hot and bright as a newborn sun. I felt my bio-armor screaming under the pressure, the segments of my tail groaning as they struggled to contain the charge.
I took a breath and aimed. The world narrowed to a single point of light, a single, pulsating target.
"Burn!" I roared.
A blinding stream of pure, concentrated plasma erupted from my tail, a focused beam of blue-white hellfire that cut through the syrupy air and slammed directly into the Polyander Maw's exposed brain-bulb. The plant-creature's final shriek was cut short by a sound like a wet bag of explosives detonating. The bulb imploded, sending a shower of glowing, golden sap and charred petals flying across the cliff face.
The entire monstrous plant shuddered, convulsed, and then went still. Its muscle-flesh withered, turning to ash and dust. The vibrant colors faded to a sickly gray.
Felicity came to a stop, panting, and walked over to where the brain-bulb had been. There, resting on a small mound of pulsating, steaming flesh, were three iridescent, pearlescent organs, still pulsing faintly with life.
I limped over, my tail still smoking, and picked one up. It was warm to the touch and hummed with a strange, organic energy.
I felt Aegis Node 7's voice echo in my mind. "Claimant, your victory is confirmed. The Bio-Flux Conduit is acquired. A crucial component for The Hand. But there are others. The next component, the Marrow-Flesh Weave, is located in the Spire Wastes."
Felicity looked at the organs, her eyes wide with a triumphant gleam. "This is it, Ash. We're building our kingdom."
I nodded, the taste of victory, metallic and sweet, on my tongue. We had the first ingredient. But the journey had just begun.
The deeper we went, the more the Vein forgot what the surface was. The tunnels lost their structural integrity, becoming twisting, organic gullets of slick rock and knotted veins. The air grew heavy, thick with the scent of wet stone and the faint, coppery tang of old blood. We were no longer in the Hollow Gutter. We were in the Spire Wastes.
After what felt like hours of descending, the narrow corridor opened into a breathtaking, abyssal drop. We stepped out onto a ledge and looked down into a massive, hidden valley. It wasn't rock or metal. It was coral.
Spindly, bioluminescent growths of pulsating coral spiraled up from the valley floor, glowing with a soft, ethereal light. Strange, aquatic-like fauna drifted through the air, their colors shifting like living rainbows. It felt like we had stepped into a forgotten ocean, a place untouched by the harsh rules of the surface. This was the Coral Canyon.
But the beauty was a deception.
At the far end of the valley, perched on a jutting spire of hardened, flesh-like stone, was a temple. Its walls were etched with glyphs that pulsed with a deep, silent energy. And guarding its entrance was a behemoth that defied easy classification.
It was a Biomechanical Giga Beast.
It stood a hundred feet tall, a monstrous amalgamation of chitin and steel. Its organic body was plated with rusted metal and segmented gears that whirred softly with every massive breath. One of its arms was a hydraulic piston tipped with a massive, clawed hand. The other was a bone-blade. A single, glowing red optic stared out from a face made of both bone and chrome, its gaze sweeping over the valley with the unblinking vigilance of a machine.
"That's it," Herja whispered in my mind, her voice filled with a hungry reverence. "That thing has the parts we need."
I felt the Aegis Node 7's voice echo faintly in my consciousness. It showed me the schematics for The Hand again. To build it, we needed three key components from the Giga Beast: the bio-mechanical scraps from its armor, its glowing core, and three of its pulsing blood-bulbs.
Felicity's eyes, however, weren't on the beast. They were on the temple.
"Look at those glyphs," she breathed, her voice filled with a different kind of reverence. "That's not just a temple. That's a relic. It's too perfect to just be a guardian post. There has to be a vault inside, a library of lost tech."
I looked from the colossal guardian to the ancient temple. The mission was clear, but Felicity's ambition had just added a second, more intriguing layer to the objective.
"We take down the beast," I said, my plasma tail humming with anticipation. "We get our parts for the Hand. And then... we go inside."
Felicity grinned, a sharp, feral look on her face. "Sounds like a plan, Ash. Let's show this overgrown gear-head what a real fight looks like."
The air in the Coral Canyon was shattered by a primal roar. It wasn't from the Giga Beast; it was from me.
I slammed my Broodmother's Palm against the slick coral ledge. Mana surged, focusing on the psychic residue of our recent kill. From the ground, from the very essence of the Coral Canyon, a new horror took shape.
The Vicious Snapping Maw Polyander plant erupted from the coral floor, fifteen feet tall, its vine-tongues lashing, its central flower bursting open to reveal rows of serrated fangs. It wasn't as potent as the original, lacking the full psychic assault, but its physical form was a terrifying distraction. Simultaneously, dozens of undead Spine Weasels, their forms translucent and glowing, swarmed the base of the Giga Beast, their necrotic bites snapping at its metallic plating.
The Giga Beast, until now a silent, immobile guardian, roared. A sound of grinding gears and synthesized fury. Its single red optic flared, locking onto the horde of summoned creatures. Its massive hydraulic arm swung down, crushing dozens of Spine Weasels into glowing dust and tearing through the Polyander Maw's vine-tongues. The air filled with the sounds of crunching metal and screaming plant-flesh.
Felicity, meanwhile, was already airborne. With a powerful beat of her Succubus wings, she launched herself from the ledge, soaring into the air. She moved with a gymnast's grace, her body twisting as she pulled out her Spineburst Chakrams. With a flick of her wrist, she hurled them.
The energized discs spun through the air, glowing with a fierce violet energy, carving arcs of light across the cavern. They slammed into the Giga Beast's exposed joints, the places where organic muscle met rusted steel. Sparks flew as the chakrams bit deep, ricocheting off the armored hide and returning to her hands with a satisfying thrum. The Giga Beast roared, its massive frame shuddering from the impact.
I followed up with my own assault. My Plasma Canon Tail hummed, building to a furious crescendo. The Giga Beast was preoccupied, its optic flickering between the swarming Spine Weasels and Felicity's aerial assault. This was my window.
I unleashed a barrage of Plasma Tail bursts, bright blue bolts of concentrated energy slamming into the Giga Beast's chest plate, targeting the seams where the metal met its organic form. Each burst exploded with a concussive force, sending shrapnel of chitin and rusted steel flying. The Giga Beast roared again, a deeper, more pained sound this time. Smoke curled from its chest, its massive frame sparking and shuddering.
The fight had begun. And we were hitting hard.
The Giga Beast, its armor smoldering from my plasma blasts, its movements sluggish from the swarm of spine weasels, let out a pained roar. It lurched backward, a sound of grinding metal and torn flesh, and stumbled toward the temple. Its single red optic flickered as it reached the sanctuary, and a pulsating energy field shimmered to life around its colossal frame.
Its wounds began to seal. The rusted metal plates re-fused. The torn organic tissue started to knit itself back together.
"It's regenerating!" Felicity yelled, her voice straining against the sudden, powerful hum of the temple.
I felt a faint pulse from the Aegis Node in my head, confirming my fears. This was the temple's life support.
Suddenly, four massive Beast Totems—one on each corner of the temple—rose from the coral. Each totem was a spiraling column of bone and stone, its surface etched with the faces of various creatures from the Vein: A Gorgon's head, a Scorch-hound's maw, a Hydron's tentacled face, and a dozen more. The heads spun, glowing with a fierce light, feeding power into the Giga Beast.
Felicity's cybernetic eye whirred. "It's a puzzle! We have to align the heads on the totems. They have to match up to deactivate the temple's regeneration." She looked at me, a sharp grin on her face. "It's a classic divide and conquer. It can't guard all four at once."
I nodded, my tail coiling with a new surge of energy. "You take two. I'll take two."
We split up, moving with a synchronized purpose. Felicity, with a powerful flap of her wings, soared to the far side of the temple, a flash of violet against the glowing coral. I charged forward, my footsteps thudding against the canyon floor.
The Giga Beast, its single red optic flickering with confusion, roared again. It lumbered toward me, its massive hydraulic arm a piston of furious destruction. It had made its choice.
I ducked under the crushing blow, the wind from the piston slamming me into the totem's base. I slammed my hand against the stone, my new Orgone palm suckers glowing. The totem's face, a Gorgon's, screeched as I tore at it, twisting and yanking until it locked into place. I didn't need a key; I had brute force.
On the other side of the temple, Felicity was a whirlwind of motion. She landed on the head of her totem, dodging a backhanded slap from the Giga Beast that sent a shockwave through the ground. She spun, using her agility to grab and align a Scorch-hound's head with a series of precise kicks.
The Giga Beast was trapped in the middle, lumbering between its two attackers, unable to stop us both. It was a terrifying, beautiful dance of combat and strategy.
With a final, desperate heave, I twisted the second totem into place. The face of a Hydron clicked, and a wave of silence washed over the canyon. Simultaneously, Felicity's last totem head snapped into place.
The four Beast Totems went dark. The regenerative shimmer around the Giga Beast's frame vanished. It was now a lumbering, wounded giant, its core exposed, its wounds gaping and leaking oil and blood.
The fight was no longer a matter of survival. It was a matter of execution.
Felicity looked at me, her eyes gleaming with a manic energy. "Distraction?" she said, her voice a low hum. "I do love to play."
With a flash of violet, she was off, a blur of motion darting across the coral floor. The Giga Beast, wounded and enraged, focused its single red optic on her. It was a lumbering, broken machine, but it was still a threat. Its massive hydraulic arm swung down, a piston of fury, but Felicity was already gone, a phantom of movement dodging, weaving, and cartwheeling just out of its reach. She was a buzzing insect, a taunt to a dying god.
The Giga Beast, unable to land a hit, roared in frustration, its gears grinding, its focus entirely on the lightning-fast pest that was harassing it.
This was my window.
I moved with the silent, predatory focus of a hunting predator. My feet made no sound on the coral as I stalked the beast's blind side, my gaze locked on the pulsating core in its chest. I felt Herja's will surge, a silent command for utter efficiency. Every ounce of my being was channeled into a single, brutal objective.
I launched myself at the Giga Beast's chest, scrambling up its armored plates. The beast didn't even notice me until I was there, my fingers digging into the seam around its core. Its single red optic whipped back, its jaw dropping in a silent, furious roar.
But it was too late.
I placed my palm directly on the core. The Orgone palm suckers activated. It was a violation. The suckers latched on, not just to the core's surface, but to its very essence. I felt the Giga Beast's life force—a cold mix of electrical current and organic vitality—scream as I began to pull.
My muscles strained, my feet scrabbling for purchase. The beast thrashed, its body convulsing as if it were a dying planet. I gritted my teeth, pulling with all the strength Herja and I had. The core resisted, its energy lashing out, but my suckers held fast.
With a final, terrible wrench, I tore the core from its housing.
The Giga Beast went still. The red optic flickered once, then went dark. The hum of its gears ceased. It shuddered, then collapsed in a monumental crash, the sound echoing through the canyon like the end of the world. Its massive body slumped against the temple's entrance, a silent mountain of dead flesh and useless metal.
Felicity landed beside me, her chest heaving. She didn't speak. She just looked at me, at the smoking, pulsating core in my hand.
Then she looked at the temple, now unguarded.
"Well, Ash" she said, her voice quiet but filled with a savage triumph. "You got what you came for. Now...now it's time to get what I came for."