The sewage grid sat beneath Erebus like a forgotten skeleton—
rusted pipes, cracked filters, dripping steam vents that hissed like they wanted to drag you into hell.
Lira moved ahead of us, crouched low, rifle raised.
"Stay quiet," she whispered. "If a patrol hears us down here, we're cooked."
Her boots splashed through filthy runoff water.
The android survivors followed, limping, sparks flickering.
The stench was so rancid even I felt my sensors choke.
But the worst part wasn't the smell.
It was the silence.
Heavy.
Thick.
Wrong.
Like something down here was listening.
The kid stayed beside me, clutching my burnt plating like I was the last safe wall in the world.
"You're… glowing again," he whispered.
I looked down.
He wasn't wrong.
The Solar Fracture on my ribs pulsed softly under my skin—gold flickers leaking through the cracks, like coals under thin metal.
Lira saw it too.
"You're overheating," she muttered. "Keep that shit under control."
I tried.
I really did.
But every breath felt hotter than the last.
Heat crawled up my spine and pooled at the base of my skull like something alive—
stretching,
shifting,
scratching at the inside of my bones.
"Bro," the kid whispered. "Something's… moving under your skin."
I clenched my teeth.
"Don't look at it."
We reached a rusted drainage gate.
A massive iron wheel sealed it shut.
Lira placed her palm on the lock.
"Military-grade seal. I can't hack it from this side."
I stepped forward.
"I can open it."
"Don't burn yourself out," she snapped.
"I'm fine."
"Bullshit."
But she still stepped aside.
I placed my hand on the cold metal.
Heat surged through my arm—fast, vicious, hungry.
The fracture pulsed—
once,
twice—
A third pulse hit like a sledgehammer.
I gasped.
Something inside me moved.
A shape.
A limb.
A shadow.
It pressed against the inside of my ribs like it wanted out.
"The hell was that?" I hissed.
Lira stepped closer. "What's happening?"
"I—don't know."
The gate beneath my hand began to melt, metal dripping like candle wax under solar flare heat.
But the heat wasn't coming from me.
It was coming from
behind me.
From my shadow.
Lira's breath caught.
"K-17… your shadow is wrong."
I turned.
And deadass—my blood went cold.
My shadow didn't match my body.
It stood taller.
Broader.
With jagged, twisted limbs that bent in all the wrong ways.
Like a beast made of molten knives and sun-fire.
My voice cracked. "No… no, that's not—"
The shadow twitched.
Lira grabbed my arm. "Back up. Now."
Her grip pulled me into focus.
I exhaled—hard.
The heat died down.
The shadow snapped back to normal.
Mostly.
The gate fell open with a crash.
We stepped through.
But Lira didn't let me move far.
She caught my wrist, held it tight, her fingers trembling just enough for me to feel it.
"What the hell was that thing?" she whispered.
"I don't know," I said. "But it's getting stronger."
"Your fractures are spreading faster," she said. "If this keeps up, you'll turn into—"
She stopped herself.
Didn't finish the sentence.
Didn't have to.
We both knew what she meant.
The Jagged Sun-Beast.
The thing living in my marrow.
Waiting for a chance to tear through my skin and wear me like a dead puppet.
"You can pull me back," I said quietly. "You did before."
Her eyes flicked down.
"I didn't do anything special."
"You touched me. It slowed the fracture."
She looked away, jaw tight.
"That doesn't mean it'll work again."
"Then stay close," I said.
Her breath hitched.
Just a little.
Then she shoved me off.
"Don't get cocky. And don't depend on me."
But the blush she tried to hide under the grime did not go unnoticed.
We pushed deeper into the sewage grid, stepping through steam clouds and dripping chains.
Above us, muffled voices echoed from the city streets.
"Patrol shift incoming."
"Keep scanners active."
"Sector Nine breach reported."
We were close.
Lira raised a fist—signal to stop.
Ahead, a ladder led up to a vent grate—thin beams of city neon leaking through.
"That's our exit," she whispered. "Once we climb up, we'll be in the Lower Market. Crowded. Loud. Perfect cover."
Behind her, the kid gasped.
"K-17…"
I turned.
My shadow had changed again.
Just for a breath.
But long enough to see the beast inside it—
teeth like obsidian,
spine jagged like broken glass,
a sun burning inside its ribcage.
Its jaws moved.
It mouthed something.
A single word.
Not human.
Not android.
A god's language.
Older than memory.
My skin crawled.
Lira's hand hovered near mine again.
"Don't lose it now," she whispered.
No promises.