Pain is a luxury for creatures made of soft flesh, but raw electricity is anentirely different beast when your bones are made of stolen scrap.The white hot current from the silver commander’s net surged through my calcified ribs, freezing my joints into a rigid cage of white fire. I stood trapped on the high parapet of Sun’s End, the heavy executioner’s blade locked in my paralyzed right hand while the lightning harpoons from the surrounding ships slammed into the stone platform around my feet. The voltage vibrated directly through my skull, turning Elder Mo’s mental voice into a shattered, frantic echo."Your skeleton is liquefying, boy," Mo screamed within the dark recesses of my mind. "The conductive iron is channeling too much energy. If you don't release the circuit, the internal heat will turn your Titan core into a pool of dead slag.""I am not releasing it, Mo," I spat out, my jaw ratcheting open with a harsh, metallic click as t

The dead machines of the eastern sector did not care about our revolution, but they were perfectly willing to crush us anyway.The heavy pressurized hatch of the third spire gave way with a deafening screech of tearing brass, releasing a scalding blast of green steam that coated my iron mask in bitter moisture. I stepped over the Threshold of the Copper Tunnels, my heavy blade arm ready as the automated forge network roared to life around us. Miles of interlocking pipes, massive copper pistons, and glowing pressure valves stretched deep into the subterranean heart of the mountain, humming with a frantic, unthinking rhythm."Watch the ventilation grates!" Vance shouted behind me, his voice barely rising above the thunderous pounding of the steam hammers. "The automated defenses are resetting. The princess wasn't lying about the security grid.""Keep the line tight, Vance," I ordered, my left knee clicking sharply as I forced my calcifying legs down the narrow cat

The earth does not bury its gods properly when they die in battle.I pushed through the thick wall of grey ash that choked the entrance to the canyon, my heavy iron left boot sinking deep into a drift of pulverized white powder. This was the Valley of Withered Bones, a desolate scar on the edge of the frontier territory where the first primitive Soul Titans had been forged ten thousand years ago. The black cloud from my core drifted low across the landscape, wrapping around the massive, rib-like stone pillars that shot upward from the canyon floor like the teeth of a giant trap."The air in this place is completely dead, Lu Feng," Vance said, his hand tightly clutching his pike as he kept pace beside me. "My spiritual core feels like it is being squeezed by an iron vice. The scouts refuse to march any deeper into the ravine.""The scouts are right to be afraid," I replied, my voice rattling flatly against the interior of my mask. "This is where the high priests learne

Every time I inhale, the inside of my chest sounds like a shovel scraping against gravel.I leaned heavily against the copper railing of the central maintenance tracks, my left hand leaving a wet, greasy smudge on the hot metal. The descent back into the automated forge networks had been a grueling march, and with every step down into the damp heat, the calcification inside my rib cage had tightened its grip. It was no longer just my bones turning to scrap iron. The gray, fibrous lattice was creeping into the soft tissue of my respiratory tract, hardening the lining of my bronchial tubes until each breath required an intentional, agonizing heave of my torso."You are drowning in your own dust, Lu Feng," Elder Mo's phantom voice vibrated through the base of my skull, his tone uncharacteristically grim. "The dark aura of the Devoured Titan is finalizing the structural conversion. Your lungs are losing their elasticity. They are turning into a pair of rigid, unyielding blacksmith bellows

The memories of a dead man taste like cold copper and stale blood when you rip them straight from the marrow.I knelt in the damp shale of Jade Pass, my heavy iron left hand clamped over the fractured bronze mask of the viper captain. He was the only assassin left breathing, his green-scaled chest heaving in shallow, ragged jerks against the wet stones. The artificial core in my chest hummed with a deep, predatory resonance, sending a dark, liquid warmth through my mercury veins that demanded to be fed."He is fading fast, Lu Feng," Elder Mo’s phantom voice echoed inside my skull, his thoughts sharp and urgent. "The poison from his own broken daggers is leaking into his bloodstream. If you want to drain his mind, you must open the connection before his neural paths turn to ice.""Hold him down, Elder Gu," I commanded, my voice flat and mechanical against the interior of my mask.Elder Gu stepped forward, his massive, slate colored hands pinning the as