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CHAPTER 144 — ALMOST THERE
It was massive. Easily as large as the queen ant had been. But this one was built for combat. Armored in layers of stone and organic plating. Six arms ending in claws that looked like they could shear through steel. A head that was more skull than flesh. And its eyes. Intelligent. Focused. Aware. This was the guardian. The protector of the three hearts. And it had been waiting for us. It clicked once. A sound like rocks grinding together. Then it charged. We split up. No discussion needed. Just instinct from too many battles. I went left. Casimir went right. The guardian had to choose. It chose me. Its claw came down like a falling boulder. I rolled under it. Came up slashing. My blade scraped against its armor. Barely scratched it. Too thick. Too protected. It spun. Faster than something that size should move. Another claw caught me in the ribs—the already-broken ones. I flew backward. Hit a heart chamber. Felt something inside me break. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Th
CHAPTER 143 — THE TOXIC DEEP
Chapter 9: The Toxic DeepI thought of Cent and Vivi as we stood on that poisoned beach.My little siblings. Seven and nine years old. Still innocent. Still believing the adults would keep them safe. They'd never seen an ocean. Never felt sand beneath their feet. Never watched waves roll toward shore.They should see this. Not like this—not toxic, not deadly. But an ocean. Real water stretching to the horizon. The way it was supposed to be.The way it used to be, before the Fall."Kae." Casimir's voice pulled me back. "We need to keep moving."I tore my gaze from the ocean. Looked at the hives in the distance. Rocky formations built into cliffs. Ancient-looking. Waiting."How far?" My voice was barely a whisper.He checked his flickering interface. "Ten kilometers. Maybe less."Ten kilometers. Might as well be ten thousand. Every part of me was dissolving. The toxic water had accelerated the poisoning. My skin was covered in chemical burns. My lungs felt like they were filled with aci
CHAPTER 142 — THE DROWNING APPROACH
"We find it. We destroy it."He stood. Somehow. I didn't know how he was still moving. Didn't know how I was still moving."Can you walk?" he asked.I tested my legs. They barely responded. But I could stand. Could move."I can walk."We started down the corridor. Deeper into the hive. The bioluminescence grew brighter. The heartbeat louder.The corridor opened into a chamber.And I understood why they called it the water-hive.The chamber was filled with liquid. Not toxic water—something else. Something clear and bioluminescent. Like liquid light. It filled the chamber to about waist height.And floating in it—suspended in that glowing fluid—were pods. Hundreds of them. Each one containing something. Growing. Developing."It's a nursery," Casimir said. "They're growing more mutants here."We waded into the fluid. It was warm. Almost comfortable. So different from the toxic water outside.But as we moved deeper, the pods around us began to pulse. To react to our presence.Something in
CHAPTER 141 — THE KILLSWITCH PUPPET
I felt my entire muscles were threatening to rip off my body as the pain was becoming unbearable ever since I gained consciousness again. Before me was Shen whose face was distorted, with her smile still being wide and predatory. "Tell me, Kae," she purred, tapping a long fingernail against the stand that held me hostage. "How did you tame it?" "Tame what?" I asked, pretending to know what she meant. "That mutant that you named....." she paused, before she snorted as though she was trying to hold her laugh. "Echo." The entire lab burst into laugh with Shen stating how weird and funny the name was. "Of all the cool names to give it, it was Echo you thought of." and another burst of laughter sounded. I wonder what was so form with the name Echo but there's a reason behind that name. After she was done laughing, she wiped the tears off her eyes with her coat. "Such kind of mutant wasn't programmed for domesticity, but you did make me curious. How were you able to switch
CHAPTER 140 — ARCHITECT OF AGONY
The loop was a conveyor belt of tragedy. First, the cold shadow of the warehouse and the sneers of Sera’s bookies. Then, the frantic run through the ash. Finally, the sight of Tobi’s eyes going dull as the life left them, a sight that killed me as surely as the steam did. Over and over, I watched him die. I felt my own throat crushed as the toxins burned. Why only this? I thought, huddled in a memory of a dark alleyway while the bookies’ footsteps echoed. Why I'm I going through all these? These are memories I simply want to bury and forget that it ever existed. I then realized that this wasn't usual. My memories skipping each time made me understand that I was being trapped in my own memories. The fact that I am only shown the terrible painful memories had made me have enough. "I'm not running anymore," I whispered. I decided that I am going to break this script. In the next loop, before Tobi could even speak, I did something that felt like tearing my own soul out. I struck h
CHAPTER 139 — THE LABYRINTH OF THE MIND
The interior of the behemoth wasn't only looking like a stomach; it felt more like it was a living, pulsing nightmare of biology. An error that wasn't even supposed to happen in the first place. As I was swallowed, the sensation of falling was replaced by the wet, rhythmic grinding of muscular walls. My already shattered body was dragged across slick, acidic surfaces that hissed against my skin. A touch of it sent burning sensation wash all over my body like it was burrowing hole into it. It felt like I was being washed inside fire. Suddenly, the internal walls convulsed and from the darkness, a single, whip-like appendage shot out. It looks like a translucent, sickly violet tentacle, that was veined with a pulsing neon light that suggested a nervous system far more complex than any animal's. I gathered every ounce of strength I had left, my fingers digging into the rubbery flesh of the tentacle. I'm trying to holdon with a death grip as quickly as possible to avoid getting cl
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