2025-08-10 05:07:40
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34. The March of the Blooms
At first, it looked like a trick of the light, jagged black shapes swaying against the pale sky.Then Kai saw the way they moved, not like wind in trees but like creatures walking.They weren’t just blooms planted in the ground. These blooms had roots like legs. They were coming closer.A sound rolled over the plateau, deep, slow, and heavy. The ground trembled with each step.Amara lay against the cold stone, barely able to lift her head. “Those, aren’t wild. They’re controlled.”Kai knelt beside her. “By the inland Sentinel?”Her eyes closed. “By whoever wins, and right now, that thing is the only one left.”Thorne wiped blood from his face. “If those things get here, we’re done. We barely held one bloom before.”Rex stepped up, glancing toward the horizon. “That’s not an army you fight head-on. That’s an army you run from.”Thorne shook his head. “Where? The sea’s at our back. The inland path is blocked by pod-bearers. You see an exit, point it out.”The inland Sentinel stood still
33. Three Seconds to Decide
The inland Sentinel’s foot crashed down, shaking the plateau. The stone split and crumbled beneath its weight.It was heading straight for the ridge where Nova’s team had been holding out.Kai’s stomach twisted. He could almost see the path, in five, maybe six steps, it would crush everything in its way.Behind him, pod-bearers kept pouring into the tower, the air thick with gunfire and the sharp smell of burning ichor.Amara clutched her head, her voice trembling. “If it reaches her, it won’t need the Seed Core from you. It will pull the location from her mind, and then it will kill her.”Thorne fired at a pod-bearer climbing over the barricade. “So stop it!”Kai’s hand tightened on the glowing Core. Rex slid next to him, plasma rifle smoking. “You’ve got two choices: burn it now, or watch your friend die.”Kai’s jaw clenched. “If I burn it now, I kill Amara. And Linh.”Rex didn’t blink. “And if you don’t, you kill everyone.”Before Kai could decide, the ocean Sentinel, wounded but s
32. When Titans Walk
The plateau groaned under their feet. Dust rained down from the tower’s ceiling. From the west, the ocean Sentinel hauled its massive body onto the land, each step leaving a crater in the rock.From the east, the inland Sentinel appeared, its armor the color of rusted iron, its limbs bristling with spikes like dead trees.Between them, the tower and everyone inside stood like a pebble between two storms. Rex swore under his breath. “Two of them? This is not a fight we can win.”Thorne gripped his shotgun tighter. “We’re not running.”“Not running?” Rex snapped. “You see the size of those things?”Thorne’s eyes didn’t leave the inland giant. “Running doesn’t help if there’s nowhere to run to.”Amara knelt in the tower’s center, sweat dripping down her face. The tether glowed faintly, the link to Linh stretched thin. “They’re not just walking here,” she whispered. “They’re speaking to each other. Deciding what to do with us.”Kai crouched beside her. “What are they saying?”She looked u
31. The Thing From the Deep
The wind howled across the plateau. Everyone at the tower froze, weapons forgotten for a moment, staring toward the ocean.It was not a ship. It was not the ark. It was bigger. A wall of jagged black armor pushed through the waves, each plate shifting like the scales of some ancient beast. Between the plates, faint green light pulsed, as if something alive was breathing inside, and it was coming toward them.Amara’s voice was soft, almost lost under the roar of the sea. “That’s not the gardener's work. Not entirely.”Kai turned sharply. “Explain.”She shook her head. “It feels wrong. Not like the others. This thing was made.”“By who?” Thorne demanded.Her answer was cold. “By people.”The thing reached the cliffs. Its weight made the ground shudder. Stone cracked and tumbled into the sea, taking pieces of the cliff with it. The edge of the plateau groaned under the strain. Thorne cursed. “We stay here, we drop into the ocean with it.”As if the giant’s arrival had called them, the
30. The Seeds of War
The plateau shook beneath Thorne’s boots. Down in the low mist, shapes moved, dark, lean, fast. Each one carried a glowing green lump in its chest. “Pods,” Amara whispered, her voice shaking.Thorne lifted his rifle. “Pods for what?”She met his eyes. “New life. New weapons. New arks.”The lead creature broke into a sprint. The others followed, their claws biting into the dirt.“Positions!” Thorne roared.The gunners opened fire, bullets tearing into the first wave. Black ichor splattered across the rock. But even with holes in their chests, the pod-bearers kept coming.“They’re not stopping!” one gunner shouted.On the comm, Kai’s voice cut through the gunfire. “Thorne, hold your ground. We’re on our way.”Thorne gritted his teeth. “Better hurry. We’re gonna run out of ammo before you run out of sky.”Amara sat in the center of the tower, the tether still faintly glowing. Her breathing was ragged.“They’re linked,” she said. “Not like the ark or bloom. These are pieces of it. If the
29. Two Fronts
The camp was quiet except for the wind moving through the cliffs. Everyone was staring at Amara.She sat upright now, her dark hair falling around her pale face. The faint green glow in her eyes made her look both fragile and dangerous.“You can’t be serious,” Nova said.Amara didn’t flinch. “I am. The Gardener knows me. I am part of it. If I reach for both the bloom and the ark at the same time, I can connect them, make them share the same root. That way, a strike against one will hit the other.”Dax shook his head. “That sounds like magic, not science.”“It’s biology,” Amara said softly. “Terrible, unnatural biology. But it will work.”Kai studied her. “You’re leaving something out.”Amara met his gaze. “If I do this, the Gardener will know exactly where I am. It will send everything it has to stop me.”Linh’s grip tightened on the tether between them. “And you think we’ll just let that happen?”Amara’s voice didn’t rise, but it carried weight. “If it works, the war could end before
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