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Chapter 28- The Chrysalis
The hangar smelled of ozone and wet earth, but beneath that, there was a new scent—something sweet and cloying, like rotting orchids.Drake stood before the Aethelgard Chassis, his arms spread wide in a messianic pose. The purple light flooding from his eyes illuminated the rain-slicked concrete, casting long, distorted shadows against the walls. Behind him, the giant machine wasn't just standing; it was breathing. The metal plates on its chest rose and fell in a rhythmic, biological heave."Drake," I said, gripping my wrench until my knuckles popped. "Step away from the mech. That’s not a request."Drake tilted his head. The movement was jerky, inhuman."You still speak to the vessel," the Scorpio Knight’s voice echoed from Drake’s throat. It was a dual-tone sound—Drake’s vocal cords vibrating in sync with the metallic hum of the machine behind him. "This shell is empty. The soul has been... displaced."Thump.The Chassis took a step forward without a pilot in the cockpit. The purple
Chapter 27- Venom in the Veins
The silence that followed the battle was heavier than the gunfire. It was a suffocating, wet blanket of shock that settled over the Perimeter Outpost.Rain hissed against the cooling armor of the Aethelgard Chassis. The steam rising from the machine didn't smell like water vapor anymore; it smelled like burnt sugar and rotten meat."Get the pilot out," Commander Vane ordered. Her voice was flat, the kind of calm that comes right before a scream.I scrambled up the slick, mud-coated ladder. The hatch was already popped, but it was jammed halfway. The metal around the rim was warped, bubbling as if touched by strong acid."Drake?" I called out, peering into the gloom of the cockpit.There was no answer. Just a wet, ragged sound. Hhhuh... hhhuh...I braced my good foot against the hull and heaved on the hatch. The servos whined, protesting, but the metal gave way with a screech. The interior lights were dead. The only illumination came from the console, which was flickering with a chaoti
Chapter 26- The Twelfth House
The transport crawler rumbled over the cratered earth, shaking my bones. We had left the safety of the Academy far behind. We were in the Deadlands now, the scarred gray zone that separated humanity from the encroaching dark.I sat on a crate of ammo, staring at the floor. My arm—the Apostate Drive—was burning. It wasn't just a physical heat; it was a spiritual itch, deep in the marrow.He is near, the voice in my head whispered. The Scorpion is hunting.I closed my eyes and focused on the lore Randar had forced me to memorize, the history I had tried so hard to forget.The Concordat wasn't just a group of knights. They were the Zodiacs.Centuries ago, twelve Demon Kings had descended. Twelve Kings for twelve constellations. They sought hosts—humans strong enough to contain their essence. The Aries, the Taurus, the Gemini... they became the Concordat, the ruling caste of the demon armies. They were the generals of the apocalypse.But there was a legend of a Thirteenth. A sign that had
Chapter 25- Fuel for the Fire
The lab was never truly dark. Even at 0300, the ambient glow from the Aethelgard Chassis painted the walls in sickly hues of pulsating orange.I was on "Sanitation Duty." It was the perfect cover. No one questions a janitor with a mop bucket and a spray bottle, even in a top-secret research facility.I pushed my cart across the hangar floor, the wheels squeaking rhythmically. My destination was the gantry. My objective was the cockpit.I had to get that shard back.Professor Kael was still in his office, a glass box suspended above the lab floor. I could see his silhouette hunched over a bank of monitors, frantically typing. He hadn't gone home. He was obsessed with the data from Sylvia’s failure, trying to find the "noise" that had disrupted the sync. If he decided to strip the pilot’s seat for a physical inspection before I got there, I was dead.I reached the base of the mech. I parked the cleaning cart."Just cleaning the vomit," I muttered to no one, grabbing a rag and a bottle o
Chapter 24- The Iron Wall
The mind is a house. If you leave the windows open, anything can fly in.That was the first line of the book Randar had given me: The Fortress of Will: A Dwarven Guide to Stubbornness.I sat cross-legged on my bunk, the heavy tome resting on my knees. It was 2:00 AM. Tal was asleep, his breathing a rhythmic counterpoint to the storm of static in my head.I closed my eyes and visualized a brick. A grey, boring, heavy brick.Focus on the brick, the book instructed. Be the brick.It sounded stupid. But every time my concentration wavered, I felt him. The Violet Knight. A cold, oily sensation pressing against the back of my skull, like a draft in a sealed room. He was scratching at the door, testing the lock.Brother... where are you hiding?The whisper wasn't words; it was a feeling of amusement, a predator playing with a mouse.I gritted my teeth. Brick. Grey brick. Stone wall.I imagined mortar slapping onto the brick, sealing it to another. I built a wall in my mind, layer by layer, b
Chapter 23- Echoes in the Blood
The ride back to the Academy was a blur of gray rain and silence.I sat in the corner of the transport crawler, gripping my knee. The vibration of the engine traveled up through the floor grates, rattling my teeth, but I barely felt it.All I could feel was the echo.Brother.The word wasn't fading. It was ringing in my skull like a struck bell. It hadn't been spoken with vocal cords; it had been a psychic transmission, a frequency that bypassed my ears and went straight to the Apostate Drive embedded in my arm.My left arm was twitching under my jacket. The black fibers were agitated, writhing beneath the skin like worms trying to escape wet earth. They sensed him. The other one. The Violet Knight."You're shaking, Royce," Commander Vane said.I snapped my head up. She was watching me, her face illuminated by the pale blue light of the dashboard."Shock, I think," I stammered, leaning into the lie. "I've never seen a Void-Stalker up close before. And my foot...""Pain is a good teach
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