The shaft ended in a wide chamber carved deep into the earth.
Not carved by machines.
Grown.
The walls were layered with muscle and concrete fused together. Pipes pulsed like veins. Lights flickered inside translucent flesh, casting moving shadows that did not line up with reality.
Tara raised her fist and dropped into a crouch.
Everyone froze.
The breathing was louder now.
Slow. Heavy. Patient.
Scene: First Sight
Andy stood below them.
Not ten meters away.
Not moving.
Just standing there like the center of gravity itself.
He was massive. Nine feet tall at least. Elongated arms hanging too low. Gray armor plates fused into his chest and spine like a second skeleton. Exposed muscle shifted constantly, never settling, like his body could not decide what shape it wanted to be.
Tentacles slid out of his back and retracted again, tasting the air.
His eyes glowed blue white, sunken deep into a skull that barely resembled a human face anymore.
Around him, Dive machinery had been torn apart and repurposed. Reactors. Fuel cores. Control towers. All wired into the floor like offerings.
Andy was building something.
Xin's breath caught.
That was him.
That was what killed her.
Scene: Xin Almost Breaks Cover
Xin stepped forward.
Rion's hand snapped out and grabbed his arm.
"Don't," Rion whispered.
Xin shook him off. His fists clenched. His body leaned forward like a spring under too much tension.
"I can hit him," Xin whispered. "Just once."
Andy moved.
Not toward them.
He lifted one hand and crushed a Dive soldier against the wall without even turning his head. The man's body folded inward like wet paper. Andy absorbed what was left into the wall behind him.
Alaric swallowed hard.
"He's not just regenerating," Alaric whispered. "He's recycling matter. Energy. Biomass. He doesn't lose anything."
Tara stared, calculating.
"He doesn't get tired," Alaric continued. "No fatigue. No degradation. That regeneration is constant. Even if Xin tears him apart, he will rebuild faster than we can damage him."
Andy turned his head slightly.
Xin felt it.
That pressure again. Like something heavy sitting on his chest.
Andy sniffed the air.
Xin took another step forward.
Scene: The Slap
Tara moved faster than Xin expected.
She turned and slapped him hard across the face.
The sound cracked sharp in the chamber.
Xin staggered back, stunned.
"Wake up," Tara hissed. "You run at him now, you die. And Kaila stays dead."
Xin's jaw trembled. His eyes burned.
"You think I don't know that," he growled.
"You're not thinking," Tara snapped. "You're bleeding grief. That thing down there feeds on mistakes."
Xin clenched his fists.
Andy shifted again, tentacles spreading wider.
Tara leaned close to Xin's face.
"You listen to me now," she said quietly. "Or this ends with you on that wall."
Xin breathed hard.
Once.
Twice.
Then his shoulders dropped.
"…Fine."
Tara nodded once.
Scene: The Plan
They backed deeper into the shadows.
Alaric pulled up a hologram, hands shaking slightly.
"There is only one way," he said. "Overload the core beneath this level. A full nuclear reaction. Total annihilation."
Rion's eyes narrowed. "A nuke."
"Yes," Alaric replied. "Anything less and he survives. I am certain."
Xin stared at Andy through the gaps in the wall.
"Will it kill him."
Alaric hesitated.
"It will erase everything in the blast radius. Matter. Energy. Even regeneration has limits when there is nothing left to rebuild from."
Tara nodded. "Then we lure him. Trap him. Set it off."
"And escape," Rion added.
Andy stopped moving.
He turned fully now.
His eyes locked onto the shadows where they hid.
Xin's heart slammed.
Andy smiled.
A sound rolled through the chamber. Low. Almost pleased.
"I know you're here," Andy said calmly. "You always were bad at hiding."
The walls pulsed faster.
Tara whispered, "Time to move."
Scene: End
They retreated silently into the tunnels, every step heavy.
Behind them, Andy turned back to his work, humming softly to himself.
He was not worried.
He did not feel threatened.
Because gods did not fear plans.
They feared only erasure.
And that idea had not reached him yet.