The monster's arms were driven into the earth, skewered by blades that pinned it like a specimen. Dozens more jutted from its torso, green ichor spraying with every shuddering breath, the swamp floor was already slick and tainted, glowing faintly where the blood seeped deep.
Vell stepped forward, and sneered, slowly, he wrenched a sword from the creature's flank, and with a cruel flourish, rammed it into its chest.
The monster screeched, a guttural roar splitting the air as blood poured like a fountain. The sound thrilled Vell even more, a single hot droplet splattered across his cheek, he froze for only a heartbeat, then shivered in pleasure.
"Ah… exquisite."
The creature lashed out, its mandibles unhinged and a barbed tongue snapped forward, whipping toward Vell's face like a spear, his eyes widened in shock.
Crack!
Oblek's massive claw clamped down just in time, seizing the tongue inches from Vell's eye. The sharpened tip quivered, so close he could feel its heat, smell the venom, for the first time, dread crept into Vell's gaze.
With a grunt, Oblek severed it, the creature's scream tore through the swamp, its body sagging low with rattling breath.
Vell's expression hardened into rage, he flicked his wrist, and from the heavens more swords rained.
Shnk! Shnk! Shnk!
Each blade struck mercilessly, stabbing deeper, layering the monster's shell in iron, Vell's motions grew manic, each gesture imitates a conductor's hands, each strike another note in a violent symphony, the ground trembled under the endless storm, steel falling in rhythm, a concerto of cruel ploy.
The monster's body swallowed beneath the onslaught, until only the spires of countless swords remained in a grotesque monument of funeral steel.
Vell lowered his hand at last, chest heaving, eyes gleaming in triumph, "Ah, marvelous!"
Jaune drifted closer, she hovered above the monster's bloodied remains, its mandibles had gone slack, its eyes dull and lifeless, its blood pooling beneath its shell. After a tense moment, she gave a firm nod.
"…It's dead."
Vell exhaled, fixing his hair with a casual sweep of his hand, his smirk returned.
"Oblek, carry the carcass, we'll bring it back to Cardaltha for study."
Oblek grumbled but obeyed, his massive reptilian frame trudging forward, with a grunt, he drove his claws into the field of blades, wrenching them aside one by one. Steel clattered and snapped as he cleared a path, he reached down and seized the corpse.
Then he stopped.
His eyes narrowed, between the cracked exoskeleton of the creature's chest, a faint hollow oozing with green blood.
"Oblek," Vell snapped impatiently, "what's the hold-up?"
But Oblek didn't answer, his breath grew heavier, claws scraping faster, pulling out sword after sword growing frantic.
And then, his body shivered.
Crrshk!
The monster's chest split apart like rotten bark, flesh exploded outward as the ribcage collapsed and the body was suddenly, impossibly empty.
Gone.
"It's not here…" Oblek muttered, panic bleeding into his tone, his massive eyes darted across the crater. "It's not here! It escaped underground!"
Vell's face twisted with fury, his hands clenched into fists, Jaune snapped her head side to side, while her vines slithering like snakes as she began searching every shadow.
"Coward!" Vell roared into the darkness, his voice echoed against the cage of swords. "Come out and face us!"
Somewhere in the dark, unseen, the creature coiled upon itself, its mandibles clicked wetly as it devoured, gnawing and swallowing with animal hunger. In that abyss, the sound of flesh tearing and bone crunching echoed faintly. Bit by bit, its ragged breathing steadied, and as it fed, its eyes stirred, two red embers reigniting in the void, burning brighter, fiercer, hungrier than before.
Oblek flexed his arm, sending shattered swords clattering aside in frustration, his forked tongue flicked the air, but the monster's scent had vanished completely, his tail lashed, striking at shadows, gouging earth and attacking every movement.
"Stop that, moron!" Vell barked, his voice cutting sharp through, he bit at his nails, eyes darting over the battlefield. "Where could it have gone?"
The thought of retreat gnawed at him, but then his mind flashed back to Reg'gel's demise, he replayed the details, stitching them together, too brutal for mere humans to have carried out, "no… it wasn't them, it was this monster."
Vell's grip tightened until his nails bit through skin, drawing blood. His lips curled into a sneer out of growing rage, "I will kill it, no matter what, I'll tear it apart."
Oblek leapt back into the crater, his heavy steps cracking the scorched ground, he passed the charred husk of the swamp beast, its scales blackened and smoking from the earlier blast.
Jaune clasped her palms, summoning a chained block of steel. "We should call for reinforcements"
Before she could finish, Vell seized her arm and slammed her down. "Don't you dare!"
Her eyes widened in shock, but she rose wordlessly, wings flaring as she hovered warily beside him.
Nearby, Oblek gave the corpse a contemptuous kick. "I think we should leave, Vell. It's gone."
But Vell's face twisted, rejection boiling in his chest, he strode toward Oblek, grasping his massive lower jaw with searing authority. "You!" His eyes burned, voice trembling with fury.
For a moment, even Oblek's towering frame faltered, in reluctant respect. But then Vell exhaled, releasing him, pressing his hand to his own forehead. "Sorry. I just…"
Oblek rubbed his jaw, scowling. "…It's okay, Vell, I understand."
A rare smile tugged at Vell's lips, he forced one back, their tension eased, Jaune stepping closer as if drawn into the fragile moment, a flicker of bond reforged in blood and battle.
"Well… we should probab… "
Then, something behind bursts, from the carcass they had dismissed, two monstrous claws tore free, ripping skyward and impaling straight through Oblek's back through his chest.
"Graaah!" Oblek's roar curdled into a choking gurgle.
Vell and Jaune's eyes widened in horror as the claws clenched, with a wet, shattering crack, Oblek's massive body split apart, blood spraying across the blades of the sword-cage.
From within the sundered corpse, two burning red eyes ignited, glowing like coals.
"Ooooblek!" Vell's cry shook with rage and disbelief as he and Jaune snapped into their stances, ready to face the nightmare that had just clawed its way back into the world.
They noticed the monster's body lighter than before as veins lay bare from molting, its body just forming from the trauma.
The monster lifted Oblek's bisected body from its claws, holding the twitching reptilian corpse aloft in grotesque display, then, with a sickening rupture, black tendrils burst from its chest, wrapping around Oblek's remains and dragging them inside.
The body bulged and twisted grotesquely as if the beast were swallowing him whole. Bones cracked, scales split, and then with a deep, wet crunch the mass compressed inward, a suffocating dark aura bled from its form as a new exoskeleton coiled over its body, with even thicker muscles and hardened exoskeleton, it screeches splits the air like tearing steel.
Vell staggered back in shock, conjuring a storm of swords behind him, but in panic, his heel caught the ground, and he stumbled, sending the blades soaring upward in a useless arc, missing the beast entirely.
Jaune stepped forward, her hands clasped together as she chanted, a radiant white vine tore through, piercing clean into the monster's chest, for a moment it lay motionless.
Her lips curved in relief. "It worked… the Soul-Shackle!"
But her words faltered, her body froze, her eyes clouded black.
In her vision, a world-sized horror loomed, its shadow blotting out existence itself, a silhouette of a human formed and drifted before her, its face twisted, eyes ablaze with inhuman hatred, his hands closed around her throat and strangled her, she felt the intent, the rage, the sheer will to erase her kind.
She clawed at her own neck then snapped back to reality, gasping for air, her vine shattered like brittle glass, she collapsed, clutching her throat, coughing violently, the phantom grip still burning on her skin.
The monster advanced slow towards her.
"Jaune, run!" Vell's voice broke into desperation bit it's too late.
The creature's massive claw engulfed her skull, lifting her writhing like a doll, she squirmed, striking and clawing, but the grip grew tighter, her muffled scream cut short with a single crunch, blood spilled down her body as her limbs went slack.
Vell's breath caught, horror filled his eyes as the monster raised her corpse, tore open its mandibles, and bit down. Bones splintered, flesh ripped, and her body was devoured piece by piece, wet cracks echoing in the silence.
Vell could only watch as his eyes opened wide, the monster chewed as blood dripped from its fangs.
As the last of Jaune vanished inside, the creature's form convulsed, its exoskeleton rippled and coiled anew, hardening into armor-like plates that locked across its frame, appendages sharpened like blades, its face contorted grotesquely, mandibles lengthening into serrated scythes, antennae stretching outward and twitching with predatory intent.
Vell, still on the ground, kicked backward in panic, with a frantic gesture, walls of swords erupted before him, steel sprouting step by step as he tried to carve himself an exit, but the monster advanced unfazed, each sword shattering to splinters as they struck its armored hide.
"It can't be… we… we lost? Impossible!" His voice broke as he scrambled toward the barrier, reaching out to command the swords to part, shnk! In a flash, his arm was no longer there. Blood sprayed, his severed limb falling to the ground as he stumbled back against his own wall of blades.
"Wh… why are you doing this, you bastard!" Vell roared, clutching the bleeding stump. The creature paused, for a moment, hope flickered in his eyes, if it could pause, perhaps it could listen.
"You're human, aren't you?" His voice trembled, desperate, "sorry, you know what, let's pretend none of this happened. I'll withdraw and I won't tell a single soul about you, none will know."
The monster's antennae twitch, Vell's lips curled into a shaky grin, "looks like it's working. Humans are weak and driven by emotions, easy to fool."
Then came the voice, low, ghastly, speaking in his own tongue, Veyrith words laced with malice.
"You too shall die, and your race… shall perish before me."
Its burning eyes seared into him, cold sweat trickled down Vell's neck as the weight of that revelation crushed him, if this monster escaped, it would hunt them all.
His mind broke from telepathy, and with trembling breath he spat, "You underestimate us!"
Vell's body twisted, reshaping in a blur of steel, flesh hardened into living metal, arms and legs warped into jagged blades, and wings of swords unfurled from his back. With a thunderous roar, he took to the sky, each beat of his wings scattering gales of knives.
"Hyaaaa!" He dove, crashing into the earth, the ground erupted, transforming into a mountain of blades that swallowed large area of the forest, jagged steel tearing skyward and impaling everything in its reach, at the center, Vell stood like the heart of a storm.
But even this spectacle was nothing but a gentle breeze, the monster emerged from the steel storm unscathed, gripping a sword in its claw, then snap! Broken like a twig.
With humanly impossible grace he moved through the rows of swords, each step balanced on the razor's edge of a blade, his bladed wings slicing the air, he danced atop the steel as though it were a stage with fluid and deadly movements.
With a roar, he struck kicks whipping out like falling guillotines, thrusts driving toward the monster's chest, then a spinning slash arcing for its neck.
"I got you!" he shouted as his blade descended.
But shnk! The sword snapped on contact.
Vell froze in disbelief, in that instant of hesitation, the monster lunged, its claw shot out, seizing him by the throat and hoisting him aloft like a prey, rows of jagged teeth spread open in its abyssal maw, a writhing tongue slick with acid snaking outward.
The terror in Vell's eyes was indescribable, his bladed wings beat furiously, but the monster's grip only tightened, dragging him closer to his end.
In a muffled screams Vell's life ended as the night grew silent and darkness creped in, the threat grew stronger and hungrier.
As the morning sun spilled through her window, Cher rose from her bed, she unclasped her locket and set it gently on the desk before heading to bathe, warm water ran over her skin as she brushed her hair, then her wounded arm, the sting flared at her touch, and she winced, scrubbing carefully.
Her thoughts drifted back to the night before, commander Briggs himself had been there to greet them, charging across the field with a host of elite warriors at his back, ready to fight. Relief washed over them all when Betsy soared overhead, carrying the battered survivor's home.
Medical personnel rushed forward, lifting Irvine's limp body along with Circe, Hammil, handed the sealed case directly to Briggs and without a word following after her.
Then Briggs stepped forward to the trio, his stern expression softened, he bowed his head low in respect.
"Commander, please, lift your head," Cher said softly.
Briggs obeyed, and in that moment, he embraced the three of them as if they were his own children, his voice was quiet, but steady, "Well done," he whispered.
Dressed in her usual clothes, Cher wiped her damp, silky hair with a towel, she lingered by the window, still caught in the shadows of the night before. With a steadying breath, she turned away and sat at her desk, writing her report in clean. When Asha arrived to check on her, Cher handed it over without a word, receiving a quiet nod in return.
Later, she made her way to check on her father at the intensive care unit then made her way to the training grounds, choosing a wooden sword, she slipped into the far corner, away from the others. Her movements began fluidly, she pictured Oblek before her, the way he moved, the weight behind every strike, she shadowboxed, parrying his imagined blows with precision.
But then, in her mind's eye, he transformed, the lizard form lunged, and Cher faltered, eyes clenching shut as though the claws might truly reach her, she sighed in frustration, unable to fight the fear that lingers in her heart causing her to hesitate.
A voice broke her hesitation, "looks like someone needs a sparring partner."
Eric strolled in, grabbing a wooden sword and resting it over his shoulder with exaggerated coolness.
Before Cher could respond, Gil smacked him forward with a sharp kick, Eric stumbled, nearly dropping his sword, "you need more training than she does, dweeb!".
Eric gritted his teeth, twitching on the ground before scrambling up to argue back, Cher couldn't help but smile faintly at their antics, soon enough, the three of them were sparring together, sweat and laughter mingling as the afternoon sun burned overhead.
That night, in the dimly lit laboratory, Briggs alongside a man clad in a white shirt and mane-trimmed jacket, dark gloves, and plain jeans, they wove carefully between hanging tubes and snaking wires until the corridor opened into a cavernous hall of metal, at its center loomed a massive apparatus, tended by figures in white lab coats.
Briggs gave a curt nod, and one of the technicians connected a thick cable, a sharp hiss of smoke escaped as others hurried to fasten additional wires, the machine coming alive with a deep, resonant hum.
From the sealed case, Briggs revealed the cores, the scientists each took one, moving in unison to slot them into four waiting sockets, perfectly shaped to harness their power.
The machine shuddered, screens flared to life, cascading with streams of data as the cores synchronized, the glow painted Briggs's face in pale light, his eyes reflecting the torrent of numbers and diagrams.
The man in the jacket watched in silence, then spoke words of hope. "The era of mankind is far from over."