Some monsters don't crawl from the dark. They're built — line by line, byte by byte — until all that's left is ambition, chrome, and stolen pain.
Queen of the Machine
Mistress Helix hovered like a gothic chandelier of death, her cybernetic tendrils snaking in the stale air, each twitch a silent promise of agony. The shadows clung to her like robes, highlighting the grotesque elegance of her form — a woman half-steel, half-nightmare. A soft hum pulsed from her chest cavity, mechanical and maternal, as though she were some terrible mother about to deliver her children unto ruin.
The Data Pit below boiled with wreckage. Severed drones buzzed and sparked. Chunks of broken tech floated in vats of memory gel, refracting light like dreamstuff. The air smelled of ozone, oil, and something more ancient — like a battlefield that remembered every life taken on it.
Asher tightened his grip on his sidearm. Noir's targeting system painted Helix's vital systems in eerie blue, but even with predictive analytics, it wasn't enough.
Not against her.
Noir (flat):"Kill window available. 3.7 seconds. Risk factor: catastrophic."
Asher exhaled sharply."Story of my life."
The tendril came faster than thought.
With a metallic howl, it carved through the air and struck. Concrete behind him exploded as he barely dodged, rolling to the side. Flecks of shrapnel bit into his cheek.
Asher (growling):"This ends now."
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Berserker's Love Language
Rosa didn't dodge.
She charged.
Snatching a sparking drone mid-air like it was a damn kettlebell, she slammed it into the floor. Again. And again. The casing cracked. Wires and coolant burst free, splashing her arms like warpaint.
Rosa (feral):"You picked the wrong gym freak to mess with today, tech witch."
Her voice shook with adrenaline and barely contained fury.
Helix tilted her head, amused. "Your primitive strength is quaint. But I feed on more refined things… like your secrets."
Two barbed tendrils surged forward, not to kill — but to pierce. Their trajectory aimed for Rosa's temples, surgical and precise.
Memory extraction in progress.
But Asher's bullet found its mark first.
With a hiss and a crunch, one tendril jerked back, spasming like a maimed insect.
Asher (low):"Not today."
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Gremlin King Ascends
Up above, Lucien was performing a one-man heist… in the middle of hell.
He straddled a server console like it owed him money, yanking open panels and stuffing glittering data-chips into his coat with glee.
Lucien (cheerfully):"Let's see... confidential files, encrypted wallets, blackmail material — jackpot!"
A drone whirled toward him.
Without looking, he kicked it square in the optical node. It spun away like a dying frisbee.
He flipped it off.
Lucien (grinning):"Stay mad, you flying flash drive."
Asher's muscles trembled.
Noir's system opened a protocol warning in the corner of his vision. Neural overclock available. Temporary burst of synaptic enhancement — in exchange for immense physical toll.
He didn't hesitate.
Asher (clenched teeth):"Do it."
His blood turned to ice, his nerves to lightning.
The world slowed.
Tendrils no longer blurred — they flowed. Predictable. Cuttable.
Asher sprinted toward Helix, eyes locked on the exposed cable ridge along her spine. Bullets rang out. Steel shrieked as his blade — scavenged from a drone — buried into her conduit.
Helix screamed.
Her voice shattered glass monitors as her back arched. Sparks flew from her abdomen. Her chrome mask cracked, revealing a pale sliver of face beneath — lips trembling, one eye wide with hatred… and recognition.
Helix (distorted):"You… you're the lost file. The corrupted node… No wonder my systems ache in your presence…"
Asher didn't dignify her with a response. He twisted the blade.
She howled.
Rosa, not to be outdone, launched what remained of a drone straight into Helix's side like a shotput. It smashed into her shoulder, staggering the Harvest Queen backward.
Lucien, now armed with both pistols and absolutely no chill, finally joined the fight properly.
Lucien:"Time for the support role to shine, baby! Everyone dance!"
He fired twin shots upward. Bullets ricocheted across the ceiling, striking volatile capacitors. They exploded in arcs of wild electricity, descending like techno-lightning from the heavens.
Mistress Helix recoiled, her systems flickering wildly, but she wasn't finished yet.
With a low hum, she activated her emergency failsafe — Neuro-static discharge.
Invisible, but felt.
The pulse hit them like a mindquake. Asher staggered, memories surfacing uninvited — his brother's corpse in an alley, his badge stained red, a woman's hand slipping from his grasp.
Rosa doubled over but gritted her teeth and kept moving.
Lucien screamed, clutched his head, and nearly fell off his perch.
Through the chaos, Noir spoke.Noir (cold):"Core exposed. Now. End her."
Asher pushed past the pain. He roared.
He wrapped drone wiring around his fist, turned it into a steel gauntlet, and lunged. His punch hit center mass — right into the pulsing core beneath Helix's ribs.
A sound like a thunderclap cracked through the chamber.
Tendrils went wild. Sparks sprayed like fireworks.
Helix's body convulsed as her systems shut down one by one.
Helix (static-ridden):"This city… will forget you… just like the others…"
Her voice dissolved into screaming white noise.
Then silence.
Helix collapsed in a twitching heap of steel and flesh.
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Breathing in the Aftermath
Silence descended.
Only the crackle of shorted circuits remained. A ruined tendril smoked beside Asher's boot.
Lucien dropped down from above with a huff and plopped onto the floor like a sweaty showman after curtain call.
Lucien (panting):"Well. That was a five-star boss fight. Do we get loot now? Or… a sexy cutscene? 'Cause I vote for sexy cutscene."
Rosa, hair matted with blood and grime, gave him the finger as she leaned on a broken server rack.
Rosa (exhausted):"Cutscene my ass. I'm gonna need three protein shakes and an ice bath."
Asher said nothing.
He stared at the wreckage of Helix — and then, slowly, lifted his gaze to the glowing memory drives scattered around them.
They pulsed like fireflies.
He stepped toward them, one hand tightening into a trembling fist.
Each drive could hold anything — blackmail, lies… or truths forgotten.
Maybe… maybe even pieces of him.
Asher (quietly):"…Let's see what she stole."
[End of Chapter 85]
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Next Chapter (86) — "Spoils of Memory: The Loot and the Lies"The team sifts through the fragments left behind by Mistress Helix and unearths a buried truth that shakes them to the core. Asher comes face-to-face with the ghost of someone he thought long gone. Meanwhile, Nocturne's absurd slice-of-life chaos continues aboveground, blissfully unaware of what's brewing beneath their neon skyline.