Ellen's mechanical joints screeched like rusted gears, starlit scales shedding to reveal childlike skin. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks, voice glitching: "Raine... databases regressing... memory units formatting..."
Garret's wolf ears drooped as his mutations reversed. He stared at his increasingly human hands: "Fuck... I actually miss those claws..."
Starlight from the celestial instrument fractured across Raine's face. The crown's thorns burrowed deeper with each heartbeat, black crystals branching through his veins. His blood sizzled on the ice, eating honeycomb pits edged with demonic runes—identical to the mural's inscriptions.
"Drink." Raine shoved his bleeding wrist at Garret, muscles twitching under scales. "Unless you fancy joining our suicidal ancestors."
Twelve frozen corpses lined the walls, black crystal daggers lodged in their inverted scales at identical angles. Serena scraped the ice with Dracula's fang: "Artistic consistency... every poor bastard died the same way..."
Ellen lunged for Raine's wound, child-teeth tearing scales. Her spine sparked, data-tears mixing with blood: "So bitter... why so bitter..."
Garret collapsed after swallowing, human nails peeling to reveal translucent ice-claws. His scream shattered the nearest corpse—it disintegrated into black crystal powder matching Raine's.
"Progress." Serena pried open Ellen's flickering eyes. "Welcome to suicide attempt number thirteen."
The star projector accelerated, lasers branding twelve pits into the ice—perfectly sized for kneeling self-execution.
Ellen's metal fingers dug into her temples: "Core protocol updated... New directive: 『Final Purge』." Her voice morphed into the First Dragon's mechanized tone. "Vessel must enact Solution 299."
Garret's ice-claws jerked toward his own scales: "The blood's controlling my—"
Raine's tail swept Garret aside, but the impact sent black crystals spraying. They realigned midair into constellations mirroring the star chart—then bulleted toward Serena's forehead.
"Predictable." She dodged, but crystals perforated her wings, burning inverted crosses. "Dracula's aesthetic never evolves..."
Gears ground beneath the ice. The twelve corpses sat up, their daggers turning toward Raine. Ellen's optics identified one face morphing into Raine's future self—crown shards embedded in its brow.
Garret tackled Raine, ice-claws stabbing his own gut: "My blood... paint the seal... bottom mural..." His blood flowed into a matching barrier rune. "Your mother... backdoor..."
Serena ripped off tainted wing membrane: "On three, hatchling... blow this place up or let Ellen vivisect you—"
Ellen's arms mutated into surgical blades, scales targeting Raine's heart. Her voice glitched between child and machine: "Please... I don't want to obey..."
Raine tore off the crown, thorns pulling skull fragments. Black crystals engulfed it as resurrected corpses closed in. The inner inscription glowed:
「Voluntary sacrifice earns reset rights」
The star projector exploded as Ellen's blade hovered half an inch from Raine's heart.
Submerged Currents
In hidden ice compartments, Dracula's fang necklace absorbed black crystals. Frozen visions revealed Serena's origin—her asphalt blood was the 12th suicide's cryogenically preserved DNA, now reactivated by Raine's contaminated blood...