Chapter 25: The Accidental creation
The ground shook. From the walls, rats poured—hundreds of them, some with extra limbs, some without eyes, some with teeth like nails.
Shield Maiden raised her shield.
Bladeblight unleashed a wide slash, cutting through a dozen, but more kept coming. Eagleeye fired stun blasts into the swarm, his aim rattled by flickers of memories not his own.
Alex stayed behind Ghostfang, trying to keep a grip on reality. The creature was escaping, crawling through a newly-formed crack in the sewer wall, hissing one final sentence:
> "It's not me you should fear. It's what you grew."
Then it vanished into the darkness.
The rats stopped.
All of them collapsed—dead or twitching—like puppets with their strings cut.
Silence returned.
Alex slumped against the tunnel wall, breathing heavy, eyes wide.
"I... I saw the fire again," he murmured.
His eyes went to the flickering wall.
Carved freshly, in blood or worse, was a symbol.
A spiral. In the shape of a tree.
As the sewer silence settled, Alex stood in the tunnel, eyes still fixed on the bloody spiral. Ghostfang stayed pressed to his side, protective, but oddly quiet.
Then—
The air shimmered again. Like heat rising from asphalt.
Only Alex saw it.
Another flash.
Not the hospital this time. Not even a memory.
It was… the tree.
The Verdant Neurospore in the city center.
But it was wrong.
Its bark peeled in reverse, as though growing backward. The leaves pulsed like lungs. Roots slithered. And deep in the trunk, a heartbeat. A human one.
And standing beneath it—the man-creature. Barefoot. Grinning. Reaching for Alex.
> "You planted what you didn't understand… we were already inside it."
Alex snapped out of the vision—gasping for breath.
Bladeblight rushed over, placing a steady hand on his shoulder. "Alex? What the hell's going on with you?"
Alex looked around. No one else seemed shaken. Shield Maiden stood tall. Eagleeye scanned the walls. Even Ghostfang looked undisturbed.
"I… I think it's only talking to me," Alex said, voice low.
Eagleeye tensed. "It communicated with you?"
Alex nodded. "No... more like... it knows me."
He turned to Ghostfang. "Did you see it? Feel it?"
Nothing.
Eagleeye stepped forward. "You were trembling. Sweating. Like someone was screaming in your head. But the rest of us? Nothing. We saw the creature. But whatever it did to you—was only to you."
Alex turned to the blood spiral again. And in the faintest glimmer of slime glistening on the wall, he saw it again.
The creature's face.
Grinning.
Its message echoing in his mind:
> "You grew it. We hid inside it. Now you're part of us."
Alex staggered back.
His breathing quickened.
The others were watching him now—not with suspicion, but with worry.
The sewer stretched ahead in eerie silence. Damp air thickened with rot, and the walls trembled with the groans of underground strain. The group pressed forward: Shield Maiden in the lead with her spear ready, Bladeblight following with his weapon unsheathed, Eagleeye in the rear scanning every tunnel cross-section. Between them, Alex walked with Ghostfang beside him—eyes burning, tail low, head twitching at unseen shifts in the dark.
Every few steps, Ghostfang would growl or pause, its gaze tracking shadows that didn't move, ears catching whispers no one else could hear.
Alex's heart beat harder. His hands were steady, but his mind wasn't. He felt it—a pressure building behind his eyes. The deeper they went, the more his thoughts clouded. His vision flickered, like static overlaying reality.
Then it came.
A whisper—not heard but felt. A voice slithered into his consciousness.
> "Thank you, Alex Thorne…"
His steps faltered.
> "You gave me the gift… The accident that tore the veil. That planted me where I could grow."
Ghostfang snapped its head toward Alex. Its eyes glowed brighter, muscles tense.
Alex's pulse raced. "Who's there?" he muttered. "Show yourself."
> "Not yet. But I see you. I feel your every breath… You and the tree."
Alex stumbled. Eagleeye turned slightly, noting his hesitation, but said nothing.
The whisper coiled tighter around his mind.
> "The Verdant Neurospore. You called it from another plane…. I drank its birth. I fed on its power. I became something else."
Alex closed his eyes for a second. He could feel the connection—Some fragment. Some parasite.
> "You changed me. And now… I will return the favor."
"Enough," Alex said under his breath. "Ghostfang—scan the area."
The hellhound growled and circled out. There was nothing. No sound, no movement. Just thick air and bloodstained walls.
Alex activated his Mindcube. The mental feedback was jagged and strange—like radio static tangled with screams. Ghostfang yelped, fur bristling.
Then silence again.
Alex steadied himself. He sent a quick update to Yurei through a still-working channel.
"Yurei. We're moving deeper. The source is still out of visual range… but I think it's connected to the Neurospore. And to me."
Yurei's reply was brief. "Be careful. If it's talking to you alone, it sees you as something more than a threat."
Alex closed the comm and whispered to himself.
"It sees me as its creator."
The team pressed deeper. And in the dark, something watched. Something remembered the gift it had been given… and smiled.
They moved deeper into the tunnel, the silence thick as tar. The only sounds were their footsteps and the soft dripping of water. Suddenly, Ghostfang stopped, ears high, body tense. They had reached a cavernous chamber—walls curved unnaturally, roots stretching out like veins, converging at a grotesque altar built from rusted metal, shattered plastic, and bone. At its center, entangled in roots and glowing faintly, throbbed a pulsing heart. It wasn't human. It wasn't animal. It was… something else.
Symbols scratched into the walls surrounded them—twisting scripts, handprints, claw marks. But most disturbing of all, painted in dried blood and ink, was the unmistakable symbol of the Verdant Neurospore Tree.
Then, with a sickening grind, the tunnel behind them sealed shut. A wall of stone and wire collapsed into place. They were trapped.
A low, wet slithering echoed through the chamber. From one of the twisted walls, something emerged.
A figure—bent and crawling—peeled itself from the filth like a cockroach shedding skin. His limbs were thin but strong, knotted with unnatural muscle. His eyes—one glowing red, the other milky white—fixed on Alex. And he grinned, wide and cracked like shattered glass.
"Finally..." the man-creature whispered, voice trembling with raw emotion. "You're here. You're finally here."
He stood, arms outstretched like a preacher before his congregation. "I've been waiting—oh, I've waited so long. You gave me this, didn't you? The seed, the spark, the miracle. You didn't know. You didn't even see me. But I saw you."
He pointed at the pulsing heart. "This... this is your gift to me. It changed me. Freed me. Burned the world away and showed me truth."
His gaze locked with Alex's, unblinking. "Now let me return the favor. Let me grant you a gift. The gift you gave me—of transformation. Let me make you whole. Let me make you what you were meant to be. A true hero... our hero."
He staggered forward, trembling with devotion and madness.
The man-creature's footsteps echoed with purpose as he approached the altar. His ragged coat flared behind him, arms spread wide like he stood in worship. His voice rose, trembling with conviction.
> "You… you're the one who saved me. They called me trash. They said I was broken. But then you… you gave me the gift. That seed, that spark, that beautiful sickness!"
He twitched violently, hands clutching at his chest. Behind him, the pulsing heart beat louder, faster. The roots trembled. Symbols on the wall glowed faintly.
> "You're my hero, Alex Thorne. My savior. My light in the dark. But you—"
His face twisted, his tone dipped into disappointment.
> "—you're still weak. Still depending on them."
He sneered and pointed a shaking hand at Shield Maiden, Eagleeye, Bladeblight, and even Ghostfang.
> "Why cling to ghosts and toys? You were chosen. You don't need them anymore. I'll prove it to you. I'll break your crutches, then remake you—rebirth you. Then you'll understand."
Suddenly, the walls groaned. From the sludge and the cracks, dozens of creatures began to emerge—rats with stitched faces and glowing veins, dogs with barked-shut muzzles, cats with barbed tails. Raccoons skittered unnaturally on hind legs. And then… three humans—sickly, pale, but moving with perfect control, eyes blank and pulsing with red light.
> "They're mine now. They followed the light—your light. Do you see, Alex? You were meant to lead. But not like this. Not behind. In front."
Alex took a slow step back. "You're sick. Twisted."
The man-creature laughed, eyes wild.
> "Sick? Maybe. But not wrong. After today, you'll never have to summon again. No more heroes. Only you."
He raised his arms—and hell broke loose.
The rats surged like a wave of fur and teeth, rushing the heroes. Shield Maiden slammed her shield down, triggering a shockwave that scattered the front wave, but they just kept coming.
Bladeblight spun forward, blades slicing through the raccoons and disarming the two humans rushing from the sides—but they didn't feel pain. One tried biting through his armor. Another grabbed his leg, screaming nonsense.
Eagleeye fired the cane—now transformed into a rifle—blasting back the dogs. He leapt onto a ledge and began raining support fire, but for every beast that fell, two more emerged.
Ghostfang roared—its body briefly flickering with blue fire—and launched into the thick of the enemy. Bones cracked, fire hissed, and smoke curled through the chamber.
Alex reached for the Mindcube instinctively, already straining. He could feel the enemy's madness like static in his thoughts.
The man-creature didn't fight directly. He watched—studied Alex—speaking through the chaos.
> "Look how they fight for you. Like fools. You don't need this. You never did. I'll tear them away, and you'll be born again. Strong. Alone. True."
He stepped forward. Roots surged from the ground, attempting to snatch Alex.
Shield Maiden blocked one, spear stabbing through the vines.
Eagleeye called out from above. "Alex! He's trying to bait you—get out of your own head!"
But the man-creature was already speaking again, closer now, more unhinged:
> "Let me finish what you started. The rebirth. The cleansing. I'll make you the Hero this city deserves."
Alex gritted his teeth. "You're not rebirthing anything."
He pulled out the Mindcube of Ascension—and the room pulsed.
[End of Chapter]