The ash lay thick as wool across the plains, muffling each footfall beneath its gray weight. Sunlight struggled to penetrate the clouded sky, painting everything in muted sepia. Echo-Ward and Harrowforge plodded side by side, their heavy steps resonating like distant drums of a funeral march.
Kian rode atop Echo-Ward's shoulder, eyes narrowed against the wind of debris. Below, the settlement practiced a renewed routine: scouts lifting their flintlocks to test tension, engineers inspecting gear, Jerie tending the glow-lamps. All of them carried the quiet tension of hunters stepping into the den of something far older than themselves.
"We should've passed this zone weeks ago," Gellon muttered, adjusting the strap of his satchel.
"But the walkers slowed us. And those ruins… they yielded more problems than supplies."
Kian didn't answer. His focus was on the horizon, where stone monoliths rose like ribs of a buried leviathan. Between them, something moved: a colossal figure, stitched with bone and braced by twisted metal. It lumbered toward them.
[Predation Protocol]: Target detected. Hostile organic construct. High threat.
[Codex Alert]: Bone Marcher identified. Series: Fallen Siege Walker. Negotiation impossible.
Veyna slid from Harrowforge's back, boots crunching ash. Her flame-mark flickered faintly beneath her skin. She joined Kian silently, gaze locked on the approaching titan.
"That," she said softly, "is one of them."
"A Bone Marcher," Kian confirmed. "A soldier from the first great war, bound to the corpse of its makers."
Kess stepped up, holding her bound scroll. "I can't read its runes. They're too old—too chaotic."
The marcher paused, as if sensing their scrutiny. Its skull-like helm tilted. In its chest cavity, a dull glow pulsed with each breath it exhaled.
Marra's heir, the little scout Jerie, peered over Echo-Ward's edge.
"It's looking at us," she whispered. "Like it remembers why it was made."
Gellon laid a hand on Kian's arm. "Do we fight it? Or do we run?"
Kian's jaw clenched. Running meant admitting that their fortress-beasts weren't enough. Fighting meant risking everything on a war relic older than the system itself.
He turned to the group. "We don't run. But we don't attack blindly. Veyna—can your flame command stall it?"
She studied the marcher's pulsing core. "Perhaps. If I can freeze its core cycle long enough…"
[Predation Protocol: Approval for tactical frost command]
[Codex Suggestion: Deploy ranged suppression glyphs]
Kess unfurled her scroll. With careful fingers, she traced a protective ring in the ash around their walkers.
"This ring will… slow its advance for a minute. Maybe two."
Kian gave the order. "Gellon, Jerie—protect the spell circle. Veyna, prepare your frost command. I'll engage."
The walkers halted. Echo-Ward's spire blinked once; Harrowforge's core groaned as if waking from a dream. Settlers braced behind their ramparts. Pillars of codex-etched stone emerged from Echo-Ward's flank, forming crude shelters.
As the Bone Marcher drew near, Kian slid from Echo-Ward's shoulder. His boots sank in ash. He drew his rune-forged spear, its shaft humming with latent Codex energy.
The marcher's single eye-slit flared red. Its first step broke the protective ring in a spray of dust and echoing crack.
It stalked forward, each stride compressing the ash into cracked rock beneath its weight. The air trembled.
Kian advanced, spear leveled at the marcher's chest. "By the right of the architect!" he called, voice echoing. "I command you—stop!"
The marcher swung a spiked arm, the gauntlet bristles scraping the air. Kian dove aside, rolling behind a stone pillar.
Bone Marcher
—Class: Fallen Siege Walker
—Abilities: Spiked sweep, Core Shockwave (AOE), Adaptive armor (resists single elemental type)
As the marcher's shockwave erupted, Kian sprang forward, thrusting his spear against its thigh joint. Sparks sang against metal. But the armor held—thick plates refusing to shatter. The marcher staggered, then resumed its march.
Behind him, Gellon and Jerie unleashed volleys of flintlock fire, bits of bone protruding from the marcher's hide catching lead shards. The marcher bellowed—a sound like grinding steel—and charged again.
Kess called from the ring's edge. "Now, Veyna!"
Veyna raised both hands. A swirl of blue-white frost gathered around her palms. She thrust them forward; a lattice of ice formed—snapping into existence—and froze around the marcher's foot.
[Flame Command Override: Frost Command "Core Lock"]
Effect: Immobilize mechanical joints for 10 seconds
The marcher roared, one leg seized in ice. It hammered the ground in fury, shattering the frost cage. But the momentary pause allowed Kian to leap onto a low ridge and dive toward the marcher's chest core.
[Predation Trigger: Berserk Lunge]
He jammed the spear deep, channeling both systems' energy. Codex runes flared along the shaft; Predator fire licked the blade's edge.
—Damage Dealt: 38% Core Penetration (Rank-3 Hybrid Skill)
—EP Gained: +25
The marcher reeled, but did not fall. It hammered its gauntlet down; Kian rolled free, saving himself mere inches from a crack of bone-plated spike.
From behind, Harrowforge advanced on Kess's command, its massive arms swinging to block the marcher's rear flank. Together, the two constructs pinned it in a grinding pincer.
Veyna stepped up beside Kian. "Ready for the finale?" she asked, voice steady.
He nodded. "On my mark… three… two…"
Jerie and Gellon held position, crossfires raining on the marcher's joints to slow regeneration. Ashhounds snarled and darted around its ankles, gnawing at the armor.
[Codex Suggestion: Deploy Spectral Chain Trap]
Kess traced a glyph in the ash beneath the marcher's core. Ethereal chains burst forth, wrapping the marcher's torso.
"Now!" Kian shouted.
He raised his spear high. Veyna raised her hands. In perfect sync, they struck.
Kian drove his hybrid spear into the marcher's pulsing core. Veyna unleashed her Starbrand Flame—a beam of blazing white—into the breach.
The marcher convulsed. Codex glyphs flickered wild. Predator whispers howled in its data matrix.
And then—
It collapsed.
The titan folded like a broken cathedral, its legs buckling, metal screeching. Echo-Ward and Harrowforge beat their chests in triumph. Settlers cheered—but the roar was tinged with awe more than joy.
Kian staggered back, spear ringing in his hand, breath ragged. Veyna pressed her arm to stop the bleeding from a shallow cut on his shoulder.
"You okay?" she asked, voice gentle.
He nodded, swallowing blood. "Better than it is."
Kess approached the fallen marcher. She placed a hand on its cracked chest plate. The core's glow gave one last flicker—like a dying eye—then went dark.
[Predation Protocol]: Bone Marcher neutralized. Core sample acquired.
[Codex Alert]: Hybrid Skill Upgrade: "Titanbreaker Thrust" unlocked.
Jerie helped Gellon carry Kian back toward the walkers. Harrowforge knelt, allowing them easy passage.
As they passed, Kess gathered a shard of the marcher's core glow for further study. "We learn from this," she said softly. "Not just how to kill them… but how they were made."
Kian rode Echo-Ward's shoulder, looking back at the fallen giant with quiet respect. "Today, we proved the Hybrid Path works," he said. "But every machine… every system… has its limits."
Veyna slid up beside him, hand tucked in his. "And we'll test every one of them."
They set their faces toward the next jagged ridge. Beyond it lay the Frostveil Enclave—an ancient kingdom rumored to host memory-magic and ice-wrought realms.
[Navigation Module]: Frostveil Enclave, 3 days' march north.
[Predation Protocol]: Hostile presence detected. High reward for core materials.
[Codex Alert]: Explore carefully. Leverage learned skills.
Kian inhaled the ashen wind and exhaled. The Shattermarch stretched out before them—uncharted, unforgiving, and alive.
"Let's keep walking," he said. "The world won't wait for us to catch our breath."
And so they did, one step at a time, guided by man, machine, and magic entwined.
End of Chapter 19