The crimson window burned in my vision:
[Mission Generated – Cull the Threats]Eliminate 50 hostile units. Optional: Engage King Gid.Reward: Predator's Mantle. Reality Gacha Ticket.Warning: Emotional path To Love compromised.
The words pulsed like a heartbeat I hadn't chosen.
Aiko's voice was quick, urgent:[Don't accept it. Please—don't. This isn't who you are.]
But then the other—low, violent, certain—rolled through me like iron grinding against bone:[This is exactly who you are. Stop clinging to a leash. Feed. Grow. Break.]
I stood between two truths.And for the first time, I felt something rare.Not hunger. Not lust.
Doubt.
Lala shifted. Her hand pressed over her chest, right where my core pulsed beneath her skin."Scourge…?" she whispered softly, as if she could feel the war inside me."You're… different right now. Are you… okay?"
Her innocence cut deeper than any weapon.I wanted to lie. To hide the storm.But her eyes searched the air, worried, trusting.
I stayed silent.
Across the courtyard, Gid and Sephie still clashed in words, their voices thunder and lightning.But Sephie's gaze flickered—just once—toward Lala.And I swear, for a second, it locked on me.
Her pupils tightened.Her breath hitched.Her instincts screamed.
She didn't hear the voices. She didn't see the crimson system windows bleeding through my sight.But she felt it.The conflict. The temptation. The hunger I was holding back.
Her expression hardened, sharp as glass.
Inside me, the male voice snarled again:[You'll regret this hesitation. One day the King will crush you, and you'll wish you had drowned his army in blood.]
Aiko's whisper trembled in response:[No… if he chooses that path, he won't be Scourge anymore. He'll be nothing but another monster.]
Two chains. Two futures.Both pulling tight.
And I stood at the center, silent, staring at the mission window that wouldn't close.
(Symbiote Thought)Do I become the weapon they all fear?Or do I keep trying to be the answer none of them understand?
For the first time since I was born in fire and hunger, I didn't know.