I. The Weight of the World
The Wildlands were not a forest; they were a drowning pit. It was a landscape of decomposition, where the boundary between earth and water had been erased by eons of rot.
Absolutum stood on the edge of the Black-Root Marsh, looking out over miles of fetid water, rotting cypress trees, and hanging moss that draped the world in the grey of dead men's hair. The air was thick, not with oxygen, but with methane and spore-clouds that clung to his pitted iron helm.
The ground here was soft—a deceptively solid crust over a slurry of peat, mud, and decay.
He took a step.
Squelch.
The sound was wet and hungry. His right leg—the massive Porcupine Anchor Tibia—sank instantly up to the knee. The sheer density of his new form was a liability here. Reinforced by the Systematic Symmetry that plated his Elven bones in beast-grade calcium, and weighed down by the obsidian Void-Arms and Orcish armor, he was heavier than a warhorse but with a fraction of the surface area.
He pulled his leg free with a loud, wet sucking sound, the mud refusing to let go. He took another step with his left Shadow Spring leg. It sank too, the mud swallowing the deer-bone foot structure.
[ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD: Soft Terrain (Peat/Muck).] [MOBILITY PENALTY: -60%.] [ANALYSIS: Host density exceeds surface tension. Current locomotion style (Bipedal Stomp) is structurally inefficient for this substrate.]
Absolutum halted, the muddy water lapping at his armored thighs. He was a tank trying to drive through a swamp. His reinforced frame was indestructible, but it was also an anchor. He had no muscles to compensate for the drag; he relied on the System's motive force—a form of localized telekinetic magnetism—to move his heavy bones. That force was now straining against the vacuum suction of the bog.
I am strong, but I am grounded. I need to disperse the weight. I need to slither.
He scanned the environment. Ripples disturbed the surface of the black water, moving against the wind. The duckweed parted, revealing glimpses of something massive moving beneath the silt.
It moved without limbs. It moved by distributing its mass across the entire surface area of its body, gliding over the mud rather than piercing it.
"...Target..."
II. The Ambush
He didn't hunt. He became bait.
Absolutum waded out into the center of a shallow pool, fighting the suction with every step. He let himself sink until the mud reached his thighs, anchoring him in place. He stood perfectly still, his arms hanging limp at his sides.
He initiated a total power-down of his external signatures. He deactivated the violet marrow glow, pulling the Aura deep into his core until his bones looked cold and dead. To any observer, he was just another piece of rusted statuary lost in the bog, a remnant of a war long forgotten.
He waited. The swamp life resumed its cycle around him. Flies buzzed around the eye-slits of his helm. A frog hopped onto his heavy Orc pauldron, croaking rhythmically.
Then, the water level dropped.
It wasn't a splash. It was displacement. A massive volume of matter had entered the pool, pushing the water away. A scaled coil rose silently behind him, thick as a rain barrel, dripping with slime.
[TARGET IDENTIFIED: Iron-Coil Serpent (Adult).] [LENGTH: 40 Feet.] [ATTRIBUTES: Mechanical Constriction, Crushing Scales, Hyperextension.] [COMPONENT MATCH: Vertebral Column (Spine).]
The serpent struck. It didn't bite; it looped.
In a blur of dark green scales, the creature wrapped itself around Absolutum's chest and arms. It moved with the speed of a whip, creating three full loops before Absolutum could react, and then it tightened.
III. The Pressure Test
The constriction was immense. It wasn't just a squeeze; it was a hydraulic press of biological muscle designed to pulverize stone.
GRIND.
The Dwarven Iron-Barrel Cage locked against the pressure. The heavy ribs groaned, grinding stone-on-stone, but they did not bend. They formed an archway that refused to collapse.
The Void-Forged Arms were pinned to his sides. The serpent squeezed, the scales grinding against the obsidian chitin. It was useless. The alien material was harder than the snake itself.
But the Spine.
Absolutum felt his Elven vertebrae screaming. The pressure wasn't just crushing inward; the geometry of the coils was elongating him. The serpent was trying to pull his heavy pelvis away from his heavy ribcage, stretching the spinal column like a piece of taffy.
Previously, this would have snapped his Elven vertebrae instantly, severing his connection to his legs. But the Systematic Symmetry had done its work. His spine was now dark, dense, and plated with reinforced calcium. It didn't crack. It didn't scream. It simply held, trembling under the load.
[STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: 100%.] [EXTERNAL PRESSURE: 4,000 PSI.] [STATUS: IMMOBILIZED.]
He wasn't dying. He was stuck.
The snake squeezed harder, confused by the prey that wouldn't break. Usually, it felt the pop of ribs and the collapse of lungs. This prey felt like a statue. It was a stalemate. The snake couldn't crush him, but Absolutum couldn't move his arms to strike.
Durability is not enough. I need Articulation. I need to dislocate.
He considered his options.
Tactical Option: Quill Eruption.
Absolutum focused on his marrow. He prepared to unleash the Porcupine Quills from his ribs and legs, turning himself into a sea urchin to shred the coils from the inside.
[SYSTEM ALERT: DEPLOYMENT FAILURE PREDICTED.] [ANALYSIS: Constriction Pressure (4,000 PSI) exceeds Quill Eruption Force (800 PSI).] [RESULT: Quills will fail to exit. Deployment will result in internal fragmentation and marrow blockage. You will blow your own bones apart.]
He aborted the command immediately. The iron scales were wrapped too tightly against his frame. His current ejection system lacked the hydraulic power to punch through.
I cannot use the spines. I must use the Void.
Absolutum focused on his wrists. He couldn't move his arms, but his hands were free. He rotated his wrists inward. The Void-Forged bones clicked in their sockets.
"...Release..."
He poured his Caustic Marrow into the hollow channels of his finger bones. The acid coated the obsidian claws, sizzling as it hit the air.
He ripped.
The Void-Claws, amplified by the System's hydraulic-like grip pressure, tore through the Iron-Coil scales. The acid flooded the wounds, dissolving the muscle beneath instantly.
The serpent shrieked—a high, whistling hiss that sounded like a steam valve blowing. It thrashed, loosening its grip instinctively to escape the burning pain.
IV. The Torque
Absolutum freed his right arm.
He didn't draw a weapon. He reached back, grabbing the serpent by its own body. His Void-Claws dug deep under the scales, finding purchase on the ridges of its spine beneath the meat.
He engaged the Anchor Leg. He pushed deeper into the mud, finding the bedrock beneath the silt.
Heave.
Using the raw, hydraulic leverage of the Orc shoulder-plates and the Void-Arm strength, he pulled the 40-foot snake over his shoulder like a glorious, writhing whip.
The serpent tried to bite him, its fangs striking his helm. CLANG. The reinforced metal held, though the force rattled Absolutum's skull.
Absolutum ignored the head. He focused on the back.
He clamped his left hand onto the snake's neck area. He clamped his right hand onto the midsection.
Twist.
He applied Torque. He used his unbreakable Dwarven ribs as the fulcrum and his Void arms as the levers. He twisted the snake against its own joints.
SNAP-CRACK-SNAP.
The sound was like a tree falling in the forest. He shattered the serpent's spine in three places simultaneously. The mechanical chain of the snake's back failed. The signal from its brain was cut. The creature went limp, falling into the mud with a heavy splash.
V. The Mechanical Core
Absolutum dragged the massive carcass onto a patch of dry root-mass.
He didn't care about the meat. He didn't care about the scales. He wanted the engineering inside.
[COMPONENT: Iron-Coil Vertebrae (Full Column).] [GRADE: Rare.] [ATTRIBUTE: Ball-and-Socket Interlocking. Omni-Directional Rotation.]
He knelt. He used his mandible-fingers to strip the snake. He worked with the precision of a machine, peeling away the flesh, the muscles, and the organs. He scraped the bones clean until only the pearlescent white column remained.
It was a masterpiece of skeletal engineering. Hundreds of vertebrae, each shaped like a ball-bearing encased in a socket. It didn't need tendons to hold it together; the bones mechanically locked into one another, allowing for fluid movement in any direction while maintaining immense crush resistance.
"...Harvest..."
He placed his hand on the white column. The Plasticity Induction flared green, identifying the blueprint.
Then, the exchange began.
Absolutum reached behind his head. He gripped his own cervical vertebrae.
"...Disconnect..."
With a dry click, the magnetic seal holding his skull to his spine released. He pulled his own head off his neck. His vision flickered, sustained only by the Aura Core housed within the cranium.
His body collapsed. Without the central column, he was just a pile of separate parts—ribs, arms, pelvis, legs—lying in the mud, held loosely together by the System's failing field.
The System went to work.
It ejected the reinforced but rigid Elven spine, tossing it into the swamp. It lifted the massive Iron-Coil Spine. The green fire roared as it compressed the 40-foot column, fusing hundreds of smaller vertebrae into 33 hyper-dense, mechanical segments sized for a humanoid torso.
It clicked the new spine into the Dwarven Ribs, the joints locking with precision. It locked the base into the Elven Pelvis. Finally, the hands reached up and snapped the skull back onto the atlas vertebra.
[CONNECTION RE-ESTABLISHED.] [SYSTEM REBOOTING...]
VI. The Chain of Bone
Absolutum stood up.
He moved differently. There was no stiffness. There was no linear limitation.
He twisted his torso. The new vertebrae rotated on their bone bearings. He turned his upper body a full 180 degrees to look directly behind him without moving his hips.
Click-Click-Click-Click.
The sound was soft, like a well-oiled winding clock. The bone gears locked perfectly in place.
[INTEGRATION COMPLETE.] [NEW COMPONENT: The Iron-Coil Spine.] [STATUS: Mechanical Articulation. 360° Torso Rotation.]
[SYSTEM SYNERGY DETECTED: CAUDAL LINK.] [INITIATING FLOW-THROUGH UPGRADE...]
As the spine settled, the integration didn't stop at the sacrum. The raw blueprint of the Iron-Coil Serpent rushed down into his pelvis and flooded the Bone Tail (Xeno-Stalker origin).
The Xeno-Tail whipped out of its housing. It did not bulge or grow heavy—it retained the lightweight, hollow Void-Chitin of the Xenomorph. However, the Internal Geometry changed.
The simple hinge-joints of the alien tail were dissolved and reconstructed into the snake's Ball-and-Socket mechanism. The tail remained feather-light, capable of sonic-speed whipping, but now possessed the mechanical leverage to lock tight.
[TAIL UPGRADE COMPLETE.] [CURRENT STATUS: Hybrid (Xeno-Blade Weight / Iron-Coil Mechanics).] [NEW ATTRIBUTE: Kinetic Constriction. Tail retains high velocity but gains 4,000 PSI locking force via leverage multiplication.]
Absolutum flexed the tail. It flickered through the air, faster than the eye could follow, but when he commanded it to coil around a tree root, it locked with the immovability of a vice. Light as a feather, strong as a press.
[PASSIVE: Weight Distribution. Host can now undulate the spine and tail to distribute weight, reducing ground pressure in soft terrain.]
He tested it. He stepped back into the mud. He didn't walk like a man. He moved his spine and tail in a wave motion, shifting his center of gravity constantly over his hips. He stayed on the surface, gliding over the mire.
VII. The Quill Recalibration
Absolutum did not move forward yet. He stood in the marsh, the water lapping at his shins. He was reviewing the battle data. The spine was a success, but the Quills had been a failure.
They had been trapped in his bones, unable to pierce the snake's scales. A defensive system that cannot deploy under pressure is a liability.
"...System..." he rasped. "...The Spikes failed..."
[AFFIRMATIVE. Porcupine-Grade density was insufficient against Iron-Scale constriction.]
"...Update them..."
Absolutum held up his Void-Forged Arm. It was harder than diamond. He tapped his chest, where the Caustic Marrow flowed.
"...Use the Void... Use the Acid... Make them pierce..."
[RECALIBRATION INITIATED.] [UPGRADING QUILL BLUEPRINT...]
The System drew upon the stored genetic data of the Praetorian and the chemical composition of the marrow. It rewrote the growth formula for the bone spikes hidden within his femurs, ribs, and spine.
Material Upgrade: The base calcium was infused with Void-Chitin, turning the quills from white bone to glossy, obsidian-black needles capable of piercing plate armor. Payload Upgrade: The hollow channels inside the quills were widened to allow high-pressure injection of the Acid/Neurotoxin Binary. Hydraulics: The ejection mechanism was reinforced with the mechanical leverage principles of the new Iron-Coil Spine, tripling the launch velocity.
[UPGRADE COMPLETE: Void-Toxic Flechettes.] [PENETRATION VALUE: High.] [DEPLOYMENT FORCE: 2,400 PSI (Capable of erupting against constriction).]
Absolutum flexed his Anchor Leg.
THWIP.
A single, black, smoking spike shot out of his shin. It didn't just stick in the mud; it punched through a submerged log and sizzled as the acid ate the wood.
"...Better..."
VIII. The Glass Lenses
As the smoke from his test shot cleared, a deep buzzing sound cut through the air. It was a mechanical drone, heavy and aggressive.
[TARGET IDENTIFIED: Titan-Wing Dragonfly.] [SIZE: 4-Foot Wingspan.] [ATTRIBUTES: 360° Vision. Skeletal Wing Lattice. Hypersonic Reflexes.]
The dragonfly hovered. Its massive compound eyes were not flesh; they were hardened chitinous plates, a mosaic of thousands of crystal lenses.
Absolutum tracked it. The creature dodged his gaze before he even moved. It saw the intent in his posture, processing the visual data faster than Absolutum could twitch.
It sees the mechanics of my movement. It lives in slow motion.
Absolutum engaged the Iron-Coil Spine. He stood with his back to the creature, feigning ignorance.
The dragonfly dove, its mandibles clicking.
Absolutum didn't spin his feet. He spun his spine. His torso whipped around 180 degrees on the new ball-bearings.
WHAP.
He lashed out with his newly upgraded Bone Tail. It snapped out with the speed of a whip, snatching the insect out of the air, and then Locked. The mechanical coils tightened instantly.
CRUNCH.
The lightweight tail pulverized the dragonfly mid-air without slowing down Absolutum's balance.
Absolutum pinned the broken creature. He looked at the head. He didn't want the wet parts of the eye. He wanted the Lenses. The hard, crystalline lattice that processed light.
"...Mine..."
He carved the ocular plates from the insect's skull. He stripped away the nerves and jelly, leaving only the dry, multi-faceted shells.
"...Integrate..."
He pressed the lenses into his empty Elven eye sockets. The bone of his skull softened, growing around the edges of the insect plates, locking them in.
His vision fractured into a thousand hexagons. He saw the front. He saw the back. He saw the heat of the dying insect. He saw the ripples in the water behind his heels.
[SENSORY UPGRADE COMPLETE.] [COMPONENT: Crystalline Ocular Lattice.] [FIELD OF VIEW: SPHERICAL.]
IX. The Omni-Vane Flight System
The death of the scout drew more. Six dragonflies descended from the canopy, a squadron of death.
Absolutum drew his Bone Katanas. With his new spine allowing him to face two directions at once, his new eyes seeing everything, and his tail acting as a third high-speed striker, he dismantled them. It was a dance of geometry and slaughter.
He stood over the corpses.
He looked at the wings. He stripped away the thin membrane, leaving only the Wing Struts—the rigid framework of hollow, ultra-light bone. But he didn't just harvest a few; he harvested all of them.
[COMPONENT DETECTED: Skeletal Wing Struts (x28 Wings total).] [SYSTEM PROPOSAL: Fixed Glider Frame.]
Absolutum rejected it. A glider was passive. A glider required height to work.
"...No... I want to fly..."
He harvested the Wing Roots—the complex, oscillating biological motors that allowed the dragonflies to hover and dart. He brought the massive pile of components to his back.
"...Build... Retractable..."
He focused on his massive Orc Scapulae. The shoulder blades were thick, shaped like shields.
[PLASTICITY INDUCTION: SUB-DERMAL HOUSING.]
The System bored into the Orc bone, creating deep, hollow cavities inside the shoulder blades.
Then, it wove the 28 wings together. It didn't stack them; it layered them into four high-density, folding fans. It connected them to the harvested dragonfly Wing Roots, fusing the biological motors to his own spinal energy grid.
The wings folded up, flat and compact, and slid inside his shoulder blades. The bone sealed over them, leaving only four thin slits on his back.
"...Deploy..."
The slits opened. Four multi-layered, transparent bone wings shot out.
Absolutum channeled his Marrow Aura. He didn't have muscles to flap them, but he didn't need them. He used Bone Resonance. He vibrated the hollow struts at a frequency that matched the dragonfly's hum.
BZZZZZZZT.
The wings blurred. The vibration generated instant lift.
[INTEGRATION COMPLETE.] [NEW COMPONENT: The Omni-Vane Flight System.] [FUNCTION: True Flight via Sonic Resonance. Fully Retractable.]
Absolutum hovered. He wasn't gliding; he was flying. He could strafe, hover, and dive.
He landed, and the wings snapped back, folding instantly into his shoulder blades.
He reached over his shoulder to check his arsenal. His hand brushed the ridge of his new Iron-Coil Spine. The Vertebrae Bow was there, perfectly fused to the new, larger segments. The System had transferred the weapon automatically during the surgery, treating it as a vital organ rather than equipment.
[ARSENAL CHECK: SPINAL DOCK.] [STATUS: Bow Transfer Successful. New Anchor Point: Iron-Coil Thoracic Vertebrae.]
Absolutum stood in the swamp. He was a machine of bone. A spine of gears, eyes of crystal, wings of strut-work, and a tail that whipped like lightning but crushed like iron. He again stretched his new wings and took flight. Absolutum hovered over the swamp, his new Omni-Vane Wings blurring with a high-frequency hum.
BZZZZZZZT.
The sound was irritating. It was the sound of a saw blade, a mechanical drone that announced his presence for miles. The dragonflies relied on speed to hunt; they didn't need silence. But Absolutum was an assassin.
He looked down at his hands. The Void-Claw Scalples were powerful, capable of crushing steel and slicing through flesh, but they lacked finesse. They were serrated blades made for tearing, not hooks made for silent snatching I want both.
He looked out into the darkness. His spherical vision saw everything, but it lacked depth. The compound eyes broke the world into a grid of motion. He could see a fly twitch at 100 yards, but he couldn't tell exactly how far away the branch behind it was. He lacked Binocular Focus.
He needed a predator that mastered the night.
"...System... Query..."
[SYSTEM LISTENING.]
The Dragonfly gave me flight, but it is loud. I need Silence. The Dragonfly gave me sight, but it is scattered. I need Focus. The Praetorian gave me claws, but they are bludgeons. I need Precision.
Absolutum projected an image from his Martial Archive—a memory of a silent killer from Earth's biosphere.
"...Target: The Great Horned Owl..."
[ANALYSIS: AVIAN PREDATOR.] [TRAIT 1: Silent Flight.] Specialized feather structures (serrated leading edge + velvet down) dampen air turbulence to zero decibels. [TRAIT 2: Raptor Talons.] Locking ratchet-mechanism. Once gripped, the tendon locks in place without energy expenditure. Perfect for silent elimination. [TRAIT 3: Telescopic Night Vision.] Tubular eyes maximize low-light intake and depth perception.
"...Combine them..." Absolutum commanded. "...Coat the bone wings in silent down. Fuse the talons to my Void-Claws to create a locking hook. Layer the telescopic vision over the compound grid..."
[PROPOSAL ACCEPTED.] [OBJECTIVE SET: HUNT THE SILENT NIGHT-STALKER.] [LOCATION: Deep Canopy (Vertical Sector).]
Absolutum turned his gaze upward. He didn't just want to fly; he wanted to be a ghost.
He turned his spherical gaze toward the horizon.
[NEXT OBJECTIVE: THE FEMURS.]