I stand before the heart, trembling.
Not from fear.
Not just from blood loss.
But because now that I've found it… I realize how impossible this is.
The heart isn't just big.
It's a fortress.
A living goddamn fortress.
Every beat sends shockwaves through the chamber, ripples of pressure that make the walls shudder and shed steaming rivulets of blood. The surface is flawless, hard, smooth, polished, almost armored. I tap the metal rod against it.
CLANG.
The sound echoes.
It didn't even leave a scratch.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
I try again. Harder.
My hand shakes with each desperate swing.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
Nothing.
Not a dent
"Damn..! How..! "
...
I stagger toward one of the colossal arteries, thick as a tower pillar, pulsing with blood. If I can hit a weak point…
I slam the rod into a thinner section.
A burst of blood knocks me backward like a cannon shot. I crash into the chamber wall, spine screaming. My stump flares with agonizing fire.
"Ugh..! "
The artery seals itself almost instantly.
Regeneration.
Of course. A creature this size wouldn't leave a weakness open.
"Damn… it…"
I cough blood.
...
I drag myself to a tendon anchoring the heart, thick as a ship's mast. It moves with each beat. Stretching, tightening, relaxing.
I raise my rod and swing.
It bounces off.
I swing again. again. and again.
It doesn't even bruise.
The tendon suddenly contracts, slamming me against the wall with bone-cracking force.
My ribs pop.
"Puh..!"
Excruciating pain explodes through my chest and I couldn't even let out a scream, collapsing onto the pulsating floor.
Something is broken inside me.
Maybe several somethings.
...
I find a nerve cluster sparking with red electric pulses. Maybe I can drag it to the heart. Overload it. Shock it.
I grab it.
The bolt hits me like a divine strike.
I convulse violently, thrown backward so hard my body skips across the floor three times before slamming into a vein column.
My back splits open.
My vision whites out.
When I blink again, I feel warmth pouring down my legs.
My spine might be punctured.
My insides definitely are.
"Oh… god…"
...
I look at the heart.
A massive heart valve opens and closes with thunderous force. A gate of flesh. A door of muscle.
If I jam it.
If I break it.
If I disrupt the flow.
I lunge forward, timing the next pulse. But the valve snaps shut early, catching my leg.
CRUNCH.
"AAAAAGHHH!!!!!"
I howl, the sound torn from somewhere primal and terrified as the valve squeezes. My shin buckles. Bones shatter. Flesh tears. I pull with everything I have left.
The valve opens for the next beat. I fall, hitting the ground with a mangled leg that no longer resembles a leg at all.
"Haa..ha...I.."
I pant, half-conscious.
"…I can't… do this…"
I try crawling but my only arm slips.
I collapse into a puddle of blood. Mine? the moninside? who knows.
...
My breathing is shallow.
Cold.
Fading.
It's a miracle that I have survived this long. I didn't even know I had it in me.
But my body won't last, I won't make it out.
I won't live to see sunlight again.
My chair. My coffee. The sunrise.
I won't see my father and my mother.
I close my eyes.
The heart beats.
BOOM… BOOM… BOOM…
Steady. Confident.
This monster will keep walking long after I'm dead.
It'll crush cities. Sink continents. Drown the world under its shadow.
Killing everything beneath it.
Killing my family.
No. No, I won't let that happen.
If I'm dying anyway- Then I'm taking it with me.
I drag myself to the edge of the heart chamber. A valve opens, spilling a tide of blood. Not much time. The heartbeat grows louder, deeper, closer.
I feel the pressure. The suction. The pull.
This is insane.
This is suicide.
I don't even know if it can die.
But it's the only way. This or be digested or die because of bloodloss.
Every path will just lead me to death.
And so, I take one last breath or try to. It rattles out of me like a broken instrument.
I tighten my grip on the metal rod.
"…I'm ending this."
The next heartbeat hits.
The valve opens wide.
A tidal wave of blood surges out.
I run or what's left of running, dragging my ruined leg behind me, leaning my entire weight on instinct and stubbornness.
The chamber shakes.
BOOM.
The valve pulses
BOOM.
I leap.
The suction takes me instantly.
I'm ripped off the ground, hurled through the opening.
The force flips me end over end, smashing me into the heart's interior wall.
I scream.
Blood floods my mouth.
The heart closes behind me.
Darkness swallows me.
I land in the central cavity, the heart's core, the pump chamber. A swirling ocean of blood as hot as fire roars around me.
My body spins, battered by every contraction.
The pressure is unbelievable.
My bones bend.
My skin tears.
My ears rupture.
The metal rod is nearly torn from my grip.
but I tighten my hold, screaming through blood and pain.
And before I thrusted it forward. Something unusual was happening.