The Neon Spine narrowed into a steel throat — pipes hissing, neon bleeding through cracks, steam swirling around our legs.
Rave paused at the corner.
"K-17… something's wrong."
Kai peeked around her shoulder.
"Yeah… the air feels weird. Like… cold? But it's hot? I don't like this."
Lira's eyes narrowed.
"It's a trap."
I stepped forward slowly.
My body heat churned against the air —
but the heat recoiled.
Like the environment itself was swallowing it.
"K-17," Lira whispered, "your core isn't dispersing correctly."
She was right.
My Sun-Core felt muffled.
Smothered.
As if wrapped in cold hands.
Rave lifted her blade.
"Whatever this is, it's shutting him down."
Kai nodded rapidly.
"Shutting him down is BAD. Very bad."
Lira exhaled sharply.
"Move slow. No sudden flare-ups. Calder's watching."
We moved forward—
—and suddenly the air shimmered.
A faint lattice of red lines flickered across the corridor.
Grid-like.
Precise.
Pulsing.
"K-17," Lira said, voice iced over.
"Stop."
I froze.
Kai whispered:
"…What the hell is that…?"
Lira answered without blinking.
"A Heat Suppression Net."
Rave stiffened.
"Those are illegal even for Dominion soldiers."
"Which means Calder commissioned it himself."
A voice drifted down from above —
calm, amused, surgical:
"Correct."
We all snapped upward.
Voss Calder stood on an overhead beam, face half-lit by dying neon, glove razors gleaming.
"Your Sun-Class anomaly flares too brightly," he said.
"So I dimmed the environment."
He gestured lazily.
"Try to use your heat again.
Go on."
I didn't want to.
But the Beast pulsed—
shoving heat through my veins.
The moment it flared—
WHAM.
The grid snapped alive, glowing red-hot.
Heat was ripped from my body in a violent jolt.
I staggered.
The fractures along my ribs turned from molten gold to ashen gray.
Kai screamed, "BRO—YOU'RE GOING PALE—LIKE—METAL PALE—"
Rave grabbed him back.
"Kai, stay behind—"
But the Beast inside me howled, enraged at being smothered.
My knees buckled.
The heat suppression net constricted around my form, siphoning power like a parasite.
Voss watched with predatory delight.
"Beautiful," he murmured.
"He destabilizes quickly under deprivation."
Lira snapped:
"Calder! You'll kill him!"
"Oh, I hope not.
I want him alive.
Conscious."
Voss smiled.
"And screaming."
My vision swam.
The Beast wasn't just hungry anymore.
It was ANGRY.
It clawed at my spine.
At my heartbeat.
At my skull.
Trying to tear free.
Lira grabbed my arm.
"K-17! Don't let it break out!"
"I—can't—breathe—"
"Yes, you can! Stay with me!"
Rave shouted:
"He's being drained! The Beast is reacting!"
Kai clung to Rave's leg.
"Do something—DO SOMETHING—"
Voss's voice lowered to a chilling whisper:
"Do you know the purpose of a Heat Suppression Net, little tactician?"
Lira glared at him.
"It suppresses Sun-Core output."
Voss smirked.
"No.
It starves it."
The Beast inside me ROARED—
a sound only I could hear—
a sound that split my thoughts into fragments.
Lira felt me convulse.
"K-17! Control it! CONTROL IT—"
"I—can't—"
Voss leaned forward on the beam.
"That's the point.
Starve the anomaly…
and the god inside him wakes up hungry."
The Beast's claws dragged across my ribs.
My shadow twisted violently.
The fractures went dark—
Then blazed bright white from inner pressure.
Lira's eyes widened.
"He's going critical—"
Rave grabbed Kai.
"Move! Now!"
Kai screamed, "LIRA—HE'S GLOWING—"
Voss lifted a finger.
"Let's raise the dosage."
He snapped.
The net constricted further.
A shockwave of cold tore through my chest —
so violent I DROPPED.
Lira caught me—
—barely—
—and the force hurled both of us against a wall.
Rave shielded Kai from falling debris as the corridor buckled.
"K-17—STAY WITH ME—"
Lira shouted, trying to hold my face steady.
"LOOK at me—LOOK—"
My eyes flickered gold.
Then black.
Then molten white.
The Beast bared its teeth inside my skull.
"Hungry."
Voss clasped his hands behind his back, studying me like a prize specimen.
"Magnificent."
Lira turned on him, fury blazing.
"YOU DID THIS!"
"I did," Voss said calmly.
"And now you understand his nature better than he does."
The floor beneath us trembled.
Cracked.
Split.
"Rave!" Lira yelled. "Get Kai out! NOW!"
Rave didn't hesitate.
She threw Kai over her shoulder and sprinted down the collapsing corridor.
The moment they moved—
Voss jumped down effortlessly, landing only a few meters away.
Not attacking.
Just enjoying the spectacle.
Lira dragged me back, my body limp, overheating and freezing at the same time.
"K-17—FOCUS—YOU HAVE TO FIGHT IT—"
The Beast snapped:
"LET ME."
My shadow writhed violently, splitting into jagged limbs.
Lira pressed her forehead to mine, desperate.
"STAY—WITH—ME!"
The net pulsed one last time.
The Beast lunged.
My fractures SHATTERED with golden light.
A blast tore through the corridor—
not from heat,
but from pure Sun-Core backlash.
The net flickered.
Strained.
Cracked—
and broke.
Voss's eyes gleamed.
"Excellent."
Lira held me tighter as my body went weightless from the shockwave.
"K-17! COME BACK—COME BACK—"
I sucked in a broken breath.
The Beast sucked in another.
We breathed together.
Too close.
Too aligned.
Lira whispered in terror:
"He's not just starving…
He's merging."
Voss stepped closer.
"K-17," he said softly,
"your leash is slipping."
The Beast whispered back from my throat:
"Soon."