The pain wasn't a sharp sting. It was a cold, invasive expansion.
Kael watched, paralyzed, as the spider-silk tendrils of emerald light didn't just touch his skin—they wove into it. The Origin Seed, once a cool weight in the Root-Weaver's palm, was now a thrumming engine of heat pressed against his own sternum. He tried to claw it off, his fingers slick with sweat, but the jade-like surface had already dipped below the surface of his dermis.
[SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE INITIALIZED]
[Host DNA Status: Inert.]
[Orchard Plot Capacity: 1 / 1.]
[Bio-Load Stability: 100%.]
The clinical voice in his skull was louder now, drowning out the frantic thud of his own heart. A HUD didn't appear in his vision; instead, he felt the information, a spatial awareness of a place that wasn't there. Behind his ribs, where there should have been lungs and bone, he sensed a pocket of stillness—a patch of grey, nutrient-starved soil waiting for a purpose.
His body buckled.
"Get... out..." he wheezed, but the word died in a throat that suddenly tasted of ozone and wet earth.
The emerald veins on his arm began to pulse in sync with the distant, terrifying hum of the Glass-Thorn Panther. The beast was no longer moving with the graceful indifference of a predator that had already fed. It was low to the rust-grates, its metallic leaves shivering with a crystalline ring that set Kael's teeth on edge.
It didn't want Miller's meat anymore. It wanted the light in Kael's chest.
[WARNING: EXTREME BIOLOGICAL ANOMALY DETECTED]
[Apex Predator proximity: 4.2 Meters.]
[Recommendation: Immediate Trait Acquisition to avoid Host termination.]
"Acquire what?" Kael hissed through gritted teeth. His hand brushed against the Root-Weaver's corpse, the skin already cooling. "I have nothing! I'm Inert!"
[Scanning Local Biomass...]
[Detected: Root-Weaver Spy (Deceased).]
[Available Traits: 'Needle-Threader' (Grade E), 'Chlorophyll-Sump' (Grade D).]
[Warning: Harvesting from stale DNA reduces success rate by 40%.]
The panther let out a sound that wasn't a roar—it was the screech of metal on metal. It lunged.
Kael didn't think. He didn't have the luxury. He threw himself back into the crevice, the same narrow gap that had saved him minutes ago. But the panther was faster now, driven by a hunger that bypassed its instincts. A glass-claw raked across the stone pylon, sending a spray of sparks and granite shards into Kael's shoulder.
The beast's snout, a nightmare of black fur and jagged sapphire sensors, forced itself into the opening. The smell was unbearable—the scent of musk and ozone.
[HOST DATA OVERWRITE: DNA Compatibility 99.9%.]
[Trait Orchard: Soil Plot 1 is Ready for Seeding.]
Kael's vision swam. He could see the panther's eyes—not feline, but a grid of glowing green hexes—less than a foot from his face. The beast's breath was hot, smelling of the Miller's blood.
Crunch.
The masonry around the gap began to groan. The panther wasn't just reaching for him; it was tearing the pylon apart.
[URGENT: HARVEST NOW OR FACE SYSTEM SHUTDOWN.]
Kael's fingers spasmed, digging into the Root-Weaver's cold hand one last time. In the darkness of the crevice, he didn't see the light, but he felt it—a desperate, grasping hunger from the Orchard in his chest reaching out for the dead man's secrets.
The pylon buckled. A massive slab of concrete shattered, and the Glass-Thorn Panther's weight crashed into the hole, pinning Kael against the back wall.
The cliffhanger wasn't the beast's claws. It was the sudden, violent silence in Kael's head.
[HARVEST INITIATED. UNSTABLE DNA DETECTED.]
[Grafting Progress: 1%...]
The Panther's jaws opened wide, its throat glowing with a faint, predatory light.