The old factory sector was a graveyard.
Blaine stepped through the perimeter and into silence. The bodies of hunters lay scattered across the cracked concrete—not torn apart, not crushed. Drained. Their skin was gray and papery. Their eyes were open and empty. No wounds. No blood. Just hollow shells that had once been fighters. The twin hadn't killed them. It had taken everything they were and left the rest.
It's not just absorbing strength. It's absorbing traits. Skills. Everything that made them hunters. If it's been doing this for hours—
The ground trembled. A low vibration, rhythmic and slow, like a heartbeat pressed through stone. The factory ahead was a massive pre-Fall structure, its walls reinforced with the same black stone as the Artery. The Architects had built this place before the laboratory. Another experiment. Another failure sealed away and forgotten.
The twin emerged from the factory's central bay.
It was larger than the aberrant construct. More stable. Where the aberrant had been a patchwork of fused stone and corrupted flesh, the twin was refined. Its body was sleek and segmented, each joint reinforced with dark metal that gleamed in the flickering glowstone light. Its head was a smooth, featureless dome, and from its chest, a vertical groove pulsed with Architect red. The same scanning light. The same hunger.
Above its head, the system flickered.
[Absorption Construct — Active]
[Strength: 134]
[Threat Level: Extreme]
[Core Stability: Adaptive]
Adaptive. It's learning. Every hunter it absorbed made it stronger. Every trait it took made it harder to kill.
The construct didn't charge. It observed. The dome-head tracked Blaine across the open yard, and the red groove in its chest pulsed faster. Scanning. Recognizing. It spoke—not with words, but with a tone. The same frequency the guardians used. The same frequency the Watcher had answered before the bond was complete. The Origin Bond in Blaine's chest stirred. Not threatened. Interested.
It knows what I carry. It wants it.
The construct moved.
Fast. A limb uncoiled from its segmented torso—not a fist, but a tendril of dark metal that shot across the distance like a spear. Blaine sidestepped and the tendril cratered the concrete behind him. He swung the pipe into it. The metal rang and bounced. No damage.
Armored. Fast. Absorbs on contact. Don't let it touch me.
He circled. The construct tracked him with its featureless dome, the red groove flaring as it calculated his movements. More tendrils uncoiled. Three. Four. They lashed out in sequence, not wild but coordinated. He ducked the first. Parried the second with the pipe. The third grazed his shoulder—cold, sharp, and hungry. The pull came instantly, a drain that reached for his core. The Origin Bond flared and struck back. The tendril recoiled as if burned. The drain was blocked before it could draw anything.
It can't take what's already bound. The Bond won't let it.
The construct paused. Recalculating. The red groove dimmed, then brightened. The tendrils retracted and merged into larger forms—two massive arms ending in hammer-like fists. It had switched tactics. If it couldn't drain him, it would crush him.
Blaine exhaled. He let the warmth spread.
Unstable Core Disruption. The trait I took from its twin. If they share the same design, the same flaw—
He moved. The construct swung. He ducked under the first hammer-fist and rolled past the second. The ground shattered behind him. He came up inside its reach and pressed his palm against the vertical groove in its chest. The golden-red glow flared.
The construct screamed.
Not sound. Energy. A shockwave of distorted red light that hurled Blaine backward. He hit the concrete, rolled, and came up bleeding from a cut above his eye. The construct was staggered. The groove in its chest flickered—not stable anymore. The disruption had worked. Partially.
It's hurting. But it's not dead.
The construct recovered. Faster than it should have. The flickering groove stabilized, and new tendrils emerged—not aimed at Blaine, but at the bodies scattered across the yard. They pierced the fallen hunters, and the construct pulled. The remaining energy, the residual traits still clinging to the corpses, flowed into it. Its strength spiked.
[Strength: 139]
It's feeding again. Even on the dead. I have to end this now, before it finishes.
He charged. The pipe came up. The construct swung both hammer-fists. He dropped and slid beneath them, the concrete tearing at his back. He rose inside its guard and drove the pipe into the chest groove—the same spot he'd disrupted. The construct convulsed. He didn't stop. He struck again. And again. The golden-red glow of the Origin Bond bled into the pipe, and each impact left a crack in the groove.
The construct grabbed him. A tendril wrapped around his waist, squeezing, pulling. The drain came again—stronger this time, desperate. The construct was burning its own stability to overwhelm the bond. The Origin Bond pushed back. The Watcher's presence, silent until now, stirred.
"It is trying to consume what it cannot understand. Let it try."
Blaine stopped resisting the pull. He let the tendril draw him closer. The construct's groove flared bright. It thought it was winning. He pressed both hands against the groove and released everything.
Not strength. Disruption. The full force of the Unstable Core Disruption trait, channeled through the Origin Bond. The golden-red light erupted. The construct's groove shattered. The red light inside it guttered and died. The arms collapsed. The tendrils went limp. The construct fell.
Silence.
[Absorption Construct — Neutralized]
[Strength +7]
[Strength: 110]
A pause. Then—
[Devour Protocol — Engaged]
[Traits Available for Extraction]
[— Adaptive Absorption (High Compatibility: 94%)]
[— Tendril Manifestation (Moderate Compatibility: 72%)]
Adaptive Absorption. The trait it used to drain hunters. The same mechanism, repurposed. If I take it—I can do what it did. Selectively. Without losing control.
He didn't hesitate. "Adaptive Absorption."
The warmth flared and settled. The trait integrated—not as a weapon, but as a tool. He could feel it now. The ability to draw strength from what he defeated. Not randomly. Not chaotically. Deliberately.
The system confirmed.
[Integration — Complete]
[New Trait: Adaptive Absorption — Active]
[Effect: Enhanced trait extraction from defeated enemies. No instability.]
He stood over the dissolving corpse of the twin. The factory sector was silent. The bodies of the fallen hunters lay where they had fallen. Somewhere beyond the perimeter, he could feel the city's pulse slowly returning to normal. The shift was settling. The Zone was still healing. But this crisis—the twin, the escaped experiments—was contained.
For now.
He turned and walked back toward the mid-districts. The pipe was still in his grip. The warmth in his chest was steady.
Kellan had answers. The descendant was waiting. The past wanted to speak.
He was ready to listen.