Lucen pressed his hands against the mattress.
The blood on his neck had dried into a stiff crust, but his head still pounded.
He kept his eyes closed.
He couldn’t rest.
He needed to find it.
That massive weight that had just looked right through him.
He pushed his awareness outward.
A sudden chill ran down his spine.
Something moved through the city.
Not the panicked civilians.
Not the Hunters rushing to the front.
Something heavy.
Wait.
It felt familiar.
And it headed straight for Sector 135.
He gritted his teeth and ignored it.
The pull of the Spiral Gate was stronger.
It dragged at his blood.
It demanded his attention.
He let the current pull his consciousness out of the dark basement.
He drifted over the screaming rooftops.
He sank back down into the valley.
⋙ ──── ✦ ──── ⋘ The Mutated Forest was completely dead.
No wind.
No screeches.
Hundreds of Mawback corpses littered the mud.
Black blood pooled in the craters.
Lucen hovered above the vanguard.
He found Lucy near the front line.
Black gore coated her silver armor.
She leaned heavily against her spear, her chest heaving.
Beside her, a young recruit dropped to his knees.
He let out a breathless, exhausted laugh.
Another Hunter lowered his shattered shield and wiped sweat from his eyes.
It looked like a victory.
Then Lucen looked at the Rift.
His breath caught.
The Gate wasn’t closing.
The red light collapsed inward.
A massive pool of energy gathered at the dead center of the swirling portal.
The air pressure spiked.
Down in the mud, gravity stopped working.
Droplets of black blood floated upward.
Small rocks lifted off the ground, drifting into the air.
The sky shattered.
Thousands of black shapes poured out of the Rift.
A living waterfall of armor and claws.
They didn’t hit the ground.
They leaped over the trees, a dark cloud of shrieking nightmares.
But they weren’t the problem.
Lucen’s hands shook.
Ten massive shapes stepped through the portal.
They were twice the size of normal Mawbacks.
Thick red veins pulsed under their jagged, obsidian armor.
Four blade-like arms hung at their sides.
Heavy, spiked tails dragged behind them, carving deep trenches into the earth.
Mawlords.
A veteran Hunter stepped forward.
He raised his heavy steel shield.
His hands visibly trembled.
“Hold the line!” He didn’t finish the order.
The nearest Mawlord crossed the distance in a blur.
It didn’t use a claw.
It didn’t use a blade.
It simply walked through the veteran.
The steel shield shattered like glass.
The veteran’s armor crumpled.
The Mawlord grabbed the man’s broken body with a lower arm.
The beast didn’t kill him immediately.
It lifted him high into the air.
The veteran thrashed, screaming.
The Mawlord tightened its grip.
Armor collapsed.
Bones snapped.
The sickening crunch echoed across the quiet valley.
The monster tilted its head, watching the human suffer with cold, calculated cruelty.
Then it casually tossed the crushed body aside like a broken toy.
Hunters dropped their weapons.
People stumbled backward in the mud.
“Fall back!” A medic tried to drag a wounded rookie through the mud.
A second Mawlord stepped on them.
It didn’t rush.
It pressed its massive foot down slowly, crushing both Hunters into the dirt until they stopped moving.
The Vanguard dissolved.
Shield walls broke.
Men and women ran for their lives.
The Mawlords didn’t even chase them.
They just swatted the slow ones out of the air, tearing limbs from torsos and letting the pieces rain down on the survivors.
Then the entire swarm bowed.
Something else emerged from the Gate.
It was colossal.
Horns swept back from its head like giant scythes.
Dozens of red eyes slowly opened across its skull.
The weight of its presence hit Lucen like a physical blow.
His lungs seized.
A voice echoed inside his head.
Retrieve…
the blood.
The massive swarm didn’t roar.
They didn’t charge the Hunters.
They leaped straight over the tree line.
They headed directly for the city.
Sector 135.
Lucen’s physical body burned.
The temperature in the basement spiked.
He had to warn them.
He pushed his Origin Energy toward Lucy.
She was a Sentinel.
Her Resonance burned like a bright silver flare down in the mud.
It was the only anchor strong enough to hold him.
He slammed his mind directly into hers.
The connection snapped into place.
Fire ripped through his veins.
He gasped in the dark.
A drop of warm blood rolled from his left eye.
The sheer force of the link tore at his physical body.
“Lucy.” Down in the valley, Lucy flinched.
She spun around, raising her spear.
“Lucy, listen to me.” Her eyes widened.
She stared at the empty air.
“Who…?
How—” “It’s me, Lucen.
Don’t talk.
Just listen.
His voice echoed clearly inside her head.
This isn’t a mindless stampede.
It’s a plan.
Blocking the valley won’t work.
They’re bypassing you entirely.” Through her eyes, he watched the Mawlords step forward.
They formed a solid wall of black armor, blocking the only path back to the city.
Behind them, their colossal queen watched in silence.
“How do you know that?” she whispered.
“Don’t ask questions.
I can’t maintain this connection for long.
Trust me.
Do exactly as I say.” Lucy hesitated.
Her grip shifted on the spear shaft.
“This isn’t the northern front, Lucen.
Things are different down here.” “I know.” Lucen dug his fingernails into the mattress.
“We disrupt the connection.
Cut the puppet strings.” He pushed the image into her mind.
“Get close to one of the Mawlords.
Touch it.
And do not let go until I say so.” She stumbled back half a step.
“What?” “I can break their hive link.
Just get me close.” Lucy swallowed hard.
“Fine.” She didn’t hesitate again.
She gripped her spear and sprinted forward.
Beside her, Kellan frowned.
“Lucy?
What are you doing?” She didn’t answer.
She just ran.
The nearest Mawlord noticed her.
It turned its horned head.
It crossed the distance in a blur, raising its upper right claw.
The massive blade swung straight for her neck.
“Drop.” Lucy dropped to her knees.
The claw cut the air right above her helmet.
The wind from the strike nearly knocked her over.
“Push off your left foot.
Thrust at the knee.” She shifted her weight instantly.
Her spear drove forward.
The blade punched cleanly through the thinner armor behind the beast’s leg.
The Mawlord roared and stumbled.
“Roll right.
Keep your head down.” A second claw smashed into the mud exactly where she just was.
Lucen didn’t just watch the Mawlord.
His Origin Energy expanded.
He saw the entire battlefield as a web of moving lines.
He felt the weight distribution of the monster.
He saw its muscles twitch a fraction of a second before it moved.
“Two steps back.
Now.” Lucy stepped backward.
A spiked tail slammed into the earth right in front of her boots.
“Spin left.
Strike the exposed ribs.” She spun gracefully.
She drove her spear into the creature’s side.
From the edge of Lucy’s vision, Lucen saw Kellan.
The big man stared at her.
His jaw hung open.
Lucy’s movements were sudden, jerky, and completely unpredictable.
They went against every combat drill they ever practiced.
She didn’t block.
She didn’t brace.
She simply wasn’t there when the attacks landed.
But Kellan didn’t argue.
He stayed glued to her side.
A smaller Mawback leaped from her blind spot.
Kellan’s hammer shattered its skull before Lucy even turned her head.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Kellan roared.
Lucy ignored him.
Her eyes stayed locked on the Mawlord.
“Duck.” She ducked.
A massive claw sheared the top off a nearby boulder.
“Step forward.
Lean right.” She stepped inside the monster’s reach.
The lower left claw missed her shoulder by an inch.
Kellan ground his teeth.
He stepped slightly behind her, covering her back.
He swung his heavy hammer, knocking away a chunk of flying debris.
Lucy kept quiet.
She followed the voice in her head.
“Wait for it, it’s going to overextend its right arm.” The Mawlord shrieked.
It snapped its jagged jaws at the empty air where Lucy had just been.
The beast dug its heavy claws into the dirt.
Its glowing red veins pulsed wildly as it locked all its eyes onto her silver armor.
It raised its massive right arm high into the air and brought it down with crushing force.
“Step inside its guard.
Now.” Lucy stepped right into the beast’s reach.
The massive claw slammed into the mud behind her.
She stood directly against its chest.
She dropped her spear into the mud.
Kellan stared at her empty hands.
“Are you nuts?!” She ignored him.
She slammed her bare hand flat against the Mawlord’s thick chitin.
“Got it!” “Hold on tight.” The Mawlord shrieked.
It realized its mistake.
Its spiked tail whipped through the air, sweeping straight toward Lucy’s back.
She didn’t move.
She couldn’t break contact.
Lucen’s breath caught.
His heart hammered against his ribs.
BOOM.
Violet light flashed.
Kellan stood right behind Lucy.
His heavy hammer caught the massive tail.
His boots slid backward, digging deep trenches into the mud.
The veins in his neck bulged under the crushing weight.
“I don’t know what’s in your head right now, Lucy, but keep doing it!” Kellan yelled.
He spat blood into the dirt, holding the massive tail at bay.
“I’ve got you!” Lucen stopped holding back.
He gathered every drop of Origin Energy in his chest.
He shoved it down the tether.
The energy rushed through Lucy’s arm and slammed straight into the Mawlord.
The beast froze.
The red veins under its armor flared bright.
Then they turned a sickly violet.
The energy didn’t stop there.
It surged up the invisible connection.
It raced straight back toward the colossal queen.
The queen’s massive red eyes went wide.
The whole swarm stuttered.
Thousands of Mawbacks stopped in midair.
They crashed into the mud.
Their limbs twitched and convulsed like broken machines.
The other nine Mawlords dropped to their knees.
They grabbed their heads, letting out horrific, gurgling screams.
⋙ ──── ✦ ──── ⋘ In the basement, Lucen screamed.
Warm blood poured from his eyes.
It ran down his cheeks.
His chest burned like he had swallowed hot coals.
The tether pushed back.
The pressure crushed against his skull.
The queen was fighting the connection.
He didn’t let go.
He clamped his mind around the connection and pushed harder.
He forced the energy through the link, holding the entire hive down.
He couldn’t move his legs.
He couldn’t hear the sirens outside anymore.
He was completely locked in.
Completely exposed.
Outside the flower shop, the street was entirely quiet.
The stampede had emptied the district.
Torn bags, dropped shoes, and crushed masks littered the road.
The festival music was gone.
A man stood at the front gate.
He wore a long dark coat.
A smooth, featureless mask covered his face.
He didn’t look up at the bleeding red sky.
He didn’t look at the distant explosions echoing from the valley.
He looked straight down at the wooden floorboards of the empty shop.
Right where the hidden hatch rested.
The man raised his arm.
A sleek metal device on his wrist glowed with a faint green light.
Two words blinked across the small screen.
“I found the source.”