The abomination saw him.
Not as prey.
Not as another morsel to be absorbed into its ever-shifting mass.
But as a threat—something that needed to be dismantled with surgical precision.
Every eye embedded in its flesh snapped open in unison, pupils contracting as they locked onto Lucent.
Human eyes, Hollowed eyes, eyes that had no business existing on something that had once been human—all of them focused with terrifying clarity.
The air itself seemed to shudder as the abomination moved.
Tendrils erupted from its central mass, not with the wild flailing of a beast, but with the calculated strike of a predator that had learned how to kill.
They punched through the space between them faster than thought, their tips glistening with something that wasn't quite liquid, wasn't quite flesh.
Lucent's hands were already moving, glyphs flaring to life in the air before him as raw aether burned through his veins.
Rank 3—Deflection Matrix. The hexagonal barrier shimmered into existence, its edges humming with barely contained force.
It should have held.
It always held.
The tendrils pierced through it like it wasn't even there.
There was no time to react.
No time to think.
Only the Q-Serin-fueled instinct that screamed at him to move.
Rank 3—Mind Accel.
His mind obeyed before his body could catch up, muscles igniting with a surge of aether-forced speed.
The world blurred around him, sound stretching into a distorted whine as he twisted sideways.
He felt the wind of the tendrils' passage first—a hot, wet gust that reeked of acid and rotting meat.
Then the searing line of pain as one grazed his cheek, slicing through skin like a scalpel.
Blood welled, hot and immediate, but he was already rolling, already forcing his body to move faster than human limits should allow.
The aftereffects hit like a hammer.
Mind Accel wasn't just speed—it was violence done to his own biology.
His muscles locked as lactic acid flooded his system, fibers tearing under the strain.
Every breath burned.
Every heartbeat thundered in his ears like a drum.
The Q-Serin stoked the fire in his blood, muting the worst of the damage, but he could feel it—the way his body frayed at the edges, the way reality itself seemed to warp around him with every step.
Across the chamber, the abomination twitched.
Its tendrils retracted, coiling back into its mass with eerie precision.
It wasn't retreating.
It was reloading.
Karen moved before the next volley came.
She didn't hesitate.
Didn't waste breath on a battle cry.
The eyes snapped open along the same tendril, all of them fixing on Karen with chilling focus.
Kai's voice cut through the chaos, raw with panic. "Lucent—!"
But Lucent was already moving again, his hands tracing another glyph in the air.
Rank 5—Inferno Lance.
The fire that erupted from his palms wasn't right.
It wasn't clean.
Blue-white plasma twisted with streaks of something darker, something that writhed as it tore through the air.
It struck the abomination's mass, searing flesh and sending up a plume of acrid smoke—but where the flames licked at its surface, the wounds didn't heal.
They changed.
The abomination's flesh rippled, warping into jagged, glass-like growths that refracted the firelight in impossible directions.
It wasn't dying.
It was evolving.
And Lucent's vision was going black at the edges.
The air smelled of scorched metal and something deeper, fouler—the stench of the abomination's corrupted flesh cooking under Lucent's onslaught.
His hands moved through the complex patterns of military-grade glyphs, each motion precise despite the tremors running through his muscles.
The Q-Serin in his veins burned like liquid fire, keeping his mind clear even as his body screamed in protest.
Rank 5—Fracture Cascade.
The glyph unfolded behind his eyes, a complex lattice of destructive intent that should have reduced the abomination's biomass to quivering sludge.
The air between them shimmered as invisible force lanced outward, striking the creature's central mass with enough power to crater steel.
The abomination's flesh rippled, black ichor spraying from the impact—but instead of bursting apart, its surface hardened, forming strange geometric patterns that dispersed the energy across its entire form.
Lucent's breath came in ragged gasps.
It was adapting faster now.
Learning.
Across the chamber, Karen crouched behind a shattered console, her good hand gripping a pistol.
The rotor-saw was long gone—torn away along with her arm in that first brutal encounter with Gristle.
Blood soaked through the makeshift bandages at her shoulder, but her eyes were sharp, calculating.
She waited until the abomination shifted its attention toward Lucent before leaning out and firing.
The pulse rounds struck one of its many eyes, bursting the gelatinous orb in a spray of dark fluid.
The abomination didn't scream—it adjusted.
Three new eyes sprouted from the wound, their pupils dilating as they locked onto her position.
Kai scrambled back as a tendril lashed toward him.
The abomination wasn't just fighting them—it was studying them.
Every glyph Lucent cast, every move they made, it absorbed, adapted, improved upon.
Rank 4—Aether Scour.
Lucent's next spell was a modified mining glyph, designed to destabilize molecular bonds.
The air itself seemed to vibrate as the effect washed over the abomination's form—but instead of crumbling, its flesh shimmered, absorbing the disruptive energy like a sponge soaking up water.
Karen's pistol clicked empty.
She cursed, hauling the weapon aside as she rolled behind cover. "It's eating your spells!"
Lucent knew.
He could feel it—the way each successive glyph required more aether, more focus, yet produced diminishing returns.
The abomination was evolving in real time, its form shifting to counter their every attack.
The abomination moved.
Not toward him.
Not toward Karen or Kai.
It struck the ground, its mass rippling outward in a wave of corrupted flesh that changed as it traveled.
The metal flooring dissolved where it touched, reforming into jagged spikes that erupted toward them in a deadly forest of razor-edged tendrils.
Lucent barely had time to react.
Rank 3—Mind Accel
The world blurred as the spell kicked in, his thought moving faster than the body.
He grabbed Kai by the collar, hauling him backward as the spikes speared through the space where he'd stood.
Karen barely dodged, her boots slipping in the pooling ichor as she scrambled for new cover.
The aftereffects hit like a hammer.
Mind Accel wasn't meant to be used in rapid succession—not without consequences.
Lucent's muscles locked, fibers tearing under the strain.
Blood trickled from his nose, thick and dark.
The abomination loomed before them, its form now a grotesque amalgamation of everything they'd thrown at it.
Exoskeleton armor from the Inferno Lance.
Energy-dispersing patterns from the Fracture Cascade.
Spikes of reforged metal from the ground itself.
It was no longer just adapting.
It was becoming them.
Kai's breath came in short, panicked gasps as he pressed himself against the shuddering wall.
And then it struck him.
The containment pods.
The memory flashed through his mind with crystalline clarity, rows upon rows of Hollowed suspended in frozen stasis, their features eerily peaceful beneath layers of frost.
Not dead.
Not active.
Just... paused.
"Lucent!" Kai's voice tore from his throat, raw with desperation. "The freezing pods—the ones we saw! It's the only thing that stopped them!"
Lucent didn't turn.
Didn't acknowledge.
But Kai saw the slight tilt of his head—just enough to show he'd heard.
The abomination lashed out with a newly-formed limb, its surface rippling with stolen aether.
Lucent barely dodged, the air screaming where the appendage passed.
Karen grabbed Kai's arm, her fingers biting into his flesh. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"The Hollowed in stasis," Kai gasped. "They were frozen." His eyes darted to the ruined control panels lining the chamber. "This whole facility has cryo-systems. If we can exploit them—"
A tendril smashed into the wall beside them, showering them with sparks and debris.
The abomination was learning.
Adapting.
And it was running out of patience.
Lucent's next glyph flared to life—not another attack, but something new.
Something desperate.
Rank 4—Cryo-Pulse
The air itself seemed to freeze as the modified mining glyph activated.
Frost spiderwebbed across the floor, racing toward the abomination in jagged patterns.
The creature recoiled - the first real reaction they'd gotten since the fight began.
It wasn't enough.
The frost barely slowed it, the abomination's mass already darkening in response, adapting to counter the cold just as it had with every other attack.
But it was a start.
Kai's mind raced.
The pods had been at full stasis - complete cryogenic suspension.
Not just surface freezing.
They needed more.
They needed—
"The main cryo generator!" he shouted. "The source for the entire cryo-system! If we can locate it—"
Karen was already moving, her good hand grabbing a fallen piece of rebar. "Then quit yapping and show me where!"
The abomination screamed - a sound that shook the very foundations of the facility.
It knew.
And it was coming for them.
Kai's hands shook as he traced the glyph through the air, his broken Conduit sparking weakly in his grip.
The Rank 2—Thermal Echo flickered to life—a fragile, shimmering construct that pulsed outward in rippling waves.
It was a simple spell, meant for locating heat signatures in mining operations, but right now it was their only hope.
The world bled into shades of blue and white as the glyph's vision overtook his sight.
The abomination became a swirling mass of violent reds and oranges, its core burning with stolen aether.
The walls shimmered with residual heat from Lucent's spells, but beneath them—
There.
A network of icy blue lines snaked through the facility's substructure.
Cryo-pipes.
Thick, industrial veins pumping freezing coolant through the facility's heart.
"Got it!" Kai shouted, his voice raw. He pointed toward a maintenance hatch halfway up the chamber's far wall—nearly invisible to the naked eye, but glowing bright blue in his thermal sight. "That's the main feed! If we can rupture it—"
The abomination moved.
It had learned the meaning of their voices, their gestures.
It understood what their targeting.
A whip-like tendril lashed out at Kai.
Lucent was faster.
Rank 3—Deflection Matrix
The barrier flared to life just in time, the tendril screeching against its surface.
The glyph held—barely—but the strain showed in the way Lucent's knees buckled, the fresh trail of blood dripping from his nose.
The Q-Serin was burning out in his veins, his body reaching its limit.
Karen didn't wait.
She was already moving, scrambling up a collapsed support beam toward the hatch.
Her muscles screamed in protest, her wounded shoulder a white-hot brand of agony, but she gritted her teeth and climbed.
The abomination shuddered, its mass rippling as it prepared another strike.
Kai acted on instinct.
Rank 1—Flashburn
The weakest of spells, barely more than a spark—but it was enough.
Light erupted in the abomination's clustered eyes, buying Karen precious seconds.
She reached the hatch, her fingers scrambling at the rusted bolts. "Come on, you bastard—"
Metal groaned.
The first bolt gave way.
The abomination recovered too fast.
Its form surged, tendrils elongating as it launched itself toward her—
Rank 4—Aether Scour
Lucent's voice was barely human anymore—a raw, grating sound that seemed to tear itself from his throat.
The spell wasn't aimed at the abomination.
It hit the pipes.
The explosion of freezing coolant was instantaneous.
A geyser of liquid nitrogen erupted from the ruptured line, engulfing the abomination in a cloud of supercooled vapor.
Frost raced across its flesh, crystallizing tendrils mid-motion, locking its form in a grotesque ice sculpture.
For one heartbeat—silence.
Then the abomination screamed.
Not in pain.
In rage.
The ice cracked.
Karen dropped from the wall, hitting the ground hard. "That bought us seconds at best!"
Lucent staggered, his vision swimming.
Cold wasn't the answer.
But it was a weapon.
The abomination broke free with a sound like shattering glass.
And Lucent smiled. "Let's put it on ice."
The abomination's scream tore through Sub-Level 7 like a physical force, shaking loose panels from the ceiling as it surged forward.
Frost still clung to its twisted form, patches of its flesh blackened and brittle from the cryo-blast.
The next wave of freezing coolant wouldn't be as effective.
Kai's Thermal Echo glyph pulsed weakly in his hands, the spell's fading energy revealing the path upward—through the facility's crumbling infrastructure, past the ruined sub-levels, straight to Sub-Level 3's main cryo-generator.
"We need to go up! Sub-Level 3!" Kai shouted, his voice nearly lost beneath the abomination's shrieking.
Lucent didn't hesitate.
Rank 5—Tectonic Breach
The mining glyph, warped beyond recognition by military-grade modifications, tore through the ceiling above them.
Concrete and steel vaporized in the blast, the shockwave punching upward through Sub-Level 6's floor in a storm of shrapnel and dust.
The air itself seemed to scream as the structural integrity of the facility groaned in protest, entire sections of corridor collapsing in on themselves as the carefully balanced weight distribution shattered.
Karen didn't wait for the dust to settle.
She was already moving, her boots finding purchase on the ladders protruding from the ruined edges of the walls.
She climbed with single-minded determination.
The abomination reacted instantly.
Its form convulsed, tendrils lashing out to anchor against the walls as it began dragging its massive bulk upward.
The frozen sections of its flesh cracked and splintered, but new growth surged forward to replace them—thicker, darker, resistant.
Lucent's hands were already tracing the next glyph.
Rank 2—Leap
The mobility spell ignited in his nervous system like a spark along a fuse.
His muscles burned as unnatural force propelled him upward through the wreckage, the world blurring around him for one breathless moment before his boots slammed down on Sub-Level 6's ruined flooring.
The impact sent fresh waves of agony through his already-frayed body, but he didn't stop.
Couldn't stop.
Behind him, the abomination flowed through the breach like oil rising through water, its form reshaping itself to fit the confined space.
Dozens of eyes locked onto Lucent's silhouette, pupils dilating with something terrifyingly close to understanding.
Karen's voice cut through the chaos. "Again! It's gaining!"
Another glyph.
Another cataclysm.
Rank 5—Tectonic Breach
The spell tore through Sub-Level 5's ceiling with apocalyptic force.
This time, the shockwave sent the entire corridor listing sideways, the floor tilting at a drunken angle as support beams sheared apart.
Kai barely kept his footing, his Thermal Echo glyph flickering out as he grabbed for purchase.
The abomination didn't slow.
Where before it had climbed, now it launched itself upward in a grotesque imitation of Lucent's leap, tendrils elongating to spear into the higher levels and haul its mass after them.
The frozen sections of its flesh shattered entirely now, replaced by glistening new growth that pulsed with another stolen aether.
Lucent's vision swam as he prepared the final leap.
The Q-Serin's protective buffer was collapsing, the cognitive bleed manifesting in flickering afterimages and warped depth perception.
The edges of his glyphs bled into reality, leaving trails of unstable aether in their wake.
But Sub-Level 3 waited above them.
Lucent leaped again for one last time.
For one terrifying moment, he wasn't sure it would work.
But then the world lurched, and he was airborne, hurtling upward through the final breach as the facility crumbled around him.
Sub-Level 3 greeted them with a blast of arctic air.
The cryo-generator dominated the chamber, a monstrous construct of steel and frost, its pipes as thick as ancient tree trunks.
The cold here was so intense it burned the lungs with every breath.
Ice crystals formed instantly on exposed skin, on weapon barrels, on the edges of Kai's broken Conduit.
The abomination erupted through the hole behind them, its scream warping into something almost panicked as the extreme cold hit its newly-formed flesh.
For the first time, it hesitated.
Lucent didn't.
His hands moved in a devastating pattern.
The abomination lunged—
And the world turned white.