When Misha's beast army shattered the quantum barrier over Citadel ruins, slime dripped from their claws—eating through metal like void-core poison, glowing the same blue as Garret's ice claws under moonlight.
"Like my toys, Vessel sir?" Misha's prosthetic arm stabbed the ground, the 「III」 brand splitting into data-chains that linked every beast's spine. "Raised on your genetic code..."
(The ruins quantum-collapsed under slime erosion, exposing the lab's metallic skeleton. The beasts' triple-layered pupils pulsed—Garret's ice-blue outermost, Inquisitor's mechanical red mid-layer, Raine's scar-gold at the core.)
Ellen's starlit scales peeled off as she ripped open her chest port: "Alert... Slime matches Lyria's tear-frequency... Reverse-purification protocol failed—" Her voice glitched into Elaina's recording: "Destroy their spinal—"
A beast lunged. Its claws melted her alloy arm like sugar in acid, slime surging in to spell 「Synced Vessels 001-030」 on the circuits.
"Fuck... Even weapons get mass-produced?" Serena's asphalt wings flared, claws tearing a beast's chest—only to find Garret's claw fragment embedded in its heart, resonating with Misha's arm.
(Gills spasming, Cycle 198's memory stabbed Raine's mind—)
Child Garret strapped in a pod, the Inquisitor injecting dragon genes mixed with slime into his spine.Misha's arm branding his neck with 「III」: "We're the calibrator components, brother..."Lyria's song quantum-distorting, embryos bursting as slime formed counter-clock gears.
Garret's claw debris materialized midair, slime reassembling it whole. It impaled three beasts' foreheads, their mechanical spines morphing into six interlocking counter-gears.
"Reclamation: 89%... Calibrator synchronicity rising..." Misha's eyes projected the Inquisitor's hologram. "Remember your purpose now?"
Raine's scar burned. 298 death-memories boiled in his skull—each beast's slime-core contained his child-clones, their 「001-030」 labels being overwritten by 「III」 brands.
Serena's asphalt blood crystallized, fangs sinking into Raine's neck: "Garret was never your ally..." Her wings unfolded into a sacrifice matrix flashing 「Maternal Protocol v3.14—Final Reclamation」.
Misha's arm quantum-disassembled, reforming into a colossal mechanical spine. It stabbed the Citadel's depths, activating an ancient calibrator base—a counter-clock built from Garret's claw fragments, its missing tooth replaced by Lyria's tear-crystal.
"Next cycle..." Misha dissolved into data-streams, merging with the spine. "Tell mother... her toys rebelled..."
Submerged Currents
The void-core surveillance feed showed the First Inquisitor's mask reassembling in the slime sea. Its inner codes blinked 「Calibrator Components Awakened」—as live footage revealed fetal Lyria's hands reaching from a pod to grasp Garret's claw debris...