When the quantum gate collapsed into counter-gears, Raine's gills flooded with black slime—stinking of Garret's corroded claws mixed with Lyria's tear-salt. The ground was a graveyard of tombstones carved with "Raine", each oozing void-blue mucus like festering wounds.
"Home sweet home?" Lyria's specter rose behind a tombstone, her tail rippling reverse waves in the slime. A fissure split her forehead, squirming with 「Maternal Protocol v3.14」 code. "These 299 stones... are your original death certificates."
(The First Dragon's skull hovered in crimson atmosphere, eye sockets jammed with six counter-gears and Misha's prosthetic fragments. Slime dripped from bone cracks, solidifying into Garret's claw specters midair.)
Ellen's core screeched metal-on-metal—her starlit scales dissolving as fingers clawed a tombstone: "Alert... Slime gene-match: Garret's claws 100%... They're... same batch lab waste..."
Serena's asphalt wings ignited, claws slashing at Lyria's throat: "Give back... my genetic patents!" Her fangs sank into the tail—only for slime to reverse-corrode her wings, etching 「Serena+Lyria+Raine」 codes.
(Gills spasming, Cycle 299's memory stabbed his mind—)
Lyria strapped in a 「Maternal Vessel」 pod, the Inquisitor implanting dragon skull shards into her forehead.Garret's claw smashing the observation window, slime splashing her face: "Fuck... turning mermaids into seeders?"Elaina logging data: 「Cycle 298.5: Protocol success. Plague Village seeded.」
"Reclamation: 100%... Calibrators reassembled..." Lyria's pupils split quadruple-layered—dragon crimson outermost, Inquisitor's mechanical blue mid-layer, Raine's scar-gold and Misha's data-stream at the core. "Time for counter-era fuel..." Her hand quantum-phased into the dragon skull's socket.
The planet's surface ruptured. Black slime geysers erupted from tombs, forming 299 Raine clones midair—foreheads branded 「III」, Lyria's tear-crystals embedded in their chests. Church flame-seals crowned each geyser, rotating in sync with the skull's gears.
Ellen's spine snapped, her last alert flashing: 「Maternal Protocol Final Stage—All cycle data purging」. Her voice glitched into Elaina's dying recording: "Goodbye... this time for real..."
Raine's claws lunged at Lyria—but slime bound his wrists. His scar burst open, spraying Garret's claw debris that midair reassembled into the counter-clock's final gear, slotting into the skull's empty socket.
"Next cycle..." Lyria dissolved into the slime downpour. "Tell Misha... I got her Morse code..."
Submerged Currents
The lunar crucifix ignited. Garret's reassembled form emerged from holy light—his 「III」 brand pulsing with the skull's gears, claws engraved with new code: 「Maternal Protocol v3.14—Final Executor」...