A gloved hand trembled, outstretched. It reached into the gray, grasping at nothing. Rain crawled up the black polymer fabric, trickling upward into the heavens to merge with the Inverted Sea. The hand idled against puffs of mist, suspended in a hopeful reach for anything, before settling lightly on a cold, blackened snout.

  The snout twitched.

  So did the owner of the hand.

  The ranger’s mind was released from the wavering warmth of death. Rain droplets rose from her glazed eyes as they flickered back to life. She stared into the jaws of the abyss before her. She let out a strangled cry, her fists slamming into the unfeeling mass in desperate futility.

  She shrieked and cussed, her voice cracking under the hoarse cold of her throat. She clawed and hammered into the beast uselessly until a deluge of chemicals was pumped up her spine and into her brain. Her body slackened, her back arching against the air in teary pleasure. She cried with a smile on her face. Lost in false euphoria, her tears rising with the rain, unwilling to allow her to suffer with any grace.

  The lower half of her body was missing. Somewhere between her stomach and lower back, black, sinuous tendrils wormed into her flesh, suspending her like a puppet.

  The black beast tilted its angular head, studying the ranger in a quiet, oddly somber exchange. Rain traced the lean contours of its malformed frame, racing upward over the slick, void-colored hide of the Cerberus.

  It sat like a statue atop one of the decaying towers left behind by the careless whims of the Servinae. The wind moaned through the jagged metal and fractured stone, a lament to an unknown bygone.

  Suddenly, its Kyyr receptors ignited. Jagged arcs of ghost-light flickered along its elongated skull as it lifted its gaze sharply skyward. Thunder cracked and the air thickened as a surge of electrifying Kyyr bled into its snout.

  A ghostly howl erupted from the north. Then another—further, fainter. And then it answered, a mournful howl ripping through the air in recognition.

  This Cerberus then stood tall, staring down at the ranger impaled on its claws. A low, mournful growl escaped its snout before gently removing the ranger, her arms flailing in a sea of pleasure before it ripped her from it, her muffled moans breaking into horrid screams as the tendrils reluctantly disconnected. The creature laid her crumpled, half-body onto the cold, wet stone with tenderness it shouldn’t have known.

  It straightened to its full height. Compared to its larger kin, it appeared gaunt and skeletal, with a mane of thin, writhing flesh hanging loosely. There were no prisoners fused with its skin. No souls trapped in a sea of pleasure.

  It stood alone.

  Rain crept up its dark frame as its head lolled to a side. Its figure like a hanged man against the fog. It suddenly went limp, dropping into the gray. The mist swallowed it whole, leaving behind only the shattered remains of the ranger and the heavy echo of distant rain against the Inverted Sea.

  Serfet repeatedly pounded his fists against the bony chamber, to no avail. The bony growth was unyieldingly thick and rigid. “GIRA!” He shouted, the sound echoing within their bony casket. “This isn’t funny, damn it! Stop fucking around! Let us out!”

  Vidrago, unfazed by Serfet’s plight, pressed himself against the bony structure. It was warm to the touch and it smelled of chemicals and dried wood. He brushed his lips against the structure as he embraced the wall.

  Mera, on the other hand, pressed her back against the wall. The only light came from a thin strip of neon green glowing faintly along the base of the wall. Her chest tightened. Her heartbeat growing louder and louder, the pulsing pounding harder and harder in her ears. The darkened walls encroached around her tightly as she began to shake, her eyes tearing as she pressed her Kyyr claws into the wall behind her. Tears wobbled in her eyes, blurring her vision as she gasped for air that wouldn’t come.

  The endless darkness seem to grow deeper and darker until—

  The bone receded as Berserkrios appeared before them covered in a fresh coat of black blood.

  “Forgive us, there were some of those things….” Berserkrios stared down at a clearly shaken Serfet, a deep crease forming across his face, Vidrago, who was mid-licking the wall and Mera, who was crying in a corner. “What happened?” Berserkrios asked.

  Serfet didn’t miss a beat. “Who’s hurt?”

  Berserkrios's visage cracked. “It was Holly…she—”

  “Holly!? Wha-what happened?!”

  “She was wounded by—”

  “Wounded? How bad? Is she infected?” Serfet interrupted again.

  Berserkrios growled, “Follow me,” he said flatly, twisting his frame as he jumped back towards the bony spire.

  “Wait, what about Holly?” Serfet cried as he chased after Berserkrios.

  Vidrago began to follow along but noticed Mera still frozen against the wall. “Come on, missy~” He grabbed her by the hand and unceremoniously dragged her along.

  Peeling the old, cracked bone at the base of the bony spire revealed Xizu holding Holly’s head as the small mechanoid was performing some kind of procedure on the wounded girl. Cracking a small ampule before pressing the paste against her skin as it bubbled, spreading over the deep gashes left behind by the Caused.

  Xizu looked up, startled by the sudden light. “Gira!” she cried out, relief and tension mixing in her tone.

  Berserkrios’s jaws cracked into a terrifying attempt at a smile. “How is she?”

  Xizu glanced down at Holly’s still form, gently brushing aside a strand of her fiery red hair. “She’s stable… for now,” she murmured. “Her breathing’s steady.”

  “Good—” his focus swiveled to the unconscious Alice, “Is she alright?” Berserkrios asked.

  Xizu nodded somberly.

  “Sis!” Serfet rushed under Berserkrios. “Are you hurt?” He saw Holly under the low glow. “Holly! What happened? Is she okay?”

  Xizu nodded.

  “Thank the symbols…” Serfet mumbled as he knelt down.

  Berserkrios suddenly perked up, his body twisting towards the darkness as his fists swung into the void. Alabaster claws clashed against the dark, the bony knuckles ripping through darkened flesh as a Caused was sent flying back with a gurgling shriek.

  Berserkrios turned to the group. “We have to go!” He growled as another Caused rushed from behind Mera and Vidrago, who were dropping down from a pile of broken arcade cabinets.

  Before either could react, a massive bony blade shot through the air, impaling the Caused and pinning it against the wall.

  Vidrago traced his hands along the bony growth. “It’s so hot~!” He murmured as he led Mera closer to the group.

  Berserkrios turned to Xizu and Serfet, “Is there anywhere safe on this tower?”

  Xizu nodded quickly, stooping to lift Holly off the ground. The little mechanoid beside her let out a panicked burst of static, flailing nervously as the unconscious girl was raised into the air. “Yes, the ranger’s outpost on the 98th floor!”

  Another Caused roared as writhing tendrils hurled a Simulacrum Pod at Berserkrios. In a violent snap of motion, he twisted his hips—his chain-blade tail lashing out in a vicious arc. The serrated tail cleaved through the pod with brutal precision, splitting it in half mid-flight. Before the Caused could recoil, he slammed into it, claws driving deep into its torso. With a savage jerk, he dragged it into him—and without hesitation, he sank his fangs into its skull. The creature convulsed, bones popping, before its body went half-limp as its tendrils spasmed.

  Berserkrios dropped the body, letting out a coarse hiss like a blade on marble, “You must leave! NOW!”

  Serfet gently picked Alice up as Mera and Vidrago joined the group.

  Berserkrios turned back, his senses flaring as the undeniable scent of dozens of Caused rippled through the darkness. “I’ll cover you!” He roared as more Caused began to emerge from the dark. But he didn’t wait. The ghostly frame of the Coarseblood ripped into the dark. Under shifting lights, the group watched as Berserkrios dismembered the encroaching monsters with a violent ease.

  “LEAVE NOW!” Berserkrios howled from the darkness.

  Snapping out of the mesmerizing display of power, the group began to escape toward the emergency exit.

  Behind them rose a cacophony of strangled screeches and metallic groans as they maneuvered through the chaotic maze of ruined arcade cabinets and tangled wiring.

  Berserkrios emerged from the shadows, shaking the carnage off his body as he clung to the ceiling, crawling on metal and wire as he scanned the darkness. On their right!

  He exploded with motion, crashing into an unaware Caused, the force of the impact shattering every bone on the deformed beast. His jaws slammed onto its skull, crushing it instantly.

  He launched himself onto the walls again, claws carving into the metal as he vaulted through the darkness—keeping pace with the group from above.

  From below, the group could only hear the cries and sound of exploding shrapnel as the Coarseblood ripped through it all.

  Vidrago glanced around wildly, catching fleeting glimpses of his ivory glow—here, then gone—like a phantom.

  A Caused erupted from the shrapnel right before the group!

  Their eyes grew wide, but Berserkrios crashed down from above, his jaws ripping the creature’s spine off, dismantling the creature in a flash before he dragged the writhing body into the black, disappearing back into the darkness.

  Mera swallowed hard as she heard the Caused scream in pain.

  “Let’s keep going!” Serfet shouted, snapping her out as they continued to run through the maze of cabinets.

  The chaos evolved more and more as massive bony glaives erupted throughout the arcade as dozens of Caused were massacred by the Coarseblood. Its haunting howl echoing through the arcade.

  Xizu's eyes flickered with relief. “We’re almost there!”

  The group picked up their pace as a wall of multiple double doors came into view. The space around them opened up, revealing a glowing, intricate design under the blacklight.

  “Watch out!” Mera cried out as she poised herself behind the group.

  An arcade cabinet hurtled toward them out of the gloom—spinning end over end, its cracked screen flickering with static.

  SHINK!

  A chain-blade tail whipped from the dark, catching the cabinet mid-air with brutal precision. Sparks erupted as the tail yanked it aside, sending the cabinet crashing into a pile of broken machines with a metallic roar.

  Berserkrios landed hard beside them, his claws digging into the carpet as he skidded to a stop.

  “Sorry,” he growled, his voice ragged. His armor was cracked, his milk-white scales fluttering down to the floor as his jaws parted, his breaths heavy and fast. “Keep going…” Berserkrios growled.

  The group nodded as they pushed forward—but Mera hesitated, her feet rooted beside Berserkrios.

  Up ahead, Serfet reached the doors, pressing his weight into them, letting gray light from beyond breach the arcade. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

  Mera hesitated near the Coarseblood, who looked down at her trying his best to give her cracked smile. “Go…” he muttered before his senses flared as he draped his frame over Mera, his bony spines erupting into encroaching Caused. “GO!” he bellowed as he rose, swinging the pierced Caused across the air before slamming them down, the impact shattering both monsters and his own spines, splinters of bone scattering through the air like milky shrapnel.

  She stumbled away as he covered from behind, catching the gnashing jaws of the malformed beasts with his own. Mera reached the door, pushing it open as she fell forward. Her hands landed on something wet and warm. A sharp gasp escaped her as tears welled at the corners of her eyes. She swallowed the scream rising in her throat, forcing herself upright, trembling as she pushed off the sticky surface in disgust.

  She looked around, her guts wrenching as a foul stench grappled her senses in a sickening nausea. She covered her nose and mouth with her elbow as she struggled to stand on the wet floor. Mera’s eyes grew wide as she came face-to-face with a familiarly disturbing sight.

  Cocoons.

  Hundreds of them lined the walls and floors of the atrium. Their pink, striated forms pulsing as something wretched under their semi-translucent hide. Mera was suddenly pulled from behind.

  “Shhh…” Vidrago whispered as he pulled her behind a pillar.

  There the group had huddled.

  The Atrium was a massive space that rose high like a hollowed canyon, soaring hundreds of meters inside the tower. It was composed of 12 floors that wrapped themselves around the pear-shaped plaza below. Old ivory ornaments ascended the railings of every floor, resembling alien vines atop glassy silver railings. The plaza itself primarily served as a resting area, surrounded by restaurants. The coveted elevators were at the back end of it all, their see-through glassy confines built against a massive vertical window that stretched from the base to the top.

  The area had been warped by the abyss. Servinae corpses lay everywhere, with Caused carefully resting those who had survived into pink cocoons.

  Two distinct types of Caused roamed the Atrium. The first type, known as the Unknown, consisted of composite organisms, warped from multiple unknown species into the pale-skinned, empty-eyed monsters that had breached the glass. The second variety, known as Type 1 Caused, were early-stage Caused that still retained clear traits of their origin species—in this case, Servinae. These Type 1 Caused were busy stuffing both living and dead Servinae into the wet cocoons that were slick with the rising rain that was leaking from outside.

  The group watched in disgust, with Mera huddling tightly against the wall as she felt her every sense flare in a panic.

  “Miss…” Vidrago placed a chilly hand on her neck, causing her to flinch. Her eyes met his. “breathe in and out…”

  Mera nodded as she tried her best to calm down, her hand resting tightly against her chest as she pressed herself against the wall.

  THRAAAM!

  They all looked towards the sudden noise—just as two of the heavy doors exploded off their hinges and were sent flying into one of the cocoons, ripping its fibrous shell wide open, spilling writhing viscera, and unleashing an inhuman shriek so loud it paralyzed them in their place.

  Following the doors came a blood-drenched Berserkrios tumbling from the gloom of the arcade with several Caused clinging to his skeletal armor, clawing and trying to pierce his flesh. But he embraced them, his jagged arms curling around their writhing forms, tightening with monstrous force.

  SNAP.

  Their spines cracked like dry branches as he sunk his messy jaws into their skulls.

  The bundle of Caused and Berserkrios toppled forward in the chaos, landing on another cocoon. It burst under the sudden pressure; white, translucent flesh and black fluid rising into the air as the flesh shrieked in horrid agony.

  Berserkrios rose from the carnage, steaming blood rising up his frame. With a savage grunt, he flung the mangled corpse of a Caused across the atrium It slammed into another cocoon, which erupted with a fleshy thud and wailing shriek.

  His attention turned to the screeching flesh; with zero hesitation he dragged his claws across stone and flesh until he met the writhing growth with a visceral, sloshing cleave. The shrieking came to a pained croak as it melted into the rumbling thunder.

  A bloodied, Caused with a ruptured spine, weakly clawed at his talons. Without so much as a glance, he stomped on its skull as he inspected the atrium.

  Above him, lining every balcony and crumbling walkway, the Caused had gathered. Dozens—maybe hundreds—pressed along the alabaster railings, their empty white eyes staring down with grievous desire.

  He hissed, his senses flaring as he noticed that Xizu’s group was huddled behind a cracked pillar, half-swallowed by shadow.

  He hissed as the Caused twitched above.

  His face cracked and he let out a deafening roar. “I SHALL DISTRACT THEM!”

  The words tore from his skeletal frame in a primal howl that shook the atrium. As his foot slammed into the ground, the floor shifted under Xizu’s group as a bony platform suddenly erupted from below. It haphazardly shot upward through the chasm of the atrium as it began to elevate them off the ground.

  The Caused shrieked in a chorus of horrid screams—as dozens of the pale beasts lunged down like fleshy meteors of hateful flesh.

  The first came from his left.

  He caught it mid-air, his clawed hand crushing its face, before he swung the creature like a bludgeon, smashing into another descending monster. The impact sent it flying back toward one of the railings, cracking its spine.

  Without pause, he crushed the skull of the first in his hand. As another closed in, he spun—his bladed tail lancing out with a thump as it speared clean through the Caused’s abdomen. Impaled and thrashing, the monster was then slammed backward into a nearby cocoon. The fleshy sac burst with a shriek as the two creatures collapsed into a bubbling mess of gore.

  Then four more landed nearby, snarling and skittering to their feet.

  Berserkrios raised his hand, his claws following the rising black sludge—and the ground answered.

  With a violent rattle, bony spires erupted from the ground. One Caused was impaled mid-lunge, ripped in half as its split ends writhed in undying agony as they streaked past the Coarseblood. The other three were launched upward, caught on ascending spikes that punched through muscle and bone, hoisting them high above like grotesque banners.

  More Caused crashed down from the upper levels, shrieking as they crashed down onto the plaza below. A handful collided with the newly formed spires mid-fall, impaled through chest and neck with a sickening series of screams, their corpses dangling limply as the atrium’s plaza was bathed in rising blood.

  Berserkrios snarled as a wave of freshly transformed Type 1 Caused clawed towards him, their human faces frozen in painful plight as they snapped and clawed towards him.

  He didn’t hesitate.

  With a guttural roar, he lunged forward, jaws unhinged. His serrated teeth clamped down on a group of Type 1s, tearing through their flesh and bone as black ichor sprayed across his face.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Another Caused approached from behind—only to be met with a sudden twist of his body, his armored fist slamming backward in a devastating blow that crumpled the creature’s chest with a resounding crack!

  Carrying the momentum, his tail swept wide—dragging across the fleshy ground in a vicious arc. It tore through the surge of Type 1s, the air filling with the shrieks of the newborn Caused as they were sent, limbs flailing, into the gore-slicked distance.

  Another Caused managed to jump over the swinging tail only to take the full force of another one of his strikes, its body a blur as it crashed into an ornate white-stone vine that escalated up to the top of the atrium. The ivory column shuddered—cracks splintering through the ornate stone before it collapsed in a thunderous cascade, striking the overhead lights. Glass and bone-white shrapnel rained down, sparking cables snapping loose, plunging the plaza into spotty darkness.

  The Caused shrieked and scattered, their frenzy broken as massive chunks of ivory and stone rained down from above. Some were crushed on impact, their bodies flattened beneath the falling debris, while others were impaled by jagged shards of twisted metal shrapnel that sliced through the rising blood.

  Berserkrios moved through the chaos with uncanny grace, his armored frame twisting and pivoting to avoid the rain of falling wreckage.

  Gira, we need to eat more! Berserkrios snarled within. We must feed…

  “Y..yes…” Berserkrios/Gira growled aloud, his hunger igniting within.

  Amid the swirling dust and flickering lights, he spotted a Caused trapped under a mess of stone and wire. Without hesitation, he sunk his claws into its exposed chest. The creature screeched as it was violently ripped from under the heavy stone. Its black guts spilling as it thrashed around.

  Berserkrios unhinged his jaws and slammed down on its throat, cutting its pained wailings as he dragged the creature into a dark corner. There he consumed the living Caused, his jaws ripping into the writhing flesh, cracking through bone as he fed.

  As the dust settled, a momentary hush hung in the air—

  Rrrrrrrrmmmmmble…

  Thunder echoed through the blood-soaked halls of the Cetarro tower, only for shrieks to meander with the mighty roar of the storm.

  More Caused poured into the tower, crawling through shattered windows and broken walls. Their pale, twitching forms were backlit by the storm’s flashes of lightning, howls echoing through the atrium as they replaced their fallen.

  Beyond the Skolas Sky Metropolis, the surging waves of Kyyr could be felt across the grayed landscape as more and more eyes took to the skies.

  There, illuminated by pink arcs of esoteric lightning, massive shoals of Caused could be seen schooling in the Inverted Sea, like black stars against a twisted sky. Writhing against the crashing waves, they eagerly rushed the slaughterhouse of the Coarseblood.

  Xizu’s group watched in awe as more and more Cause blindly rushed the plaza, only for a dark flash to drag them into the maze of flesh and debris. Berserkrios was feeding. Meticulously kidnapping Caused as the hunters unknowingly were hunted.

  Xizu hesitated, caught on the visceral display of the confluence of gnashing teeth and alabaster bone erupting across the atrium floor.

  CLANG!

  A twisted pale bone claw erupted over the railing from below; it awkwardly fumbled against the intricate silver metal railing as it struggled to get a hold.

  Xizu staggered back with a muted scream as the mangled face of a Caused erupted into view—half of its skull caved in as brain matter spilled out onto the floor.

  The pale thing was one of the Caused Berserkrios had sent flying. It had barely survived, its writhing tentacles coiling like exposed nerves as they reconstructed its grievous wound as its eyeless face somehow stared straight at the group.

  “Xizu!” Serfet shouted as he struggled on his feet, torn between Alice in his arms and Xizu and Holly.

  “Cool it, bud—” Vidrago said with an icy whisper, shoving past his right arm encased in an eerie cold mist that sparkled in the dark.

  He didn’t give the creature a beat.

  He darted sideways, feigning a blow towards the creature’s wounded face. The Caused lunged, biting at the ghostly mist—only for Vidrago to slide beneath its frame before he punched its guts with a cool edge. There was no initial impact but the creature shrieked in agony as its chest and neck suddenly glowed a sinister amber glow before bursting into icy shards. The Caused clawed at its chest, losing balance as it tumbled back down into the blender incarnate that was Berserkrios.

  Vidrago blew misty breath from his blue lips as he watched the half-frozen Caused get impaled by one of the bony spires that littered the plaza below.

  “Bonus points for style...” he said with a smug smirk as he watched the Caused writhe on the spire before its whole body froze over.

  Down below, the numbers of Caused had risen again, with now even more foul beasts than before scrambling awkwardly over rubble and gore.

  In the chaos, a Caused managed to sneak up on Berserkrios, using the jagged terrain to lunge desperately at Berserkrios. Berserkrios was mid-crushing another creature when he felt the searing claws of a Caused rip into his neck. He let out a pained roar as he ripped the Caused off his back, its claws clinging to his armor as its wrists were torn from its hands as Berserkrios slammed the Caused into the ground before stomping on its skull.

  He growled in anger as he jumped out of the bloody mosh pit.

  His claws bit deep into one of the nearby walls, anchoring him above the increasingly crowded mess of abyssal spawn and debris.

  It’s getting crowded… Berserkrios growled.

  “Let’s fix that…” Berserkrios/Gira? hissed.

  He tore a claw free from the wall and pulsed Kyyr through his armor. It hissed and bubbled, pressure building beneath the plating—then with a sickening crack, his arm split open from elbow to claw.

  Steam poured from the rupture.

  The exposed red flesh writhed for a moment before the split ends twisted, melted, and hardened—forging themselves into a long, multi-pronged cleaver of living bone.

  His armor rattled as the bone settled into place.

  Snarling, he surged Kyyr into his legs, energy coiling in his limbs—then he shot himself downward, hurling his body into the snarling sea of teeth and twitching flesh below.

  He crashed into the blood-soaked floor with the force of a spinning meteor, his cleaver-arm slicing through dozens of Caused in a sweeping arc. Gore sprayed in a spiraling hurricane of blood as his landing crumpled stone and flesh alike.

  Without pause, he drove his grotesquely mutated arm into the ground. Kyyr surged down his limbs, pale scales pulsing as power erupted outward. With a wet, bone-splitting crack, the ground around him exploded—massive, interweaving blades of calcified growth spiraling outward from his frame.

  The blades expanded like a blooming maw, sweeping through the horde in a crushing, spiraled wave. Caused and rubble alike were ensnared—lifted, impaled, and pressed into a dense wall of twitching, mangled bodies.

  In seconds, he had molded the carnage into a crude, brutal arena.

  A barricade of stone and bone.

  A cage of corpses.

  And Berserkrios stood at its center—letting out a thunderous roar.

  His armor rattled as the Kyyr receptors in his snout flared—pulling his focus toward a lone Caused that somehow dodged the spiral of blades.

  He let out a low, cackle-like chitter, dropping to all fours. His bladed arm retracted with a fleshy snap, reforming into a claw as he tore across the wet, pulsating floor. He crashed into the creature with feral speed, his jaws slamming into its neck with a wet crunch.

  In the brief lull, he fed—ripping through flesh and bone with methodical, animal hunger. The warmth of fresh blood coated his throat.

  But his feeding didn’t last.

  His cracked visage snapped upward—more Caused were crawling over the mound of crushed bodies, tumbling down into the arena like maggots pouring from a bloating corpse.

  They lunged with mindless hunger, limbs flailing wildly—only to be caught mid-air.

  WHAM.

  Berserkrios’s tail whipped sideways, colliding with the first attacker in a blur of motion. The impact folded the Caused’s body and hurled it across the arena, where it crashed into the fleshy wall with a meaty splat, leaving a streak of black blood in its wake.

  Another came at him.

  He rushed forward, caught it by the throat—and with sheer force alone, ripped the head clean off, tossing the twitching corpse aside like trash. But even as the headless body fell, a second Caused slashed at his back, its claws breaching the gaps in his armor and tearing into his crimson undergrowth.

  He roared in pain.

  Then retaliated.

  A wrist blade shot out from beneath his arm with a slick shhhk, punching through the attacker’s bulbous skull and dragging it down into the waiting abyss of his fangs. The Caused screeched before it was dragged into the void of his bloodied fangs.

  More and more Caused flooded from all around as bone erupted in waves as he ripped into their heads, eating and eating as an endless stream of monsters crashed down onto the Coarseblood.

  Above, the group above had finally reached the elevator but fleshy growths had spiraled from below, wrapping around the glass doors of the elevator.

  “What the hell?!” Xizu shouted, her voice trembling as she studied the tumorous mass. Her mind raced—did they actively fuck with the elevators?

  “I can cut it off!” Serfet called out as he carefully handed Alice to a clearly reluctant Vidrago.

  Serfet walked over to Mera. “I need you to make a blade so I can cut that shit off.”

  Mera had her eyes down as she flinched at the grisly echo of flesh and bone against the roar of the Coarseblood. She nodded lightly as she struggled to coalesce Kyyr into her hands. Through trembling hands she managed to form a frail crystal blade.

  “Thanks…” Serfet muttered, turning to face the pink flesh that was growing on the elevator.

  He pulsed Kyyr into his eyes, the world sharpening in glowing outlines as he studied the twisted flesh choking the elevator frame. Then, without hesitation, he expertly sliced the most optimal strands of flesh.

  The growth writhed, twitching away from the blade with a wet, pained hiss—soft compared to the guttural shrieking still pouring up from the pit below.

  Among the swarm below, one of the Caused suddenly jerked its head toward the hissing sound above. It let out a piercing screech as it went against the grain of its fellow Caused as it began to climb up the floors. Soon other Caused had joined this pursuit as they made their way up towards Xizu’s group!

  Berserkrios saw the rising monster, his muscles churning as he jumped into the air, amassing Kyyr into his palm as bone wove in around it as bone spiraled from his palm, growing into a massive, heavy-set bone claymore. He grabbed the ivory hilt as he crashed down, slashing through the Caused before he twisted the blade.

  He let out an ear-piercing roar as he pulsed Kyyr through the claymore and spun with incredible force, rending all the Caused around him in half. With a satisfied grunt, the Coarseblood pushed through the sea of writhing tongues as he watched the other Caused climb higher and higher.

  The claymore in Berserkrios’s grip began to tremble—then melt, hissing and dripping as it reshaped itself in his claws. Within seconds, the blade had transformed into a massive bone harpoon, its shaft twisted and reinforced with Kyyr-forged ridges. Berserkrios aligned it carefully with the Caused that was leading the charge.

  Back at the elevator, Serfet was making slow progress cutting through the pulsing growth.

  “Watch out!” Vidrago called out tackling Serfet as a wild slash from a Caused ripped through the air. The two struggled to their feet before anyone could react.

  THWMP—CRRKK!

  The Caused was suddenly ripped from the railing as it was sent flying up and into the ceiling by the weight of a massive bone harpoon that drove the Caused up and into the black pool of water amassing on the ceiling.

  Another pair of Caused followed in the wake of their dead comrade. They barely crested the edge before two bloodied black claws shot out from below.

  CRK—!!

  Berserkrios seized them both by the neck, crushing their vertebrae with effortless brutality before casting their bodies back down into the mess of flesh below.

  Sweet Symbols… Serfet scanned the bloodied and worn armor of Berserkrios. The Coarseblood has lost his alabaster sheen completely, his frame now covered in black blood, his armor cracked, and his breathing animalistic.

  Berserkrios studied the situation, his glare landing on Serfet and the writhing growths.

  The elevator…

  He vaulted onto their floor, landing beside the elevator, his armor rattling with unnatural spasms—small, erratic jolts that made his movements look half-feral. Without a word, he tore into the fleshy growths with wild strength, claws raking through the mass as strands of sinew snapped like overstretched nerves.

  CRRRK—!?

  Berserkrios twitched, his head cocking to one side in an odd, stuttering motion as he stared at the clump of sparking wires embedded in the fleshy growth

  “Oh shit!” Serfet shouted, bolting toward the elevator. “That was the fucking controls!” He whipped around to Berserkrios, frustrated. “What the hell were you thinking?!”

  Berserkrios growled before turning back and peering over the bent railing. His claws gripped the bent metal as he peered over the edge. Below, another wave of Caused was already clawing their way up the atrium wall—dozens of pale, shrieking bodies scrambling over the corpses of their fallen. “STAIRS!” He roared as he vaulted over the railing, his hand hissing with Kyyr as another bony claymore blossomed from his palm.

  Serfet chased after him only to stagger back as he watched Berserkrios slice through dozens of Caused as he crashed back down in the moshpit of rising blood.

  “What the hell was wrong with him?” Serfet mumbled.

  Mera joined him, looking at Berserkrios collapse down onto the wave of rising Caused.

  Vidrago picked Alice back up and kicked Serfet lightly on the calf. “Here!” he shoved Alice into his arms as he looked down at Berserkrios tearing through the Caused. “It’s probably stress, that’s all~ Can you imagine being down there?” He said with a sympathetic whisper. “Ripping and tearing into an endless horde of those nasty things.”

  Serfet watched Berserkrios skewer two Caused with his claymore before biting them off like meat on a stick. “I’m having a hard time relating.”

  Vidrago was about to say something, but Mera suddenly spoke up, “It must be suffocating…”

  They watched, helpless, as Berserkrios was swallowed by the swarm—surrounded on all sides by snarling Caused, only for him to spin wildly with his claymore arcing wide. The bony edge caught against a wall, shattering as he carried the momentum of the swing into a wild swipe of his claws, carving through the Caused.

  But right behind the mass that had been cut down, another sea of outstretched claws replaced the fallen.

  Berserkrios hissed, leaping out of the chaos and awkwardly landing on the second floor above the plaza, his body tumbling into a glass display. The Caused didn’t relent; even as he scrambled to his feet, more were already clawing after him.

  Chunks of his armor crumbled from his frame with every staggering step, his breath heaving as he pulled himself free of the shattered display—barely ahead of the wave of claws.

  Gira… Berserkrios’s echoed within their fractured throne. Our Kyyr reserves...

  “I KNOW!” Berserkrios—no—Gira snarled aloud, his voice breaking through the monstrous throat. His receptors flared as he turned mid-stride, grabbing a lunging Caused and slamming it against the white stone floor with a wet splatter. Then he kept running, his limbs burning, as the swarm trampled over the other Caused’s remains.

  Above, Xizu cradled Holly in her arms, her amber-red eyes watching painfully as claws ripped away at Gira’s armor. She tightened her hold on Holly. “Let’s get to the next floor…”

  Serfet glanced at his sister; she looked lost. “Right… stairs it is.”

  Above on the eighth floor, Aria not only sensed but also heard the carnage that was unfolding below. With her heart in her throat, she braved her way out from under the clothing rack. She poked her head out and cautiously looked around the store.

  No Caused.

  She let out a shaky breath of relief—but didn’t let her guard down. Moving slowly, she slipped out of the store and padded across the floor, keeping low. When she reached the railing, she paused, then carefully leaned forward to look down into the atrium.

  Holy shit—what in the world is happening down there?! Aria gripped the railing, eyes wide as she looked at the sea of writhing bodies far below, her skin crawling as her eyes caught black streaks of blood floating up and into the ceiling from below. Floating blood? She looked up where a collection of blood had formed a deep, dark pool. The abyss can do that?

  Before she could think further, a deep roar echoed from below, shaking the railing’s glass.

  She looked down and caught sight of something bloodied darting through the chaos below—a figure barely visible beneath the broken, flickering lights of the atrium. SAria squinted, trying to make sense of what she was seeing, only to flinch as a Caused was sent flying into the railing just below her. Its spine snapped audibly, the impact folding it backward over the bent metal—its bulbous head snagging grotesquely on the rail, twitching for a moment before going slack.

  CRACK!!!!

  Aria staggered back as one of the massive stone vine decorations that decorated the atrium suddenly crumbled. It came crashing down, shattering what remained of the overhead lights in a rain of glass and sparks. Chunks of broken stone whistled past her before slamming into the atrium floor below, crushing the writhing swarm beneath with an ear-splitting, wet shriek.

  Aria watched in awe as the massive stone vine decoration to her left shifted. It cracked with a deep, groaning noise—then gave way. The structure tumbled inward, smothering the flickering light with a burst of dust and debris. Shards of stone and fractured metal rained down, vanishing into the depths below as a deeper crash echoed through the atrium.

  She covered her face instinctively as the dust flushed through every floor as a resounding roar cut through it all.

  She waved the dust away, coughing as she stumbled toward the railing.

  Aria struggled through the haze, vision blurring even as her Kyyr receptors pinpointed a spot just across from her a couple floors down. As the dust settled, her violet eyes flashed.

  There.

  Clinging to the wall below, half-shrouded in haze, his claws deep in the white stone, his other hand on a convulsing Caused that was being eaten alive.

  “Holy fucking Symbols…” She shuddered as she watched Berserkrios discard the Caused before jumping back down into the abyss.

  The plaza’s terrain had shifted wildly; massive, jagged piles of rubble now inhabited the area below.

  Aria watched as Berserkrios landed on one of the larger pieces of rubble, his body slinking on all fours as he pounced on a Caused, grabbing it by the head and rushing past a mess of shrapnel and Caused that were trapped under rubble, limbs poking in malformed piles.

  Berserkrios jumped up, climbing higher and higher until he leapt off the fourth floor and slammed the Caused in his hand against one of the remaining stone vines. The Caused screamed in agony as Berserkrios used its face to slow his descent as its blood painted the vine in a messy streak. As its brain was spread across the massive white vine, Berserkrios suddenly pressed extra hard, cracking the white stone as the final vine began to shift.

  Berserkrios leapt off the stone vine, scanning the mess below for any lone Caused as the vines’ groans echoed.

  He landed on a dazed Caused, grabbing the creature by the leg and raising it into the sky before he spun, throwing the Caused straight at the vine with all his strength.

  CRRRRRRRRRK—!!!

  The weakened vine groaned once more, then gave way, splintering in a violent cascade. Aria watched, eyes wide, as the final stone decoration collapsed—crushing down onto the writhing mass of Caused below and burying them beneath a rising cloud of dust and a flood of shattered debris.

  Aria staggered back as another wave of dust surged up from below. She covered her mouth and nose as the dust swirled around her. She waved away the dust and tried to walk back to the rail, but she froze mid-step.

  Kyyr.

  She spun around, trying her best to see through the haze. Her eyes widened as she found herself staring at the cream-colored ceiling of the store she’d been hiding in.

  The cream ceiling rippled like water as a gloved hand reached out.

  Aria’s face brightened as she ran over to the store. “You’re back!” she shouted as a ranger dropped gracefully from the ceiling.

  The ranger landed smoothly on her feet as she stretched out. “Good to see you too, Aria,” Lisk’Ha replied warmly, jogging over to meet her friend. Her gaze shifted around curiously. “Things are getting pretty heated down here, huh? What's with all this dust?”

  “You’ve got to see this!” Aria exclaimed, nearly bouncing in place. “There’s some crazy black thing down there killing all the Caused!”

  “Crazy black thing?” Lisk’Ha echoed, tilting her head with confusion. “From the Kyyr reaction, I assumed it was the Coarseblood.”

  Aria froze, eyes wide. “Wait—THAT'S the Coarseblood? That’s GIRA?!” Aria stared in disbelief.

  Lisk’Ha shook her head slightly, setting down a large pack she’d been carrying. “Didn’t you go to the Parabellum? Don't you recognize that nasty-ass Kyyr?”

  Aria tried to remember, “Huh…” Wasn’t he red? But he was also all bony… The black pool above flashed across her mind. Was he covered in blood… holy Symbols… “So that was Gira…”

  “Here,” Lisk’Ha interrupted her thoughts, pulling out a ranger uniform and handing it to Aria. “Put this on.”

  “Oh, huge thanks…” Aria said, taking the uniform.

  “Sorry, couldn’t fit a helmet in the pack,” Lisk’Ha explained, glancing upward uneasily. “You’ll have to use Kyyr to protect yourself from the condensation.” Her voice lowered seriously, “I’ve got to tell you, Aria—we might be fucked.”

  “Fucked?” Aria echoed, alarmed, as a deep roar reverberated through the atrium.

  Lisk’Ha looked over Aria’s shoulder. “Sheesh—well, the tower’s core systems are compromised. Morray’s worst nightmare came true—we have traitors among us.”

  “More?” Aria exclaimed, quickly stepping behind a clothing rack to change. “I thought we weeded out all of Ghaster’s rats!?”

  “Emphasis on the thought part,” Lisk’Ha said dryly, crossing her arms.

  Aria fumbled with the uniform. “So wait, how exactly are we fucked?”

  Lisk’Ha stared up at the ceiling. “The Skolas Sky Metropolis is set to crash into Gore’s Vivathecca.”

  “What?!” Aria yelped, stumbling slightly as she pulled on the uniform. “How? I thought tower controls were exclusive to Onryō Sombras!”

  “They were…” Lisk’Ha said grimly. “But it seems the core tower, Rortemm, has been somehow compromised.”

  Aria stepped out from behind the clothing rack now wearing her sleek black uniform. “Wait, Cetarro and Curvadoss are satellite structures?”

  “Yup… without comms, a flooded hangar, the abyssal storm, and with all the lower floors crawling with Caused—we’re pretty screwed.” She said in a flat tone, “But—that’s no reason to give up.”

  “Did you and other rangers figure something out?”

  “Kinda…” she tapped the display on her wrist. It displayed a map of the Cetarro tower. “We might be disconnected from the Endymion Network thanks to that awful storm, but we still have local data access—camera, altitude sensors, mechanical Kyyr monitors, etc.”

  She switched the display, showing snapshots from a camera stationed on the flanks of the tower’s base. Aria’s heart sank at the first photo. It looked like something taken from the bottom of the ocean—gray darkness interrupted by a burst of pink lightning that had briefly illuminated the water, revealing a chilling sight: a massive shoal of hundreds of Caused, their pale forms swarming around the tower like a school of grotesque fish.

  Lisk’Ha went to the next photo that looked like a twisted before and after. Another lightning flash had caught the moment.

  The shoal now lay torn, black specks against the celestial abyss. And just barely visible amidst the cannibalistic display were two large silhouettes unlike the others. Sleek. Streamlined. Unlike any other Caused Aria had ever seen.

  Aria stared uneasily. “What the hell are those things? And how is that any help?”

  Lisk’Ha puffed her chest and smiled behind her helmet’s visor. “Forget who I’m married to?”

  Realization dawned on Aria. “But how’s Draell even getting up here?”

  Lisk’Ha shrugged casually. “Beats me, but that battle-brained idiot always finds a way. And with his Kyyr ability, we stand a chance to take back control of Rortemm!”

  Aria stared at her, slack-jawed. “Oh, Symbols… you’re seriously betting everything on that casket-dragging idiot?”

  Lisk’Ha shook her head. “I’m not betting anything. I know he’ll be here,” she said with a confident smile under her mask.

  Aria exhaled deeply, jumping slightly as another thunderous roar echoed from the atrium below.

  -L. Osric (currently feeling the L in my name shine)