This realm—Cavernethe—was infested with Heloxians. According to Marin, every time a Gemstone got destroyed by a GeneDevourer, the parasites would start making a new one. It was instinct, survival, replication.
Gemstones weren't just energy sources—they were parasite nests. When the creatures first built them, they were unstable, messy, flawed. But over time, the parasites refined them, patched them, reinforced them—until the structure became something close to perfect.
Once complete, the new Gemstones were locked into Rift Holders—ancient energy-forged anchors that pierced through dimensional walls. They powered the portals, forced them open.
The reason was obvious. The Rift wasn't just a wound—it was a bridge. The parasites wanted the human world. It had atmosphere, biomass, structure—everything they needed to feed, spread, and evolve.
Once the Rift opened, monsters from inside flooded through the portal—hidden somewhere deep in the zone. They spilled onto Earth like a storm, tearing down everything in their path without mercy or pause.
That meant right now, while they rested, chaos was unfolding back home. Buildings crumbled, people ran, and lives were shattered by those monsters lurking just out of sight.
That's exactly why they had to move fast—finish this Rift before the destruction spread any further, before more innocent lives got caught in the crossfire.
---
Kai and Ash were healed—barely. Their bodies ached with every breath, their Parasites pulsing low with residual strain. But they could walk, they could fight, and that was all that mattered.
Right now, the group was split. They'd made it into the heart of Cavernethe: the main city, a twisted sprawl of fungal towers and bone-laced walkways glowing with parasite light.
Kai was deep undercover, disguised once again as a Heloxian Knight. His armor, a hollowed shell crafted from Sekh's Adaptive Gene Canal, pulsed with faint bio-energy. Inside that shell, Akari hid—curled tight within the echoing confines of his chest plate.
Marin and Grin stayed outside the walls, crouched near a fungal ridge scanning for movement. Marin's HUD flickered nonstop, trying to track the remaining two Knights and the Queen herself.
Sylvie and Ash were further off, hidden behind a ridge of fungal spines. Ash and Sylvie prepped their ambush points—if anything went wrong, they'd strike fast and hard.
Everyone had their roles.
Cavernethe's main city pulsed with a rhythm Kai didn't like. Spore-lamps glowed dimly along curved bone walkways, and every corner echoed with the low growls and clicks of Heloxians moving about their grotesque routines.
Kai kept his eyes forward as two massive Heloxians passed him—one sniffed, the other hissed something in their gurgling dialect.
He nodded once, stiff and Knight-like, then strode on. Inside his chestplate, Akari squirmed.
"Okay, so, uh," she whispered, voice echoing awkwardly in the cramped space, "are they always this... active during mating season or is this like, a special event?"
Kai didn't look down. "Please don't make me think about that while I'm wearing one of their dead brothers like armor."
"Right, sorry. Just—you know—it's kinda hard not to notice when every hut is moaning."
"I'm mentally filing this under trauma."
Akari paused. "You think they cuddle after?"
"Akari."
"Okay, okay, geez—just making conversation."
Kai opened his HUD and pinged Marin again. The signal flickered, still waiting.
Akari shifted, bumping something. "By the way, you ever think about how weird this is? I'm hiding inside you. The outside is an orgy of fungus monsters. And we're just chill?"
"Nothing about this is chill."
"You're right. It's mildly horrifying."
Kai sighed through gritted teeth. "If you say 'at least they're happy' I will eject you from my chest."
Akari snickered, then leaned her head back. "Y'know, you're actually kinda comfy in here."
Kai groaned. Marin still hadn't called. The longer they waited, the worse the stench got. He tightened his grip on the parasite-sculpted blade at his hip.
Come on, Marin. Give me something.
Marin's voice finally crackled through Kai's HUD, cutting through the humid, pulsating noise of the Heloxian city like a scalpel.
"Okay, listen carefully because I don't want to repeat this while you're surrounded by horny death-lizards—both of the last Knights are positioned in the lower tiers of the city's understructure, likely guarding the central node of the Gemstone complex. I got a reading—high density of parasitic energy, it's gotta be there. It's deep. Like, real deep. So get moving."
Kai didn't say anything at first—he just nodded and started walking, but his pace shifted. His gait got heavier, more calculated, more like the Knight he was impersonating.
The bone stairs downward were slick with some kind of moss that pulsed beneath his feet, and the deeper he went, the louder the thrum of the Gemstone became—a low, constant vibration that sat behind his teeth and itched at the base of his skull.
Akari tapped lightly from inside his armor. "So, uh... we just gonna walk into the most parasite-infested hole in the world and hope they don't notice you're not on the shift roster?"
Kai muttered back, low. "That's the plan. And whatever you do, don't make any noise."
"It's hard not to laugh when they look funny."
He almost smirked. Gods, why is she like this during infiltration?
As the last flight of bone-ribbed stairs curved into the underground chamber, Kai caught the shimmer of pale crystal veins.
They stretched across the cavern walls like capillaries, all converging toward a grotesque spire in the center. That had to be the Gemstone.
And no one stopped him. Because to them, he was one of them.
He whispered, "Alright, Marin. We're in. Now what?"
Kai waited for Marin's reply, but the line stayed dead. Then it clicked back.
Marin's voice was ragged. "It's a trap. We're captured. Get out—now!"
It's too late. Kai froze as footsteps echoed behind him. A row of Heloxian soldiers blocked the exit, spears in hand, eyes glowing like furnace coals.
From between them stepped a smaller Heloxian—barely shoulder height compared to the rest. Its armor was ornate, gilded in blue ichor and bone, carved with parasite sigils. It bowed mockingly.
"I am the knight," it hissed.
Kai blinked. That's a knight? He let the transformation drop, scales peeling off in smoke. He was nude.
Akari popped out from the shell, sighed, handed him his pants. "Seriously?"
No time to argue. The soldiers lunged.
Akari drew first, her tachi slicing low, then high—clean arcs that separated limbs from torsos. Kai transformed only his arms—clawed fists hardened with Heloxian bone, each punch splintering chitin.
They moved as one. She ducked, he leapt. She parried, he followed with a knee to the spine. A Heloxian pounced from above—Akari pivoted, threw her blade to Kai mid-dodge. He caught it and split the thing in half.
But they were surrounded.
Akari kicked a corpse toward the soldiers to stall. Kai used the opening, burst forward, grabbed two by the heads, smashed them together like cracked eggs.
Blood soaked the cavern floor. Kai's breath was ragged. Akari's shoulders slumped.
But the last Heloxian fell.
They stood still, panting.
The cavern floor was painted with blood, and both Kai and Akari collapsed against a fractured pillar, shoulders heaving, wounds still burning.
Kai's HUD flickered, warning after warning. His parasite was drained. His limbs were sluggish.
Then the ground shook.
Not like before—this wasn't tremor from a fight. This was footsteps.
A towering Heloxian Knight entered, far larger than the last. Its armor was black, layered like beetle shell, glowing with parasite circuits. Its helmet curved like a scorpion's tail. The ground cracked beneath it.
"Oh no," Kai muttered.
Akari barely pushed herself upright. "We're dead if that thing swings even once."
It didn't wait. It charged, full force, slamming through the pillar they leaned against. Kai rolled aside, Akari vaulted backward, but they were too slow.
The knight backhanded Akari into a wall, then caught Kai's leg mid-dash and smashed him into the floor—twice. Kai coughed blood, his HUD screaming in red.
I can't move. Sekh—damn it, adapt, do something!
Akari stood, blade shaking in her hand, and lunged again. The knight simply stepped aside and kicked her into the wall. She didn't get up this time.
The knight raised its blade—jagged, longer than Kai's body—and aimed it at his chest.
Kai couldn't lift his arm.
Then—
A voice echoed across the cavern, sharp like stone grinding metal.
"That's enough."
The knight paused.
Boots echoed behind the Heloxian.
Kai turned—and saw Marin, Sylvie, Ash, and Grin standing tall. Behind them was a squad of GCC soldiers, their rifles glowing, their armor plated with parasite dampeners.
But the man at the front—his armor was old, scratched from years of field work. His beard was gray and half-burnt. A scar ran across his jaw.
"It's been a long time, Kai," the man said, stepping forward. "Didn't expect to find you in the guts of a Rift."
Kai's eyes widened.
No way. That voice…
The memory hit like a hammer. The sky split by Rift light. His clan torn apart—and one man dragging him out of the flames, muttering curses the whole way.
"You—Wenzel?"
The man nodded. "Wenzel Oltz."
Kai's fingers twitched.
Wenzel Oltz. The one who stayed with me after my clan was destroyed. He was the person that in the bathtub with him, the one that asked him a philosophical question.
Wenzel stepped past the others and pointed at the knight. "Get out of the way, insect."
The knight roared and charged.
And then the real fight began.