Beneath the Skin of Bastion
The undercity swallowed him whole.
Kairo dropped down three levels in less than a minute, slipping through access ladders, fractured service tunnels, and rusted scaffold bridges that groaned underfoot. He didn't have a map. He didn't need one. The system pulsed like a compass in his mind, guiding him with a rhythm just shy of a heartbeat.
> [Tracking Dungeon Signature...] [Distance: 540 meters. Vertical drop: 3 sectors.]
Above, faint shouts echoed—metal footsteps clanging as the enforcers searched. Down here, light came in strips, buzzing tubes of artificial amber mounted to concrete walls that dripped moisture. This place wasn't abandoned. Just... forgotten.
A shadow darted past ahead.
Kairo slowed, crouching. His instincts sharpened. The air shifted—thick with mana, decayed magic clinging like dust in a library no one had touched in centuries. He recognized that scent.
"This isn't just a dungeon... it's old."
The alley widened into a broken platform suspended above a chasm. Below, glowing veins pulsed red and blue, like arteries beneath translucent skin. At the edge stood a single figure, back turned.
She wore a hooded coat too large for her, patched with scraps of armor and powered cloth. A large pack sat beside her boots, humming faintly. She didn't move.
Kairo approached, quietly.
She spoke without turning. "You're not from here."
"Neither are you," he replied.
She glanced back. Pale eyes, sharp like glass.
"You're the anomaly. The one who triggered the silent alarms. They sent enforcers after you. But you outran them."
Kairo gave a faint smile. "You were watching?"
She tapped the air beside her. A small cube of light unfolded, showing a holographic feed. Security footage.
"You moved like an awakened. But uncalibrated. That's rare."
"And you are...?"
"A scavenger. A finder of cracks."
"Name?"
She hesitated. "Nova."
Kairo didn't press. Names meant something. Especially here.
"There's a core nearby," he said. "I'm going after it."
Nova gestured to the chasm. "Then you'll need to go through that."
Kairo stepped to the edge and looked down. No obvious path. Just sheer drop and unstable scaffolding.
> [System Notice: Vertical descent possible. Risk level: High. Prepare for environmental hazard.]
"Is it active?" he asked.
Nova shook her head. "Dormant. But that doesn't mean dead. I've seen things crawl out of dormant zones with cores still pulsing inside them. This one... it's been sealed."
He raised a brow. "Sealed how?"
"With people."
She pulled something from her coat—an old hunter badge, half-melted, fused to bone.
Kairo examined it. There was no aura left, but the metal remembered.
"How deep?"
"Farther than anyone sane would go."
"Good thing I'm not sane."
He pulled back his sleeve. Blue light traced his veins. Adaptive Muscle Fiber was syncing with his movements now, making each step more fluid.
> [Core Sync Progress: 12%. Physical Efficiency Boost: +5%]
He crouched. Jumped.
The fall was short but jarring. He landed on a narrow ledge, slid down piping, then dropped into black.
It wasn't just the absence of light. It was presence of something else.
A pressure. Watching. Breathing.
He lit his palm. A soft blue glow pushed back the dark, revealing the interior of the dungeon's throat.
Organic walls, slick with a resin-like sheen. Machinery fused into the bone. Cables like tendons.
A dungeon, yes.
But also... a corpse.
> [New Zone: Dead God's Circuit. Status: Degraded. Contamination Level: 71%.]
Kairo moved slowly. The corridor forked into three paths. One was collapsed. One pulsed with flickering red light. The third was silent.
He chose silence.
Ten meters in, he heard it. A whisper.
Not in his ears. In his spine.
"You brought fire with you... old fire... unwanted... but familiar."
He froze. The air thinned. The whisper grew teeth.
*"Come closer, Godkiller."
The system shuddered.
> [WARNING: Unknown sentient echo detected. Identity: Fragmented God Core.] [Initiate Sync? Y/N]
Kairo stared ahead. A chamber opened, bathed in red light. At its center: a throne of bone and glass. Something pulsed inside it. A fractured core, half-shattered, bleeding mana.
And it was alive.
"Yes," Kairo whispered. "Initiate."
> [Core Sync Engaged: Fragmented God Core. Result: Partial Trait Extracted - Divine Residue Lv.1] Effect: Mana Resistance +10%, Immunity to Low-tier Illusions.]
The world around him warped, then snapped back into focus. The whispering stopped.
But something else stirred.
A shape formed in the shadows. Not spawn. Not hunter. Something between. Bones wrapped in cables. A face stretched like melted glass. No eyes.
It screamed.
Kairo took a step forward.
Then another.
He was done running.