The world saw Chu Xuan's final defiance – a raised, dark-gold middle finger. Then, silence.
Chaos erupted. "Demon!" "Monster!" "A trick!"
But beneath the fury, a fragile hope sparked. What was that phantom? That power?
The Life Ark was real. Humanity had its first anchor.
High Command pulsed with controlled frenzy. Elder Qin watched the fractured global feed, relief warring with grim resolve. Step one complete. Chu Xuan survived. The Ark activated. Now, the real storm begins.
"Release the statements!" His voice cut through the tension. "Announce Ark activation – first 100,000 citizens selected! Confirm Chu Xuan's injuries from unknown alien attackers on Everest! Classify the 'Ashen Bone Golden Body' as humanity's evolutionary shield! And silence the slanderers – unleash the Weaver!"
Official narratives slammed into the chaos, a dam against the flood.
On another screen, Chu Xuan lay unconscious. His vital signs stabilized, but the energy readings from his new dark-gold left arm were a storm – fierce surges against terrifying lulls. The intricate crimson-gold runes flickered like dying stars.
"Exhaustion. Energy backlash. And… starvation," Qin stated, eyes hardening. "Project 'Golden Armor' – absolute priority! Feed this new armor! He needs energy. Mountains of it."
"Understood!" Dr. Zhou and Lin Weiwei snapped into action.
A new voice crackled over comms – sharp, eager. "Thunder Squad requesting combat test! Target: F+ grade Iron-Feather Vultures, Western Kunlun slopes!"
Qin glanced between Chu Xuan's sleeping face and the pulsing life-signs of the mech pilots. Good. The sword needs sharpening. "Approved! Gather data. Remember – you are the Ark's blade, and Chu Xuan's shield!"
Western Kunlun Foothills.
Three hulking rune-engraved mechs – *Thunder-1* to *3* – stood sentinel in the biting wind. Their cold steel and glowing blue sigils were alien against the pristine snow. Inside *Thunder-1*, Lei Zhan breathed deep, feeling the machine's power resonate with his own resolve. Scars from Everest marred its frame, testament to survival.
"Targets locked! Fifteen klicks northeast! Thirty-seven hostiles! Three leaders… F-grade peak energy!"
"Advance! Engage at ten klicks!" Lei Zhan commanded, anticipation thrumming. This was their proving ground.
The giants surged forward, churning snow.
Kunlun Base, Observation Deck.
Qin, Zhou, Weiwei, and techs watched the feeds: cockpit views, drone footage, energy scans. Chu Xuan's vitals were piped in, a silent witness.
"Targets in range! Vultures converging! Speed incredible!"
On screen, a dark, metallic cloud descended – massive vultures with steel-tipped beaks and claws, wingspans stretching five meters. The three leaders were monstrous, eight meters across, feathers like serrated blades, radiating pure malice. F+.
"Iron-Feather Vultures," Zhou narrated swiftly. "Extreme defense. Pack tactics. Weak to precision strikes on joints and underbelly."
"Thunder Squad! Open fire! Break the swarm!" Lei Zhan barked.
Shoulder and arm-mounted cannons roared. Blue-white energy beams, laced with crackling runes, tore through the sky.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Direct hits vaporized lesser vultures in showers of charred feathers and gore.
But the leaders ignored the barrage. Their metallic feathers flared, deflecting the blasts with showers of sparks. Unscathed, they accelerated, diving like vengeful meteors straight at the mechs' heads and joints!
Too fast! Too tough! Panic flickered in the observation deck.
Lei Zhan wrenched *Thunder-1* sideways. Steel claws screeched past his sensor dome, gouging deep furrows in the shoulder armor. *Thunder-2* evaded. *Thunder-3* wasn't fast enough.
SKREEEEE—CRUNCH!
A leader's claw ripped through *Thunder-3*'s left forearm plating like paper! Sparks erupted from severed conduits. "Left arm crippled! Power down 15%!" the pilot gasped.
The tide turned instantly. The leaders became blurs of steel and fury, claws hammering the mechs. The swarm closed in, harrying, distracting. The mighty Thunder Squad was pinned, reeling.
Qin's knuckles whitened. Zhou stared at the torn armor. Failure?
Then, a voice, weak but razor-sharp, sliced through the comms chaos: "Lei Zhan! Their weakness is the joint sockets! The belly! Focus fire! High-frequency vibro-blades! One target!"
Chu Xuan! Awake! Watching!
Lei Zhan's spirit ignited. "Shift to melee! Vibro-blades active! Target Alpha's joints and belly! Focus fire!"
Armor plates slid back. Three massive blades, edges shimmering with high-frequency energy, hummed to life, warping the air.
*Thunder-1* lunged low, tanking a glancing blow across its back. Its blade stabbed upward like a spear, aimed precisely at the belly of the vulture harassing *Thunder-3*.
Simultaneously, *Thunder-2* and the wounded *Thunder-3* drove their blades, runes blazing, into the same leader's wing joints.
Three points of concentrated, vibrating death. No escape.
THUNK! SCHLICK! CRUNCH!
*Thunder-1*'s blade plunged deep into soft underbelly flesh, vibrating entrails to pulp. *Thunder-2* and *3*'s blades sheared through tendon and bone at the wing roots.
"SKREEEEEAAAAA—!"
The monstrous vulture king froze. Its wings snapped uselessly. Gore fountained from its belly. Like a broken puppet, it plummeted hundreds of meters, exploding onto the snowfield in a crimson geyser.
Instant kill.
"YES!" *Thunder-2* roared.
"Chu Xuan! You legend!" *Thunder-3* choked out through pain.
The remaining leaders faltered. The swarm scattered. Momentum shifted.
"Finish them!" Lei Zhan snarled, *Thunder-1* surging forward. Blue death danced in its grip.
The remaining vulture kings fell within a minute, joints shattered, bellies torn open. The swarm was annihilated under cannon fire and whirling blades. Silence fell, broken only by the groans of damaged metal and the hiss of snow meeting spilled blood. Three battered mechs stood victorious amidst the carnage, their presence a newly forged blade of human defiance.
Cheers erupted in the observation deck. Qin smiled. The sword is sharpened.
But Lei Zhan's celebration died. His sensors focused on the carcass of the first vulture king he'd gutted. Its dark, viscous blood… was seeping into the shallow claw marks on *Thunder-1*'s leg armor.
More alarming, internal diagnostics flickered. Leg armor structural integrity: +0.7%. Hardness parameters: +0.3%. Energy dispersion: +0.5%.
"Command! Abnormal contact!" Lei Zhan's voice cracked with disbelief. "The Alpha's blood… it's enhancing my armor?!"
Simultaneously: Mariana Trench, "Anomaly Zone-7".
Deep beneath the crushing black, the advanced submersible *Jiaolong-7* navigated impossible pressures. Thick, soupy azure fog choked the water. Energy readings spiked off the charts.
"Reaching target coordinates, Director Chen," a tech reported, voice tight. "Ambient psionic density… 173 times baseline! Climbing!"
Director Chen Hai watched the sonar display. A colossal, slowly churning vortex dominated the screen – ten kilometers wide, its center a terrifying void. Glowing plankton swirled around it, a ghostly halo. The source of the energy surge.
"Launch probe Di Ting. Maximum scan. Shields at full."
The probe, etched with sensing runes, glided towards the vortex heart. Data cascaded – psionic flux, particle storms, spatial warping… all breaking records.
WARNING! Detecting ultra-high spatial fold resonance! Suspected stable anchor point for temporary spatial conduit!
WARNING! Detecting unidentifiable high-dimensional energy radiation! Energy level… UNQUANTIFIABLE!
Chen's blood ran cold. An anchor? A doorway?
Then, the probe's final image filled the screen, piercing the chaotic energies at the vortex core:
A Throne.
Constructed entirely of colossal, ancient bones – femurs, ribs, skull fragments – fused into a structure radiating primordial death and absolute, frozen sovereignty. It hovered within the maelstrom, an ethereal projection from unfathomable depths. A colossal claw formed one armrest, gripping a slowly rotating point of pure, light-devouring darkness.
"The… The Bone Throne?!" Chen gasped, face draining of color. Legends whispered in forbidden texts screamed in his mind.
WARNING! Probe suffering catastrophic psychic corruption! SIGNAL LOST!
And then, it came.
OOOOOOOOO—
A sound that bypassed ears, water, and steel. A deep, mournful, ancient horn blast vibrating within their very souls. It promised oblivion.
THUD! THUD! Researchers collapsed, foaming at the mouth. Others screamed, clutching their heads.
"Psychic assault! Maximum countermeasures!" Chen roared, agony lancing his mind. Emergency wards flared blue, barely muffling the soul-rending dirge.
"Sonar contact!" the operator shrieked. "Massive bio-signature! Rising from the vortex depths! Speed… extreme! One target! Energy signature… BEYOND SCALE!"
The display showed a shadow eclipsing the entire vortex, ascending from the abyss beneath the Bone Throne. Larger than any leviathan. Larger than a city.
"FULL ASCENT! ABANDON ZONE! NOW!" Chen's voice broke with terror. *Jiaolong-7*'s engines screamed, fleeing towards the distant surface.
Behind it, the azure vortex seemed to spin just a fraction faster. The Bone Throne's projection glowed with cold, malignant power.
Kunlun Base, Medical Wing.
Chu Xuan jolted upright, gasping. That eldritch horn blast echoed in his bones. Pacific coordinates burned in his mind's eye, overlayed by a phantom image of the Bone Throne. His system interface flashed crimson warnings: CATASTROPHIC THREAT LEVEL.
His dark-gold left arm reacted. The runes flared erratically, a chaotic mix of ravenous hunger and primal dread vibrating through the metal.
He stared at the shimmering limb, his voice a harsh whisper in the sterile room. "Sustenance... or poison?"
The fragile stability he'd gained shattered. The new vortex was deeper, darker, and infinitely more terrifying than Everest's icy tomb. The true abyss had yawned open.