"Mason, stay with me."
Clara's hands were slick with blood. She pressed her torn sleeve against the wound, but it did nothing. The air was thick with dust and heat. The glow from the veins in the stone made the walls look alive.
I knelt beside her. "He's still breathing."
Barely.
System Alert:
Ally is dying.
"No," I said. "He's not."
Clara's eyes glistened in the dim blue light. "We need to move him."
I looked around. The path we came through was gone. It had collapsed in a mess of twisted rebar and crushed rock. The only open tunnel sloped downward, where the light pulsed like a heartbeat.
"We can't go back," I said.
"Then where?"
I didn't have an answer. Mason's chest hitched weakly beneath my hands.
System Notice:
Ally's heart slowing.
The hum in my ribs deepened, matching his pulse beat for beat until his began to fade.
"Come on," I muttered. "Don't do this."
Clara pressed harder on the wound. "Terry, he's fading."
I could hear it: the blood, the heartbeat, the warmth leaving him. It filled my head until it drowned everything else.
System Notice:
Instinct rising.
The smell of iron hit me. Sharp. Sweet. My mouth watered. My hands trembled.
Clara looked up at me. "Terry?"
I stepped back, shaking my head. "Get away."
"What's wrong?"
"Just go!"
But she didn't move.
The hum inside me broke loose. My vision blurred blue at the edges. My breath came out as a low growl.
System Warning:
Control slipping.
I dropped to my knees. My fingers split, nails sharpening. My teeth ached. The hunger was all I could feel.
Clara screamed my name as I lunged.
Then; heat. Teeth. Blood.
———
When I came back, everything was still.
The taste of iron burned in my mouth. Mason lay before me, pale and still, his wound sealed black with faint blue veins running through it.
Clara's voice was trembling. "What did you do?"
"I…" My throat caught. "I tried to save him."
She backed away. "You bit him."
I wiped my mouth with shaking hands. The blood glowed faintly under my skin. The hum inside me was calm now, almost satisfied.
Mason's chest rose once, sharply. Then again. His eyes opened—pale silver, glowing in the dark.
System Notice:
Change detected.
His body convulsed, bones cracking, muscles stretching under his skin. His breathing turned to growls.
Clara cried out. "Mason, stop!"
He turned toward her. His face twisted between pain and something feral.
I moved between them. "Mason, listen to me!"
For a moment, I thought he did. His gaze flicked to mine—confused, afraid, human. Then he roared.
The sound shattered the silence. The blue light in the walls flared bright, reacting to him like it recognized its own.
"Mason!" I shouted.
But he was already gone, tearing down the tunnel on all fours. The echoes faded into the distance.
———
Clara fell to her knees. "He's… gone."
I couldn't breathe. My hands still shook. "It's my fault."
The cavern trembled again, dust sifting down from the ceiling. The walls pulsed with light, stronger now, matching my heartbeat.
Clara grabbed my arm. "We have to get out of here!"
Before I could answer, the ground split with a thunderous crack. A rush of water tore between us. I saw her fall back, screaming my name as the current carried her away into the dark.
"Clara!"
Her voice vanished.
The glow around me brightened, filling the air with blue haze. The hum in my chest flared until I could barely think.
I touched the wall to steady myself. It rippled like water under my hand.
System Notice:
Absorption ready.
I couldn't pull away. The light crawled up my arm, seeping into my veins. My body arched, every muscle alive with burning power. Pain came first; then strength.
System Notice:
Body adapting.
Energy stable.
My vision sharpened until I could see every thread of dust. I could hear my own pulse, steady and strong, matching the rhythm in the rock.
System Notice:
Stage 2 unlocked.
Control granted.
I stood, panting, staring at my reflection in the black water. My eyes glowed faint blue. Faint lines of light traced my arms, fading into the veins beneath my skin.
The beast inside me was quiet now.
Not gone. Listening.
I felt… balanced. Like my body had finally caught up to the thing inside it. Then I saw it.
A faint shimmer deeper in the cavern. Between two slabs of stone, a shard pulsed like a beating heart. Smaller than the one from the quarry, but the same color, the same song.
System Notice:
Core fragment found.
The hum rose, shaking the ground. The stone around the shard rippled. Dust hung in the air, caught in blue light.
From somewhere in the distance, I heard Clara's voice echo faintly. "Terry! Don't touch it!"
I hesitated, then stepped closer.
System Alert:
Integration possible.
Proceed?
I pressed my hand to it.
Light burst through the cavern. The air folded inward. My body lifted from the ground.
I saw flashes: ruined cities, burning skies, creatures walking through fire. And below it all, something vast, sleeping beneath the earth.
System Alert:
Power surge.
Control unstable.
I roared. The light poured through my veins, flooding the cavern until everything burned white-blue. The ground cracked, water turned to steam, and the hum filled the air like thunder.
Then… silence.
I dropped to my knees, panting. The light faded. My reflection stared back from the black water. My skin still glowed faintly, my eyes bright and clear.
But I wasn't broken anymore. I wasn't fighting it.
System Notice:
Form stable.
New ability unlocked.
The walls around me pulsed once, gentle, as if the world itself approved.
Somewhere in the tunnels, a howl echoed.
Not Mason's. Something older.
I looked toward the sound, the blue glow spreading from my arms like a quiet fire.
"I'm coming," I whispered.
And the light followed me into the dark.