Melbourne's docklands breathed like a dying beast under the bruised twilight sky. Chen Mu navigated the labyrinth of rusted cargo containers, the phoenix coin burning a hole in his pocket. Its fractured edges pulsed faintly, casting jagged shadows that slithered across the corroded steel walls. Chief Voss moved beside him, her high-collared jacket barely concealing the bioluminescent scar snaking up her neck. The air reeked of saltwater and industrial decay, mingling with the metallic tang of the nano-shifter syringe strapped to Chen's thigh. His wrist-comp vibrated insistently, its holographic display mapping seven pulsating dots converging on a warehouse crowned with shattered solar panels. The structure loomed ahead, its jagged silhouette clawing at the blood-orange horizon like the talons of a fallen god.
**
**Approaching Sector 7 Perimeter**
**Hostile Signatures Detected: 12 (Unknown Classification)**
Voss gestured to a half-sunken freighter, its hull peeling to reveal corrosion that glistened unnaturally. "Blackmoor's toys," she muttered. The winged serpent emblem on the ship's side mirrored the cadaver's tattoo, its scales warped by rust and time. "They've been stockpiling here since the 'renovations.'" Her voice dripped with venom, the word *renovations* twisting into something vile.
A low moan echoed through the maze of containers—a sound that bypassed the ears and vibrated directly in the bones. Shadows detached from the steel walls, their forms coalescing into humanoid figures with flesh welded to corroded machinery. Mushroom-like growths sprouted from their joints, releasing spores that shimmered with the same cobalt hue as Chen's stolen flames. One creature turned its head, a security guard's face half-melted into a forklift's hydraulic arm, its remaining eye milky and unblinking.
"Harvesters," Voss hissed, her shock pistol humming to life. "They preserve biomass for the Primordial."
The Rustborn charged, movements jerky yet precise, their mechanical limbs screeching against the dock's concrete. Chen's flames erupted in a sweeping arc, blue fire engulfing the lead Harvester. The spores detonated in micro-explosions, showering the dock with phosphorescent ash that clung to their clothes like radioactive snow.
**
**Pyroclastic Surge + Spore Ignition = Chain Combustion (Tier-3)**
The remaining Harvesters staggered, their fungal growths combusting in sequence. Voss picked off stragglers with surgical precision, each shot aimed at the biomechanical seams beneath their armor. Her scar flared crimson as a claw grazed her shoulder, tearing through Kevlar and drawing a thin line of blood. She jammed her pistol into the creature's mouth and pulled the trigger, its skull erupting in a shower of sparks and black ichor that sizzled against the damp concrete.
Chen reached the warehouse door—a massive steel slab etched with Blackmoor's barcode. The phoenix coin vibrated violently in his hand, its fractures leaking starlight as he pressed it against the scanner.
*"From ashes, dominion."*
The door shrieked open, its hinges groaning like tortured souls. Inside, a cavernous chamber stretched into darkness, illuminated only by the faint glow of hundreds of glass pods suspended from the ceiling. Each contained a humanoid figure floating in amber fluid, their torsos branded with the serpent tattoo. The markings pulsed in sync with Chen's rising corruption index, throbbing like a second heartbeat.
**
**Corruption Index: 3.7%**
**Memory Stabilizer (Tier-1) Available: Y/N?**
Chen selected *Yes*. A cold rush flooded his veins, sharpening his vision until the pods' labels snapped into focus: **Subject #301: Cognitive Reassembly Prototype**. The fluid inside swirled with microscopic spores, their movements too deliberate to be random.
Voss staggered inside, clutching her bleeding shoulder. "Replication tanks," she said, her voice taut. "They're growing hybrids. Part human, part machine, part… *something else*."
A pod shattered.
---
Amber fluid gushed across the floor, its viscosity clinging to their boots like sentient sludge. The figure inside stepped forward—a perfect fusion of human and machine, its skin iridescent with scales that shifted between cobalt and obsidian. The creature's eyes glowed with the same stolen fire as Chen's, its gaze piercing through the haze of corruption warnings flooding his interface.
**
**Designation: Serpent's Eye (Prime)**
**Traits: Adaptive Regeneration / Quantum Entanglement**
The Hybrid spoke with Alvarez's voice, layered with static and something older, darker. *"Harvest incomplete. Donor 301 insufficient."*
Chen's system interface glitched, holograms fracturing into serpentine patterns that writhed across his vision. The creature lunged, its arm morphing into a plasma blade that hummed with distorted harmonics. Voss's pistol jammed as she fired at its joints, rounds ricocheting off scales that shifted like liquid metal.
"The coin!" she shouted, ducking behind a shattered pod. "Use the damned coin!"
Chen hurled the phoenix relic. It struck the Hybrid's chest—and passed harmlessly through, clattering to the floor with a discordant chime.
*"Irrelevant artifact,"* the Hybrid intoned, its voice splitting into overlapping frequencies. *"Primordial seeks *true* vessels."*
The creature's claws raked Chen's arm, drawing blood that evaporated into cobalt mist. His corruption index spiked, the numbers flashing crimson.
**
**Corruption Index: 5.9%**
**Memory Degradation: 2.4%**
Fragmented visions flooded his mind—*Blackmoor technicians injecting the Hybrid with shimmering fluid, the Spore Primordial's tendrils weaving through its synthetic nerves.* Chen's flames faltered, their blue hue tinged with black. The Hybrid seized his throat, its grip colder than the void between stars.
Voss slammed a nano-shifter syringe into the creature's spine. "Eat this, you bastard."
The mercury fluid surged, crystallizing the Hybrid's scales into jagged obsidian shards. It shrieked, its form destabilizing into a cloud of spores and static that swirled like a miniature galaxy. Chen's flames reignited, incinerating the haze until only a single, glowing barcode remained—a Blackmoor serial number hovering in the air before dissolving into ash.
The warehouse shuddered. Pods exploded in sequence, amber fluid flooding the floor with viscous waves that reeked of formaldehyde and burnt copper. Voss dragged Chen toward the exit as the ceiling collapsed, the Serpent's dying scream echoing through the docklands like a promise of vengeance.
---
Outside, the phoenix coin glowed amid the rubble, its inscription blazing: *"From ashes, dominion."* Chen pocketed it, his veins now streaked with black tendrils that pulsed in time with the Spore Primordial's distant heartbeat.
Voss leaned against a cargo container, her scar dimming to a faint glow. "You're changing," she said, not unkindly.
Chen flexed his hand, watching the flames dance between obsidian and cobalt. "So are you."
Somewhere beneath the city, the Primordial stirred—and laughed.
---