Kai approached the cell bars, fingers grazing the cold metal. Locked, of course. He crouched low, eyeing the mechanism. Sekh, options?
"Just break it," came the reply, smooth and disinterested.
Kai sighed, shifted. His hand split, carapace sliding out, bones rearranging into a serrated parasitic form. He slammed it forward, once, twice—and with a crack, the lock buckled.
The door creaked open. He morphed back, bare skin steaming slightly from the transformation heat, and stepped inside.
That's when he saw her.
A girl—slender, unconscious, wrists chained above her head by thick parasite-forged cuffs. Black clothes torn at the edges, stockings still clinging to her legs, bangs falling messily over her closed eyes.
She wasn't dead. He checked her pulse. She was still alive, just out cold.
He didn't hesitate.
A flicker of mutation and his hand sharpened again—clean, controlled—slicing through the metal restraints with two precise strokes.
They snapped free. He caught her before she slumped and began dragging her gently outside the cell.
But before he even made it to the corridor, she jerked awake.
Her eyes snapped open. She leapt from his arms with speed that was downright dangerous, and then she saw him.
Her cheeks flushed instantly. Her hand raised to her face. "What—what the hell?! You're naked!"
Kai blinked, then looked down. Oh. Right.
"Yeah, sorry," he muttered, already ordering Sekh to form a quick black membrane over his lower half. It wasn't elegant, but it got the job done.
"You're—what are you? Who are you?" she stammered, eyes bouncing between his face and the parasite wrap.
"Kai. I'm a human, not a creep. Promise," he said, lifting his hands in surrender.
That's when it happened—a shimmer, a ripple of energy around her arm. Out of nowhere, a katana materialized in her hand. But not just any blade. A tachi, long and elegant, glowing faintly with embedded runes.
Kai's expression didn't even flinch. "A magic katana, seriously?"
She kept it aimed at his chest. "You didn't answer the important part. Why were you carrying me?"
Kai shrugged. "Saving you. You were chained up and unconscious, unless you're into that sort of thing."
She squinted, didn't lower the blade.
I have an idea! Kai grinned suddenly, too fast. "Fine, fine. I admit it, I'm a pervert. That's why I broke you out."
"What!?" She growled and lunged at him, blade swinging horizontally.
Kai ducked. The blade cleaved the air where his neck had been. But she overshot—her swing smashed into the gemstone embedded in the far wall.
The stone cracked.
Then it shattered.
Kai stared at the fragments. "Huh. That works."
The girl blinked. "Wait. That was on purpose?"
He spread his arms. "What can I say? I'm efficient."
She hesitated, lowered the sword slightly. "You're… smarter than you look."
"And I look amazing," Kai added without missing a beat. "So what's your name?"
She paused. "Akari."
"Nice to meet you, Akari. Now, how do we get out of here?"
She opened her mouth to respond—but then a sound echoed through the chamber.
A deep, subterranean roar. Not the kind meant to intimidate. The kind that meant something old and angry had just woken up.
Kai spun around, back straightening. "That came from the main tunnel."
They moved fast, exiting the cell chamber and back into the main hallway. But then Kai froze.
The knight.
The Heloxian knight—the one he had poisoned, paralyzed, left twitching on the ground like a broken machine—was standing. Upright. Breathing hard. Black sludge drooled from its mandibles. Its eyes burned.
"…You were supposed to be paralyzed," Kai muttered.
The knight didn't answer, just stepped forward.
Kai pushed Akari behind him, arms shifting again, parasite plates spreading along his arms.
"Guess we're doing this the hard way."
The Heloxian Knight didn't walk. It surged.
One moment, it stood still, spasming faintly. The next, it launched forward like a missile, the ground cracking under its sheer mass. Kai barely yanked Akari aside before the knight's clawed gauntlet slammed down where they'd stood.
Stone exploded upward.
The knight rose from the dust like a resurrected god of violence—mandibles dripping, eyes burning red-gold.
Kai didn't hesitate. His arm flared open with Sekh's chitinous black—flesh twisting, hardening into a segmented spear. He drove it forward.
The knight twisted, caught it mid-thrust, metal screeched.
Then it flung Kai through the air.
He flipped midair, crashed shoulder-first into a pillar, hit the ground hard. His vision swam. It's too strong.
Akari didn't wait. Her feet tapped twice, light as whispers. She vanished—no teleport, just raw speed—and reappeared beside the knight, tachi gleaming with violet runes.
She slashed. The knight blocked with its forearm, but sparks flew—her blade dug in, severing some kind of blood channel under the armor.
The knight snarled. Its arm swept low, a spinning hook. She ducked, rolled backward, used her momentum to spring upward and land on the creature's back.
She plunged the blade deep into the joint between its neck and shoulder.
But the knight didn't fall, it roared.
An energy burst erupted from its core—shockwave blast, pure kinetic force. Akari was thrown like a ragdoll, tumbling through the air, slamming against a cell wall.
Dust poured from the ceiling. Kai, panting, wiped blood from his mouth and stood.
"Okay, plan B."
His skin shimmered—Sekh released a partial morph. Spine ridges cracked open, ejecting a secondary arm. His legs fused with root-like tendrils, anchoring him to the ground. Kai raised both arms, parasite limbs forming jagged, whip-like claws.
He sprinted forward.
The knight met him in the middle.
Kai ducked the first swing, slid under the second, then spun and lashed out with both claws.
One struck the knight's ribs—nothing. The second slipped between armor plates, digging in. Kai pulled, tore something wet and pulsing from the knight's side.
The knight shrieked—but retaliated fast. It punched down. Kai brought up a shield just in time—Sekh hardened into a dome—but the impact still rang through his bones.
Cracks spiderwebbed across his morph. The knight's second fist shattered the shield.
Then it grabbed Kai's face.
I'm too slow—
Before it could crush his skull, Akari returned—silent, fast, furious.
Her sword cut deep across the knight's wrist, carving a burning line. The creature's grip faltered. Kai twisted free, kicked off its chest, landed beside her.
"You alive?" she asked, breath sharp.
"Barely."
They moved together.
Kai leapt high, spinning—Sekh's arms forming into a spiral drill. Akari ducked low, sweeping her leg across the knight's ankle joint. The drill came down as the knight staggered sideways. Kai aimed for the soft tissue beneath its shoulder carapace.
He struck. The drill tore deep.
The knight grabbed him again—but Akari sliced its eyes. A perfect X-slash across the face.
The knight screamed. Its arms flailed, clutching blindly. Kai dropped, rolled behind it, stabbed again. Akari circled left, blade glowing brighter with each strike.
"You got an ultimate move?" Kai shouted, dodging a wild punch.
"Yes. You?"
"Sort of."
"Then let's finish this."
Akari ran forward—straight up the knight's body, using its jutting muscles like steps. She reached its head, raised her sword high. The runes flared white-blue.
Kai sank low, his parasite spine opening completely. He roared—Sekh's voice layering over his own.
"Fertile Poison."
A wave of black poison burst upward from his sac like a geyser, slamming into the knight's chest just as Akari drove her blade down into its skull.
The knight convulsed. Shattered, pierced, melted. Its body collapsed into the floor, dragging both of them down in a heap of ruined armor and ichor.
Silence.
Dust swirled through the broken chamber.
Kai pulled himself up, groaning. Akari did the same, blood trailing from her lip, one sleeve torn.
They both looked at the twitching corpse of the knight. It wasn't moving, not this time.
Kai wiped ichor off his face. "You good?"
"Fine," Akari said, though she swayed a little. "That wasn't even the strongest thing in this rift, was it?"
Kai exhaled. "Probably not."
She sheathed her blade, then glanced at him. "You fight like an idiot."
"You mean effective genius."
"No, I mean idiot." But she smiled when she said it.
Kai stood over the collapsed Heloxian Knight, breath rasping through cracked lips, skin still sticky with ichor.
[Do You Want To Devour: Heloxian Knight?]
[Y/N]
Kai didn't hesitate. "Do it now."
Tendrils lashed from his back, sinking deep into the cooling corpse. The Knight's flesh writhed under the pull, muscles unraveling, bones splitting open, and from within—raw data surged into Sekh's canal.
The Knight's genetic essence was carved out like a relic pried from stone, and Kai felt every byte of it press into his nervous system.
Its body's dense, fractured symmetry. Bone structure designed for resilience, not speed. Neural mapping's simple—no cognition, just reflex chains.
[EQUIPMENT ACQUIRED – "VORABONE CARAPACE"]
Classification: Exoskeletal Armor / Reactive Shell Type
Effect: A semi-organic armor formed from hardened Riftborn bone, the Vorabone Carapace reinforces Kai's vital zones with adaptive chitin plating. It absorbs minor kinetic impacts and redirects excess force into the ground through his limbs. Over time, it syncs with his parasite, adjusting its structure to match new mutations.
Status: Stable
Risk: Nerve feedback spikes and movement stiffness during active mutation phases.
Kai shook off the burning sensation. "That's enough. I'm using it now."
He turned to Akari—already on her feet. The way she'd jolted up after the battle said enough. She wasn't just some captive—she had training. Alert, observant, quiet when needed. Now, though, she was staring at him, wary.
"You planning something?" she asked flatly.
Kai glanced at her. "Yeah, escaping."
She raised a brow. "With that bruised ribcage and the fact you're naked?"
"Shut up and stay close."
He shifted.
His bones groaned as Sekh forced Knightform over his frame. His spine popped. Plates slammed into place over skin like living armor. His arms thickened, his voice deepened into a grunt as his face split into a chitinous jaw-mask. Two minutes.
He crouched and motioned. "Get in."
"What?"
"Get in the hand, genius. Pretend you're unconscious."
Akari hesitated, clearly not thrilled by the idea, but climbed into his enormous armored palm, curling herself into a manageable position. "If you so much as twitch that thumb—"
"I'll drop you."
He moved.
The walk back through the Heloxian corridors felt like crossing a volcano's edge. Other parasites noticed. A few grunted low, confused. One even tilted its head, sensing something was off. Kai didn't stop. He marched with soldier precision, every step costing blood and breath. Sekh pulsed warnings in his skull.
"Fifty seconds remaining. Internal hemorrhage predicted. Proceed with haste."
Kai forced himself to keep moving. Almost there. Almost behind that outcrop—
Then he reached it. The tall rock where they'd planned to regroup.
He ducked behind the stone slab just as the mimicry failed. Knightform peeled away from his body like rotting bark, dissolving into squirming biomass that Sekh reabsorbed. Kai dropped to his knees, panting, muscles spasming. He tossed aside a ragged cloth and tied it around his waist.
"You good?" he asked between gasps.
Akari rolled out of his palm and landed gracefully. "Define good."
"Alive."
"Then yeah."
She smirked when she saw what he was wearing. "Seriously? That's your fashion statement now?"
He didn't reply. He was already scanning the area.
But something was wrong. Grin wasn't here. Her signal was gone from the implant tracking pings. The air was still, and then—
Water.
Kai's eyes slid toward the nearby lake, glistening under the Riftlight's eerie illumination. His instincts prickled. There—on the rocky shore—was Grin's jacket and her mask, folded neatly.
No. No no no—
And then she emerged from the water.
Kai blinked.
She was walking out in a dark-blue swimsuit—skin tight, ridiculous, stylish even, with little belt-like rings along the hips. Her hair was wet, stuck to her face. She looked relaxed.
He stared. "What the hell are you wearing?"
Grin tilted her head, expression calm as the lake behind her. "What?"
"Where'd you even get a swimsuit!?"
"Would you prefer I was naked?"
Akari, standing behind Kai, raised both eyebrows. "Damn. You two always roleplay this weird or am I third-wheeling something cursed?"
Kai buried his face in his hand. "I fought a Knight, I impersonated it, I nearly died, and now I'm being harassed by two girls in a Rift."
Grin gave him a sharp grin. "And you're still the only one not wearing pants."