The severance of the False Phoenix’s main neck-artery bypass loops triggered an immediate, total neuro-blood-vessel collapse within the chimera’s spliced biology. Deprived of oxygenated void fluid, the creature’s wired control modules started a self-running emergency purge, venting its leftover energy stores in a desperate, violent bid to eliminate its attackers.
Deep within the monster’s fractured chest bone, the three-chambered void pump began to whine at a piercing, faster-than-sound hum that rattled the teeth in Arthur’s jaw.
“The void pump is overloading!” Arthur warned through the squad link, his test monocle flashing with urgent crimson alerts. “It’s attempting to detonate its internal dark-matter pool! If that core breaches, it will vent thirty tons of rotting void soot across the vault!”
From the cut neck wound, hundreds of tiny, thread-like leech-like filaments erupted into the air, squirming with wild, hungry life. These were not mere tissue fibers. They were living void parasites, bio-engineered by the Sovereign Chimera Order to seek out fresh living hosts when the main organism died.
The cloud of black parasites swirled upward, carried on the hot heat updrafts, heading straight toward the ceiling where the sacred Solar First-born Hearth hung suspended.
“Pip, don’t let a single spore reach the hearth!” Arthur roared, throwing his arm skyward. “Faster-than-sound heat sweep! Burn the sky!”
