When the three-hundred-meter rotting cyst tore open, it didn’t bleed.
It spawned.
A sound like millions of dry locust wings rubbing together erupted from the burst purple membrane. From the sliced open flesh of the cyst, thousands of black, hard-shelled shapes poured into the low-gravity void of the Crystal Genesis Throne. They were void spore larvae. Each creature the size of an eagle hound, with segmented, centipede-like back shells of void-hardened bone, six barbed grasping limbs. A gaping, circular maw lined with serrated radula teeth dripping with acid.
They rose in an oily, churning cloud, blotting out the turquoise glow of the emerald quartz towers. Their compound eyes, glowing with sickly violet bioluminescence, locked right away onto the five living lifeforms advancing across the quartz raised stone road.
“Defensive swarm!” Arthur shouted, raising his ARC-7 Mag-Carbine. “Cell Alpha, establish the heat ceiling! Pip, clear the skies!”
Above them, Pip answered with an ear-splitting, metal screech that sliced through the cave like a blade of brass.
The little golden raptor didn’t merely take flight. He blew up.
His sleek body, normally no larger than a peregrine falcon, swelled in a flash of blazing bright gold. His wingspan doubled, each feather transforming into an overlapping blade of molten bronze that trailed white-hot solar star-fire. Across his breast, the crimson sigils of his dormant Three-Legged Jinwu lineage ignited with blinding intensity.
