Chapter 133: Dual Drumbeats - Xiao Qi
The Moon-Eater stops three hundred meters away.
Not because of me. Because of the light coming from Leah's belly.
That silver light pours out from her abdomen, blindingly bright. It's not ordinary Primogenitor bloodline, but something more concentrated, more ancient—a protective mechanism. The twins in her womb pump energy with their not-yet-formed hearts, building a barrier.
The Moon-Eater's tentacle hangs in mid-air, about five meters from Leah. It stops moving. Its black vortex body keeps spinning, but the attack halts.
"What's it looking at?" I ask quietly, UV pistol aimed at the tentacle, but not daring to shoot.
"The future," Leah says, her voice rough. Her hand covers her belly, knuckles white. "The Moon-Eater eats excess light. But the fetus's light... is unformed. Seeds. It might not... know how to digest seeds."
She's right.
The Moon-Eater backs off. The tentacle slowly pulls back, like a snake that tested its prey and found it poisonous.
But it doesn't leave. It hovers there, waiting. Waiting for what? For the seeds to grow into trees? For Leah to give birth before it comes to feed?
"We can't stay here," I say. "Even if it won't eat seeds, it can eat you. Once that silver light runs out, you're a sitting duck."
I pull Leah along, backing away, hiding behind a pile of collapsed stone pillars.
The ruins are complicated terrain, the Spiral Spire's wreckage forming a natural maze. We squeeze under a fallen beam, the space tight, just enough for two people lying on their sides.
"What about Kael?" Leah asks. Her belly is still glowing, but the light is dimming. The twins are getting tired.
"The Exile Door activated," I say. "I saw the beam of light in the void. He's coming. But—"
I pause.
"But what?"
"But there was something else in that beam," I say. "Not the Moon-Eater, not the fragment. Something... older. It was hiding in the void, waiting for the door to open. Kael might not have noticed."
Leah's face changes. Her hand grips her belly tighter.
"White Box's master?"
"Maybe," I say. "White Box isn't something Dr. Chen could have built. There's older power behind it. Maybe... a void creature older than the Moon-Eater."
The ground shakes.
Not the Moon-Eater. Something closer, heavier—
Footsteps.
Coming from the east side of the ruins. Rock being crushed, metal scraping.
I peek out to look.
Then freeze.
It's the fragment monster.
It came through from Side B. Through the Exile Door's beam, or through some other crack. Its body is bigger than before, the chest bone plate healed, the black core protected by a silver membrane. All three faces rotate on its neck, each searching for different targets.
Behind it are Sweepers. At least twenty, in white hazmat suits, carrying UV cannons and live-round weapons.
"Pincer attack," I pull my head back. "Moon-Eater to the west, fragment to the east. We're trapped."
"No," Leah says. Her eyes are glowing, some kind of calculation racing through her silver-gray pupils. "They're not allies. The Moon-Eater wants to eat me. The fragment wants to eat me too. But when two predators meet the same prey—"
"They'll fight over the food," I finish.
"Exactly," Leah says. "Let them fight each other."
She stands up.
"Are you insane?!" I grab her. "They'll rip you apart before they fight each other!"
"No," she shakes her head. "If they're fighting over what's in my belly, they won't rip me apart. They'll take me alive. And if I'm alive—"
She turns to me, the corner of her mouth curving into a cold smile.
"—there's still a chance."
She walks out from behind the stone pillar.
No hiding. No running. She spreads her wings—the torn left wing still dripping blood—completely exposed in the center of the ruins.
"Come on!" she shouts.
Her voice echoes through the ruins. Not a cry for help—a challenge.
The Moon-Eater moves. Its tentacle reaches out again, rolling toward her from the west.
The fragment monster moves too. All three faces roar at once, charging from the east.
They crash into each other in mid-air.
The Moon-Eater's tentacle whips the fragment monster's front face. The fragment monster blocks with its claws, while Christina's face opens its mouth, spraying a silver beam that hits the Moon-Eater's tentacle.
The two monsters fight above the ruins.
Black vortex and dark red flesh tearing at each other. The Moon-Eater swallows the fragment monster's left arm, the fragment monster's bone spike stabs into the Moon-Eater's core.
The Sweepers get caught in the crossfire. UV cannon beams fire wildly between the two monsters, but do nothing. One Sweeper gets hit by the Moon-Eater's shockwave, his body instantly breaking down into atoms.
"Run!" I pull Leah along, using the chaos to dash deeper into the ruins.
We run toward the Spiral Spire's core—the deepest underground chamber at the tower's base. Ophelia mentioned before that there's one last artifact left by the First Mother. Not a weapon—but a
Cradle.
A cradle that can protect the fetus until birth. But it needs a power source.
We reach the chamber entrance. The stone door is half-collapsed, pitch black inside.
Leah goes in first. I follow, firing my UV pistol at the rock wall above the entrance. Debris falls, blocking half the doorway, buying us time.
The chamber is empty.
Just a stone platform. On the platform is carved an indentation, shaped like—
Wings.
"It needs your blood," I say. "Primogenitor bloodline."
Leah doesn't hesitate. She bites her wrist, letting blood drip into the indentation.
The indentation lights up. Silver light flows from the stone platform, forming in the air into a small, translucent—
Cocoon.
Just big enough to hold a curled-up fetus. Or two.
"Get in," I say.
Leah climbs into the cocoon. The silver membrane wraps around her body, leaving only her head exposed.
"What about you?" she asks.
"I'll guard the door," I say. "The cradle needs time to activate. At least ten minutes."
"Ten minutes is too long."
"Then pray," I say.
Something hits the stone door. Not the Sweepers—the fragment monster. It broke free from the Moon-Eater and came after us. All three faces press against the cracks in the stone door, six eyes staring at Leah in the cocoon.
"Mine..." the front Kael-face says.
"Mother..." the left Christina-face says.
"Food..." the right black face says.
It slams into the door.
The stone door cracks. Debris flies.
I raise my UV pistol. Last bullet.
"Come on," I say. "Let's see if you're faster or my bullet is."
The fragment monster crashes through the door.
Its claw swipes at me. I pull the trigger.
The UV round hits its core—the silver membrane on its chest. The membrane shatters, exposing the black core underneath.
But the round doesn't pierce the core. It gets stuck on the surface.
The fragment monster looks down at me. The front face smiles.
"Xiao Qi," it says, in Dr. Chen's voice, "thank you... for helping us open the door."
Its claw stabs through my shoulder.
Not to kill—to lift. It picks me up like a rag doll and throws me at the stone wall.
I hit it. The sound of my spine breaking. I slide down, crumpled on the ground.
Can't move.
The fragment monster walks toward the cradle. Its claw reaches for the cocoon, for Leah inside, for—
The twins.
Leah closes her eyes. Her hand covers her belly, lips moving. Not praying, but reciting some kind of spell. Left by the First Mother, carved on the inside of the cradle—the
Guardian spell.
The cocoon's light grows brighter.
The moment the fragment monster's claw touches the cocoon, it gets thrown back. Silver lightning jumps across its claw, burning the flesh black.
It screams. Backs away.
But it's waiting. The cradle's energy is limited. Once it runs out, the cocoon will thin.
Ten minutes. Maybe less.
I lie on the ground, staring at the ceiling. Spine broken, can't feel my lower body. The UV pistol is lying nearby, but I can't reach it.
This is it, I think.
But then—
The Bloodbond's pulse explodes from the void.
Not Leah's. Kael's.
He comes through the beam of light. On Side A. Somewhere in the ruins. His presence is so weak it barely exists, but his emotion—
Rage.
Pure, three-thousand-year-old, never fully released—
Rage.
The fragment monster feels it. All three faces turn toward the stone door at once.
"Waning Moon..." the front face whispers.
"He's here..." the left face smiles.
The stone door explodes.
Not rammed—blown apart from outside by some force. Debris shoots into the chamber like bullets.
A figure walks in through the dust.
Kael.
His body is torn up. The right lung wound still bleeding, the bullet hole in his back bubbling with blood, only one wing left and it's broken. In his hand he holds a blade—the Kin-Slaying Blade, pulled from the void.
His eyes are no longer ice-blue.
They're black. Pure black. No whites, no pupils, just—
Abyss.
"Let go," he says.
The voice isn't his. It's millions of voices layered together, including the Perfect Him, including Adrian, including all the de Noct family Gatekeepers.
The fragment monster releases me. It backs up one step. For the first time, all three faces show—
Fear.
Kael raises the Kin-Slaying Blade.
Runes on the blade light up. Dark red light floods the chamber.
"The Exile Door's beam," he says, "didn't just send me through. It also poured all of Side B's Gatekeeper energy into this blade."
He steps forward. The fragment monster backs up two steps.
"I'm no longer a Prince," Kael says. "I'm not Waning Moon. I am—"
He raises the blade, pointing at the fragment monster's front face.
"—The Gatekeeper's Wrath."
The blade comes down.
Not a slash—a stab. Through the front face's forehead, piercing the skull, stabbing into the black core.
The fragment monster lets out a long scream. All three faces twist at once, mouths opening impossibly wide, spraying black liquid.
Kael doesn't stop. He twists the hilt. The blade churns inside the core, grinding, tearing.
The black core shatters.
The fragment monster's body starts to expand. Like a balloon being overinflated. Skin splits open, exposing black threads underneath. The threads try to stitch the wounds, but they can't keep up with the destruction.
"Go!" Kael turns around, looks at me, at Leah in the cocoon, "The door only stays open three minutes! In three minutes it closes! We have to get back!"
He rushes to the cradle, lifting the cocoon—Leah and all. The silver membrane wraps around them, like a giant egg.
He looks at me.
"Xiao Qi!" he shouts. "Can you crawl?"
I try to move. Fingers still work. But my legs—nothing.
"Can't crawl," I say.
He hesitates for half a second.
Then he moves. He sets the cocoon down, rushes over to me, hoists me onto his shoulder with one hand. His shoulder digs into my stomach, the broken spine grinding, pain so intense my vision goes black.
"Bear with it," he says.
He carries me on one shoulder, holds the cocoon in his other hand, runs toward the back of the chamber—
There's a crack there. Leftover light from the Exile Door. The dark red glow is still there, but fading.
The fragment monster explodes behind us.
Not a normal explosion—it's the energy release from the core collapsing. The shockwave pushes us forward, throwing us into the crack.
The void swallows us again.
But this time, I'm not alone.
Kael is here. Leah is here. The twins are here.
And in the fragment monster's wreckage, something writhes. A strand of black thread, like a parasite, burrowing into cracks in the ground, following the rock veins, crawling toward—
Side B.
It's not completely dead.
It's looking for a new host.