Chapter 91 THE IRON MOTHER
Chapter 91 THE IRON MOTHER
The massive black iron axe cut through the air with a loud, terrifying hiss.
WHOOSH.
The Emperor didn't even have time to scream. He threw his body backward into the white bones, his gold armor scraping wildly against the skeleton pile. The heavy blade missed his nose by an inch, slamming straight into the iron deck of the warship with a deafening BOOM. The metal floor split open, throwing a shower of hot sparks right into his blue eyes.
"What is that thing?" the Emperor shrieked, his voice cracking like a terrified child. He scrambled away on his hands and knees, dropping his white needle into the yellow grease. "The shell was supposed to contain her! The network was supposed to keep her asleep!"
The iron monster didn't answer him. It didn't have eyes or a mouth to speak. The tangled mass of thick, red iron cables that made up her body wriggled and groaned, tightening like angry muscles. The rusted steel sheet that was her face reflected the red light of the giant eye in the ceiling.
But I knew the voice. I knew the heavy, stomping footsteps.
Mother, my mind screamed through the white-hot agony in my chest.
She had broken her glass cage. They had stolen her skin, turned her into a machine for their loom, but they couldn't cut out the mother inside her. Even without a face, she knew her child was being murdered on the deck.
The clone’s silver needle-fingers were still buried deep inside my ribs, twisting around my purple core. The pain was a hot spike that made my vision turn entirely black at the edges. I could feel the World-Eater’s fire draining out of me, flowing straight into the clone’s white suit.
"Sister," the clone whispered, her voice perfectly calm and sweet, completely ignoring the giant iron monster behind her. "Give it up. The loom needs the balance. You are already dead."
"Not yet," I growled.
The pure, boiling hatred in my belly exploded into my veins. I didn't care about the pain. I didn't care that her silver fingers were tearing my meat apart. They had ruined my mother, killed my sister, and now this fake thing wanted to smile while she stole my very breath.
I raised my right arm, the one made of sharp, solid purple bone. I didn't aim for her chest. I locked my skeletal claw around the clone's neck and squeezed with everything I had left.
CRUNCH.
The silver wires inside her throat snapped and hissed, spraying white-hot oil all over my face. The clone’s sweet smile finally vanished, her silver eyes flaring with a sudden, robotic panic as her breath cut off. Her grip inside my chest loosened for a split second.
"Mother! Cut her down!" I roared, my voice breaking into a bloody rasp.
The giant iron thing didn't hesitate. She ripped the black axe out of the floor, the red cables in her arms bulging as she swung the heavy blade in a tight, horizontal line.
CHOP.
The axe caught the clone right across her middle. The white uniform tore open, revealing nothing but thousands of tightly packed silver spools and spinning cogs. The force of the blow threw the clone sideways, ripping her needle-fingers completely out of my chest. She hit the iron railing hard, her body bent at a sickening angle as dark gray grease poured out of her split waist.
I fell flat on my back, gasping for air. The hole in my ribs was smoking, but the purple core stayed inside me, pulsing hard like an angry fist.
"Aria..." a metallic whisper echoed from the rusted steel face.
The iron mother stepped toward me, her heavy legs clicking against the deck. She dropped the axe and reached out with a hand made of twisted red wires. The cables were hot, dripping with yellow grease, but as they brushed against my cheek, they were incredibly gentle.
"Mother," I choked out, tears finally breaking through the black ash on my face. "They... they killed Seraphina. She’s gone."
The red cables around her face tightened, a low, buzzing vibration coming from her chest that sounded like a sob. She turned her faceless steel head toward the pile of bones where my little sister lay still and cold.
"They will all burn," the iron mother roared, her voice shaking the entire bone cavern.
"Yes! Burn them! Kill the king!" a wild, bleeding voice shrieked from the side of the ship.
I looked over. Arthur, the rebel leader, was still pinned to the deck by my purple bone claw, his hand a ruined mess of blood. He was laughing like a madman, his eyes fixed on the Emperor who was backed against the white bone walls. "The rebellion will take the scraps! Smash his head, metal beast!"
But the Emperor wasn't looking at the iron mother anymore. He had crawled to the edge of the deep trench hole, his hands digging into the white ribs. A wild, desperate grin broke through the blood on his forehead.
"You are too late, Aria!" the Emperor shouted, his voice ringing with a crazy, triumphant joy. "The clone already touched the core! The link is open!"
High above us, the massive black iron eye in the ceiling gave a loud, deafening CLICK.
The red clock-light in its pupil didn't just flare, it shot down a massive, solid beam of white-hot lightning. The light didn't hit me, and it didn't hit the ship. It slammed straight into the center of the bone mountain, right where Seraphina was lying.
The ground didn't shake. It went completely silent.
The white bones under my sister's body began to float, lifting into the air like feathers. Seraphina’s small, cold frame rose up into the center of the white beam, her arms spreading wide.
Suddenly, the golden clock-pieces inside her eye sockets didn't just spin, they exploded out of her face, turning into two massive, burning golden gears that were ten feet wide. The gears began to grind against each other, and with a terrifying, mechanical roar, Seraphina’s mouth snapped open.
"The loom is hungry, Aria," my little sister’s voice echoed through the cavern, but it wasn't a child's voice anymore. It was the loud, triple-whisper of a thousand dead queens, and her tiny hand reached down, pointing a long silver needle straight at my mother's head.