Chapter 188 The Fall of the Giant Beast

Chapter 188 The Fall of the Giant Beast

The monster's arrival shattered every pretense of order.

The wealthy guests screamed and scrambled in every direction. Someone knocked over a liquor cart. Others climbed over each other just to reach the exits.

The thing had already hauled itself over the railing. Its claws punched into the hull, tearing long, ragged gashes through the steel plating. It raised its head, and a wave of green mist rolled out from its throat — followed by a pressurized spray of liquid that hit the guardrail and dissolved it on contact, the alloy collapsing like wet cardboard.

Rodriguez stood frozen in the cabin doorway, his face drained of color, his throat working. "You saw that, right? This is way beyond me — I can't control that thing!"

Mia shoved him aside, grabbed David's arm, and pulled him toward the exit. "Don't let these people slow us down. That thing's corrosive — don't let it touch you."

David flipped his cane, letting the base end slide open. A dark-red blade edge appeared at the mouth of the black sheath. He glanced at Mia. "Get to the bridge."

"By yourself?"

"Yeah."

Mia bit down, swallowed whatever else she was going to say, and sprinted for the stairwell. She pulled up her smartwatch display as she ran, keeping her voice low. "I'm taking over the ship's systems. Don't get yourself hurt."

David stepped out onto the deck.

The mutant creature had fully climbed aboard. Seawater clung to the armored scales across its body. The tumor-like nodules along its torso pulsed rhythmically, as if breathing. Its eyes were small — but they locked onto him like a targeting system.

It lunged.

David sidestepped cleanly, slipping through the gap between two equipment housings on the deck.

The creature's acid spray chased him, hitting the deck planks and sending up immediate plumes of white smoke. The decorative wood trim collapsed in whole sections, exposing the metal framework underneath.

David doubled back through the service corridor, cleared the lifeboat davits, caught a cable pulley beam with one foot, and used the momentum to launch himself up to the upper platform. The creature tracked him upward, sinking its claws into the railing as it climbed — bending the entire section like it was tin foil.

David's eyes moved to the fire suppression panel set into the side of the deck. He could hear the high-pressure lines humming inside it. He raised his left hand, and pushed his telekinetic focus directly into the ship's infrastructure.

The fire main beneath the deck buckled and split.

The next instant, a column of white water erupted from the breach. The pressure turned the deck into chaos — salt water and fresh water colliding, spinning into a vortex along the drainage channels. The creature's front claws came down and found nothing solid. It skidded, its full body mass slamming sideways into the deck.

It fought back to its head, and launched another heavy stream of acid.

David was already gone. He came through the starboard equipment bay, sprinting across the wet deck, toe-tapping the edge of the elevator platform to launch himself airborne.

He fixed his gaze on the pulsing cluster of nodules across the creature's chest.

That spot contracted every time before it sprayed.

David adjusted his angle mid-air, drew the blade downward, and drove his telekinetic focus into the steel. The entire length of it shimmered with a low light.

The blade came down. The tip punched through the armored scales, sliced through the nodule cluster, and kept going. The creature's whole body seized — the acid locked in its throat, unable to discharge.

David torqued his wrist. The blade didn't stop. It drove deeper, into the hard core buried beneath — a dense mass pulsing with a faint blue glow.

The creature reared up and crashed back down onto the deck. It tried to move. The tissue around the wound writhed violently, attempting to regenerate — but without the core, each motion came slower than the last.

A few seconds later, the entire body went still.

David pulled the blade free, snapped the viscous fluid off the edge, and let it settle back into the sheath.

Mia's voice came through his earpiece. "Bridge is secure. Is that thing actually dead?"

"It's dead."

"Good. Heads up — our disgusting friend is about to go overboard."

David turned.

Rodriguez had made it to the railing. Both hands gripped the rail, his upper body already leaning out over the water.

"Don't — don't do it!" He looked back over his shoulder, eyes bloodshot. "I can pay you. I'll sign over every account I have. I'm just a businessman!"

David raised one hand.

Rodriguez went rigid, lifted off the deck as though something had looped around his waist, and was dragged back — dropped hard into the standing water.

He tried to push himself up. David planted a foot on his back. "You're the one who hit the button."

"I didn't know it would come up on deck!" Rodriguez's voice was shaking. "It was supposed to be insurance — they told me it would just buy time!"

David crouched, grabbed a fistful of his hair, and pulled his face up. "Who?"

Rodriguez's lips trembled. His eyes darted. "The Soul Sanctum. I only handled their money and shipping — I never had clearance to meet anyone at the top. I swear."

David's grip tightened.

"Okay — okay, I'll talk." Rodriguez's words came out in a rush. "They have a core data center in Europe. Vienna. Underneath the classical opera house — three floors down. Data storage and lab backups in the same facility. Only a Soul Sanctum key can open it."

Mia's voice cut into the comm line with a sharp curse. "Vienna? They set up their cult headquarters inside a Renaissance landmark? Are you serious?"

Rodriguez nodded frantically. "There's something else down there. Top-level classified. About you — about your origins. Douglas was there just a few days ago. He went into the sublevel himself. My people spotted his security detail's insignia."

David's expression went cold. "What was Douglas there to retrieve?"

Rodriguez struggled to catch his breath. "I don't know what it's called in the files. Just what they refer to it as — the 'Bloodline Archive.' Highest protection level. Even intermediaries like me have never been cleared to touch it." He was trembling now. "Please — please don't kill me. I've given you everything I know."

Rotor blades cut through the air above.

A matte-black heavy-lift helicopter pushed through the wind and waves overhead, its searchlight sweeping across the yacht's torn-up deck. A rope ladder dropped from the cabin door. A man in a tactical jacket leaned out and signaled below.

Devereaux's voice came through the external speaker. "Boss — extraction's here. We need to go. This ship's about to get very complicated."

Mia was already coming out of the bridge at a jog. "I pulled the ship's surveillance logs and financial terminals. Rodriguez's off-books accounts are in there too."

David released Rodriguez's hair and turned toward the rope ladder.

Rodriguez lay sprawled on the deck, still catching his breath. He lifted his head, tried once more. "I can still connect you to —"

David didn't turn around. He just raised one hand — and Rodriguez's comm device flew out of his chest pocket and landed in David's palm.

Mia fell into step beside him, dropping her voice. "Vienna Opera House, three floors underground. Feels like someone left the door open on purpose."

"Even if they did, we still have to walk through it." David looked up at the helicopter's searchlight. "Douglas was there. That means whatever's inside is real."

He grabbed the rope ladder and started climbing. Hassan's channel clicked open in his earpiece.

Hassan's voice was as level as ever. "Boss — the jet is ready to depart on your order. Direct routing to Vienna. Two hours from wheels-down to target area."

David pulled himself into the cabin. He looked back once at the yacht below, its lights flickering in the dark water.

Then he gave the order. "Prep the jet."

A beat.

"We're going to the symphony."