The song began as a whisper.
It coiled through Kael's dreams, a melody of chittering mandibles and grinding stone. He saw the Vryxil hive-mother again—her cavernous womb lit by bioluminescent venom, her wings heavy with unhatched larvae. But this time, the vision did not fade with dawn. It clung to him, vibrating in his teeth, humming in the biometal veins that now mapped his body like circuitry. When he woke, the Rustbucket's walls throbbed with the hive's rhythm, and Zara's eyes glowed faintly as she echoed the tune through clicks and tremors.
*"Bright-meat… hears,"* she hissed, perched on a rusted beam above his cot. *"The song… binds. The song… consumes."*
Kael pressed his palms to his temples. The Hive-Mother's venom had slowed the Eclipse Core's corruption, but the price was clear: her song was a living thing in his skull, a chorus of a thousand Vryxil voices that never slept. He stumbled to the viewport, where the asteroid field glimmered with the aftermath of battle. Scavenger ships picked through the Hollowed fleet's carcasses, their thrusters flickering like fireflies.
Golem-01 stood at the workshop's heart, its stone hands deftly welding a salvaged plasma cannon to its arm. The hacker's neural chip—*Lira's* chip—pulsed green in its chest, casting jagged shadows.
"Since when do you tinker with artillery?" Kael asked, voice hoarse.
The golem turned, its voice layered—Nyxis' ice and Lira's rasp. *"Strategic upgrade. The Hollowed Legion will return. Query: Why does the host not rest?"*
"The song," Kael muttered. "It's… loud."
*"The Hive-Mother's venom is neuro-conductive,"* Nyxis interjected, her hologram flickering above the Sovereign's core. *"Hypothesis: The song functions as a collective consciousness. Warning: Prolonged exposure risks synaptic collapse."*
Zara dropped from the ceiling, her wings brushing Kael's corrupted arm. *"Bright-meat… weak. Hive-kin… endure. Listen… deeper."*
He did.
The song split into threads. Beneath the Vryxil chorus, he heard *her*—the Hive-Mother. Her voice was tectonic, ancient, laced with venom and sorrow.
*Find the second Core,* she hissed. *Before the Abyss claims you both.*
---
The Sovereign's archives were a graveyard of dead kings.
Kael sat cross-legged in the ship's shadow, nanites swirling around him as he combed through Nyxis' fragmented databanks. The Eclipse King's logs flickered—corrupted files showing half-formed blueprints, battle schematics, and a throneworld labeled **Xerxis Prime**. But one entry burned clearer than the rest:
**Project: Dual Core Initiative**
*Status: Failed*
*Notes: The second Core cannot be stabilized. Its resonance destabilizes biometal at a molecular level. The Abyss… it speaks through it. Terminate all research.*
"Xerxis Prime," Kael muttered. "Where the hells is that?"
*"Data incomplete,"* Nyxis said. *"Last recorded coordinates: Dead Zone, sector Gamma-9."*
"The Dead Zone? That's a graveyard."
*"Correction: A graveyard of* empires. *Hypothesis: The Eclipse King annihilated Xerxis Prime to bury his failures."*
Zara scuttled across the ceiling, her talons gouging steel. *"Second Core… sings. Calls… to the Abyss. Hive-Mother… fears it."*
Golem-01 stomped closer, the plasma cannon whirring as it powered up. *"Proposal: Locate Xerxis Prime. Destroy the Core."*
"Destroy it?" Kael laughed bitterly. "We don't even know what it *does*."
*"Lira's memories suggest otherwise,"* the golem said. For a moment, the hacker's voice overtook Nyxis'. *"She was there. She saw the labs."*
Kael froze. "Show me."
The golem's neural chip flared. A hologram erupted—a younger Lira, her face unmarred by the Hollowed Lords' brand, hacking into a security feed. The screen showed a lab identical to the King's, but older, buried beneath Xerxis Prime's ruins. At its heart floated a second Eclipse Core, its light blackened, its surface crawling with tendrils of smoke.
*"This is it,"* Lira whispered in the recording. *"The King's backup plan. But it's not a Core—it's a* cage. *They're trying to trap—"*
The feed dissolved into static.
*"Additional data: Corrupted,"* Nyxis said.
Kael's Eclipse Core pulsed in sync with the hologram's dark twin. "We need to find that planet."
*"Agreed,"* the golem said. *"But the Dead Zone is uncharted. Navigation requires a Vryxil hive-mind."*
Zara hissed. *"Hive-Mother… guides. But price… greater."*
The song swelled, the Hive-Mother's voice cutting through the static. *Bring me the second Core,* she demanded. *And I will silence the song.*
Kael's veins burned. "Or what?"
The vision struck like a blade.
He stood on Xerxis Prime, the second Core in his hands. The Abyss poured from it—a shapeless, hungry dark that devoured the stars. The Hive-Mother's laughter echoed. *You are a bridge, Kael Veyron. A* door. *And all doors open* both ways.
---
The attack came at twilight.
The Hollowed Lords did not send ships. They sent a **Hollowstorm**—a cyclone of nanites and Crimson Crystal shards that devoured asteroids, ships, and light itself. It surged toward the Rustbucket, howling with the Abyss' voice.
*"Eclipse Core energy signature detected,"* Nyxis warned. *"The storm is targeting you."*
"Golem! Get the thrusters online!" Kael shouted, sprinting to the Sovereign. The ship's nanites swarmed, encasing him in a battle-worn exoskeleton. "Zara—scout the storm's eye!"
The Skyshrieker shot into the void, her wings slicing through debris. *"Eye… shielded. A Core… powers it."*
"Of course it does," Kael growled. "Nyxis—Morph Engine. Give me wings."
*"Prohibited. Core stability—"*
"Override!"
Nanites tore through the exoskeleton, forging jagged wings from biometal and stolen hull plating. Kael rocketed into the storm, the Abyss' whispers gnawing at his mind.
*You are mine,* it crooned. *You have always been mine.*
Golem-01's plasma cannon roared below, punching holes in the storm's flank. Zara darted ahead, her venom melting a path.
*"The eye!"* she shrieked.
At the storm's heart floated a Hollowed Lord, its body fused with a shard of Crimson Crystal. The second Core pulsed in its chest, blackened and twisted.
*"Thief,"* the Lord hissed. *"The Abyss hungers for your—"*
Kael slammed into it, biometal claws shredding Crystal. The Lord screamed, nanites boiling away as the Core's dark light flared.
*"Host! Disengage!"* Nyxis warned.
Too late.
The second Core's resonance struck like a hammer. Kael's Eclipse Core shuddered, the Hive-Mother's song fracturing into screams. Visions erupted—Xerxis Prime's ruins, the labs buried beneath molten rock, the second Core chained in a vault of Hollowed Clay. And beneath it all, the Abyss, waiting.
*Join me,* it whispered. *Together, we will unmake the song.*
Kael tore free, the second Core shattering in his grip. The storm collapsed, nanites scattering like ash.
---
Zara dragged him back to the Rustbucket, her venom sealing wounds that wept biometal and blood. Golem-01 stood guard, its plasma cannon scorched and smoking.
*"The Abyss… touched you,"* Zara hissed.
"It offered a deal," Kael rasped.
*"Alliance… folly. The Hive-Mother… lies. The Abyss… lies."*
"Then what's left?"
The golem knelt, Lira's voice soft. *"The truth. Xerxis Prime. The second Core. We end this."*
Nyxis' hologram flickered. *"Coordinates recovered from the storm's wreckage. Xerxis Prime lies in the Dead Zone's heart."*
Kael stared at the stars, the song still humming in his veins. "Plot the course."
*"Warning: The Dead Zone is a navigational nightmare,"* Nyxis said. *"Proposal: Require Vryxil hive-mind to traverse."*
Zara's wings trembled. *"Hive-Mother… demands audience."*
The Rustbucket's comms crackled. A Vryxil shuttle emerged, the elder's scarred visage filling the screen.
*"The song… grows urgent,"* she said. *"Xerxis Prime awaits. The Hive-Mother will guide you… for a price."*
Kael's Eclipse Core pulsed. "What price?"
*"The second Core,"* the elder said. *"And the Abyss… within it."*