Chapter Six:
Veinborn
They stepped out of the tunnel and into silence.
Before them,
the world opened wide,
vast.
The cavern stretched outward like a sunken valley,
its ceiling rose high above uneven stone.
Columns of rock leaned like ancient ribs,
holding the hollow air.
The ground beneath their feet was dry,
cracked, uneven,
scattered with old stones.
The remains of something long fallen.
No grass.
No moss.
Just dust and fractured earth.
Ahead, the terrain shifted.
From desolation to life.
The forest began like a wall of green,
trees rising thick and tall,
their trunks wrapped in moss,
their canopies lost in a slow-drifting mist.
Faint light filtered through spores in the air,
soft and pale,
casting everything in shades of blue-green and gold.
Between the trees, thin streams ran like veins.
The air grew colder,
damp.
Breathing.
Hanna stood with her mouth open,
looking in every direction.
"Is this… a forest?
Underground?
I've never read about anything like this."
Jane took a few steps forward,
then knelt,
scooping a handful of soil into her palm.
She squeezed it,
let it crumble back to the ground.
"Never seen anything like it.
We need to be careful.
No idea what might live here."
Hanna nodded.
"Let's try to find a place to rest.
With clean water.
Our canteens spilled
when we fell into that hole."
They kept walking,
leaving the rocky path behind,
stepping into the living part of the cavern.
Jane glanced toward the moss
spread across the ground and trees.
"Han…
Are these miner mosses too?"
Hanna stepped ahead,
raised her left hand,
a small flicker of fire blooming at her fingertips.
She brought it near the ground.
"Doesn't look like it.
Seems like regular moss.
No reaction to heat.
And even though
miner moss is called Forest Devourer,
I think it's more because they start fires
after chewing rocks near forests.
But don't worry.
We're safe.
No more stone golems bursting from walls
or floorboards."
Jane gave a faint smile.
"At least one piece of good news.
Come on.
Let's try to find water."
Hanna followed Jane,
stepping deeper into the forest.
After walking for a few minutes,
they found a small stream.
Jane sat down near a tree,
letting her body relax,
watching Hanna a few meters ahead,
near the flowing water.
Hanna knelt by the stream.
With her right hand,
she shaped a small ice dam,
just enough to help fill her canteen.
"Jane,
I think it's drinkable,
but just to be sure."
She grabbed the metal canteen
with her right hand,
now full of water.
Then, lifting her left hand just beneath it,
she sparked a flame.
The base of the canteen started to glow red.
After a few minutes,
she counted slowly to five.
Then her right hand,
still holding the canteen,
began to spread ice over the metal.
The hiss of colliding temperatures
lingered a moment.
Then she popped the lid.
"All done.
Hanna Filter 2.0 to the rescue."
Jane let out a soft laugh,
watching from the tree.
"I always think that's so...
badass.
I'll never get used to it.
Han,
can you grab some for me too?"
She pulled a canteen from her bag,
held it out toward Hanna,
who was already walking over.
"Of course.
The Hanna Filter 2.0
is here to save you."
They both giggled,
as Hanna turned back toward the stream
to fill the second canteen.
The sound of flowing water filled the silence.
She leaned forward,
holding it low,
the water trembled—
once,
twice,
three times.
The water suddenly stopped flowing.
And now it wasn't just the stream that trembled—
the ground did too.
When Hanna looked toward Jane,
she was already on her feet,
gripping her shield and sword,
moving quickly toward her,
eyes locked on something above,
just behind Hanna.
Hanna turned,
feeling the vibration again—
deeper this time.
The trees began to shift.
Leaves twisted, trunks groaned.
Then, above the canopy line—
A massive figure passed through the trees,
not breaking them,
but bending them softly aside.
Like a curtain drawn by wind.
It moved slowly,
each step sinking slightly into the forest floor.
Its body was a fusion of stone and vine,
tree trunks braided into limbs,
bark tangled with rock.
The moss on its back swayed with each motion,
as if it had grown over decades,
unbothered by the shape it covered.
Sharp violet crystals protruded from its shoulders,
growing out like thorns,
dull at first—
then pulsing gently from within.
Its face was almost mask-like,
a ridged plate of wood and mineral,
with two wide, empty sockets.
At the center of each—
a single orb of pale light,
steady,
watching,
It turned its head.
Toward the right.
Toward them.
And in that moment,
the lights in its eyes
shifted to blue.
The moss shivered.
Its gait changed.
It began walking toward them.
The stream behind Hanna gurgled—
its flow returning in a quiet rush.
Without thinking,
she turned
and launched a blast of ice along the water.
The current froze in an instant,
a spreading sheet of frost racing downstream,
until it reached the creature's leg.
Its right foot locked in place.
Ice climbed to the knee.
The creature faltered.
Its weight shifted.
Then—
it dropped one knee to the ground,
stone grinding as it caught itself on its left side.
Hanna spun back,
grabbed Jane by the arm.
They ran.
Branches scraped.
Roots shifted.
Then—
a tree trunk slammed down between them.
Not fallen.
Thrown.
The impact tossed them apart,
each flung to a different side of the path.
Hanna hit first.
Her back struck bark.
Her head cracked against the base of a tree.
She went still.
Jane rolled,
landed hard on her left arm.
Cuts. Scrapes. But nothing broken.
She pushed up fast—
eyes locked on the thing moving toward Hanna.
"Hanna!"
No thought.
Just motion.
She grabbed her shield,
spun,
and hurled it.
The rim struck one of the violet crystals embedded in the creature's back.
It grunted.
Turned.
The crystal dimmed.
Where once it pulsed faintly—
now only ash gray.
The creature moved with purpose now.
No more weaving between trees.
It plowed straight through them,
dragging limbs,
ripping bark,
crushing trunks underfoot.
What had been a wall of forest
was now a field of splinters,
moss,
and broken stone.
Jane stood alone in the path.
Her shield lay on the ground.
Behind the creature,
Hanna—
unmoving.
"I need to get to her."
Jane ran.
She dove for her shield,
snatched it with a sliding step,
then pushed off a fallen tree—
launching herself upward,
toward the creature's arm.
Her boots struck stone.
She ran across it.
The sword scraped against the moss-covered limb,
cutting through root, vine, bark.
The trail behind her split open,
fibers torn, rock bleeding dust,
metal shrieking as it met stone.
The creature didn't react at first.
But as Jane neared its shoulder,
its neck shifted.
A hidden crystal,
tucked behind its head,
began to swing toward her.
She jumped,
vaulting over its shoulder,
midair now,
rotating her body,
shield raised,
sword braced along its top edge,
angled beneath her chin.
The crystal struck.
Steel screamed.
Stone cracked.
The blow caught her mid-flight.
She spun,
crashed near Hanna,
tumbled hard,
shield first.
Cracks spidered through the metal.
Jane exhaled sharply,
pressed her hand to her right side,
then started crawling,
pulling herself toward Hanna.
Jane stumbled toward Hanna,
her body aching,
legs barely steady.
Hanna lay still near the base of a tree,
half-slumped against the roots,
her face pale, brow scraped.
Jane dropped to her knees beside her,
pressed two fingers to her neck.
She scooped her into her arms,
gritting her teeth as her ribs throbbed.
"Han… come on.
Please wake up."
She started walking,
each step heavy, uneven.
Branches clawed at her legs.
Somewhere behind them,
the creature moved—
but not toward them.
Jane spotted a dip in the terrain—
a narrow hollow under a low stone ledge.
She crouched there,
set Hanna down gently,
propping her up with her back against the dirt wall.
Her fingers fumbled for the canteen at Hanna's side.
She opened it,
splashed cool water across her forehead.
"Wake up, Hanna.
Come on. Just open your eyes."
A few seconds passed.
Then—
a stir.
A breath.
Hanna blinked,
her gaze unfocused.
"Jane…?"
Her voice was hoarse.
"Wha… what happened?
I remember the VeinBorn showing up…
we ran…
then… everything went black."
Jane let out a breath she'd been holding.
Her lips curled into a shaky smile.
She sat down beside her, leaning on one arm.
"That thing threw a tree at us.
A full tree.
You slammed into a tree.
Didn't move for a while.
Scared the hell out of me."
She paused.
"VeinBorn.
You said that name.
You know what that monster is?"
Hanna shifted,
eyes still hazy,
but voice gaining strength.
"I saw it somewhere.
Places that stay sealed off,
or untouched by Explorers for a long time,
sometimes they build up too much raw tekke.
If the stone's saturated enough…
and the environment's right,
a VeinBorn can form.
They're not made.
They grow.
Stone fusing with raw tekke and whatever's nearby."
She leaned her head back against the dirt.
"The common ones are sand-fused.
Desert types.
Or magma-based,
near volcanic zones.
But this?
I've never heard of one made from vine and forest."
Hanna exhaled slowly,
still catching her breath.
"What I do know—
they all share the same weakness.
You have to interrupt the tekke flow inside them.
Cut it off.
But that's never easy.
Especially with a kind I've never even seen befo—"
"Those purple crystals," Jane cut in. "It has to be them."
She leaned forward, still gripping her ribs.
"When I hit one with my shield,
it turned toward me immediately.
The light inside the crystal went dark.
But when I practically tore half its arm apart,
it didn't even flinch."
Jane glanced at the blood near Hanna's temple.
Then pressed her hand to her side again.
"Even if we know its weak point…
we don't have to do this.
We can go back.
Let another team handle it.
There'll always be more missions.
More tekke out there."
Hanna reached over.
Flicked Jane lightly on the forehead.
"It's not about tekke.
It's about no one else getting hurt.
What if the next team doesn't know what we do?
What if they don't have our experience,
especially in forests?"
She sat up straighter.
"I don't even want to think about it.
We can do this.
We just have to break those purple spikes.
Each one.
We've got the knowledge.
No one else should walk into this blind."
She smirked.
"Maybe we'll even find some tekke in that thing's core."
Jane looked at her,
half proud,
half worried.
"Alright. I'm in.
No one handles forests better than us."
She stood,
gripping her sword.
Let's go trim that overgrown weed."
The ground trembled again.
The VeinBorn was coming.
Hanna raised her palm toward Jane.
"Distract it.
I'll take care of the crystals."
Jane pressed her hand to Hanna's.
Gave a nod and a grin.
Then turned and ran.
"Hey! Rockface!"
She waved her sword, darting sideways between shattered trunks.
The creature twisted,
and followed.
Its arm swung wide,
ripping a tree from the ground and hurling it like a club.
Jane ducked, rolled, came up running.
A vine lashed out near her feet,
but she leapt, boots skimming the forest floor.
Behind it, Hanna moved.
Fast. Focused.
She slid her hands through the air.
A jagged ice spear formed,
narrow, sharp.
She hurled it at the VeinBorn's right shoulder.
It struck the crystal embedded there,
and cracked it.
The creature groaned, staggered.
Its head whipped around,
searching for her.
Jane saw the moment.
Sprinted between its legs.
Another tree flew past—
missed by inches.
Hanna raised both hands.
An ice wall burst up from the ground,
blocking the creature's view,
buying seconds.
She rushed wide,
angled behind it.
Jane kicked off a fallen stump.
A ramp of ice bloomed under her feet mid-leap,
boosting her upward.
She slammed her sword into the crystal lodged in the left forearm.
It shattered on impact.
Two down.
The creature roared.
Vines slammed into the earth,
roots cracking stone.
Hanna formed flat ice disks and flung them,
spinning fast.
They sliced through smaller vines,
cutting its footing.
Then she stomped the ground.
Frozen spikes erupted beneath it.
The VeinBorn buckled.
Jane ducked under another swing,
rolled again,
panting now.
Hanna spotted the crystal near the lower back,
the one behind the right shoulder.
She ran,
used the ice ramp again to gain height.
Midair, she formed a short blade of frost,
sharpened for speed,
and drove it straight into the crystal.
Three.
The creature lurched.
Its steps grew heavy.
It turned wildly,
eyes glowing harder, faster.
Hanna slid under a twisting root,
caught her balance,
and froze a patch of streamwater near its left foot.
The leg stiffened, slipped.
It caught itself on one arm.
Jane didn't hesitate.
She climbed its arm again,
jumped high,
this time landing near its back.
The crystal on the left rear shoulder,
she drove her sword deep.
It cracked,
then burst.
Only one left.
The VeinBorn howled,
its chest rising and falling like something alive.
Its movements grew desperate.
Stronger, but slower.
Hanna looked up.
The final crystal,
center of the neck.
Just beneath the back of the head.
She skated forward,
formed a new ice spear as she moved,
but stopped.
Jane was too close.
The angle was wrong.
"Jane! The neck!"
Jane heard her.
Nodded.
She backed up,
gritted her teeth,
then sprinted,
one last charge.
Hanna saw it coming.
She stomped,
formed a quick ramp,
and Jane launched off it like a missile.
She rose,
twisted midair,
and slammed the edge of her shield into the final crystal.
The strike connected—
but didn't break it.
A fracture appeared, faint.
Not enough.
Before she could react,
the creature's head snapped toward her.
The crystal near the base of its neck surged with light.
Then it struck.
A tendril of hardened vine whipped out,
and caught her mid-air.
Her body twisted in the hit.
She crashed against a root,
then hit the ground hard, her shield falling beside her.
Dust kicked up.
Her breath caught.
Her legs were pinned beneath fallen moss and vine.
The creature loomed over Jane,
raising one massive foot.
A shadow fell across her body,
poised to crush her.
Then—
a sharp sound pierced the air,
followed by a spiral of light flaring from behind the VeinBorn.
"Hanna! No!"
Hanna had seen it moving toward Jane.
She raised both hands.
Blue in her right palm.
Red in her left.
She fired a spiral beam—
a twisting thread of fire and frost,
the two elements coiling as one.
It struck the crystal at the back of the creature's neck.
Didn't shatter it.
But locked it in place.
The VeinBorn froze,
its limbs trembling under the force.
The crystal began to crack.
Slowly.
But not alone.
Hanna's fingers were icing over,
frost creeping from her fingertips to her forearms.
Her neck glowed red,
a burning ring etched into her skin,
like fire sealed beneath flesh.
The crystal kept fracturing.
A line of blood ran from Hanna's nose.
She didn't waver.
From the other side,
Jane pulled against the vines that held her.
"Hanna, no—
please."
Tears hit the ground.
Still, Hanna held her stance.
The spiral beam surged,
and the VeinBorn remained locked in place,
unable to move, unable to breathe.
Then,
finally—
Jane pulled one last time.
The vines snapped.
She fell forward, gasping,
then scrambled to her feet.
A sound like shattering glass.
The final crystal exploded.
The VeinBorn collapsed forward,
stone smashing into earth.
The ground quaked.
Smoke drifted through the trees.
And through it—
Hanna appeared.
Standing,
arms still raised,
ice climbing to her elbows,
her tunic stained with blood,
a deep burn glowing around her neck.
The beam had vanished.
Only silence remained.
She looked at Jane,
and smiled.
Then her body gave out.
Jane was already running.
She caught her just before she hit the ground.
"Han,
Han,
Please…
it's going to be okay—"
Hanna's eyes fluttered open.
Her left hand rose,
slowly.
She pressed it to Jane's chest.
And mouthed the words.
"Du... (From)
lar'... (my)
eth... (hearth)
ta... (you)
es'... (are)
ek. … (blood)
veshan 'eth." (and trust)
Her eyes closed,
a soft smile still on her lips.