Riven stood over the fallen beast, his chest rising and falling with controlled breath. Steam hissed off the shattered corpse, where twisted limbs and violet veins faded into stillness. The swamp around him had quieted. No more buzzing. No more skittering limbs. Just rain dripping through the leaves and the subtle hum of distant hive resonance.
With a dim glow, the Omnitrix's faceplate flickered green before fading. A familiar flash engulfed his crystalline frame—and just like that, Diamondhead vanished.
Riven stood in his place again, human, soaked and smeared in swamp muck. As the transformation reversed, his usual clothes returned, tattered and wet. And in tandem, Nullshift reappeared, sheathed across his back, and his adaptive relic armor shimmered softly over his limbs, adjusting once more to the swamp's environment.
He glanced down at his arm. The Omnitrix had returned to its idle state, faintly glowing under silent mode.
"Still takes getting used to," he muttered, flexing his fingers.
His gaze turned forward.
The beast he'd slain wasn't the dungeon boss. That much was clear. Whatever it was—mutated gatekeeper, corrupted alpha—had only been the beginning.
Riven pushed forward.
Each step through the swamp grew heavier. The terrain changed—twisted vines reached like claws from the underbrush, and pale, oversized insects slithered from the trees only to retreat into the shadows. The mana in the air grew denser, almost electric. It clung to his skin like vapor.
His adaptive relic glowed faintly with runes, reacting to the shift in density. The armor's texture rippled to better regulate his body temperature. It moved with him—light, silent, and always just the right fit.
"Still smells like rot, though," he muttered.
Eventually, the trees opened into a basin.
And there it was.
The Hive.
A living structure loomed before him—part insect nest, part fungal bloom. Dozens of spires twisted out from its core, and tangled tunnels ran like arteries through the swamp's floor into its body. Glowing sacks pulsed with mana across the surface, and thick, dark resin webbed the entrances.
The sight alone made his stomach coil.
"That thing is alive," Riven muttered. He crouched near a tree root, observing. Nullshift rested across his back, unmoving.
Insectoids flitted in and out of the hive. Some flew. Some crawled. All moved with unspoken coordination.
He couldn't storm this. Not yet.
Riven kept low, slipping between mossy roots and into the shallows. The water stung faintly from whatever toxins swirled in it, but his relic armor shielded most of it. He tracked the edge of the hive's structure, eventually finding a smaller access tunnel half-submerged beneath overgrowth.
A good infiltration point.
His fingers tightened around Nullshift's hilt, but he didn't draw it.
He studied the entrance. The tunnel was small, likely used by scouts or hatchlings.
But he couldn't take unnecessary risks—not now. He still didn't know what lay within, and he couldn't waste another transformation.
The Omnitrix had three alien cores unlocked—Heatblast, Diamondhead, and Artiguana. And Riven knew from experience: each one cost energy.
He couldn't afford to burn it recklessly.
So he stayed human.
Riven crawled into the tunnel.
Inside, the walls pulsed with faint light. The organic lining of the hive felt warm and slick under his hands, almost like breathing muscle. Mana sacs embedded into the structure glowed a dull blue, humming with low resonance. His relic armor dimmed to match the shadows, blending with the texture of the walls.
Drones like creatures moved through the upper tunnel paths above—he could hear the scuttling. He kept low, stepping silently, avoiding the dripping fluid that pooled in odd corners.
He passed a chamber filled with incubation sacks. Dozens of them. Squirming larvae pulsed inside, and a handful of drones guarded them with twitching mandibles.
He moved past them, unnoticed.
Every second deeper into the hive set his nerves on edge.
There was structure to the chaos. He could feel it. The hive wasn't just a wild dungeon. This was engineered. Controlled.
As he reached another tunnel bend, the texture of the walls shifted. Ancient markings—etched with lines that shimmered faintly—appeared. Symbols not unlike those he'd seen in relic archives. Similar to ones on the Omnitrix.
His breath caught.
He didn't know the language—but the feeling they gave off was unmistakable.
And that's when he felt it.
A pulse.
A wave of pressure from deeper inside.
Something was awake.
Riven pressed himself to the wall, breath shallow. A presence moved beyond the next chamber. He peeked just barely past the corner.
A blackened gate.
Sealed with resin and pulsing runes, the structure looked far more advanced than the rest of the hive. Guarded, secure, not organic, but something older. Etched with alien lines that glowed faintly with violet energy.
He could hear… something beyond it.
Not footsteps.
Not breathing.
A voice. Not words—but a mental hum. A song that wasn't a song. Whispering to his bones.
He backed up slowly.
And that's when everything went wrong.
A blaring shriek cut through the hive—some kind of alarm. The light sacs along the walls surged. Drones exploded from the side tunnels, shrieking, swarming.
He cursed, turning back.
Too many.
Too loud.
Too fast.
His fingers slammed onto the Omnitrix.
"No more stealth."
He twisted the dial. Symbols flicked.
Frost.
Claws.
A reptilian form curled with breath mist—Artiguana.
He didn't hesitate.
SLAM.
A burst of green light engulfed the tunnel, flashing bright as the transformation triggered. The hum of the Omnitrix roared to life, drowning out the screeches.
And just like always—
Nullshift and the adaptive relic vanished, sucked into the morphing field with the rest of his gear.
When the light faded, standing in Riven's place was a tall, blue-scaled humanoid with jagged dorsal fins and a chilling aura.
Artiguana.
Frost spread beneath his feet.
The drones stopped mid-charge.
He raised a clawed hand. Icy vapor curled from his mouth.
"Time to start."
End of Chapter.
Thank you for reading.