The timer hovered above Beacon-0: 23 h 12 m.
The protagonist placed his hand against the crystal wall. Deep within, he could hear it—faint thuds like a heartbeat underwater. With every pulse, a burning sensation flickered in his wrist where the Anchor Glyph was etched.
The parasite was trying to breach the mental ward.
---
He phased part of his fog-body into the Core Cavity. The once vibrant violet threads of energy were now streaked with black.
There it was—a spectral worm, translucent and crackling with gray static, coiled into the stream of flowing QP.
Parasitic Thread – Stage β
Behavior: Converts Raw QP → Chaotic Residue
Projected Collapse: 11 h after Thread Saturation
---
He targeted the worm and fired a condensed Pulse Focus into its body.
A burst of impact.
The Core rippled with backlash, draining 50 QP from storage and accelerating the breakdown by 10%.
His breath tightened. Raw force was like throwing oil into hidden flames.
---
A thought emerged.
The first parasite fled when deprived of unstable energy. What if… the opposite?
He would overwhelm it with pure, stable input—denying it the chaos it fed on.
His plan:
1. Harvest high-pressure steam from a steam salamander nearby.
2. Use an unused shard crystal (Crystal–S) as the purification anchor.
3. Maintain a 23 Hz energy pulse synchronized to his Blood Pulse.
---
He stalked the creature with Life-Sense, tracing heat spirals through the mist.
When it burst forward defensively, he opened the lower folds of his form and absorbed the scalding steam like a lung inhaling fire.
It burned. Metallic taste. The scent of boiling minerals.
He funneled the steam through his motion threads into the heart of Beacon-0.
---
In the core, he embedded the crystal inside the blackened knot. Then he began:
A steady 23 Hz pulse echoed through his being. Each cycle matched his inner rhythm.
The steam filled the fibers. Black shifted to rust-gray… then silver.
Parasitic Thread – Metastasis Interrupted
State: Dormant Cocoon
Risk Level: Negligible (Requires Monitoring)
Yet:
> "Residual corruption: 5%. Potential use as future Chaos Filter."
---
As the heat calmed, he felt… something.
The walls of the Beacon shimmered faintly.
A whisper not heard, but received:
> "We saw you... You protected the voice... We will keep the memory."
Not system data. Consciousness.
Beacon-0 had awakened a fragile self—a result of contact with the Echo-Wraith.
Through flashes, it warned:
> "Lightning comes… bridges will break."
A foretelling. The Thunder Season.
---
He constructed a Cocoon Gauge, set to read pulse distortion every hour. It linked to his Anchor Glyph, triggering a soft internal buzz if chaos levels rose.
System code update:
If Chaotic Residue > 4% → Trigger Pulse Focus Auto-Flush
---
Inside the crystal, a Residue Filter Core formed—a side effect of stabilizing the worm. Output increased:
+3.4 QP/min.
System offered an expansion blueprint:
> "Install Filter Matrix – Requires Monster Core (Tier IV)"
He filed it. A future mission.
---
As he recorded logs, the sky cracked.
A blue bolt split the clouds.
Atmospheric Charge Spike
Thunder Season ETA: 31 h
Storm Class: Level-ION
Estimated Strike Potential: 4,000–6,000 QP
Recommendation: Construct Lightning Mast or Evacuate Beacon-0
He stared into the flickering sky, heart racing.
> "When the lightning comes... I'll either turn it into blood… or watch it burn my whole network."
He stepped into the mist, blueprint in hand—planning the first Lightning Mast, as the coming storm etched electric veins across the clouds.
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