The crypt held its breath. Residual alchemical mist, thin but still biting, hung in the air. Three remaining stone gargoyles, mountains of enraged rock, closed in with earth-shaking steps, cold crimson eyes fixed on the team huddled back-to-back. The grating scrape of stone joints echoed like death knells.
Lena's back burned, each breath a knife twist. Blood soaked her tactical suit, cold and clammy. Yet her eyes were colder, harder than the crypt walls. She switched her shock baton back to high-frequency vibration, abandoning futile arcs, focusing solely on the weak point Alan had identified—the energy core hidden beneath layers of stone.
Fenrir panted, blood smeared from a split lip. His amber eyes locked onto the largest gargoyle ahead, muscles coiled like springs. Alloy claws, crusted with stone dust and gore, gleamed wickedly. His berserker fury was fully unleashed, fueled by rage at Lena's injury and pure hatred for the stone abominations.
Simon was pale, clutching his acid-burned arm, pain etched on his face. But he fought through it, operating his tablet with his good hand, searching for core vulnerabilities. Fear was overridden by survival instinct.
Alan slumped against a cold sarcophagus, blood drying on his lip. The backlash from his forced surge left him feeling hollowed out, organs aching. His suppressor cuff blazed hot, emitting a low, insistent warning hum. Watching the stone death advance, seeing Lena injured, Simon suffering, Fenrir locked in brutal combat, desperation surged again. He couldn't just watch!
"Cover me… three seconds!" Alan rasped, voice raw but resolute. He slammed his hands back onto the damp floor, ignoring the cuff's violent protest and his body's screaming agony. He channeled the dregs of his fading Harmonizer power—not a blast, but a cleansing stream—directed at the chaotic energy field directly in front of the team, specifically the thinning acid mist and the gargoyles' corrupted Anima!
Hum…
A wave, weaker than before but purer, washed outwards. It wasn't an explosion, but a purifying breeze. Where it passed, the last vestiges of yellow-green mist dissipated like smoke! Crucially, the chaotic red energy fields animating the gargoyles within its range rippled violently, flickering with instability!
The massive gargoyle charging Fenriel stumbled, its movement freezing! The dark red core within its stone chest pulsed erratically, like a failing bulb! The other two gargoyles also slowed, their movements jerky, crimson eyes flickering wildly!
"NOW!!" Lena and Fenrir seized the opening simultaneously!
"SMASH!" Fenrir roared like thunder, launching himself like a missile at the faltering behemoth! He abandoned defense, pouring every ounce of weight and fury into his right claw, a grey blur crashing into the gargoyle's chest! The claw aimed true for the momentarily weakened core!
CRUNCH-THUNDER!!!
Stone armor shattered under the berserk impact! Alloy claws plunged deep! A sickening crack echoed as the dark red core imploded! The giant gargoyle's eyes died instantly. It collapsed like a felled tree, raising a dust cloud!
Simultaneously, Lena moved! Not with Fenrir's raw power, but lethal precision. She exploited her target's energy-induced stutter, ducking a heavy swing, darting like a shadow to its flank. Her vibrating baton didn't stab—it sliced with a screech, aimed at the relatively thinner stone covering the energy conduit node at its right shoulder joint!
SCREEE-THUD!
The vibrating blade cut through stone like rotten wood! Glowing internal conduits snapped! The gargoyle's right arm froze mid-swing!
Lena pivoted seamlessly on the recoil, her left leg snapping out like a whip! It connected with a heavy thud on the gargoyle's exposed left flank—a weak point near the core, revealed by its imbalance!
WHUMP!
The gargoyle staggered sideways!
"Simon! Coordinates!" Lena snapped.
"Left chest! Three inches down! Energy peak!" Simon yelled through gritted teeth, reading the scanner.
Lena's eyes flashed. She launched herself like an arrow! As the gargoyle stumbled, her vibrating baton struck like a viper, piercing the exact spot Simon named!
CRUNCH!
The dark red core shattered within!
The gargoyle's eyes dimmed. It crashed to the floor, inert.
The final gargoyle recovered from Alan's disruption, its eyes blazing with heightened fury at its kin's destruction. It ignored Lena and Simon, fixing its wrath on the cornered, depleted Alan—the source of its frustration! It unleashed a silent roar, hefting its massive stone fist, determined to crush him!
"ALAN!" Lena and Simon shouted. Lena was too far!
"SCUM! GET OFF!" Fenrir's bellow shook the crypt! Having destroyed his target, he charged the last gargoyle like a maddened bull! He threw his entire weight behind his left claw, body arcing through the air in a desperate tackle aimed at the gargoyle's spine!
BOOM-SHATTER!!!
The impact was colossal! Fenrir's claws embedded deep in the gargoyle's back, the force driving it stumbling forward, crashing into the sarcophagus beside Alan! Stone shards flew!
The gargoyle's fist grazed Alan's scalp, smashing into the sarcophagus with a deafening CRACK! The stone lid spiderwebbed!
"Ugh!" Fenrir grunted, winded by the impact, but he clung on, his other claw hammering at the gargoyle's stone neck and shoulders, trying to sever conduits!
The gargoyle bucked violently, trying to dislodge him, its stone arms flailing backwards!
The chance! Alan saw it—the violently pulsing dark red core, exposed in the gaps of the stone armor near Fenrir's impact point! Survival instinct overrode weakness. He snatched a sharp piece of fallen stone and hurled it with his last strength at the core!
TINK!
The stone struck true, hitting the unstable core! It wasn't powerful, but it was the final straw.
CRACK!
The core, stressed by Fenrir's assault, shattered!
The gargoyle froze. Its eyes winked out like snuffed candles. The massive stone body slumped forward, dragging Fenrir down in a cloud of dust and debris.
Silence, thick and heavy, descended once more. Only the ragged, pained breathing of the team broke it. The air reeked of stone dust, ozone, and blood. Four gargantuan stone carcasses lay strewn like fallen idols.
"Cough… Pfah!" Fenrir shoved his way out from under the rubble, spitting dust and blood. He sported fresh scrapes and bruises but was intact. He cast a complicated glance at the pale, slumped Alan in the corner, grunting wordlessly.
Lena ignored her own searing pain, swiftly administering a strong analgesic and anti-corrosive agent to Simon. The burns on his arm and shoulder looked nasty, but the suit had absorbed the worst; no critical damage, though he needed proper care.
"Alan?" Lena approached him, crouching, her voice holding a sliver of concern beneath the steel.
"I'll… manage…" Alan's voice was a thread. Every breath hurt. The suppressor's heat was fading, but its warning light still glowed. The cost of his forced surges was immense.
"Your intervention… was critical." Lena offered no platitudes, but acknowledgment was there. She handed him an energy booster vial (high-grade stim, side effects guaranteed). "Inject. We leave. Now."
Alan didn't hesitate. The cold liquid hit his bloodstream, bringing a weak but vital surge of heat, pushing back the worst of the weakness and pain.
"The circle… core…" Alan gasped, pointing towards the defiled alchemical circle at the crypt's center, now partially buried under debris from the fight.
Lena nodded, signaling Fenrir to watch the entrance. She moved stiffly, Simon limping beside her, back towards the unholy pattern.
Simon carefully brushed rubble from the circle's central area under their headlamps. The strange ores lay cracked or dimmed. Then, beneath a few shards, a glint of cold metal caught the light.
"Something here!" Simon used forceps to nudge aside the debris.
It was a palm-sized piece of torn metal. Heavy, unnaturally cold to the touch, made of a deep grey material that seemed to swallow light. Etched onto its surface was an unmistakable symbol: a serpent coiled into a perfect circle, consuming its own tail! Two minuscule, blood-red gemstones glinted where the serpent's eyes should be, radiating a faint, malevolent aura even in the gloom.
"Ouroboros," Lena breathed, the word colder than the crypt air, laden with deadly certainty. The shadowy organization was confirmed, leaving undeniable proof.
"Wait… beside it…" Simon's forceps carefully extracted something else from the soil near the metal fragment.
A tiny pinch of deep green, almost black moss. But astonishingly, its broken ends emitted a faint, pure emerald-green bioluminescence! It pulsed with vibrant life force, utterly alien to the surrounding decay.
"This…?" Simon activated his portable micro-analyzer and energy sensor on the moss.
"High-purity natural Anima residue! Life affinity! Spectral analysis… match confirmed!" Simon's voice trembled with pain and excitement. "Alan! This… it's identical to the residue on the burnt parchment under your grandfather's bed! And the sample we found at the abandoned church site chasing The Mole! The energy signature is exact!"
He cross-referenced databases frantically. "This unique spectral signature and bio-luminescence… only occurs in a specific moss species found deep within Epping Forest, near the region known as the 'Heartwood Oak'! It only grows near pure natural Anima nodes! Extremely rare!"
Epping Forest! Heartwood Oak! The Wildheart Circle!
Alan's heart hammered against his ribs! The pieces snapped together! The attackers (Ouroboros) used The Mole to trade at the church (for Entropy Gel), used it to assault Bai Cao Tang. Both crime scenes bore this unique moss from Epping Forest's depths! And Grandfather's clue… also pointed to Epping Forest!
Grandfather's secret, what he guarded, why he was hurt… it had to be connected to Epping Forest, the Wildheart, and whatever Ouroboros sought!
"Document everything! Secure the fragment and moss! Highest containment!" Lena ordered, her gaze razor-sharp. The Ouroboros fragment was a major coup, but the strange moss pointed towards deeper mysteries and a clearer path—Epping Forest.
Simon, wincing, carefully sealed the metal fragment and the faintly glowing moss into specialized containers. The fragment was cold, heavy, radiating malice. The moss felt warm, alive. The contrast was jarring.
Mission accomplished. Gains were significant, losses heavy. Lena needed stitches, Simon needed a medbay, Alan was critically depleted, Fenrir was battered. Worse, they'd triggered the trap; Ouroboros knew they'd been here.
"Exfiltrate. Immediate." Lena's command brooked no argument. "Fenrir, point. Simon, stay close. Alan, mobile?"
Alan gritted his teeth, pushing himself up against the cold stone. The stimulant held him, but weakness lapped at his edges. "Yes."
Leaning on each other, bearing wounds, exhaustion, and vital clues, they ascended the treacherous steps. Emerging through the jagged hole back into the desolate, but breathable, church nave felt like escaping a tomb.
The night was deeper. Clouds choked the moon; only distant dock lights pierced the gloom. The abandoned church loomed like a sepulcher.
Lena raised her encrypted comm, requesting extraction and medical. She scanned the surrounding darkness as she spoke. Alan leaned against the cold wall, watching Simon cradle the sealed container holding Ouroboros' sigil and the glowing moss. Epping Forest… Grandfather… Wildheart… The names echoed in his mind.
"'Earthmover' complete. Ouroboros confirmed direct involvement. Critical evidence acquired." Lena ended the transmission, turning to her team. Her ice-blue eyes were bright in the dark, yet shadowed with deep foreboding. "But remember. This is only the beginning. We've uncovered the serpent's head, but stirred the whole nest. A greater storm is coming."