Venom hissed through the air, mixing with the sharp blasts of pulse rifles. Another of the Hydra's heads lunged, and Seraph, with a grace that defied the chaos, dodged and sliced its eye, causing it to rear back with a shriek.
"Jonah, We need a solid plan!" she shouted over the noise, her voice tight with strain. "We can't hold this thing off forever!"
Jonah's mind spun with awful options and worse outcomes. "I need to get one of my Progeny inside the Hydra," he shouted back, his voice raw. "I can overload it with an opposing essence – create a chain reaction that will destroy it from the inside!"
Seraph didn't question the crazy plan. She didn't have time to. "How are we going to do that?"
"Create an opening! I need you to force one of its mouths open!" Jonah yelled. He took cover behind the throne, his mind already turning inward, to the quiet, dark space of his workshop.
He had to choose.
Nyx was too fast and fragile, built for scouting. Maul was his heavy hitter, his only real defense if this went wrong. Losing him would be a disaster.
That left Shard. His defensive scout, the one who had guided them here. Its essence was one of Earth, Defense, and Vibration – stable, solid, and calm. It was the perfect opposite to the wild, raging power of the Boar essence he had stored. It was the perfect bomb.
A wave of sickness washed over Jonah. He had designed Shard for protection, and now he was going to command it to its own destruction.
He focused his will, his thoughts reaching out to the resting creature in his mind.
Shard. I need you.
A sense of quiet awareness answered him, the Progeny ready to serve.
I have to… I have to send you inside the monster, Jonah projected, his thought laced with an agony that was entirely his own. I'm going to use your essence to destroy it. It will… it will be the end for you.
He opened his soul completely, letting his regret wash through the bond. I'm so sorry.
Shard didn't feel fear. No panic. No resistance. Just a calm, steady acceptance. A sense of duty. Of trust in its creator. It was a loyalty so pure it broke Jonah's heart.
With a final, silent farewell that felt like tearing a piece of himself away, Jonah summoned it.
Shard appeared beside him with a soft thud, its crystalline shell catching the gray light. It looked up at Jonah, its insectoid antennae twitching, and he felt that same calm resolve radiate from it. It was ready to fulfill its purpose.
"Now!" Jonah screamed, his voice cracking. "Create an opening!"
Seraph understood. "Aim all fire on the central head!" she commanded the team. "Give it everything you've got!!"
The three soldiers, trusting their sergeant who was trusting a first-year, focused all their firepower. Pulse rifles hammered at the central head. One soldier fired his last micro-rocket. Seraph charged forward in a flash, her twin blades slashing at the Hydra's neck, forcing its rage onto her.
Their combined attack broke its defenses. The central head, bloodied and enraged, snapped upright with a roar that shook the ground, its massive jaws gaping wide.
It was an opening that would last only a second.
"Shard, go!" Jonah ordered, his command a sharp, painful jab in his mind.
Without hesitation, Shard leaped. It scrambled across the stone plaza and launched itself directly into the Hydra's roaring mouth, disappearing into the dark tunnel of its throat.
The head snapped shut. Shard was inside.
Jonah's world narrowed to the link between him and his creation. He could feel Shard's presence deep within the beast's core, surrounded by immense heat and pressure.
Now Shard!
He gathered every ounce of his will, reaching deep into his mental library for the raw, untamed fury of the Raging Boar's soul. He performed a remote, forced synthesis – something he had never even imagined was possible. He didn't weave the essences together; he slammed them into each other.
He took the pure, chaotic energy of the Boar – Fury, Strength and violently overloaded Shard's stable, defensive nature – Earth, Defense, Vibration.
Deep within the Hydra, Shard's form began to glow.
For a split second, Jonah felt a flash of agonizing, confused pain from his Progeny as its very nature was torn apart by the clashing energies.
Then, a violent chain reaction ignited.
The clash of stable earth and chaotic fury, deep inside the Hydra's own magical biology, created a total overload. It was like dropping a burning match into a magical gas tank.
The Hydra stopped its attack. Its six heads writhed in sudden, silent pain. It convulsed once, a huge tremor running through its massive body.
A muffled, deep BOOM echoed from within its massive body, as if an explosion had been swallowed.
The light in the Hydra's twelve eyes flickered and died. Its heads went limp, crashing into the water and stone around them. The immense body, its internal furnace extinguished, went entirely still. With a great, slow sigh of displaced water, it began to sink back into the murky swamp, dead.
Victory at last.
But Jonah didn't feel triumphant. He felt like something had been torn from him.
The link between him and Shard didn't just fade; it shattered. He felt the feedback from its "death," the force of the explosion tearing through his thoughts. It was pain without a wound, but it hurt more than any injury – a loss so raw it felt carved into his bones.
A harsh, broken gasp escaped him. He gripped his head, the world breaking apart into a whirling storm of gray and black.
He had won. But the cost was immense. He had lost one of his creations. He had lost a part of himself.
Jonah dropped to his knees, the cold stone floor biting into him as the silent screams of his sacrificed Progeny echoed in the hollow spaces of his mind.