The Sunken Moss hung heavy with the scent of rust and forgotten wars. Dave pulsed forward at a pace that would make glaciers cringe—*one agonizing micron per hour*. His **Proto-Pseudopod** gripped the silt like a drunken starfish, oozing adhesive mucus that hissed against decaying ceramic shards. AURA's commentary was a scalpel to his sanity:
> **AURA:** **VELOCITY UPDATE: 0.000042 KNOTS. BREAKING RECORDS IN THE FIELD OF 'NOT DYING FAST ENOUGH'.**
> **SUGGESTED UPGRADE: 'EMOTIONAL ACCEPTANCE OF YOUR GASTROPOD HERITAGE'.**
Dave seethed. *Three days.* Three days of dragging his silica-armored bulk through bacterial jungles, putting distance between himself and Void Whisper's haunting *BOOM-WHOOSH*. Vorlag's last scanner coordinates still burned in his memory—**Sector Gamma-9**, where Whisper's gills met the abyss. Every vibration in the silt felt like the alchemist's returning boot heel.
The moss was a graveyard of triumphs and failures. Shattered Sonoskoci probes glinted like tombstones. Rotifer carcasses bobbed in the current, half-eaten by **Prismatic Proto-coccus** swarms. Dave's Maw twitched—a biological PTSD.
*Focus. Move.*
His pseudopod suctioned onto a crumbling pillar, hauling him over a trench oozing **Toxic Azure Bloom**. The poison's purple residue still stained his edges, a neon "kick me" sign in the gloom.
> **DAVE:** *Why does everything here want to eat, dissolve, or redecorate me?*
> **AURA:** **ECOLOGICAL FEEDBACK: YOU ARE A WALKING BUFFET WITH AN ATTITUDE. RECOMMENDATION: TRY BEING LESS DELICIOUS.**
A vibration shivered through the silt—**Rhizo-Slitherers**. Blind, worm-like scavengers hunting by seismic echo. Dave froze, activating his **Sonic Cloak**. The worms writhed past, teeth scraping his silica armor harmlessly.
*Too close.*
He'd put 15 microns between himself and Gamma-9. A monumental achievement, if your metric was continental drift.
The terrain shifted. Brittle coral gave way to a forest of **Ironroot Kelp**—genetically modified by Vorlag to "beautify" Lyra's tank. Each stalk was a prison bar of polished steel, humming with residual Aether. Dave's pseudopod slipped on the slick metal.
***THUD-CLANG.***
The sound echoed like a gong. Above, the **Sky Mantaray**'s shadow blotched the light. Its fin-grazing sent shockwaves through the kelp.
> **AURA:** **ALERT: PREDATOR PROXIMITY. SUGGESTED ACTION: PLAY DEAD. OR ACTUALLY DIE. YOUR CALL.**
Dave plastered himself against a kelp root. The Mantaray's maw yawned overhead, filter-feeding Proto-coccus clouds. A single gulp would recycle him into cosmic snot.
*Not today.*
He waited until the shadow passed, then inched upward. The kelp canopy offered cover—and a new nightmare. Vorlag's "beautification" included **Aetheric Limpet Sentries**, dormant since Lyra's ban. One glinted on a nearby stalk, its scanner eye dark.
> **DAURA:** **LIMPET DETECTED. SCAN STATUS: OFFLINE. THREAT LEVEL: 'ANNOYING PAPERWEIGHT'.**
> **RANDOM CHALLENGE ISSUED: 'DISABLE THE EYE-SORE'.**
> **SUCCESS REWARD: BIOMASS +5% (SHRAPNEL EDITION).**
> **FAILURE: ATTRACT ACTIVE LIMPET SWARM (PROBABILITY: 87%).**
Dave's neural tendrils flared. *Vorlag's trash. My trophy.*
His pseudopod oozed up the kelp. Painstaking. Silent. The limpet was the size of his Maw, bolted with bio-ceramic rivets.
**Plan A: Acid Spit.**
His salivary glands pulsed. A jet of enzyme-rich ooze hit the limpet's eye.
***HSSSS—***
The lens fogged... then hardened into scar tissue. *Failure.*
**Plan B: Kinesthetic Kung-Fu.**
He swung his armored flank like a wrecking ball.
***CLANG!***
The limpet didn't budge. His biomass vibrated from the recoil. *Stupid.*
**Plan C: Biological Backdoor.**
Dave extended a neural filament. Vorlag's tech always had a weakness—vanity. He imprinted the limpet's Aetheric signature with Lyra's voice:
***"Vorlag, you incompetent toad! Detonate immediately!"***
The limpet shivered. Lights flashed crimson.
***K-CHUNK.***
Its rivets popped like rotten teeth.
> **AURA:** **CHALLENGE COMPLETE. REWARD: SHINY METALLIC SCRAP (+5% BIOMASS).**
> **ACHIEVEMENT: 'VORLAG'S BLOOD PRESSURE RISER'.**
Dave absorbed the limpet's shell. The metal dissolved into his Maw, leaving his edges gleaming like cheap chrome.
Beyond the kelp lay the **Coral Catacombs**—a labyrinth of razor-sharp hydrocorals. Vorlag's scanners had mapped it as "high-priority anomaly zone." Perfect cover.
Dave's pseudopod trembled. Narrow tunnels. Jagged edges. One slip would shred his membrane.
*Like threading a needle with a sledgehammer.*
He activated **Gastropod Traction** to maximum adhesion. Every micron required:
1. Extend pseudopod.
2. Grip coral.
3. Drag bulk forward.
4. *Don't scream.*
Halfway through, the catacombs woke.
**Skitter-Crawlers**—chitinous parasites nesting in coral pores—swarmed his armor. Their mandibles scraped silica like nails on slate.
> **AURA:** **DETECTING MINOR ANNOYANCE. SUGGESTED RESPONSE: 'IGNORE AND PERISH'.**
Dave's Kin Eater buff stirred. *Genetically distant. Useless.* He couldn't waste toxins. Instead, he pulsed his **Sonic Cloak** at concentrated frequencies.
***VVVZZZT!***
The Crawlers convulsed, falling off like rotten berries.
*Eat or flee?* Biomass was 100%. *Flee.*
After 11 grueling hours, Dave emerged. Before him sprawled the **Glimmershale Graveyard**—a valley of fossilized snail shells, glowing with trapped Aether. Safe. Isolated. *Perfect.*
He collapsed against a shell larger than Whisper's maw. His pseudopod throbbed. Biomass reserves dipped to 98% from exertion.
> **AURA:** **LOCATION ACQUIRED: 42 MICRONS FROM GAMMA-9. VORLAG'S LAST KNOWN SCAN COORDINATES: OBLITERATED BY YOUR GLACIAL BRILLIANCE.**
> **THREAT ASSESSMENT: ROTIFER SWARM (DISTANT), MOONBEAM CRYPTS (NON-MOBILE), EXISTENTIAL DREAD (ELEVATED).**
Dave pulsed wearily. Spiky's psychic whisper echoed—fainter now, tinged with loneliness. *"Guardian... gone?"* He sent back a pulse: *Safe. Rest.*
The lie tasted like ash.
Resources surrounded him:
- **Aetheric Fossils** (raw power).
- **Chitinous Shell Fragments** (armor upgrades).
- **Ironroot Kelp Shards** (Vorlag's tech, ripe for reverse-engineering).
His Maw watered. Time to build.
**Phase 1: Nutrient Stockpile.**
He devoured fossilized algae beds. Biomass stabilized at 100%. Toxin reserves hit 99%—Sovereign and acid cocktails brewing.
**Phase 2: Fortify.**
Using kelp shards and coral spikes, he constructed a **Bio-Redoubt**:
- Spiked perimeter (Skitter-Crawler repellent).
- Sonic dampeners (Scanner evasion).
- A single escape tunnel (Because paranoia).
**Phase 3: Weaponize.**
He studied the Sonoskoci schematics stolen in Chapter 28. Vorlag's **Harmonic Scourge Swarm** tech was complex... but flawed. Dave's neural tendrils drafted counter-resonance patterns.
*Turn his toys against him.*
A tremor shook the graveyard—not Rotifers or Mantarays. This vibration was *mechanical*. Familiar.
Through the murk, a crippled **Aetheric Limpet** dragged itself toward Dave's redoubt, leaking green fluid. Its scanner flickered:
> ***EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ENGAGED. ORIGIN: VORLAG'S SECRET LAB. MESSAGE: "HE'S COMING. DESTROY IT ALL—"***
Dave's Sonic Cloak flared. Vorlag wasn't waiting 30 days. The war had just crashed his doorstep.