While Lio kept his hands low and his tone steady, the stranger in black and yellow mirrored him, both trying to ease the tension that hung thick in the air. Every word they spoke was measured, cautious — a tightrope between reason and panic.
"Angstrom… listen," Lio began slowly, taking a single careful step forward. "No one's trying to take anything from you. Just put the weapon down, alright? We can talk this out."
The Shellwalker's single functional optic flared, its crimson hue flickering erratically. The damaged half of his face twitched, servos whining under the dented metal plate that had once formed his jaw.
"Talk? TALK??!!!" Angstrom spat the word through the distorted modulation of his voice box, half mechanical hiss, half feral growl. "You think I'm that stupid? That I can't see what you're doing—stalling, trying to distract me while you plot to steal my claim?!"
He jerked his cyberarm tighter around the cocooned Lynx, the mechanical fingers creaking as they gripped the Ex-Med Sarcophagus. The launcher under his forearm hummed, a faint click-whine of its micro-capacitors spinning up.
Lio froze mid-step. The stranger in black and yellow slowly raised a hand, palm out. "Easy, Shellwalker. Nobody's tricking you. You've taken enough damage — your systems are overheating, your head module's leaking half your coolant. You need to stand down before—"
"SHUT IT!!!" Angstrom barked, the word sharp enough to echo off the broken walls. "You think I don't know what's mine? You think I'll give up my treasure, my proof of survival, to scavengers who just got lucky?!"
His laugh was broken, high-pitched, almost manic. The blue bio-conductive fluid streamed down his temple, dripping off his chin like blood. His left eye — the one dangling from its torn socket — swung loosely as his head twitched toward Lio, his expression a grotesque mix of fury and desperation.
"I earned this! Every scrap! Every piece! You're not taking it from me! None of you!"
The standoff thickened like suffocating smoke. Even the stranger in black and blue, who moments ago carried a mocking grin, now stood silent — eyes narrowed, posture tense, waiting for the inevitable snap.
Angstrom's breathing — or what passed for breathing through a damaged synthetic chest — came out as harsh bursts of static. His body trembled, not just from rage, but from instability.
Lio's mind raced. Every scenario he could think of ended badly.
If he lunged too fast, Angstrom might tighten his grip — or worse, fire the grenade launcher at point-blank range with Lynx still in his grasp.
If he waited too long, the unstable Shellwalker might spiral completely beyond reason.
He needed an opening — just one slip, one distraction, one breath of opportunity.
Then he noticed it.
The two masked strangers — the one in black and blue, and the one in black and yellow — weren't focused on Angstrom anymore. Their posture had shifted subtly, the tension in their stance no longer directed forward but around. Their visors glinted as they turned their heads, scanning the cavern's shadows.
The stranger in black and blue's hand had drifted near his weapon again, not raised, not aimed — but ready. His usual cocky grin was gone, replaced by a sharp, alert edge.
The stranger in black and yellow, on the other hand, had stepped slightly closer to Lio, her gaze flicking from the broken scaffolds above to the shifting pools of viscous slime that coated the ground. There was something wary, almost instinctive in her movements, like a predator realizing it's not the only hunter in the dark.
Lio frowned, confusion and unease mixing in his chest. "What is it?" he whispered under his breath.
Neither of them answered — but their silence spoke volumes.
The air around them had changed. The smell — already foul from bile and rot — carried something else now. Something heavier, more organic. The faint tremor beneath his boots wasn't from Angstrom's erratic steps… it was deeper, slower, like something massive was shifting beneath the ground itself.
A chill crawled up Lio's spine. His eyes darted past Angstrom — to the half-sunken mountain of flesh and carapace behind him. The Hive Queen's corpse.
And for a fleeting moment, he thought he saw it — a ripple. A convulsion under the glistening hide, as if something inside that hulking body was struggling to move.
The stranger in black and blue's voice cut through the tense silence, low and unnervingly calm.
"...Uh, guys? You feel that too?"
The stranger in black and yellow didn't answer immediately — but her hand reached for her sidearm.
"I was hoping I was imagining it," she muttered, her voice barely above a whisper.
Lio's stomach dropped. Whatever was happening besides Angstrom's hostage situation… he had a very bad feeling, as if something worse is yet to reveal.
At that moment, Time fractured into fragments.
In that split second — that fragile heartbeat — Lio's instincts screamed louder than thought. His perception shifted, the world around him slowing to a crawl as his "Riftborn" cognition flared to life. The hiss of steam, the dripping of bile, even Angstrom's frantic breathing — all of it stretched into a distorted, viscous hum, as if reality itself had thickened around him.
Then it happened.
From the bloated, decaying abdomen of the Hive Queen's corpse came a sudden convulsion — a violent, grotesque ripple that tore through its flesh. The next moment, the entire torso of the creature burst open with a wet, explosive crack, like a violent birth of something inhuman.
A storm of black-green fluids sprayed across the cavern like rain. Shredded exoskeleton fragments, viscera, and acidic ichor painted the walls in arcs of shimmering filth.
And from within that nightmare eruption — something moved.
Lio's eyes widened as his hyper-accelerated perception caught it: a dark, thrashing figure launching forth from the gaping wound in the Hive Queen's corpse. Its form was humanoid — vaguely — but covered in slick bile and torn membranes, its silhouette distorted and alien.
The creature's limbs bent at unnatural angles as it lunged, propelled by a speed that made even the Bug-Men, let alone the Cave Bugs, could not achieve. The sound — muted by his slowed perception — was like a thunderclap underwater.
It was heading straight for Angstrom.
"—!!" Lio's voice tore from his throat, but in this slowed world, it came out like a faint echo. His body strained to move, to shout, to warn him — but by the time the thought fully formed, it was already too late.
The figure — whatever it was — slammed into Angstrom from behind with bone-shattering force, the impact creating a burst of shockwave and viscous spray that sent shock ripples through the bile pool beneath their feet.
Through the distorted haze of slowed motion, Lio saw it — the horror, the confusion, and the raw terror reflected in Angstrom's single intact cybernetic eye as he was dragged backward, swallowed by the thrashing silhouette that had emerged from the queen's corpse.
And in that frozen eternity, Lio could only stare — heart hammering in the silence of stretched time — realizing that the true nightmare of this dungeon had just begun.
In that heartbeat between instinct and disaster, Lio moved.
The moment his brain processed the trajectory of the lunging shadow, his body reacted faster than reason. His legs coiled, muscles ignited with Riftborn energy, and in the next instant — he vanished from where he stood.
The world stretched into that silent, viscous slow-motion again. Every droplet of bile hung suspended midair like glass beads. The particles of dust and smoke glimmered like frozen stars. And in that stillness, Lio tore through the space between them — a blur of motion, heat trailing in his wake.
He reached Angstrom in a blink — or rather, he reached Lynx.
The Ex-Med Sarcophagus cocoon was still clutched in Angstrom's grip, her form sealed within, unaware of the chaos outside. Lio didn't hesitate — he lunged forward, twisting his body mid-air, and tackled the cocooned Lynx out of Angstrom's grasp with all his strength.
He felt the jolt of impact — the weight of the Sarcophagus slamming against his chest — just as the world behind him shattered.
Through his Riftborn perception, Lio saw it all in horrifying clarity.
Something — long, black, and barbed — pierced straight through Angstrom's torso. The blade-like appendage erupted from his chest with a spray of blue bio-fluid and metallic shards, impaling him before his voice could even form a scream.
Angstrom's face froze mid-expression — disbelief, confusion, horror — as his cybernetic body convulsed. His mechanical limbs twitched erratically, and his remaining cyber-eye flickered violently before dimming out.
Behind him, the bile-drenched figure loomed closer — its grotesque arm still buried through Angstrom's body. The creature tilted its head slightly, as if observing its prey's final twitch before discarding it.
Then time snapped back.
The sound hit all at once — a concussive boom of motion and air pressure, Angstrom's strangled scream mixing with the wet crunch of torn metal and bone. Lio hit the ground hard with Lynx in his arms, rolling across the bile-slick surface, his breath ragged, his ears ringing.
He turned his head just in time to see Angstrom's limp form being lifted — skewered — before being violently thrown aside like broken scrap.
The corpse of the Hive Queen gurgled again, bile bubbling from its hollowed chest as the creature within finally tore itself free.
And as the masked strangers turned toward the noise, weapons raised, the bile-soaked figure stepped out of the carcass — slow, deliberate, and radiating hostile intent.
=====
Lio could only watch — his mind screaming, his body locked in that split-second paralysis between horror and disbelief.
Through the haze of smoke, steam, and the acrid stench of burnt resin, the silhouette of Angstrom Matias hung suspended in the air like a grotesque puppet. The eerie light from the breached reactor veins illuminated his broken form — his legs twitching, his chest convulsing, sparks spitting from ruptured circuitry.
And there — jutting out from his torso — was a jagged, chitinous hand, slick with bile and blue blood. The limb protruded through his chest like a spear of living armor, black and wet, pulsing faintly with alien rhythm.
For a brief moment, Angstrom's remaining cyber-eye flickered desperately, his head jerking toward Lio and the two masked strangers. His mouth opened, choking on his own artificial fluids.
"H-Help... me..." he rasped, voice warbled and broken, his left hand reaching out into the smoke — trembling, pleading.
But before Lio could even process the thought of moving — before he could even take a step — the creature behind him moved.
A second clawed hand, identical in its grotesque form, slid up beside the first. With an effortless motion — slow, deliberate, almost mocking — the entity gripped Angstrom's body from both sides.
Lio's breath caught in his throat. His chest burned. He wanted to shout — to do something — but his voice refused to come out.
Then came the sound.
A wet, ripping CRACK.
The sound of tearing metal, snapping synthetic tendons, and rupturing bio-circuitry merged into one horrifying symphony. Blue blood sprayed like a fountain, scattering across the walls in glowing arcs. Shattered servos, armor plates, and fragments of Angstrom's Somata body exploded outward, painting the bile-slick floor in sparks and gore.
Lio flinched, covering Lynx's cocooned form with his own body as fragments rained down around him. The air reeked of scorched metal and burning lubricant.
When he looked up again — heart hammering in his ears — what remained of Angstrom was nothing more than two twitching halves, his dim cybernetic eye fading out into lifeless gray.
The unknown entity stood behind the carnage, its breathing deep and rhythmic, like the growl of something that should not exist. Steam curled around its silhouette — a tall, monstrous figure still dripping with the fluids of the Hive Queen's corpse, its armor-like skin glistening under the flickering lights.
And for the first time since the fight began, Lio felt his stomach twist with something worse than fear.
A realization that whatever they had just unleashed — it wasn't over.
=====
The smoke began to thin.
Through the haze of vapor and the stinging scent of acid and charred resin, a shadow loomed — tall, distorted, and wrong in all the ways a living thing could be wrong. The rhythmic thrum of its breathing echoed like distant thunder, deep and wet, rattling against the chamber's ruptured walls.
At first, Lio thought his eyes were deceiving him — that maybe it was another Bug-Man, one of the countless creatures they had already slain. But as the mist peeled back, and the flickering orange emergency lights fell upon its shape, he knew instantly: this was different.
The silhouette straightened, its spine clicking audibly with every motion. What emerged from the lingering steam was a being nearly three meters tall — a humanoid insectoid draped in a chitinous exoskeleton so dark it seemed to drink in the light. Its carapace shimmered faintly with streaks of crimson pulsing beneath the black surface, like veins of magma running through obsidian.
Six limbs extended from its body — two powerful legs that cracked the floor beneath its clawed feet, and four arms that hung unnaturally low, their elongated talons twitching with insectile precision. The upper pair were long and lean, ending in scythe-like claws capable of bisecting steel, while the lower set were bulkier, perfect for crushing and rending.
From its back, faint, tattered wing membranes unfolded slightly — translucent and webbed with pulsing red veins, fluttering once with a dry, bone-chilling rasp that sent debris swirling. Its elongated head tilted forward, mandibles flexing and dripping with the remains of Angstrom's blood and machine fluids, giving off a guttural click that reverberated through the chamber like a predator testing its prey's fear.
And then came the eyes — twin, burning orbs of red light that snapped open with a sudden, blinding glow. The moment they met Lio's gaze, his breath hitched. It wasn't just looking at him.
It was measuring him.
The stranger in black and yellow instinctively stepped back, blades drawn, her voice a low whisper:"Born from the dead queen, yet radiating such aura...that's no ordinary Bug-Man."
Her partner, the stranger in black and blue, tightened his grip on his bo-staff, the faint hum of plasma flaring along its length. His tone, for once, lost all traces of mockery.
"Yeah… that thing's the seems to be the real deal."
The entity crouched slightly, all six limbs flexing like coiled springs. Steam rolled off its body as its mandibles spread wide, letting out a low, distorted screech that built into a horrifying, resonant shriek that shook the very air around them.
Lio's heart pounded in his chest as the sound reverberated through his bones.
This wasn't just another monster.
His eyes stung from the heat and acrid steam, but he refused to blink. His entire body trembled — not from fear, but from the primal instinct screaming danger. The air itself seemed to warp under the pressure of killing intent seeping through the smoke.
Then, through the swirling haze of molten resin and charred remains, a silhouette emerged.
Tall. Sinister. Terrifyingly alive.
The creature stepped forward, its towering figure eclipsing the steam. Six jagged limbs twitched with insectoid precision, each movement exuding predatory grace. The creature's body was armored in a deep, glossy black, streaked with pulsating crimson veins that glowed faintly beneath its chitin. A faint hiss escaped its maw — a sound that made Lio's skin crawl.
It wasn't like the others.
This was no ordinary Bug-Man. No, this thing was evolved, refined into something far more lethal — the apex of the Hive's design. It radiated an aura so dense that even the air vibrated, pressing against Lio's lungs.
For a single heartbeat, everything was still.
Lio blinked — a moment too long.
The instant his eyelids lifted, the creature vanished from where it stood.
With its jagged chitinous hands with scythe-like fingers, so close to his face.
A red streak flashed before his eyes—
"—Tch!"
Instinct took over. Lio snatched the cocooned Lynx from the ground and hurled himself backward with explosive force. The world blurred into streaks of red and gray as something sliced through the space he had just occupied.
The ground erupted.
Chitinous hand plunged into the earth, tearing through rock and resin like paper. A deafening shockwave blew through the cavern, hurling shards of debris in all directions. The impact carved a deep crater where Lio had been lying mere seconds ago.
Lio skidded to a halt, panting, heart pounding so hard it rattled his chest. He glanced up at the devastation — at the monster pulling its arms free from the fractured ground, its crimson eyes gleaming like molten hatred.
*No way... That power—*
This thing wasn't just another soldier of the Hive.
It was beyond even the Hive Queen herself.
Something that is terrifyingly intelligent.
Lio's heart pounded like thunder in his chest as dust and resin fell like rain around him. The monster's crimson gaze locked onto him — predatory, calculating — like a hunter toying with its prey.
"This thing..." Lio whispered under his breath, his voice trembling despite his effort to steady it. "It's… even stronger than the rest of them… even stronger than the Hive Queen herself…"
Before he could regain his footing, two figures dropped beside him — the masked strangers.
The one in black and blue slid to his left, sword already drawn, energy crackling faintly along the blade's edge. The one in black and yellow moved to his right, her dual blades humming with a faint amber light.
The blue-masked stranger spoke first, his voice calm but firm beneath the distortion of his mask.
"Stay sharp. That thing—" he nodded toward the towering insectoid horror that was flexing its six limbs, resin dripping from its claws, "—it's no ordinary Bug-Man. If I'm right, that's the alpha variant of their species, possibly the Breacher of this dungeon."
"Meaning it's the boss that created and maintaining this bubble of reality," the yellow-masked woman muttered, sliding into a combat stance. "And it seems it won't let any of us walk out alive."
Lio gritted his teeth, adjusting his grip on Lynx's cocooned form. The weight felt heavier than ever — not just physically, but as if the burden of survival itself pressed against his shoulders.
Steam hissed from ruptured vents in the Hive Queen's corpse. The light dimmed, leaving only the faint red glow from the Alpha Bug-Man's body — its eyes burning like molten coals in the dark.
Then it moved.
A sound unlike anything Lio had ever heard ripped through the cavern — a screech so intense it shattered what little light remained. The ground *trembled*, stalactites cracked and fell from the ceiling, and Lio's vision blurred from the sheer sonic pressure and his ears becoming numb with pain.
The masked duo braced themselves, weapons raised, as the Alpha Bug-Man let out another roar that shook their bones — before vanishing in a blur of speed, lunging straight toward them.
=====
<<<[ Arc01, Ch11 - END ]>>>