Subject Zero moved. It wasn't a step. It was a convulsion of reality. The fungal flesh of the casino floor recoiled from its presence, withering to grey ash.
Kurok shoved Elara behind him. "Nana! Get her out!"
"No back door!" Nana snapped, her tendrils slashing at the sealed entrance. Sparks flew. The metal didn't cut. It... healed. "It's eating our exits!"
Subject Zero's head tilted. A low, grinding sound emanated from its chest. It was laughing.
CONSUME, its voice rasped in their minds, a psychic shove that made Kurok stagger. OR BE CONSUMED.
Kael fired a stolen Aethelburg sidearm. The energy bolt hit Subject Zero's chest and vanished. A patch of its fungal skin briefly glowed, then settled. It had eaten the shot.
"It's a perfect consumer!" Gloubi yelled, equal parts terror and fascination. "No transformation! Pure metabolic assimilation!"
Kurok understood. This was his opposite. Where he created chaos and flavor, this thing only destroyed. It was the endpoint Croft desired: a weapon that left nothing but orderly, empty space.
Subject Zero lunged. Not for Kurok. For Elara.
Kurok met the charge. He didn't try to transform it. He knew that wouldn't work. Instead, he focused on the air between them, on the very concept of a barrier.
A wall of hardened, transparent gelatin shimmered into existence. Subject Zero hit it. And stopped. For a second.
Then it began to lick it. The gelatin wall dissolved where its tongue touched, consumed into nothingness.
But the second of delay was all Nana needed. A silver tendril wrapped around Elara's waist and yanked her into the shadows.
FRUSTRATION, Subject Zero broadcast, the emotion a physical wave of heat.
"Your menu is limited," Kurok taunted, sweat beading on his forehead. "You only know one flavor."
He reached for the casino itself. He grabbed a chunk of the phosphorescent moss and pushed his intent into it—not to transform it, but to amplify its inherent life, its wild, chaotic growth.
The moss exploded. Vines thick as arms erupted, tangling around Subject Zero, glowing with frantic energy. They didn't try to hurt it. They tried to live on it, to grow and bloom over its consuming form.
Subject Zero shrieked, a sound of pure dissonance. It was being affirmed, not negated. Its consuming nature was being challenged by an overwhelming force of creation. It began tearing at the vines, but for every one it consumed, two more grew.
It was a stalemate. A terrible, draining stalemate.
From the shadows, a small, polished stone skittered across the floor, landing at Kurok's feet. A data-chip was glued to it. The Gutter Kings. Their message was clear: We're watching. This is interesting.
High above, in the Spire, Croft watched the feed. Subject Zero's vital signs were spiking. "It's not enough. The catalyst girl. We need her to break the equilibrium."
Down in the archives, Silas finally found the right terminal. He input a code from the hard copy. A screen lit up, showing the original containment protocols for Subject Zero.
WEAKNESS: CONCEPTUAL SATIATION. CAN BE OVERWHELMED BY CONFLICTING, NON-NUTRITIVE SENSORY INPUT.
He knew what he had to do. It was treason. It was also the only way to save the city from Croft's "solution."
He typed a single command into the system, targeting the corrupted network Kael had created.
In the casino, every screen, every speaker, every light flickered. A single, looping audio file began to play, broadcast from Silas's terminal. It was the sound of a child's pure, joyful laughter.
Subject Zero froze. The consuming grind of its mind faltered. The sound was... meaningless. It held no nutritional value. It was data it couldn't process, a flavor that didn't exist. It clutched its head, confused.
The vines tightened.
Kurok saw his chance. He didn't attack. He ran. "NOW! The ceiling!"
Nana didn't hesitate. All her tendrils focused on one point of the corroded roof. With a shriek of tearing metal and fungus, she ripped a hole open to the polluted Grimecity sky.
They escaped into the neon night, leaving a confused and roaring Subject Zero trapped in a cage of its own nature.
They had survived. But the rules were now clear. They weren't just fighting corporations. They were fighting a fundamental law of this universe: a hunger that could only take. And Kurok was the only one who could create something else to oppose it.
The factions were defined:
· Aethelburg (Croft): Order through absolute consumption.
· OmniGen (Cross): Control through manipulation and exploitation of chaos.
· Gutter Kings: Anarchy and opportunity.
· Kurok: Chaotic creation and protection.
The war for Grimecity's soul had just begun, and its first battle had been a draw.