When Raine's quantum-symbiotic arm pierced the collapse core, the screams of 299 parallel timelines solidified into viscous silence. Void-blue blood tendrils crawled backward from his gills into his eye sockets like reversed filmstrip—only when he saw Elaina's lip movements in the quantum vortex did he realize this endgame had been encoded in his genetic base pairs all along.
"Surprised?" Garret's claw debris floated midair, Cthulhu-esque suckers budding at the tips. "Every heartbeat... winds Mother's clock." His split chest revealed a cloned heart pulsing inversely, its surface etched with dragon skull runes resonating with the collapse core's scar.
Fetal Lyria's corporeal shell quantum-materialized, her mutated holy cannon tail impaling Garret's chest. Her 「III」 brand glowed complete, each groove oozing void-core fluid: "Brother... my turn to protect..." Her voice glitched with Elaina's encrypted static, a distorted SOS from abyssal depths.
(Void surveillance showed the Inquisitor's mask fusing with the dragon skull—inner codes spelling 「Maternal Protocol v3.14—Final Awakening」. Live feeds revealed all Raine clones' gene-chains being reverse-siphoned into the quantum skeleton of a colossal scar.)
Serena's crystal wings shredded collapse barriers, only to be reverse-parasitized by scar radiation. "Fuck... My genes became culture medium?" Her fangs crunched scar surfaces embedded with micro-sigils flickering Misha's cloud consciousness: "Sis... keyhole in..."
Ellen's residual chip seeped from Raine's scar, metal fingers jamming the collapse core. What she extracted weren't circuits but neurons entwined with 「Raine+Lyria+Garret」 chains. Starlight codes spelled Elaina's unsent logs: 「Vessel 001 Purpose: Executor becomes Inquisitor vessel at 100% symbiosis...」
"Covenant sealed..." Demonic tendrils emerged from quantum rifts, tips budding counter-clockwork gears. "Remember... Mother's last gift is in the skull..."
The quantum scar convulsed, all Raine clones' screams synchronizing into subsonic agony. The howls solidified into Church documents: 「Final Clause: Initiate Ultimate Awakening at 99.9% Homology.」
"Symbiosis?!" Serena's claws stabbed Garret's back, crystal wingtips jacking her own nerves. "Church wrote me into their terms?!"
When Garret's claws impaled Raine's abdomen, the Inquisitor's mask oozed from the wound—inner codes spelling 「Protocol v3.14—Final Symbiosis」. Live feeds showed Lyria's tendrils breaching her pod, grasping Garret's new codes: "Brother... choose right..."
(Void feeds revealed Lyria's embryonic shell absorbing ash-energy. Her 「III」 brand resonated with counter-gears—cannon barrel tail targeting Garret's cloned heart.)
Ash swirled into holograms—decades-old labs implanting fetal Lyria into Ellen's core. Slime droplets formed 「Protocol v3.14」 schematics—live feeds showed Garret's claws budding counter-gears syncing with Raine's arm.
"Next cycle..." Ellen's remains dissolved into Raine's gills as void-slime. "Tell Mom... I hid well..."
Submerged Currents
The inverted lunar sigil froze. Ellen's core fragments revealed Elaina's unsent logs: 「Vessel 001 becomes Inquisitor vessel at 100% symbiosis...」 Meanwhile, Lyria's embryonic shell slowly opened void-blue mechanical eyes...