Part 5: The Voice in the Rot
They didn't run.
They walked—fast, focused.
Back up the marrow ramp. Past the blind monks. Past the stitched veil of flesh, which no longer moved.
Until they reached the outer rib tunnel.
And that's when Nina screamed.
It wasn't a voice of pain.
It was pressure released.
She arched backward, eyes rolling white, mouth open—but no sound came.
Just air.
Then—
"Fertile One."
The voice wasn't hers.
It was layered.
Like it echoed from a hundred mouths decayed and melted into one.
Yuji spun.
Nina floated.
Not high—just enough for her heels to leave the ground.
The air around her shimmered—spores, maybe. Or something worse.
"You move like a god, but you bleed like a boy."
Yuji stepped forward, ignoring Sacha's hand on his arm.
"What do you want?"
Nina's head tilted—too far.
"Want is your word. I return. I am not an enemy. I am your opposite.
You are what they buried.
I am what they refused to bury."
Siora began to chant a severance verse.
The voice laughed—wet and rattling.
"Druid. You would cut a tree at the root and call it mercy.
But he is the seed.
And I… am the soil."
Yuji raised his hand.
Light pulsed in his palm.
Pure Fertility magic—sunlight spun into form.
"Do it," the voice said. "Burn me. Watch what grows."
Nina's body twitched once.
Twice.
Then fell.
Yuji caught her mid-collapse.
The spores evaporated.
The tunnel was silent again.
Siora dropped to her knees, casting stabilizing glyphs.
Nina's breath came in shudders.
Sylvia wiped sweat from her forehead. "That was him."
"No," Amelia said.
"That was it."
Yuji stared down at Nina.
And for a moment—
He wondered if part of him had answered back.