Chapter 4: A Beast Without a Name
Rain hammered the barrio like the sky wanted to erase it. The tin roofs screamed under the downpour, and the alleys became rivers of mud and sewage.
Kael emerged from the Codex chamber, his breath ragged, his eyes unfocused. Steam poured off his skin, heat radiating from within him like something volcanic had nested in his ribs.
Codex Interface: Active.
Warning: Genome instability approaching threshold.
He collapsed beside the balete roots. The hatch behind him hissed shut like a sigh of regret.
He was mutating. But not like those viral horror stories. This wasn't disease. This was design.
His fingers twitched. Bones cracked. The skin along his forearm rippled, pulsing, reshaping. The pain returned—not sharp, but deep, like his muscles were tearing themselves apart and rebuilding without permission.
He screamed into the storm.
Elsewhere—beneath the old science station off the coast of Bataan—another vault unlocked.
Tank 07X split open. Fluids poured out. A shape crawled out on too many limbs. Its eyes were sealed shut. Its mouth was full of teeth that didn't know how to align. It was not JIRUUN.
It was something newer. Angrier. Blind and unfinished.
The station registered it as:
Hybrid 07X: Class D – Unstable Variant
The creature shrieked. Somewhere, it had smelled Kael.
Back in San Cristobal, Kael dragged himself to the riverside and collapsed beside a pile of old tires. His reflection in the water showed more than a boy.
Veins like black roots webbed across his neck.
His eyes glowed steadily now—no longer flickering.
Stabilization at 92%.
Suggesting name designation for hybrid symbiote…
He coughed blood. "I'm not naming it."
Default codename retained: XENOVORAX.
Kael closed his eyes. And in the dark of his mind… something moved.
It wasn't just a voice.
It was a presence.
"So… this is the host."
Kael froze. He was still conscious, but the world around him blurred.
"Weak. But alive."
"Who—what the hell—"
"Don't speak. Think. I hate your voice."
A cold pressure squeezed his skull. Kael gritted his teeth.
"I am not a pet. I am not a suit. I am not yours."
Kael forced a thought through the storm. "Then what are you?"
"I am what survives."
The voice vanished.
Kael gasped as the world returned to focus. He vomited water and bile.
Then a scream pierced the air—not his.
From the far edge of the barrio, where the mangroves grew wild, came crashing, shattering sounds. A light pole bent. A tricycle exploded against a wall.
Kael stood, barely able to move. His legs moved on instinct.
Something was coming.
The unstable hybrid had tracked his scent.
It tore through shanties, flinging scrap and stone. Its limbs twitched erratically. It had no eyes—but it felt him.
Kael ducked into an alley. His pulse roared. His body told him to run. The Codex told him to fight.
Combat mode not recommended. Symbiote still adapting.
"I don't care!" he hissed.
The thing screeched and launched at him, hitting a steel beam headfirst. It didn't flinch. Kael threw a pipe. It bounced off.
He turned to run—too slow.
The hybrid was on him.
And then—
XENOVORAX awakened.
Time didn't slow. It shattered.
Kael felt his spine wrench backward. His arms stretched. Claws split from his fingertips. Skin peeled into armor. Something tore through his shoulder blades. Not wings. Not exactly.
He screamed.
But so did the creature. Because Kael lunged—and bit.
His jaw dislocated. His teeth sunk into flesh.
Absorbing strain 07X…
Genomic variance increasing…
The creature thrashed, shrieked—and then fell.
Kael stood over its twitching body, panting. Rain hit his face. His form slowly shrunk, bones snapping back into place.
He dropped to his knees.
He had just killed something he didn't understand.
And he had liked it.
Codex Directive: Expand, Adapt, Survive.
New Data Point Registered: Evolution Trigger = Combat Absorption.
Kael looked at his hands.
They were still his.
But not for long.
From far away, beneath the waves of Laguna de Bay, JIRUUN stirred again.
"Something is wrong," he thought. "There is… another."
His tail cut a path through the reef. His eyes narrowed.
The Warden would come.
And the Beast Without a Name would be waiting.