Chapter 6: The Voice Beneath the Flesh
Sleep was a mercy Kael didn't ask for.
But after the kill, after the transformation, after the storm of blood and rain—he passed out in the corner of a mechanic's shop, curled up beside a dead generator and a rusting oil drum. The Codex, merciful in its own terrifying way, let him drift.
But it didn't leave him alone.
He awoke in a forest of bones.
The sky was split with veins of lightning. The ground cracked beneath his feet—white with ash, scattered with teeth the size of swords. Trees had no leaves, only spines. The air pulsed like a lung.
Kael wasn't in the world anymore. He was inside the Codex.
Welcome to Sub-Memory Space.
Neural sync: stable. Cognitive bridge: initiated.
The voice was not the same as before.
This wasn't the Codex interface.
This was something else.
He turned—and there it was.
Not a mirror. Not quite. A distorted humanoid shape stood across the bone-field. Tall. Slender. Armored in shifting plates. Its face half-human, half-reptilian, eyes like glowing voids.
It watched him without blinking.
Then, it spoke.
"You woke me before you were ready."
Kael's throat tightened. "Xenovorax."
"A name they gave me. A name I accepted when your blood agreed to hold me. But I am older than words."
The landscape shifted. The bone-trees groaned. Insects without eyes crawled from skulls, chittering in a language that made Kael nauseous.
He stumbled back.
"I didn't ask for this!"
"Neither did the others."
At that, the sky tore open.
And Kael saw them—ghosts, silhouettes of former hosts. Dozens of them. Male. Female. Child. Elder. Faces twisted by agony or madness. Some screaming. Some silent. All dead.
"They failed. You might too."
Kael fell to his knees. "Why me?"
"Because your pain is old. And your hate is quiet."
Kael looked up. "You think that makes me strong?"
"No. That makes you moldable."
"You think you can control me?"
"Control? No. I intend to become you."
Kael screamed and charged. His fists collided with the figure's chest.
Xenovorax didn't budge.
Instead, it leaned in. Its mouth split unnaturally wide.
"You cannot run from me, boy. I am in your blood. Your marrow. I am the last ancient. The apex of every predator ever born. You don't summon me.
I wake when the world needs monsters again."
Kael collapsed, gasping.
The figure knelt beside him. It touched his face. Its claws left no wounds, only truth.
"Survive… or be replaced."
The dream shattered.
Kael awoke screaming.
Night again. The barrio quiet. His body soaked in sweat and cooling steam.
He checked his hands.
Still human. For now.
Codex note: Psychological stress within tolerance. Neural link strengthened.
Kael stared at the night sky.
The monster wasn't inside him.
He was inside the monster.
And it was waiting.