Chapter 6 – Echoes of the Forbidden Genome
Kael didn't remember falling.
He remembered the impact. The blood in his ears. The searing neural spike. And the name—
Xenovorax.
When he came to, everything was silent.
He lay beneath twisted branches, half-buried in ash. The sky above him was darker than it should've been. The clouds hung too low, too still.
Something had changed.
[Codex Status: Emergency Recovery Mode. Neural sync re-initializing. Estimated stabilization: 37%.]
Kael groaned and sat up. His muscles screamed, but his mind was sharper than before—too sharp.
His hearing stretched unnaturally far.
His sense of smell—off the charts. The iron tang of blood, the decay of fungal spores in bark, the ozone charge from an ArkNode—miles away.
Ravager paced near him, growling, uncertain. Its claws were wet. Something had died to protect Kael again.
Kael reached out—then stopped.
Ravager flinched.
[Warning: Bond strain elevated. Synaptic pathways may be unstable. Taming priority compromised. Suggest cooldown period.]
Kael's fingers trembled. He looked down at his wrist. His veins shimmered faintly with a purplish glow, like static trapped under skin.
"What the hell is happening to me?"
The Codex didn't answer.
Instead, a new notification blinked.
[Genome Fragment (Class: Unknown) integrated.
Designation: ???/Xenovorax/
Result: Partial Catalyst Fusion achieved.]
[Abilities: dormant. Memory shards: active.]
Kael's vision blurred—and then the world shifted.
He was no longer in the forest.
A hall of glass stretched before him. Rows of creatures suspended in liquid chambers. Scientists in hazard suits. He watched—from the inside of one of the tanks.
He screamed, but it made no sound.
A voice echoed.
"Subject XENO-001. Rejection rate: extreme. Begin synaptic severance."
Pain.
Then—he was back.
Kael staggered and fell to his knees.
Ravager roared behind him.
From the trees, movement.
Fleshcraft zealots. Not many—but enough. They had tracked his blood trail.
Kael's head still spun, but something inside him shifted. He could feel the data writhing beneath his skin like a second heartbeat. Echoes. Memories.
The zealots closed in.
Kael grabbed a shattered blade from the ground. His vision still pulsed.
And then he heard it—his own voice, layered with another.
"You are not Kael Sorrén. You are the key to the future. The ArkHive remembers you."
Kael moved.
Faster than before.
He dodged the first blade, caught the second, turned it, and slammed the zealot into a tree.
The second tried to chant a hex—but Kael heard the rhythm and cut him off mid-word.
Ravager joined him, claws cleaving bone.
They didn't fight like man and beast now.
They fought like halves of something broken—but aligning.
One zealot remained.
He dropped his weapon and ran.
Kael let him.
He turned to Ravager. The hybrid was still breathing hard, bleeding again.
Kael approached slowly.
"I'm not losing myself," he whispered, more to himself than the creature. "But something's waking up."
Ravager blinked.
Then, for the first time, nudged Kael's chest—not aggressively, but protectively.
Their bond pulsed.
[Bond restored. Trust threshold: 61%. Shared instincts: syncing.]
Kael breathed out. The light under his skin faded slightly, returning to a dull glimmer.
But the Codex whispered one final line before going silent again:
[Project: Xenovorax… growing.]
He looked to the east.
The map fragment had marked another ruin beyond the next ridge. A stronger signal. Possibly a full Codex node.
Kael picked up his gear. Ravager followed.
Together, they walked through the ash, toward deeper shadows.
End of Chapter 6
Next: Deep beneath the next ruin, Kael finds a lab still active—and a voice that knows his name.