(Content Warning: Massacre Aftermath / Desecration of Remains)
The scent of charred pork and ionized blood clung to Lin Mo's nostrils — a perfume of failure. He staggered through the corpse-littered arteries of Rust Quarter. Rain sluiced oil rainbows from collapsed shanties into open sewers.
The alley was a butcher's gallery.
Old Li's bisected torso spilled coolant-fluid intestines onto a shattered holosign. Little Ya's carbonized hand still clutched a disintegrating plush drone. Their glassy eyes reflected the neon curse of Babel City's skyline — that towering beast devouring the horizon.
Neural Acceleration engaged.
Time dilated. Raindrops hung like shattered diamonds. He saw:
Blood pooling in tread marks → Bio-scanners logging kill patterns
A child's shoe in debris → Thermal ghost-image of running feet
Steel support beams bending → Resonance frequencies of collapsing buildings
His spine-interface flared: [THREAT ASSESSMENT: RETROACTIVE TRAUMA FEEDBACK LOOP]
Disengage.
He kicked open his family's bullet-riddled door. The smell hit him — vaporized medication, ozone from shattered screens, and beneath it all... the iron-sweet stench of butchered hope.
On the decay-stained mattress, Father's corpse stared at the ceiling. The respirator tube dangled from blue lips like a dead umbilical cord. Skin clung to famine-sharpened cheeks — cheeks that once bore the weight of liquid nitrogen tanks to fund his son's gene-test.
"The serum..." Lin Mo's whisper died in his throat. "I sold my spine for this?"
His knees struck the blood-slicked linoleum. No tears came. Grief had crystallized into something sharper.
Scrape... rustle...
A half-crushed cyber-mastiff dragged itself from the rubble. Its lone optic glowed like a dying star. With a final whine, it projected a hologram onto the smoke:
< < VIDEO FEED: OPERATION THORNED CROWN >>
Mother — stripped to medical gauze — screamed silently as hydraulic injectors hammered a spinal shunt into her vertebrae. Her fingernails clawed the operating table. Ten bloody furrows. Ten screams etched in steel.
CRACK!
The mastiff's optic exploded. Darkness swallowed the proof.
Lin Mo's hand closed on the bundle in the corner — Mother's last gift. Coarse black fabric unfurled: a cloak stiff with factory grease, and a scarf smelling of stale ration packs.
"Wear it like armor, son." Her ghost-voice echoed. "May it shield you from the city's teeth."
He stripped off his blood-caked shirt. The scarf coiled around his throat like a noose woven from memories. At its touch:
His right wrist's thorn-brand flared with phantom voltage
Thunderpool energy thrummed in sympathetic resonance
The transformation:
Ragged peasant garb → Post-apocalyptic shroud
Bloodstained hands → Mechanized claws retracted
Broken posture → Spine straightened into weapon
"Hunt protocol initialized." The Leviathan purred in his occipital implant. "All biological constraints... disengaged."
Babel City's skyline stabbed the storm clouds. Above the toxic smog, obsidian sky-trains slithered along orbital rings — the World Serpent's metallic spine encircling the dying planet.
Mother's final coordinates burned behind his eyes.
Lin Mo stepped into the acid rain. The scarf snapped like a funeral banner in the wind.
刺鼻的血腥味,比冰冷的机油味更令人作呕,比父亲维生设备里药液的气味更浓烈.
陆鸠踉跄着奔跑在通往锈铁区废墟的熟悉道路上,他的身体沉重,每一步都像踩在烧红的烙铁上,脊椎被剥离的空洞处传来阵阵非人的剧痛,全靠[神经痛觉屏蔽]和心中最后一点微弱的希望支撑着前进.然而,这希望随着脚下黏腻的触感迅速冻结,碎裂.
血.
猩红得刺眼,泼洒在残垣断壁上,浸透了坑洼不平的污泥小路.一个,两个,三个...曾经熟悉的面孔扭曲着倒伏在地,或张着无神的眼睛仰望同样死寂的天空,或蜷缩着无声诉说最后的惊恐.老李头半截身子挂在坍塌的窝棚外,隔壁家的丫丫小小的身体嵌进了断裂的金属管...屠戮.一场冷酷无情的,针对所有"蝼蚁"的屠戮.
"不..."陆鸠的喉咙像被砂纸磨过,只能发出嘶哑的气音.寒意并非来自寒霜女王的能力,而是从骨髓深处渗透出来的绝望.[神经加速]被动激活,世界在他眼中变得缓慢而粘稠,每一滴未干的血珠,每一张凝固着惊恐的脸,都纤毫毕现地砸进他的意识,压得他透不过气.肌肉因过度紧绷而颤抖,他的精神如同拉满的弓弦,濒临断裂的边缘.他不能再看了,不能再想了,只有一个念头疯狂地驱使着他破碎的身躯:家!父亲!
他用尽残存的力气,推开那扇早已摇摇欲坠,被暴力砸开的锈蚀铁门.熟悉的,混合着腐肉,霉味,劣质机油气息扑面而来,这曾是他厌恶又依赖的家的味道.然而今天,浓重的血腥味占据了绝对上风.
室内一片死寂.老旧的电视机屏幕碎裂,线路裸露着呲呲作响.维生设备散落一地,呼吸机的软管如同断掉的蛇.床铺上,那个曾经如山般为他扛起生活的身影,此刻静静地躺着,一动不动.
陆鸠的血液瞬间冻结.
他几乎是扑到床边,颤抖着手去探父亲的鼻息——一片冰凉死寂.他的手指触碰到的皮肤冰冷僵硬,再也不会因为他靠近而微微侧头,浑浊的眼珠定定地望着天花板,残留着一丝难以置信的惊愕和更深的痛苦.那张被生活折磨得枯槁的脸上,甚至凝固着一丝担忧——或许是直至最后一刻,仍在担忧他那"牺牲"了脊椎的儿子.
"爸..."一声破碎的哀鸣终于冲破喉咙,仿佛濒死野兽的呜咽,比任何哭泣都更撕裂心肺.陆鸠双膝一软,重重跪倒在冰冷的,被血液浸染的油毡地上,额头抵着肮脏的床沿.冰冷的铁架透过薄薄的皮肤硌进骨头里,但那痛楚远不及他心魂碎裂的万分之一.泪水决堤,却不是汹涌的宣泄,而是无声的溃堤,混杂着从脊椎空洞渗出的体液滑落,滴在暗色的污迹里,瞬间消失不见.契约换来的血清在哪里?他的脊椎换回的又是什么?只有一片死寂的坟墓,和一个被无情碾碎的泡沫般的希望.
不知过了多久,哭泣停止.所有的悲痛被一股更沉,更冷的东西吞噬了.那双布满血丝的眼睛里,最后一点属于"人"的温存彻底消散,只剩下一种打磨过后的,冰冷的黑.
他看到了角落里挂着的那件东西——母亲陈素芳给他准备的成人礼.一件破旧的,边缘磨损严重的黑色斗篷,以及一条同样材质的,触感有些粗糙的黑色围巾.他记得母亲将它拿出来时,带着歉意的微笑:"鸠儿,家里穷,只能用这个了...围巾厚实,挡风;斗篷...像城里的大人物那样,希望你能走出这里."
曾经的羞赧和嫌弃,此刻都化作了穿透心脏的倒刺.
陆鸠猛地撕下身上沾满血污和爆炸痕迹的残破衣服,任由那些伤口暴露在污浊的空气里.他伸出手,动作近乎虔诚地取下那件斗篷,沉重地披在自己伤痕累累,仿佛被掏空般的肩膀上.冰冷的布料带来一丝粗糙的慰藉,仿佛母亲的手最后一次抚过.随后,他将那条黑色围巾一圈又一圈,紧紧地缠绕在自己的脖颈上,围巾粗糙的纤维贴着皮肤,带来一种窒息的压迫感,又像一道坚固的枷锁,锁住了仅存的,会被称之为软弱的情感.
冰冷的围巾边缘蹭过他右手腕上那道暗红色的荆棘烙印——那是母亲异化后的指印,灼热的刺痛感瞬间加剧,与围巾的冰冷形成诡异的对抗.
他站起身.身体不再颤抖,目光不再游移.
"吱呀——"
推开那扇见证了他整个贫穷苦难童年的破败家门,陆鸠如同一尊从地狱血池中爬出的复仇雕像,融入了锈铁区更深沉的夜色.
目光越过前方荒凉的废土和扭曲的贫民窟建筑群,投向视野的尽头,那盘踞于地平线上的庞大巨兽——钢铁之城"巴卡尔".
黑夜为它巨大的轮廓披上残酷的外衣.直插云霄的摩天尖塔如同冰冷的权杖,顶端穿透浓密的辐射云层,与更高处那些巨大的轨道相连.深黑色的"天空列车"无声地穿梭在云层之上,沿着看不见的轨道疾驰而过,只在厚重的云层中留下惨白,短暂的光痕,如同陨落天际的流星,带着毁灭的意味.那巨大的,环绕整个"赤红深渊"星球的金属环轨道——[星环],在稀薄云层后显现出冰冷的曲线,像一只缓缓转动的,扼住星辰命运的金属巨轮.幽暗的金属表面上,稀疏闪烁着航行灯的红点,如同巨兽冰冷眼眸中不带感情的猩红反光.
赤红深渊...巴卡尔...白袍...福音计划...
看着母亲用血留下的坐标所指的方向——那钢铁丛林的深处,陆鸠身体内部,那片被称作"雷池"的能量漩涡,沉寂了许久的青魇魇仿佛感应到了宿主心念彻底的质变,发出一声低沉而满意的嗡鸣.脊椎空洞处,一阵饥渴的,带着毁灭韵律的悸动骤然传来.
斗篷在掺杂血腥气的夜风中猎猎作响,如展开的复仇之旗.
猎杀,开始了.