Episode 12 — Prestige Dreams
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Act I – The River of Echoes
The rain hadn't stopped since Room 412 went silent. Zack stood at the edge of the river, hoodie heavy with blood and stormwater. The city glowed faint behind him, neon colors dripping into puddles like oil spills.
The river smelled wrong tonight. Not just sewage and rain. Her. He remembered holding her hand while the machines lied. He remembered her voice saying, "Don't lose Zack in the metal."
He clenched his fists. Steel veins glowed faint under his skin, burning like memory welded into him.
His HUD cut across the rain in cold text:
LEVEL 14
EXP: 620 / 1000
OATH VECTOR: Hearthbreak Vow
Active Objective: Shut down Marrow's routes
Penalty: Oath Debt if civilians die within reach
Zack muttered, "Prestige or die."
Behind him, boots splashed. Luna appeared, dragging her axe in the water like she was teaching the river manners. Mascara streaked into war paint.
"You keep whispering to puddles, people will think you're losing it," she said.
"People already know," Zack said.
"Fair." She kicked a bottle into the current. "What's the plan? Besides self-harm by weather?"
The answer came from the shadows themselves. Silas, cigarette glowing like a lighthouse for liars. He stepped onto the dock, coat soaked but unbothered.
"Dock 17," Silas said. "Marrow's cathedral. He wants you there. It's loud enough that the city already turned its face."
Zack didn't look back. "Then we end Season One."
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Act II – Dock 17: The Flesh Cathedral
Dock 17 was supposed to be warehouses. Tonight it was a crime scene built into architecture.
The dock doors had been ripped off. Inside, meat hooks dangled—not pigs, not cows. People. Some alive, some not, strung like offerings. Their blood dripped into canals carved into the floor, glowing faint runes that pulsed toward a central altar made of ribs.
The sound was worse. Chanting, hundreds of voices stitched together. Shades in scrubs. Surgeons with bone syringes. Hollow Priests bent double, mouths sewn open instead of shut, vomiting prayers.
At the altar, a projection of Marrow waited. Bone-white suit, skin stretched too tight, smile wide enough to hold knives.
"Welcome," Marrow said, voice echoing in the ribcage hall. "Season finales are about escalation. About stakes."
Zack spat steel spit onto the floor. "I've got stakes."
The Shades screamed and rushed.
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Act III – The Fight: Steel, Blood, and Oath
Zack surged forward. Hearthchain lashed out—click—snapping to a bound woman on a hook. He yanked her across the floor into Luna's arms.
She cut the straps, snarling. "Go, run!"
Silas blurred through the chanting Priests, his coin slicing throats, his palms rewriting their joints into exits they hadn't asked for.
Zack crashed into the first wave. His fists were pistons, each blow denting skulls into folded paper. One Shade lunged with a bone scalpel; he bit its wrist and ripped, fangs crunching until the scalpel dropped.
+150 EXP
EXP: 770 / 1000
The Priests began to detonate. Blue fire tore across the floor. Zack grabbed two survivors, Hearthchain wrapping both, and dragged them out before the blast turned their skin to sermons.
The HUD glowed:
+250 EXP (Rescue)
EXP: 1020 / 1000
LEVEL UP → 15
Trait: Surge Control ↑ | Hearthchain Duration +1 s
He roared, body glowing furnace-bright. Steel Surge deepened, his veins humming with something heavier than rage: purpose.
"Loud," he muttered, and charged the altar.
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Act IV – Cathedral Collapse
Marrow's projection spread its arms like a maestro. "Beautiful. You play your role."
The rib altar cracked open. Something climbed out. The Mass of Hands. A boss born from every Shade killed tonight, their arms fused into a writhing giant with a hundred fists.
The HUD screamed:
BOSS: MASS OF HANDS
Threat: Level 25 Equivalent
Objective: Survive.
The creature slammed its fists in waves. The dock floor shattered, water gushing. People screamed, still strung to hooks, as they swung like pendulums over teeth of rubble.
Zack sprinted through fists, Hearthchain latching onto captives two at a time—click, yank, drag. He tore them from the ceiling while ducking blows that cratered concrete.
Luna vaulted onto a hook and axed two Shades mid-air, yelling, "I'm not dying in a fucking butcher shop!"
Silas stepped into the Mass's shadow and whispered a word that bent geometry. Half its fists swung into nothing.
Zack leapt onto its chest, drove both fists into the core—a pulsing knot of black veins. His steel fangs tore it open. Black ichor geysered, burning his arms, but he didn't stop.
+500 EXP (Boss Damage)
EXP: 520 / 1000 (L15)
The Mass convulsed, arms flailing. It smashed him into the floor once, twice, bones cracking under steel.
VITALITY: 31%
Overclock Heal: Ready
He triggered it. His veins glowed, knitting ribs shut with screaming sparks. He stood, smoking. "Prestige or die."
He bit deeper, ripped the core free. The Mass collapsed into a mountain of twitching limbs, then disintegrated into ash.
The dock shook. The cathedral of ribs cracked, beams falling. Survivors scrambled, guided by Luna's curses and Silas's impossible hands.
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Act V – Marrow's Curtain Call
The projection of Marrow clapped. "Exquisite. Season One ends with applause."
"You're next," Zack growled.
Marrow tilted his head. "Zack, Zack… you've leveled fast. You'll Prestige. But I'll always be Prestige +1. Remember that when you dream."
Zack lunged. His fist tore through the projection, scattering bone-white moths. They screamed like children and dissolved.
The cathedral collapsed into the river. Dock 17 drowned in fire and rain.
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Act VI – Rooftop Epilogue
Dawn bled gray across the skyline. Zack stood on the hospital rooftop, dripping blood and ash. Luna leaned against the ledge, smoking a cigarette she hadn't lit. Silas sat on the edge, coin flicking, eyes unreadable.
Below, the city stirred: ambulances, sirens, news choppers, panic. The vow hummed in Zack's veins like a song that refused to end.
Silas said, "The city heard your oath. Now it will demand more."
Luna smirked. "Fuck it. We'll bill overtime."
The HUD pulsed across Zack's vision, monumental:
SEASON OBJECTIVE COMPLETE: Forge Oath, Survive Marrow's First Hunt
LEVEL 15
NEW PATH UNLOCKED: CITY vs. MARROW
NEXT GOAL: Level 100 by Season 2 Finale
Zack looked out over the skyline. "Season One was the prologue. Season Two is the war."
His steel fangs gleamed in the sunrise. Rain hissed on the ledge like applause.