The silence of the zone eventually broke, replaced by the groaning of metal twisting in the wind. They had passed the anomaly, but what lay ahead was far more grim.
The mist cleared to reveal a graveyard of giants.
Jutting out of the silver sea were the skeletal remains of ships—hundreds of them. Some were ancient wooden galleons petrified by the toxic salt; others were massive ironclads from the Second Era, their cannons rusted and drooping like wilted flowers.
This was where the legends came to die.
Victor slowed the ship, navigating carefully between the ribs of a colossal destroyer known in history books as The God-Slayer. Its captain was said to be invincible. Now, his ship was nothing but a perch for metal-eating birds.
"Look at them," Kyle's voice broke the somber mood. He was leaning over the railing, spitting into the water.
He pointed at a frozen corpse entangled in the wreckage of a nearby ship. The body was preserved in a layer of clear crystal, capturing the look of terror on the dead warrior's face forever.
"That's Commander Drax," Kyle laughed, recognizing the insignia on the corpse's armor. "The man who supposedly killed a thousand beasts. Look at him now. Just a decoration."
"He was a great warrior, Kyle," Victor murmured, his eyes scanning the horizon for threats. "Respect the dead."
"Respect?" Kyle scoffed, hefting his hammer onto his shoulder. The weight of it cracked the deck plating slightly. "I don't respect failures, Victor. They died because they were weak. They died because they thought courage was enough."
Kyle looked up at the looming shadow of the distant mountains, his eyes burning with arrogance. "We are not them. We are the Apex. When we die, the world won't just remember us… it will break."
Victor didn't answer. He adjusted his glasses, hiding the flicker of worry in his eyes. He knew something Kyle didn't: the readings from the mountains weren't just high. They were impossible.
"Let us hope," Victor whispered to himself, "that the mountain knows the difference."
Hours passed, and the sea of mercury became vast and exhausting. When the sensors finally picked up a large, flat landmass, it felt like a blessing. It was a metallic island, covered in strange, jagged rock formations that offered shelter from the toxic wind.
"Solid ground," Kyle sighed, dropping the ship's anchor. He stepped onto the metallic soil, stretching his arms until his armor creaked. "I was getting tired of the swaying. A man needs earth beneath his feet."
Victor stood by the ramp, his sapphire eye narrowed. He scanned the ground. The "rocks" weren't random. They followed a pattern. A geometric, spiraling pattern.
"Kyle," Victor said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Get back on the ship."
"Relax, Victor. It's just an isl—"
Before Kyle could finish, the ground shook. A deafening groan, like the grinding of tectonic plates made of rusted iron, echoed through the air. The "island" began to rise. The jagged rocks weren't rocks; they were spikes on a shell.
Massive, hydraulic legs erupted from the mercury sea. A head the size of a fortress emerged from the sludge, its eyes glowing with a pale, ancient green light.
It wasn't an island. It was an Adamantine Tortoise—a relic beast from the First Era of Machines.
The beast roared, a sound of steam and fury, and the entire world tilted as it tried to shake the parasites off its back.
"Victor!" Kyle shouted, grabbing the railing of the tilting ship to stop it from sliding into the sea. "Analysis! Now!"
Victor didn't stumble. He activated his boots' magnetic clamps. His cybernetic eye spun rapidly, dissecting the colossal beast in seconds.
[Armor density: Impenetrable.]
[Movement pattern: Sluggish.]
[Weakness: Venting port, third quadrant, under the neck plate.]
"It's heavily armored!" Victor yelled over the roar. "Your hammer can't break the shell, but it overheats! There is a thermal vent under the neck! You have a two-second window when it roars!"
"Two seconds?" Kyle grinned, releasing the railing. He didn't climb back into the ship; he ran up the tilting shell of the beast. "That's plenty!"
The Tortoise snapped its massive jaws at the tiny flea running on its back. As it opened its mouth to roar again, the thermal vents under its neck flared open to release steam.
"NOW!" Victor commanded.
Kyle leaped. He soared through the air, high above the mercury sea, silhouetted against the gray sky. He spun his gravity hammer once, twice, charging it with kinetic energy until it hummed with a violet light.
"Goodnight, ugly!"
Kyle slammed the hammer directly into the exposed vent.
BOOM.
The impact was surgical. The force didn't crack the shell; it traveled inside, rupturing the beast's internal boiler. The Tortoise froze. A massive plume of black smoke erupted from its mouth, and with a final, mournful groan, the "island" collapsed back into the sea, dead.
Kyle landed back on the deck of the Silent Piercer just as the splash settled. He wiped steam from his visor.
"See?" Kyle laughed, patting his hammer. "Brains and Brawn. We are untouchable."
Victor deactivated his magnetic boots, exhaling slowly. "Efficient. But don't get comfortable. The real monsters are yet to come."